Hot Chocolate Snob

I've had kind of a long day. Majority of my plans didn't go the way I thought they would so to top of this day I had a hot mug of cocoa and thought I'd share the magic of hot chocolate made the RIGHT way.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still drink the hot water and powder. However, if you're drinking this for the sheer pleasure, its worth the extra few cents for the add ins.

mug
milk
chocolate chips
hot cocoa mix (at least 2-3 heaping spoons full)
whipped cream
candy cane is a good addition but entirely optional

Fill the bottom of your mug with chocolate chips and then poor milk into the mug most of the way up. Stick this in the microwave about 1 min 20 secs or until the milk is steamy but won't burn your tongue. Mix in the additional cocoa powder thoroughly (Stephen's is my favorite although I had Nestle's tonight and it was still good). Top it all off with a generous portion of whipped cream. Sip carefully and savor the journey. It starts of slightly cool and creamy and then as you progress further down the cup things become more rich and chocolaty. Don't forget to take breaks to just hold that warm mug and smell the cocoa. That's one of my favorite parts. Cheers everyone!!

Gizzard's are dangerous

Today on my short walk from the parking lot to the lab I noticed a few birds picking at pebbles. Most of us know that these pebbles go into the birds gizzard and help grind up seeds. It makes sense since beaks don't seem to be made for chewing so the gizzard plays an essential role in the digestion process.

This is me taking a moment to say 1. Gizzards are weird/cool and 2. I'm glad I don't need one.

1. I took human anatomy but I never got around to taking a fowl anatomy... So, after looking at wikipedia, I discovered that gizzards are very popular in the animal kingdom. Birds, some reptiles, earthworms, some fish, some insects, some mollusks, and even some dinosaurs had gizzards. In a lot of dinosaur museums they have displays with fossilized gizzard stones.



swEEEEEEEt! I guess the animal swallows the food whole, it swishes around in gastric juices in the true stomach and then the whole mixture gets pulverized in the gizzard. The stones look all polished because of the acid and grinding they do. This is why birds have to swallow lots of pebbles too, since all the acid/grinding seems to wear down on the rocks in addition to those seeds and berries.

2. On a different note, I'm really glad we don't have gizzards. Well, don't get me wrong, it would be convenient. In the morning you could just swallow some pebbles (they've got fruity and cocoa so selling gravel pebbles wouldn't be that much of a stretch) and a whole apple and then race out the door without worrying about having to take the time to chew. Eating time would be cut down significantly. I also feel there is also something very manly about a man who eats rocks. At some other point I'll have to post about the man's man who is the epitome of manliness.... but I'll save that for another day.

You may think it would be cool to save all that time but I think eating would lose its appeal. It seems very... uncomfortable. I hate that feeling when you feel something too big go down your throat into your stomach. Imagine that sensation with jagged rocks...

I also like to savor the flavors and truly revel in my food. Its hard to do that if you're eating it all whole. I guess you could still savor ice cream and we'd all take a different approach to cooking, but that in itself seems like a lot more work preparing the food that should take less time to eat.

Finally, it would be dangerous. Someone could poison you with ease by sticking poison on the inside of your baked potato and you'd guzzle the whole thing down oblivious to the fact that you've sealed your fate. Maybe that's another reason mothers tell their children to chew more slowly. She knows if she trains them well, when they're finally secret agents their taste buds will detect cyanide and they'll have time to spit out the food and/or hunt down the antidote.

Here is a tribute to us not having gizzards. This guy is also famous for doing the periodic table elements song.

Christmas Wish List

Instead of going to bed and being responsible, I'm going to post a list of what I REALLY want for Christmas. I figure I successfully resisted the temptation to go to Sherlock Holmes so this is the lesser of two evils...

1.

My own microscope. I'm tired of not having a place to look at slides at work. On top of that, can you just imagine all of the good time's I'd have at family night? "Kids, hold your arms still so we can collect a decent sample for the blood smears!" Good, wholesome, educational family time. I don't have kids yet but when they do come, I want to be ready.

Oh, and this one has a camera on top so we could capture pictures of all of our favorite white blood cells and put them in the family scrapbook.

2. Bioluminescent Trees. I figure I love the Christmas lights but with a bioluminescent tree, you could enjoy a cheerful arborous glow all year long. There's bioluminescent plankton and fish so a tree can't be too big a stretch. Sure, things would look a little Avatar-y but that wouldn't be a bad thing would it? I thought the plot wasn't very original but visually, that show was all eye candy.



3. My own Galaxy. People get to name stars and stuff and that would be pretty cool but I figure, I'm worth taking that dream and stepping it up a notch. I figure then I could name hundreds and thousands of stars instead of just one.

"This one is Jillapidos, that one is Jillgamesh, this one is Llij (that's Jill backwards)"



4. Time Machine. Bill and Ted had an excellent and historical adventure. Ludo sang a rock opera about a man facing pterydactyls, zombies, etc. to get back to his true love. Dr. Who has one. I could go to the future, figure out who I'll marry and then remove all the drama from dating. I'm trying to fathom how this gift could be anything short of perfection...



This model not only would be functional but a stylish piece of furniture for my new home. I could use some more furniture.

5. Light Saber. Because really, I'm a small girl living in a big city and I feel like a girl has gotta be able to protect herself. Who knows if there are rapists, scorpions, Sith Lord's that'll cross my path and I don't want to be caught defenseless.



6. Cheese. I'm a fan of a Med Sharp Cheddar but I'm fond of Mozerella and Parmesan as well. There are so many fancy flavors that I've never tried too. I ought to broaden my horizons and get some sort of exotic cheese. Doesn't this image just make you salivate?



Yeah... its bed time... I'll dream of all the unicorns, flame throwers, magic carpets I would ask for if I were to stay up late enough to finish this list.

Remarkable Women

Today I was talking to a friend and had this overwhelming sense of "Boy, she's remarkable" flood over me. There are plenty of fabulous women in my life but I realized that this girl who seemed outwardly very average Joe was, upon further inspection, someone far more than what she appeared to be. I wonder how many people I take as "just ______" are saving all of the world's orphans, raising slews of kids as a single parent, battling terminal cancer, and baking everyone chocolate peanut butter rice krispies for the local church potluck.

This is me just taking a quiet moment to think about what I'm doing to become like them. I want to leave this life like Kay Scott or Jessica Wilson, valiant to the last breath. Even when their lives had come crumbling apart and they had every right to be bitter with God and the world, the were faithful, selfless, and beautiful in every sense of the word. I am small, weak, and hopelessly flawed but someday I hope when I meet my Maker I can look Him in the face and say "You know what, I did alright"

Confessions of a girl this many years old...

I was at Target picking up some things for my new place and I noticed something beautiful in the toy isle.



That's right. Legos. Not just any Legos. Ninja Legos. And not just any Ninja Legos. These were Ninja Helicopter Legos. Can the world handle such a cool toy? When I was little I used to sneak into my brothers' room and play with their piles of Legos. I was rather envious of their enormous stache. So many opportunities to create, imagine, destroy, plus they're so colorful. We'd collect the clear short one peicers and and pretend they were rupies like from the Zelda games. Plus there was the thrill of following the directions to put together all sorts of fancy things like castles and stuff.

Well, there I was in Target and there's a whole isle of Legos and I'm a working professional. I can afford to buy whatever toys I want. Thus I wandered over and started drooling over the whole lot. The 7 year old Jill would be so happy.

In the end I resisted the temptation. First of all, I don't have enough storage space as it is. Secondly, I had this vision of my roommate's dog eating them. Then all three of us would be rather unhappy. No... I'll have to come up with other things. I could always build another pinata in the kitchen...

The Awkward Time Bomb

Have you ever been in a situation where you know something very awkward is about to happen and you have no way of stopping the inevitable disaster? Its like a steam engine careening out of control and your standing on the tracks hoping to stop it with your bare hands... not very pretty

So, Mr. Life-Ninja date guy aka David called me on Wednesday to say hi and ask if I was going country swing dancing in Mesa that night. I told him that I appreciated his call but already had plans but would be there next week. We had a nice chat and since both of us were busy we decided we'd hold off doing another date until after this weekend. Since he had finals and I was moving it would make sense to hold off on things until Wednesday

Well, another guy put the moves on me and the conversation goes as follows.
"Hey Jill, you like Lindy hop Swing Dancing right?"
"Yeah"
"How about Country Swing Dancing? Do you know any country swing?"
"Yeah, I know some."
"Do you want to go Country Swing Dancing with me this Wednesday?"

Scenario 1: I could have said no. However, would I go on to explain that I have plans to meet up with another guy there on a "not date"? Do I say I have other plans and then show up only to have him discover my other plans were to go country dancing without him? Do I just blow both guys off and not go altogether?

Scenario 2: I could say sure. However, if David does show up (I'd be surprised if he doesn't) he'll be trying to ask me to dance while my date tries to dance exclusively with me and even if David is slick and manages to sweep me away I'd still likely need to carpool back with Robert and THAT would likely be awkward. I could also have a good time with Robert and nothing will matter that much except David may take me showing up with another guy as a total blowing him off....

I voted for scenario 2. I think "The Rules" would set that aside as the correct decision but the book doesn't seem to be everything I need. How about "How to disable Awkward Time Bombs"? I'd invest good money in that volume.

Power Plants and Maria Von Trapp

Two things.

1) On my way to work I noticed this billowing trail of black smoke. "Funny," I thought to myself, "that's the same direction the hospital is in." I kept driving and after a few miles seriously began to worry that the hospital was indeed on fire. How was I going to find another job? What about all of the patients? What would become of us all?!? Then, I realized it really wasn't the hospital burning down. Too bad for all of the employees at the local power plant. The whole experience made me really grateful to have such an awesome job. I mean, seriously, I fight cancer and run tests like Heparin Anti-Xa and the HIT panel. My job sounds rather hard core... which it is.





2) I had an Aha moment today. I want to grow up to be Maria Von Trapp. Am I the only person who could see me with a trail of kids dressed in clothes I fashioned from curtains, hanging around in trees, climbing mountains, and singing to guitar melodies while doing it all? I guess there'd be a few alterations... I can't play guitar but I recently decided I ought to learn the ukulele which my small hands can handle better. I am not catholic nun but I might consider the monestary if I could be a flying nun.



I'll have to work on that.

Life is a ninja

So there was this time I went Country Dancing... I know, I'm not that into country and it doesn't compete with Lindy Hop Swing, but I felt like I needed to get out of the house and my friend was going and I went "Sure, why not". Well, there was this one guy who danced with me, talked with me, and then asked for my #. He seemed like a cheerful, handsome, intellectual, righteous sort and I figured, "Sure, why not." Just any other guy, right?

A week goes by and he invites me to go to a dinner dance thing with him at the institute building and I was all "Sure, why not." Then we talked and danced some more like we did the other night and then... suddenly I'm at the doorstep going "What the?.... What just happened?"

Dear life, this is Ninjill bowing to your awesome ninja skills because you have snuck up on me and left me baffled. I don't know if I should be laughing, ashamed, giggling, musing... needless to say I ought to be sleeping but we'll see if that happens any time soon.