2xChristmas

I know what you're thinking. Why am I looking at a Christmas Dinner Plate? Well, that's because Friday was the IthacaHouse Christmas dinner and gift exchange. I suppose this disproves the starving grad student image, but can we help it if we can cook? From bottom center in clockwise fashion: candied-pecan yams (me), wild rice (Pete), zested whole cranberries (me), vegan spinach with tofu and phyllo dough with some special name I forget (Sara), roll (Sean), ham (Sean and the King), green bean cassarole (Sean?). Sorry there's no dessert picture, but we had chocolate souffle by Nicole and cherry pie by Katie. All in all, it was a sumptuous meal.

Then we had a little White Elephant Exchange, but we won't let those stories escape the inner circle. Let's just say we had PlayStations to Lyonel Ritchie records. 

Casa Grueso

In honor of Sean's birthday, South Park, and Oklahoma roots- we all went to "Casa Bonita" in Denver, really Lakewood. I would put the link here, but I think they might hate me. Anyway- it just might have been the grossest (if that's a word) food I've ever had. Some describe it as the cheese whiz dinner; I'm not really sure how to describe it.

Imagine Disney, but faker, much smaller, and quite a bit lamer. For $10.39 I believe you get an "all you can eat" dinner, and let me tell you- one plate is more than you'll want to eat. Pete was happy with his fajita plate after looking at ours and describing his as chewy meat with three tortillas in a ziplock bag. So get this- they dont even bring you your sumptuous dinner- you pick it up cafeteria style. I suppose I was just sad that my (almost) flawless plan failed. I thought- well, if I have 2 margaritas- that always makes the food taste good, or well, better. One margarita had less than a pinch of tequila, and I didn't even get it until I was halfway through my meal. Foiled.

Anyway, I suppose it was an interesting experience, and maybe we should have a lame-themed birthday party year. If so- I'm calling roller skating, although I think bowling might be better... hmm. At least we played some hot-pink ski-ball and Sean got a spectacular cheetah lunch box. It was a good thing we could wash it all away with a $2 So-Sun beer to end the night.

Another Hotel Room, Another City

I've been told recently that I'm a bad blogger. In trying to remedy this, I am attempting a post post. You think I'm insane? Really I'm just adding a blog from the Fall AGU (that'd be American Geophysical Union) in San Francisco. And it's really not that late- we were there just last week. Pete's page has more information on this. This is our swank room on the 25th floor of the Argent hotel.

While we were there we spent some serious dough on the vast array of multicultural food selections in San Francisco. I have to say, we didn't make it to Teuscher, but that's okay as we still had two dark chocolate champagne truffles waiting for us upon our return to Boulder.

Let's start with the sushi. The quality of fish was spectacular at Nikko Nikko Sushi, however, I can't seem to find a link. I guess I should check my credit card bill. We also went to Mas Saki. This place was definitely more posh, totally a 20-something hang out. I would think it perfect for a classy night pre-clubbing. Totally swank. However, the rolls that they're known for- ehh- rolls. I like rolls, don't get me wrong, but big rolls, just make me feel like a puffer fish. I think I prefer ones that at least resemble the idea of bite-sized. And I do prefer nigiri when the quality is there, which I thought it was a little lacking for the Bay area. But, like I said, I'd go back. The atmosphere was awesome. Another cool thing is, say you forget or don't get a chance to eat before going to the SF airport. Well guess what? If you're flying United, at least for us, we had a sushi restaurant right at our gate (gate seventy-something). For airport food- it was great and not even that expensive. Ok so I only got the unagi bowl, but I was pleased as I thought all we'd be able to get would be a cold pre-prepared sandwich.

Hmm, what else. I suppose one other restaurant stands out: Mangarosa (although, I have to admit they're website leaves a bit to be desired. Why is it so small?). This brazilian-style restaurant somehow found it's place into the Italian sector, which was actually what we were going to eat, and is the only thinkable genre we seemed to miss during our 5-day trip. Although, I suppose we didn't eat American, but I don't consider that a significant loss. Anyway, mangarosa was quite pricey, but I had the "funnest" (yes, I'm going to use that here) dinner ever. It was called pumpkin and prawn risotto, but really that still gives you no idea of what you get. It was a baking pumpkin filled with a stew and a side of basmati rice. The stew was spicey and had 9, yes 9, large shrimp. My favorite was scraping the sides of the pumpkin. Pete also got it. Their calamari appetizer was also extremely tasty, the squid being so fresh.

As far as AGU, I'll put up a post later. ;)

Black Bag Experiments at PSI

Today is my first work-related posting. The whole reason I'm even here is for taking part in some chamber studies at PSI (the Paul Scherrer Institut) located north of Zurich, more precisely between and north of Baden and Brugg. I'm here sampling with the High Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, and if that's not a mouth full then I don't know what is. This is a picture of Megan and Rami just under the black bag from which we did a dark experiment (no lights = no photoinduced reactions) today. Most people were at ToFWerk today, the makers of our power supply so it was a relatively quiet and uncrowded day, proving to be very nice indeed.

Sadly, our efforts were not rewarded in that our sampling did not replicate the experiment we attempted to repeat. Just as a brief note: we were attempting to replicate a published experiment with increased instrumentation in order to gain increased insight to the chemical mechanisms of the reaction. Four compounds were to be atomized into the black bag and sampled over a period of 2 hours, whereupon polymers were to form. However, our sample solution was so concentrated and of a higher pH that it seems we did not have the same solution. Of course this was realized after the completion of one experiment with no change of the particles in the bag over 2 hours.

One hypothesis was that we had a polymer solution before we even started. VTDMA (Volatility Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer, which to make it simple determines the percentage of the particles remaining after heating, a.k.a. the non-volatile fraction) readings were of much higher percentages than expected. Upon further investigation this was proved to be true for the original solution and later low concentration versions. Therefore, further replications of the experiment were aborted. However, this was all determined at about 7:30 pm.

Although our efforts were unfruitful, I think the crew left behind enjoyed all efforts throughout the day. For me, it was the first time I was the sole operator of the HR-ToF AMS during a field campaign, and not only was it empowering, exciting and exhilarating, it definitely gave me confidence in my ability to run the instrument and with high precision. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to show my talents and sample in all 3 modes (W, V, and negative ions), but that doesn't matter. I'm just glad to have finally been in this situation. I don't think it will help get me more credibility as an educated user, but it was great to finally be in on the action. Usually there are too many people around to be involved in everything and know why each decision is being made, along with the fine details of how the actual experiments are being executed. I think everyone deserves an individual chance such as this in order to actually understand what we're trying to do and participate in the decisions and data collection, especially if they are involved in any way with the future data analysis of the work. 

Candy candy candy!

Ok yes, we've all known about Teuscher, which BTW never responded to my request for a tour, for a long time. Anyway, the crazy thing is that their best seller, the champagne truffle made with the Dom, isn't quite so unique afterall. That is, of course, if you're in Switzerland.

We went to Lucerne (French) or Luzern (German) yesterday. The town is known for it's vast amount of tourists, and even during the off-season, such as now, there were still obvious outsiders with their cameras out, ourselves, of course, included. Despite my upset stomach at the time, I still managed to buy a good bit of chocolate.

Finally addressing the picture, there seemed to be a Chocolatery on virtually every corner, with no complaints from me, but definitely a bit shocking, especially when you hear they all make their own chocolates from scratch! I wondered where they even did that, as most seemed quite small and mainly centered around showing off their artful craftsmanship. I would like to point out that most of the chocolatiers did seem to be women. Coincidence, I think not.

Amidst all the chocolate shops, each one seemed to have standard versions of truffles, champagne being everpresent. The other astonishing theme being the amazingly smoothe chocolate centers and rather soft exteriors, much unlike the American Godiva truffles that always seem to be harder than rocks with quite unchocolatey and ungratifying centers. Taking nothing away from Teuscher, as they still have a truffle of high quality, even by Swiss standards, but it does seem that their style is quite ordinary in this here country of chocolate and cheese. So I might have missed Halloween, but you'll get no complaints from me this year! 

Night in Baden

Today we took the last (legal) train from PSI at 8:09. Ed, Pete, and I stopped for Falafel downtown before heading back to the hotel to crash. We ate our sandwiches outside, so I took the opportunity to take a rather bad picture looking out over the city. The lights up on the mountain in the distance (top right) really is what it looks like, a castle. Supposedly it takes about 4 hours to hike up there so I doubt we'll get to do that, but it looks pretty, and we're fantacizing about spending Sunday in Lucerne. We just have to check to make sure things are actually open on Sunday, as it seems shops are closed on Sundays and museums on Mondays, so hopefully there should be something.

Tomorrow night we're going to Zurich again for another traditional Swiss meal. Everyone knows Fondue, but no one seems to know Raclette. It's basically a big block of cheese (something like Brie) that they heat up on a block under lights and scrape off the molten cheese that you then put over an assortment of vegetables (mainly potato from what I understand) and possibly from fruit, although I have to mention I haven't seen much of this food group here except in liquid form. Anyway, Peter and I had our taste of Raclette (without knowing it until it was on my plate) just this afternoon at the PSI cafeteria. It was pretty tasty, the only real negative (IMOP) being the fact most of the items to be doused in cheese were pickled. It was still pretty good, as who doesn't like molten cheese?, and definitely fun. We'll see how tomorrow night is, but I would bet it should be better.

Now all we have to do is try not to spend all the day hours at PSI working tomorrow. Peter and I totally want to go to Zurich and would like to do that before going to the dinner, but we'll see how that goes. 

Hotel La Cappella

So not much to report today, other than the fact that I 've turned from a virtual vegetarian into a raging carnivore! I just can't help it. The meat selections are usually the tastiest meals here, like the daily post-doc meal at PSI, so deemed as it's the more expensive menu choice. Today was pork tenderloin in a great sauce, as always, noodles, and the potato-like vegetable them seem to have a lot of here.

Here's a picture of my hotel room at a business style hotel. I feel I have to show off my queen size bed as this is supposedly unheard of in Europe, especially for a single room. Everyone here in the hotel is quite nice, and the expensive restaurant downstairs is quite good also. However, today was the first full day for Jose and Doug, so let's just say the craziness has begun and leave it at that.

Old Town Baden

Today is a National Swiss Holiday. Our only guess is All Saints' Day, but we're not sure. Instead of travelling to PSI we have a meeting in Old Town Baden. Pete and I walked around there on Sunday, so this is a picture overlooking the Limmat River after we visited the Langmatt Foundation, which is a small museum in Baden with some big name artists. They had one Monet, one Cassatt, one Degas, quite a few Renoir, some Pissarro, and several Cezanne. Most of the first floor is Swiss and other random pieces from all over the world. We kind of went through that part quickly.

Today we have a large group meeting to decide what experiments to do for the next week and a half. It's in one of the hotels in Old Town, right by the thermal baths, which could be good today as it's quite wet outside. So we've had our cheese and croissant breakfast, now it's time to work up some data to present this afternoon. Today is kind of a teaser in that we don't have to go to work, but we do have to give a presentation on our results from the past three experiments. Well, in any way, it's nice to have a day off, it being kind of real or not. 

A night out in Zurich

Last night Andre took us into Zurich for a night out Swiss style. We went to a traditional Swiss restaurant (finally! All the dang restaurants seem to be Italian in Baden, even the one in our hotel.) with traditional Swiss prices. My meal was about 50 Swiss Franc, which is about $39, and this was just for wine and dinner (no dessert, but I did get some of Peter and Andre's!). Anyway, so I would consider it the best meal I've had here by far. It was a fall winter game special, hirschepfeffer. Bottom line, it was venison, only my favorite meat. It came in a flavorful dark wine-based sauce and sides of cooked red cabbage and a pan fried pasta, simply amazing. Tonight I think it's back to Italian as we're going to try out the hotel food. Most restaurants are closed on Sunday's. Then, after dinner we went to a bar and a club. Sadly the club played American music, which anyone who knows me would know that I would love to hear some nice techno. It was an interesting experience. Highly priced drinks (18 SFR for one or tables were supposed to buy full bottles, whether they be hard liquor or champagne at about 200 SFR. The funny thing I have noticed is that Louis Roederer champagne seems to be the most common around here. Sadly, maybe it will soon no longer be the best bang for our American buck, although we will have to see.), young girls and VIP tables ruled this tiny little club with an Chinese theme, called Indochine. Let's just say it was an expensive but fun night.

Welcome to Switzerland

Just some little travel notes: Lufthansa claims "There's no better way to fly.", and you know what? They're right! So Pete and I got to sit right behind business class so we had way more leg room that I could ever use, 2 in-flight movies, unlimited free drinks including a pre-dinner apertif, wine with my sumptuous pasta, tiramisu for dessert, chocolate toblerone bars before bed, OJ, coffee, and eggs for breakfast. Seriously, I have finally had a second flight where I was like- this is what flying should be like!! Even our one hour "puddle jumper" from Frankfurt to Zurich had chocolate/prailine bars and drinks. Oh ya, I totally forgot. I was impressed with Lufthansa before we even boarded the first plane-- they give you free magazines as you're boarding. Seriously now, why can't American owned airlines try to be even half this good to it's customers?
OK, so with my title, I guess I'd better at least mention something about Switzerland. I don't really know where to start as there's a lot to take in for just a day. Really though, even the bathrooms are impressive. Let's see- toilet seats clean themselves, public transportation is not only reliable but also nice, the cheese is so awesome I want to just have cheese and chocolate meals, and croissants are equally tasty. I suppose my only minus is a personal one, in that I am having serious difficulties with the German. It's true, a lot of people speak English, but I feel badly in having to make them do so. I guess the hardest part is actually ordering food, but I suppose I will get better as I've really only been here for less than a day. This is also my explanation as to why I don't have any photos posted yet. I promise, soon.

Hurricanes for Dummies

Leave it to the BBC to be more helpful than our own papers. As another hurricane is making its way towards FL, I am reminded how little I know about these storms. So if you are also not a hurricane expert, here's a nice little pictoral representation of hurricane formation, classification and effects: Hurricanes for Dummies

First Posting

As of today, October 20, 2005, I am finally setting up a personal blog. I know you all have been anxiously awaiting. ;)