Day 24 and 25: The Weekend!

Day 24:

Saturday I went in to work very early, primarily because I couldn't sleep. The security guards know me well now, and make fun of me on a regular basis. I like the early morning, though. It allows me to fully concentrate (provided I'm alert...thank you caffeine!), and I find I'm much more focused in the early morning. 

I got in to work before 6, was busy working on a particular experiment, and by the time 9:45 rolled around, I was ready to go home, a full day ahead of me to do things that needed to be done, and to do things I wanted to do. Saturdays I've decided are best when not spent in the lab. I'm not really sure who made up the whole "graduate students shall work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day" deal, but I can't really conform to that. Yes, I work a lot, but, with the exception of "down" days every once and a while, I try to be purposeful at work and cram 72 hour weeks into 55-60 hour weeks. I'm desparately trying to reclaim my life, as it's been pointed out to me that I've changed considerably moving out here. I don't want to be the angry and negative person I've allowed myself to relax into. So, I'm not going to be a ball of stress anymore (or at least I'm going to make an honest effort to try not to be that way).

The point being, I spent only a fraction of my Saturday in lab. The rest of my Saturday was very pleasant, and was mostly spent picking up the house, going to thrift stores and shopping around at the Circuit City stores which are ALL closing.

I found this really neat, simple little spice rack at the thrift store. I was considering making one of my own, where all of my spices would have looked neat and uniform, but for $5, this was probably a better option. I hung the rack over my sink and immediately filled it up with spices that were overflowing from a rubbermaid tub sitting on my dining table. Ahh...organization! It makes me feel infinitely better when things are organized.

OCD, anyone?

Day 25:

Since I spilled my guts already to my tens of readers, I'll keep this description short. I made yeast bread for the first time (not counting Tony's mom's rolls...which is a story in itself), and it is SO delicious. There was a small catastrophe, where the bread rose about 2x too much, and I had to use an odd shaped pan, because I only have one loaf pan. It still tastes awesome, though!

P.s. I realize the caliber of my photos has gone down, perhaps because I don't feel like I could live up to another one of these photos this month. Thank goodness February is 'round the corner, though!