Brain Cake and Burning Quads

It's been a busy week here in Salt Lake City!  Last Thursday, my labmate (and good friend) Melissa defended her Ph.D. thesis.  She is now officially part of the Ph.D. club!! Here she is emerging from her defense meeting...

 

It's a little blurry, but I love it!

Our fabulous mentor, Kristen, threw a party in Melissa's honor on Friday evening.  In discussing the party preparations, I somehow managed to get myself nominated to make a brain cake for the occasion. Given my limited artistic abilities, I immediately "volunteered" Jeremy to assist me in this task. Being the fabulous husband that he is, Jeremy rearranged his work schedule so that he could be home Friday afternoon to tackle the brain cake with me.  We decided to go with a red velvet cake and homemade cream cheese frosting.  I documented the cake building process so I could shamelessly brag about his talents on my blog. 

Step 1: Flatten the bottom cake to allow the top cake to sit somewhat level

 Step 2: Carve a brain shape

 Step 3: Add a layer of crumb-coat frosting

Aside from baking the cakes, I was relatively useless until this point.  Right about here, Jeremy turned to me for "scientific consulting" regarding the placement of the "squiggles" (aka. gyri/sulci).  I must say, while not 100% anatomically accurate, the finished product was quite impressive! 

 

 Tada!!

We realized that the brain cake wasn't going to be large enough to feed a giant crowd, so we also threw together a sheet cake to feed the masses.  Jeremy's artistic abilities were put to the test when I asked him to try and draw a neuron and a rat in icing, but he prevailed!

Almost too cool to eat.

The party was lovely, and I think Melissa enjoyed finally getting to relax after months of stress leading up to her defense. A great time was had by all!

 

Kristen roasting/toasting Melissa.

 Melissa, showing off her Super Woman gift bag :)

The lab!!  

I love this photo because not a single one of us is looking at the

 camera or doing what we're supposed to.  Classic Keefe Lab!

The weather was lovely last week and on Saturday I let Jeremy convince me to go on a crazy trail run with him.  I haven't been doing nearly enough training for the 25k that I'm signed up for this weekend, so I thought it would be good for my psyche to get out and do 9-10 miles last weekend. What I didn't consider is that my husband is insane, and runs hills that most people wouldn't want to hike.  We took off from our house, and headed up to the towers in the foothills behind Ensign Peak. We went all the way to the upper towers (a trip I'd only been on once before).  On the way up, Jeremy started putting crazy ideas in my head about taking the pipeline trail down into City Creek rather than going back the way we had originally planned.  "It's fun", he told me.  "You've never done pipeline", he said... "You can cross it off your list of trails to run before we move".  Somehow I let myself fall prey to this logic.  Next thing I know, we're headed down a mile of SCREAMING downhill.  The kind of downhill that you run because it's impossible to walk. The kind of downhill where it's everything you can do to stay in control and not fall tumbling to the bottom. He was right, it was fun, but man did I pay for it.  My quads were burning for the next 3 days.  Today, Wednesday, I can finally go down stairs without wincing.  Why do I let him talk me into this madness?!  On the bright side, it was a gorgeous spring day and I had a blast running the trails with my two favorite creatures!!

 Ruby the trail dog, posing for the camera

 Look, Mom! I found the world's smallest patch of snow to roll in!!

 View of downtown

 Self-portrait at the lower towers

 Heading down towards Pipeline from the upper towers.  Found some more snow!

 Nothing like cooling off in a knee-deep snow patch on a 70+ degree spring day!

 The beginning of the dreaded Pipeline Trail

Notice how it just drops off and disappears?!

 Jeremy, slaloming through the scrub oak on Pipeline

 City Creek - Much less snowy than it was on Groundhog Day!!

Ruby-girl post run: Stick a fork in her... she's done!

Jeremy's birthday party

This past Saturday evening we had the (extended) neighborhood crew over to celebrate Jeremy's birthday.  Curtis made quite possibly his best dessert creation to date and we all over-indulged.  It was a great night with good friends and reminded us how much we're going to miss this crazy bunch when we move this summer.  Here are are few photos from the evening.

Mmm, cake!!!

Really, you're going to sing?

 Hope it was a good wish : )

 

Let's carve this sucker!

 

 

Ruby getting love from Uncle Dave

Happy Friday!

Neither Jeremy nor I felt like cooking breakfast this morning, so we decided to each grab something on our way into work.  When I approached the counter to pay for my bagel and coffee, the woman working the register winked at me, said "He already covered it", and gestured towards the man who had been in front of me in line.  As I went to fill my coffee cup, I thanked him and he just smiled and turned for the door.  Thank you, sir, for making my morning, and for reminding me that there are still people who do nice things, not for the recognition, but because it feels good.  Happy Friday!! Spread the love this weekend, y'all :)

Cheers, kind sir. Cheers.

31?! No, that can't be right!

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday.  He's now 31 years old, which seems impossible because that would make me almost 31... yikes!  We had a quiet little celebration at home last night, but I think we should gather up the neighbors this weekend to toast him properly.  I wanted to post a few of my favorite photos from last night. Happy birthday, Mister! I love you : )

 Who doesn't love presents?

 We opened one of our "Christmas wines" from Jeremy's folks...

 ... and it was good!!!

 

Poor guy had to grill his own steak for dinner, but he didn't seem too torn up about it!

 

Wow, that's a lot of candles!!

 Got them all in one shot!

Birthday smile : )

Despite snowstorms and GLACIERS, spring is in the air!

3-7-13: This post has been corrected after much harassment from Mr. Neurosquid.

It has been quite a week here!  February went out with a bang. Last weekend we had one of the best little snowstorms we've had in quite a while.  I think we got about a foot that Saturday.  It snowed the WHOLE day, making it the perfect day to sneak over to our friends' house next door and cozy up playing board games.  It was great to have a quiet Saturday afternoon with friends!

Video taken right at the beginning of the storm

On Sunday, my friend/former labmate, Steve O'Dell, flew in for a quick visit.  He stayed with us for a couple days while he met with folks at the U and gave a seminar on campus.  O'Dell is a smart guy and showed up with dog treats in his pocket to bribe Ruby into accepting him.  Ruby asked me to publicly let him know that he's welcome back any time :)  It was fun having a visitor, and it made the week go quickly!

All of snow from the weekend storm, on top of the ridiculous amount of snow we had already received this winter, created quite the iceberg glacier on our north facing roof.  We'd been watching the iceberg glacier slowly creep over the past couple weeks, and we were pretty certain our rain gutters were doomed.  On Friday, our suspicions became a reality - an ~8 foot section of the iceberg glacier released from the roof, ripping the rain gutter down with it and crushing my beloved pink flamingo!!  I got home from work to find Jeremy out front on the phone with our landlord.  An ~6 foot section of iceberg glacier still remained (directly over our front door), and our landlord gave Jeremy the go ahead to try to knock the rest of it down to avoid a future, more catastrophic slide.  As he prepared for battle, I (the worrying wife) made him go up in the loft to find his hardhat.  Safety first, kids! 

Jeremy - protective gear in place and ready for battle

It had been sunny and relatively warm on Friday, so we figured it was a good time to try to coax the remaining ice chunk into releasing its grip on our roof.  If a picture is worth 1000 words, a video is even better, right? You can see for yourself how this all went down.

 Jeremy v. roof iceberg glacier - March 1, 2013

The weather on Saturday proved to be even nicer than the day before.  Jeremy took advantage by heading out to Antelope Island for a crazy long training run.  Ruby and I took advantage by joining my friend/current labmate, Melissa, and her dog, Leia, for a run in City Creek.  By the time we reached the Capitol, I had already peeled off a layer, and spent the remainder of the run enjoying the feeling of warm sunshine on my arms and shoulders.  I can't believe I was running in a tank top exactly one week after that crazy snow storm.  That's spring in Utah for ya!

 Ruby and Leia - two water-loving peas in a pod!

 Happy as pie.

Gotta hydrate, Mom.

We spent the day yesterday running errands, doing laundry, and lounging around the house.  It was a nice lazy Sunday.  I realized part way through the day that it was the first weekend in probably 8+ years that I didn't have any lab-related work that I should have been doing instead.  Guilt-free relaxation is a beautiful thing! I even put on my Suzie-homemaker apron and busted out some homemade chicken parm.  My half-Italian (nay, Sicilian) husband seemed to enjoy it, which is saying something!

Delizioso!

All in all, it was a pretty good week. Having a friend in town through a little wrench in our normal workout schedule, so it's back to the grind this week. Time to burn off last night's dinner :)

Has it really been 5 months?!

Wow! I can't believe it's been 5+ months since I've updated the blog.  While I'm a bit disappointed in myself and more than a little embarrassed that I can't seem to keep this up for more than a few months at a time, I'm going to cut myself some slack.  The past 5+ months have been crazy!!  In an attempt to keep this recap reasonably short, I'll just hit the highlights!

First, I GOT A JOB!!! I spent much of last summer and fall sending out job applications to schools all over the country.  I was lucky to get a handful of phone interviews early in the fall, and then in November to be invited for an on-campus interview at Regis University in Denver, CO.  During my three day visit, I couldn't help falling in love with the place.  By the time they put me in the taxi to the airport, I was convinced that Regis is where I was meant to end up.  I just had to hope that they liked me as much as I liked them : )  Fortunately for me, I received a call just three days later offering me the position.  I happily accepted and will begin my new role as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience this August.

 

Hitting "send" on my acceptance letter

Jeremy and I sporting our new Regis Rangers t-shirts

(our Christmas gift from my new Deptartment Chair)

Obviously, this means that we're moving to Denver!  It's more than a little overwhelming to think about leaving our good friends in SLC, finding a place to live in Denver, transitioning from Postdoc to Assistant Professor, etc.  That being said, it's an exciting new chapter and I'm lucky to have a husband who's on board for the ride.  Jeremy is already looking for work in Denver and ideally, he'll be able to find something before our scheduled move date of mid-July.... fingers crossed!! He's had some great leads, so we're hopeful that something will pan out.

In other news, we had a lovely trip home at Christmas and enjoyed getting to catch up with our family and friends there.  We were able to sneak away for over a week, which was glorious!

Ruby's Christmas photo shoot

(she stubbornly refused to look at the camera)

 The Gleason's trying out my "patented" wacky face

 Good ol' Bell View trail with Madre and Padre!!

Since the new year, we've gotten a TON of snow.  As such, the neighborhood has turned into a ghost town and we rarely see anyone :)  We've been trying to get out and enjoy the sunshine when the inversion relents for a few days, and we did manage to get everyone together for a Super Bowl party a couple weeks ago. 

Heading up City Creek Canyon on Groundhog Day

 Ruby and I enjoying the sunshine and snow

Just perfect!

Best running buddy a girl could ask for

 Just a little snow pack in the valley

 Mmm, Super Bowl snacks

Men + Football + Food = Happy

(somehow all of the girls disappeared right before this photo)

In the past couple weeks, I've decided to recommit myself to "The Return of Neurosquid".  Things got a little out of control with the job search, the holidays, etc., and I'm not pleased with the effects that level of constant stress had on my body and mind.  For Valentine's Day, Jeremy and I gave each other the gift of commitment to kicking each other back into shape.  We've had a fabulous week, eating really well, working out on a regular basis, and trying to focus on the positives in life rather than the stresses.  So far, so good!  I plan to use this blog as a place to keep myself accountable, so please hold me to it. 

 Our daily reminder of our commitment

Ruby "getting a drink" on our run last Saturday

(only our dog wades into the creek to drink in the middle of winter)

 "Mom!!! Look what I found!!!!"

I'm a sucker for her smile

 Last Sunday's run

(yes, those are snow clouds behind me)

Ruby sunbathing post-run

(a tired dog is a good dog)

More soon... in the meantime - enjoy the little things, get outside, and soak up the sunshine!