Sunday Funday

February 8, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Hi everyone! How was your weekend?

We didn’t work at all! This may be a first. It’s super exciting when you don’t work on the weekend in grad school. A rare beauty of a weekend. Therefore we took advantage of the freedom and lazed and ran and biked and chilled and it was awesome.

Friday night we cooked the first of the week’s Blue Apron meals. Before….

And after!!

This was definitely a good recipe. Which is high praise since I’m not a huge pork fan. The carrots in butter completely stole the show (they’re in the picture I promise). Here’s the link to the recipe if you wanna try it out sometime –> Pork Chop Recipe

Saturday was long run day. I got through 6.5 miles with an 8:50 min pace and felt fantastic the whole time! Steve accomplished his longest run yet…yay Steve!

We also spent an embarrassing amount of time watching Dr. Who until we decided that we should get out of the house and attempt to behave like normal people. This is what people do right? So we trekked over to World of Beer and had a couple pints. My second Imperial Golden Stout was particularly delicious. Steve’s IPAs were gross and also gross.

We then decided to hang out with Kevin and Rachel (Hi Kevin and Rachel!!) at Sahara, one of the local hookah bars. It was a fantastic end to a lazy day.

Today was forecast to be warm (70 degrees in February…OMG unheard of) so the goal of the day was to be outside as much as possible.

I went for a 20 mile easy bike ride (averaged 15 mph on rolling hills) although the headwind/crosswind was insane. How is it that no matter what direction you are going, there is always, always a solid headwind in yo face. Ugh. The worst. Also, I’m a dork and forgot to take a picture of me on the bike, so here’s one after I finished with my bike tire in the background. Also also…please ignore how pale I am.

The sunshine and warmth continued through the afternoon so we, and everyone else in Raleigh, took the dog out for a walk. We tried to wear her out (we failed) by letting her splash and play in the creek and romp with a new friend. Here’s the creek before Indy got all up in it!

So pretty 🙂

What adventures did you go on this weekend?

It’s Finally Friday

February 6, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Hi friends and happy Friday! How has your week been? It’s been a little random over here (aka why posting has been random).

We had to prepare a working demo for a last min presentation on Wednesday, so Tuesday turned into a 14 hr work day. But … it was worth it because the demo worked! It was pretty awesome, not gonna lie.

This is what it looked like after everything was assembled and hooked up. I can tell you that it uses TEGs (thermoelectric generators) to produce electrical power from body heat, but that’s about it (confidentiality stuff).

Even though I left work at 10pm, I was pretty pumped and motivated so I headed over to the gym for a short treadmill run. Ran about 2.5 miles in 21 min with a couple of sprints thrown in there at the end for a good sweaty end to the day!

Yesterday we got in another Blue Apron! (Note: we don’t receive any compensation for this, we just get really excited about food)

Look at all the food!! We’ll keep you updated on how this week’s recipes taste 🙂

This morning we took it easy, no thanks to a certain dog-who-shall-not-be-named who was ruthless in her quest for morning cuddles and pets. She has mastered those super sad puppy eyes that say “love me”….gets me every time!

I decided to whip up a bowl up unphotogenic oatmeal (added in some almond butter, chocolate whey protein powder, and a few semi-sweet chocolate chips) before heading into work for more testing and more fabrication.

What are your plans for Friday night?

– today is First Friday in Raleigh so we may hit up some fun bars or something 🙂

Sleepy Sundays…

February 1, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

…are the best! Gotta love taking a lazy morning and reading the paper with a nice hot cup of coffee.

How is your weekend going?

Ours has been pretty good so far even though we spent about half the day in the lab yesterday. Research never sleeps. Which is why you should never start an experiment and have to check on it over the weekend….oops.

After work (on a Saturday..I know) we stopped by Panera to grab some sammiches as a late lunch before running a few errands.

It actually warmed up a bit and was sunny so we each went out for a Shelley Lake run. Steve and I don’t run together often since I kick his ass and like to go fast. But sometimes run dates are fun.

We have a great house that backs up to the Raleigh Greenway system (which is probably the best thing about this house) so we can hit the trails anytime!

It also means we get some phenomenal people watching opportunities. Yes….chances are we are shamelessly judging you (nobody’s perfect).

The trail behind our house leads to Shelley Lake.

It’s about 4.5 miles to run around the lake and back so it’s perfect! Except when the evil canadian geese take over the trail but that’s a rant for another day.

I finished up the run in about 37 min @ 8:50 ish pace. Steve took it slow at about 11:30 pace.

We have a Super Bowl party on tap for today and have some puppy plans!!

What are you doing for the Super Bowl?

Who are you cheering for? –I’m going Seahawks all the way! Go Seattle!

It was not rain

January 30, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Wooooooo it’s Friday! -Does Friday dance-

Yesterday was a bit of a bust. Ever have those days when you just need to accept that nothing productive is going to happen? Yep. That’s it.

Sadly we are out of tequila so that margarita didn’t happen. Maybe next time!

One of the nice things of grad school is that you can make your own hours (if your adviser allows it). So, once productivity halted around 3 pm, I went home to get a run in.

By the time I got home, the sunny day had gotten overcast. I checked the forecast since running in the rain when it’s 40 degrees out is a recipe for disaster and we were cleared for rain for another couple of hours. So I decided to head out with a rain coat just in case.

As I got ready to head out, I heard the sound of a light sprinkle. After looking out and verifying that it was, indeed, a light sprinkle, I decided to continue with a short 2 mile run.

It was not rain.

This was the look on my face as the realization of exactly what was falling from the sky hit me.

It was not rain. Rain does not bounce.

It. Was. Sleet.

Thoughts that went through my head while running:

Sleet hurts when it hits your eyelid. Ow.
My legs are cold. My feet are cold. My face is really cold.
Man up Amanda, you got this.
The greenway is kinda creepy with no one on it.
SHIT what was that noise?!? Oh, wait. That was my jacket.

Did 2.2 miles in 18 min (8:28 min pace) and came in and gleefully sat and watched Dr. Who for the rest of the evening! Where it was nice and warm 🙂

Meeting Meb

January 26, 2015January 26, 2015 / thievinsteven / Leave a comment

So I keep almost forgetting to go to class. No, scratch that. I keep forgetting to go to class and my friends keep reminding me. Thanks Francisco! Today class was actually useful. We learned a bunch of stuff we should have in the first week and that would have been really helpful working on our project. After a very productive morning, a nearly missed class and an afternoon of no motivation we went to a new running store downtown called Runologie for a social run led by Meb Keflezighi!

The crowd at Runologie

Meb won the Boston marathon last year, the year after the horrible bombing. He was also the first American to win the race in over 30 years and is the only person to have won the Boston Marathon, the New York marathon and an Olympic marathon medal. Basically he’s a pretty big deal for runners. I learned all this today and we got pictures and signed running t-shirts along with the free beer and pizza that Runologie provided. They were only serving an IPA, typically Amanda’s least favorite beer style and my most favorite. I may have been smugly satisfied when she said she enjoyed it 😀

The run was three miles and my ankle/foot bothered me a little bit but I’m icing it now and I hope it will be fine. I got a good look at the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon and half marathon courses on a poster up at Runologie and then got really scared remembered that I signed up to run the half. I’m in week two of my 12 week training program and haven’t spent any time crying so I’ll take that as a good sign.

That’s it for tonight. Signing off to graph some data from today’s experiments and watch some Dr. Who. Season 4 was incredible and we’re a couple episodes into season 5!

PhDeviants

Misadventures in grad school, running, and life

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