Day 328

Dinner and shopping and girl time with Emily tonight! Yay!

Quote of the Day: "One falsehood spoils a thousand truths." -- African proverb

Day 321

Had a great dinner at Freebird's tonight with Candace... and totally forgot to take a picture. :( Fortunately, I had saved part of my brownie that I could use for evidence:


Just for the record, the name comes from the way the brownie is made, not its contents. :)

Quote of the Day: "To be mature means to face, and not evade, every fresh crisis that comes." -- Fritz Kunkel

Day 296

Mmm... I love the way brownies look when they're all cut up and ready to be eaten! So nice and neat in their little rows and columns!

Day 289

Today, Michelle, Candace, Evyn, and I went to lunch to celebrate Candace's birthday. The place we were planning to go was closed, so we ended up at Olive Garden. After some yummy food (and a ridiculous number of breadsticks), we got some gelato at Il Dolce. It looked so good in the display case that I just had to take a picture:


Naturally, I intended to take pictures of the people involved in our outing as well... but I guess I got distracted by eating the gelato. Oops. So, this will have to suffice for today's blog. :)

Day 278

The group of girls that was having weekly lunches this summer is still going strong! Today, we ate outside at PadThai on Campus Corner. It was really beautiful (once we got the patio umbrella situated), and apparently, some local birds thought it was a good day for a swim in PadThai's fountain:



They were really cute. :) Unfortunately, the girls on the fountain side of the table got splashed a bit in all the fluttering around. :)

Day 275

Today was the infamous OU / TX "Red River Rivalry" football game. Candace and her daughter (plus a friend) came over to watch it with us. Despite the fact that the Sooners won, Candace was a true longhorn fan and still had her horns up after the game:

Day 271

Today, we threw a baby shower for a couple in the math department, Misun and Injo. Here's a peek at the food table before we started:


And somehow, yours truly got nominated to serve the cake... clearly these people have never seen me around food before!


(Fortunately, none of it landed on the floor, and most of the pieces were even served upright!)

Day 269

After church today, Patrick and I had lunch with my friend Krista, her husband Jeff, and their kids. We had a great time getting to catch up a bit, and of course, we got some great pictures. :) Here's me and Krista with Abi and Eli:


Then, Abi wanted to take one of me and Krista (and Eli) - and she did a great job! See?


Maybe next time we'll convince the husbands to join us for a picture... :)

Day 264

Today was a crazy day - I submitted my IRB form (yay!), met a key researcher in my field (yay again!), got some awesome cupcakes from my officemate for the 2-month-anniversary of my birthday (super yay!), and administered a business calculus exam. Before the exam, Rachel and I headed over to Campus Corner to eat dinner. We ended up at a place called the T.E.A. Cafe (T.E.A. = The East Asian), where Rachel got a milk tea with tapioca in it. It looked really cool and came with a HUGE straw:


They also let you build your own dish. My pick tonight was chicken, a brown garlic sauce, broccoli, carrots, snowpeas, and brown rice (not pictured). The sauce was Rachel's recommendation, and it was good! Thanks for a great dinner idea, Rachel!

Day 256

Impromptu picture moment in the office this morning since the three of us all showed up wearing a dress or skirt!

Day 244

Isn't it hard to believe that 1) It's already September, and 2) This blog is 2/3 of the way finished? Crazy!

Yesterday, I noticed that the OU volleyball team was playing UCA tonight. Yes, you read that right. Little 'ole UCA, my alma mater, was venturing into the Big 12 (or however many teams it is now). So, since I was wanting to go to a volleyball match before I left OU, I figured this was just the one! My good friend and sporting-event-buddy Candace came with me. She even (accidentally) wore purple today! Here we are before the match began:


And of course, I was sporting my UCA shirt, which I dug out of a storage bin for just this purpose:


We left during the 3rd set because OU was up 2-0, and it looked like they were going to put it away in the 3rd. Apparently, they didn't, because the OU sports website says that OU won the match 3-1, not 3-0! Drama! Anyway, it was a good effort by the Sugar Bears, and it was fun to see a bit of UCA purple again!

Day 239

The Math Department had their annual "Welcome Back Party" this evening at OU's art museum. When I got my camera out to take pictures, my friend Rachel (remember her wedding earlier this summer?) said, "Take a picture of us; we're cute!" and grabbed her new husband Ty. As it turns out, she was right - aren't they cute?


After a false start, I managed to get a picture of most of the rest of Ty and Rachel's table. (I had to promise that the false start wouldn't appear on the blog - doesn't that whet your appetite for hilarious party photos?) Here's Candace, Lynn, and Daniel:


Then, I took pictures of my table. I forgot to warn some of them about the blog, so I'll just stick with this picture of Matt and Cherith. Matt was giving us his best excited face... yeah. :)

Day 231

Candace and I got some lunch at Freebird's today, and on the way back to our offices, we just HAD to go in this new little cupcake place on Campus Corner:



Their "special", if you will, is a red velvet cupcake, but they also had a yummy-looking chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting (with REAL strawberries!):


So, naturally, we had to get both and split them so we could both try both flavors! I meant to get a shot of the two of us enjoying our cupcakes... but we got distracted once we opened the box. :) The cupcakes were both good, and I think we will definitely be heading back in the future!

Day 228

Emily and I got to hang out today for a bit of shopping and some ice cream. She found what she was after, and I found something by accident that I had been meaning to shop for. So, basically, the shopping trip was an epic success! Then, we headed to Marble Slab for some ice cream, which was just utterly fabulous. Great afternoon with a friend! :)

Day 227

First up tonight, a bit more about yesterday's baby shower. Yesterday, you saw the guest of honor, Mieke, and our wonderful hostess, Stephanie. Here are the rest of the baby shower guests:


Left to right, Amber, me, and Sarah. You met Sarah earlier this summer when she stopped by Norman for a visit. Amber was awesome enough to let me invade her home last night so I didn't have to make the long trip home. Thanks, ladies! Here's the entire baby shower group (complete with Stephanie's daughter!):


Today, after a yummy brunch and great church service with Amber, I headed back. This was our evening this evening (just insert me between the two dogs for a full effect):

Day 226

I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with some great college friends today to have a baby shower for our friend Mieke (below, left):

More pictures to follow tomorrow!

Day 221

Candace and I had a marathon shopping adventure today! I forgot to snap a picture of us totally rocking some argyle, so instead, here's a look at the colors I brought home today (none of which involve argyle, sorry):


Stay tuned to see if you can spot these pieces in a future blog post!

Day 220

Patrick and I got an unexpected invitation this afternoon - a friend of Patrick's (and his wife) invited us over to have s'mores with them, their son, and another friend and his 2 sons. Yum! After the "sugar bar," the adults sat around the living room talking and playing with the dog. However, some of us got roped into playing horsie for the kids, too:


(Just for the record, I wasn't the only horsie, just the only horsie Patrick took a picture of!) Patrick got in on the fun, too, and got a taste of the "Student Health Plan" (one of the boys with a toy drill applied to Patrick's knee):

Day 217

I got to have lunch today with my good friend / former officemate Ann and her daughter Jaiden. We ate at McAlister's, then headed back to their house to hang out a bit. I forgot my camera, so the first and last pictures came from Ann's phone (thanks, Ann!) and the middle one is from my phone. Here's one of me with Ann:

As Ann says, we got Jaiden to "cheese" for the camera:

Day 214

I got to check an item off my "Norman Bucket List" today! (In case I haven't mentioned it, this is my [mental] list of everything I want to do before we leave Norman.) Candace, Evyn, and I went to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of National History on the OU campus. Since it was the first Monday of the month, the museum had free admission for everyone! We first went to their new (temporary) Chocolate exhibit. We weren't really supposed to take pictures in this exhibit, but we made an exception near the end when we saw these bonbon chairs:



Next we went through the permanent exhibits about the dinosaur eras, native Oklahoma history, and more! Here's Evyn and me checking out a few of the exhibits:



At this point, I am feeling obligated to point out that Candace was behind the camera for most of our visit to the museum. Apparently, I already have "Mom syndrome" when it comes to taking pictures (which I am told means that I put other people in them but leave myself out), so Candace volunteered to help remedy this problem. :) At any rate, moving along into the Oklahoma history-type exhibits... There is a very cool canoe you can climb into. I managed to squeeze in with Evyn for a nice shot...

... and a silly shot!

Before we left, we had to pose with the gigantic woolly mammoth statue. Evyn showed me the best way to pose (under the mammoth's foot)...

... and then played dead.


Naturally, I then had to pose under the woolly mammoth's foot. I went for the "oh my gosh, he's about to squash me like a bug" pose:


Finally, a shot of the entire woolly mammoth statue:


Such a fun afternoon with two of my favorite ladies! Thanks again to Candace for taking the bulk of these!