Drinking for Science

I just got back from a work-related departmental retreat. This is where everyone in my department at work cruises out of town to some cute scenic getaway place and spends a day and a half or so bonding and updating each other on what we've been working on. Typically it involves lots of science and some booze and some nature.

This year our department went to Port Townsend, a touristy town across the way by ferry. We went to a old haunted military base and stayed in soldier's barracks (the faculty got to stay in the fancier lieutenant's houses). It was very pretty and a lot of fun especially now that I've gotten to know people.

A lot of the faculty in my department fancy themselves as experienced wine drinkers. One faculty member is even part-owner of a wine shop in a fancy party of town (Capital Hill). Therefore it didn't surprise me one bit when some fancy wine got brought out at the end of the day. What did surprise me was that they figured out a way for us to actually drink for science.

The hypothesis that was tested was that expensive wine will taste better. Therefore we had a 'wine tasting' where we blindly drank wine and rated it based on taste and smell. We also guessed at the grape and the region (all the wine was from the state of Washington, amazingly). After we drank heavily and handed over our ratings sheets (splattered with wine and some only half-filled out) the results were tallied and it turns out:

price corresponded slightly with preference, if one outlier was removed (the most expensive bottle at $42, which everyone hated but I loved). Interesting!

What I thought was fun was that we were drinking for a purpose, something I've never really done before. In order to help out, all sorts of people joined in the wine-tasting, everyone got drunk, and we all finished out the night sprawled on the floor as equals.

And I never saw the ghost. Although, I have to admit, I got a little freaked out a couple times.

Note: the picture is artwork available at the Chateau Ste Michelle, a local winery.

We just got back from the movie 'Superbad' with the actor from Arrested Development, Michael Cera (on the right in the above picture). Thanks to Netflix, we don't find ourselves wandering out to theaters very often anymore but the Studly Hubby's Studly Boss gave him a gift certificate last week so we went.

Superbad is the next high school party movie (compare with Ferris Bueller, or Fast Times, although I would say not as good as either of those) and I liked it. It was, as much as I could tell, contemporary with the necessary nerdy-kid-meets-hot-girl theme. The things I liked about it were that A) 2/3 of the main guys were actually the same age as their characters and B) they quite perfectly replicated the awkwardness of a boy-girl conversation at that age, and it was hysterical.

And this movie actually made me miss high school a little bit. Weird!

The Living Room/Bedroom

Our living room is also now our bedroom.

We had to pull everything out of the bedroom so they could rip up the carpet, replace the pad underneath and steam clean it to get rid of all the mold. They ripped up half the pad last week and we haven't seen them since. Hopefully they will finish early next week. Meanwhile, the rest of our apt is looking pretty crowded.

The good thing is that we actually had enough room to do this. This is the first apt we lived in where it was possible. In the past we would have had to go to extremes to find space (including using our cars for storage) and it would have been even worse if you can imagine. Here we have a whole second bedroom to move into, which leaves the rest of the place (mostly) usable, although a little crowded.

Nevertheless, it'll be nice to have the place back to normal next week.

Hey! Today is national Pirate Speak day. So unless you speak in
pirate-tongue, I can't hear you.

Use the website http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/pirate.pl to translate
into pirate-speak.

Arrr, so ye be wantin' t' go to sea an' ye don't be wantin' t' end up in Davy Jones' Locker. Then ye best be learnin' t' be talkin' like a buccaneer.

A sea dog says 't this way: Today be national `Swashbuckler Speak` Tide! So hade on o'er t' th' website http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/gentleman o' fortune.pl t' translate everythin' ye want t' say t' make sure 't comes ou' `gentleman o' fortune-ish.` Ya lily livered scurvy dog!

Mold Follow-Up

The mold in the bedroom is drying out but the room still stinks and I think our mattress may be to blame. The Studly Hubby found a recipe for a bleach-dish-soap concoction you're supposed to use on the mattress and walls so he donned his heavy-duty cleaning outfit (underwear), pumped up with some energy food (donuts), and marched into the bedroom looking determined. I haven't seen him in twenty minutes so I think things are going well. I'm a lucky girl to be so allergic to dust and mold - not only do I have a get-out-of-cleaning-free card but nobody ever makes me feel guilty about it (especially if they've seen me in the throes of an allergy attack).

I spent a good part of the afternoon today trying to figure out what my rights are as a tenant in dealing with this situation. The rules are murky and the agencies that are set up to help with these cases are hard to find and difficult to contact, and once you do they aren't even very helpful. Taking legal action starts with writing a formal letter so I wrote one and sent it off today ('dear landlord, we have mold, you need to take care of it, etc etc'). If they don't do anything within ten days we can start getting aggressive. I think we can fix it ourselves and take the money out of rent, but it has to be a necessary fix (is a moldy carpet necessary to fix? how about when you aren't sure it's moldy, can you still fix it?). Also we can call and request an official home inspection by the city where they check for obvious leaks and would probably throw a fit if they found mold in the carpet, but they may also throw fits about other things like our grill that is bike locked to the back fence and sits right under the upstairs deck. It'll be an interesting process. Meanwhile our landlord contacted us and made promises about getting a contractor out etc etc but I'm feeling skeptical since the refrigerator fiasco.

The Studly Hubby has emerged from the bedroom and the whole apartment now smells like bleach. Ah, sweet revenge. You better give up, you nasty mold.

Rainy Seattle

The rain has started here again. I really like it actually, at least for right now. It's very peaceful and makes for a lovely weekend when you just hang around inside reading or blogging. My Studly Hubby and I both have proper raincoats (Helly Hanson) and he even bought some rain pants for biking - what a difference some good rain gear makes! Last winter the rain didn't even slow us down at all - we went out running in it, we commuted to work in it, and it was never too big of a bother.

The dark, now that's a problem. It was a problem when we were in Minnesota and it's even worse here. In December it gets dark around 4:15 pm (and doesn't get light until almost 8 am). You really have to psyche yourself up for that. December is just around the corner so I'm working on getting psyched...

Congrats to the blog-friends

I haven't had a lot of time lately to read and comment on blogs or write up loads of posts but I wanted to take a second to give recognition to a few good friends (with blogs) that have made some major accomplishments lately:

1. My friend Speedy KT who is starting to place in races and triathlons (in NYC, too!). I can't believe it and I am so proud and impressed. I wish we still lived in the same city so I could go watch the magic happen and hug her at the end.

2. Another friend MWZ who just did his first olympic triathlon and lived to tell about it (and told a great story too). I hope someday we can do one together, you inspire me.

3. My Dad who recently released a CD (a pretty good one too!) even though he leads an unbelievably crazy-busy life. How easy it is to just do what you love! You're amazing.

4. My Studly Hubby, who never has time to post on his blog because he's too busy cooking dinner for me and cleaning up the mold in the bedroom and providing companionship and entertainment during an awesome relaxing weekend. You're my hero!