Welcome to Wisconsin

Not the chemistry building, but a pic from the bus stop.

So much has happened this month!  I'm just trying to collect a few of my first thoughts and impressions of Wisconsin.

Baby Thor loves his new home!

We went to Sam's Club on one of our first days here, which isn't too far away from our apartment.  They sell wine at Sam's Club!  I didn't even know that.  Not that I'll ever buy any, but I guess it just doesn't sell that well in Provo.

Sam developed hand, foot, and mouth disease right after we got here.  We had a rough couple of days, but just rolled with the punches.

One of the first things the Chemistry Department had us do were the qualifying exams.  They aren't used for a whole lot, but they were certainly intimidating still.  They're graded on a pass/fail standard, so they aren't too stressful.  I just wanted to brag a little bit about how I was the first person to finish the inorganic chemistry exam, but I still passed.

Just a few our details from the rest of our adventures so far (you'll have to imagine the rest of the stories, I guess):

I think these seats are original to the building

• I love hearing Baby Thor laugh and giggle.  He really loves being thrown onto our bed.  
• It's wonderful to have LDS friends nearby.  Brian Graham also came from BYU this year, so we've been spending time together during our new grad student training.  It's also great to remember how awesome it is to show up at the local ward and meet a wonderful group of people who are accepting of you the way you are.
• Wisconsin cheese is delicious.  We got some cheese curds and other local cheese in Middleton, which is essentially a suburb of Madison.  I think we'll always have cheese on hand.
• I hate the humidity.  It's like living in a cloud of warm sweat.  Maybe I just don't like the fact that I can't afford, and it doesn't make sense, to buy an air conditioning unit this year.  
• Lastly, Baby Thor falling asleep on his own has been such a blessing.  He definitely understands that being carried into his room means that it's time to go to sleep.
• Some of the classrooms are okay, but others of the lecture halls, and especially the teaching labs, are absolutely outdated and should probably be re-done.  If I was looking at being a professor instead of a grad student, I might think twice about teaching here.
  
  

  

  Lecture hall stuck in the 60's. 

The Adventures of Señor Turtlefish, the Incredibly Awesome Guy, Part V

Continued from Part IV...

****

Over-Here-ville was one of the strangest places on earth.  On the outside it appeared as though it was perfectly normal and average and anything else you could ever want.  But upon closer inspection, you noticed that it had only one school, just like any other small town; but this one was different.  It of course had many teachers and students, as many schools do.  There was a teacher in particular, though.  He simply had this oddness about him.  He had super huge goggles, a long black lab coat, hair that was permanently spiked upward, and crooked yellow teeth.  Being the Chemistry teacher, he didn't seem too out of place.  His name was Dr. Nemesis.  Everyone thought that Nemesis was his strange last name and that the doctor signified that he had a doctorate degree in something.  In reality, Nemesis was a mad scientist name and Dr. really did signify he had a doctorate degree. 

One day during school, Nemesis went to the glorious haven of the teacher's lounge.  Here, teachers could relax and let the care and worries of school float away into nothingness.  Returning to our story, as Dr. Nemesis sat down on one of the comfiest couches in the room, he thought he felt something brush his hand as he reached for the remote.  Dr. Nemesis, now looking down at the little side table, saw Señor Turtlefish's colorfully decorated invitation.  He stopped to open it, when one of other teachers in the room yelled, "PARTY!!!"  Suddenly, a disco ball dropped from the ceiling and they began to dance and scream in the soundproof room.  While this was going on, Dr. Nemesis tried to yell to the other teachers about the party he just learned about, but the music was simply too loud.  He figured that since they weren't invited anyway, it would be okay.

To be continued...

The Adventures of Señor Turtlefish, the Incredibly Awesome Guy - Part IV

Continued from Part III...

...His printer was out of ink!  Señor Turtlefish didn't have time to wait for the stores, like OfficeMax or Staples, to open.  He need the ink now, before Dr. Nemesis woke up.  He sat down and began to ponder over his dilemma.  As he thought, all of a sudden, there was a popping-type noise.  This caused Turtlefish to look up and observe the ink cartridge sitting on the desk in front of him.  He began to wonder, "How did that get there?"  It obviously hadn't been there before; the frantic search would have revealed its location on the walnut-stained piece of furniture.  But Señor Turtlefish didn't have time to think about that now.  He hurried and installed it into the printer and printed his beautiful invitation.  Little did Turtlefish know, but creating things by thinking about them was another side-effect of the August 25th event.  Turtlefish hurriedly grabbed the print-out and was out the door in a flash.

 

To be continued...

A Summer-y Summary

Turns out that it's been forever since I've blogged.  I mostly blame getting a smartphone for that (yes, I just got one this summer) and Twitter.  And Facebook.  And social media in general.  And writing in my journal, which is exactly like blogging, except that I can be perfectly honest and candid without offending anyone.

So, I guess it's time to set some new blogging goals.  How about monthly? Maybe more often if I can.  For the between times, be sure to check out my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts, where I'll post my spur of the moment thoughts and ideas, and where I don't feel bad about forgetting to post anything.

A note on my social media policy: anyone can follow me on Twitter and see all my tweets.  Anyone can follow me on Google+ and see some of my posts.  Only people who I know in real life and I would call my friend (like I might give you my cell phone number) can add me on Facebook and see anything.  I think I'm essentially invisible on FB otherwise.

Back to the summer-y.

Baby Thor is huge now!  He can walk around (while supported by the couch, his parents, or whatever else he can climb up on) and loves climbing all the stairs we let him find.

My favorite thing is that he can now understand things we say to him (like No, Touchdown, and questions he doesn't know the answer to).  He is the cutest boy in the world and now I can't wait for football season to start.  (Thor, Touchdown! *Baby Thor throws his arms up above his head*) Maybe he'll learn to say words soon.  Then we'll be in trouble.

I spent the summer working at a temporary position ultimately for a pharmaceutical company called Actavis in their Salt Lake location.  It's been a real adventure and I've learned a lot about future careers.  (I will not spend the rest of my life conduct the same tests over and over on different products)  I somewhat surprised everyone by putting in my two-week notice, but when you're moving to another state there's not a real possibility of continuing your work.

I expect great things from you Wisconsin.

Speaking of moving to another state, we're getting ready to move to Madison, Wisconsin for graduate school in the next few days.  I have a vague idea of how cold the winters are going to get and how good the cheese will be.  At least those seem to be the only things my fellow Utahns know about the state.  All I know is that if your license plates say "America's Dairyland," there better be some incredible milk and cheese, to rival even the BYU Creamery.

Hayley and Sam took a trip to Oregon for a family reunion with Hayley's folks.  They had a great time, but it left like they were gone for way too long (10 days is a long time.)  While they were away, my 4th cousin from France named Christophe Doremus came to visit.  We had an awesome time, I found out that I can somewhat understand French, and I learned some basic vocabulary (breakfast, lunch, dinner, cake, ice cream, apple juice... we mostly had meals together.)  He and my parents took off to San Francisco and to Bryce Canyon, leaving me all alone on two separate occasions.  Worst days ever.  0/5 stars.  Would not buy again.

A Utah Railway train. Way different than Frontrunner.

I've been riding the Frontrunner train this summer, which has been a good adventure.  90 minutes each way
gives you a lot of time to think about life and the universe.  And restart my scripture reading habit - I read through the Book of Mormon again this summer.  And it helped me study for the advisory exams I'll be taking as soon as I get to Madison.  Did you know that there's no official publication to study for the ACS Analytical Chemistry exam?  Neither did I, and I'm confident that all my class notes from forever are packed up in a box somewhere at the moment.

But I miss seeing my family most of the day.  Leaving home at 6 am to be at work by 8 am, then not getting home until 7:30 or 8 pm makes for a weird loneliness.  It's hard to describe.  But getting to work as much overtime as I wanted was nice.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Pinterest is just Google Image Search except that you can save things?

Wow.  This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.  I guess it's okay because I'm making up for months of no posts.

I watched the Saratov Approach on Netflix the other day.  It was really good, especially for an LDS film.  Go watch it right now and then come back to this.  Seriously.  It's only 100 minutes long or something.

And I'll be watching Guardians of the Galaxy soon.  That will be exciting.

You can tell that I'm running out of things to say by the increase of one-sentence paragraphs.  Let's call this the end for now.