Cupcake Cake!

This weekend, I took a few days off of work and headed over to Bend to visit Annie. Saturday was her engagement party, so I helped her do some cleaning in order to prepare for the party. I also spent most of Friday baking, as I was making her cake for the party. Well, actually, cupcake cake. I had made my design based on her color scheme and we came up with the idea for a series of cupcakes made to look like a bouquet of flowers.



As there were several people there who were a specific type of vegetarian who don't eat eggs, I also had to make separate began cupcakes. The cupcakes with leaves on them, were the vegan ones, while the rest were just regular cupcakes. They were all spice cake, with cream cheese frosting. The flowers were all molded (by hand, I might add!) white chocolate.



All in all, it was a lot of work, but a fun party. I definitely didn't work that hard for my graduation party, but that was a daytime BBQ. Night time events are traditionally more fancy...but still. CJ and I aren't even planning on having an engagement party, so...

Now that it's Monday, it's back to work. I have this week and next week and then I am done at PISCO. I am glad to be able to work through mid-September. This way I actually get almost a full paycheck at the end of September. My goal is to have a job by the beginning of October, but I am not sure that will happen.

I have been doing a lot of on-line applications for jobs, but I don't know how effective they will really be. As a recent graduate, I don't feel like I am very hire-able for most of the positions I am finding in scientific fields. Honestly, the point of not going to school for the next year or so is to gain real world experience IN MY FIELD. Getting a mall job is not the job experience I am looking for. I've pretty much given up on normal job search websites for my particular field, or any scientific field in general. I've been mostly focusing on looking at individual organization's websites, and the government job page, usajobs.gov.

It doesn't feel like things are coming to a close here in Corvallis, but they are. CJ and I are leaving Oregon in exactly two weeks. Ugh. That makes me feel like I should go get more things done, like packing and putting up furniture on Craigslist, and working and oh god....

Summer Pie

CJ had Tuesday off, so I managed to cut out of lab a bit early. We ran some errands and got some u-pick blueberries. I had been wanting to get some blackberries, as it is the season for them, but I am not sure where to pick them here in Corvallis. There's some down by the park we live near, but I have no idea if they spray them or not. Even if they don't, there's plenty of dogs and homeless people to make you wary of the healthiness of that fruit.

Even so, you can't help but walk into the clouds of fruity perfume those vines let off and not be tempted to eat a berry or two...



But I had to settle for frozen blackberries and fresh blueberries instead. Oh well.

Beth, my co-worker for the summer, had mentioned awhile back that she wanted to learn how to make pie. I offered to let her come watch when I made some, so I finally called her over and set to work. I ended up making a blackberry peach and a blueberry peach pie.



The blackberry pie, as you can see, is going quickly. I only made these Thursday night!



That's the blueberry pie, which has yet to be touched. It's only CJ and I right now though. Ben is coming home from Philly tonight, and his sister Liz will be here sometime before he gets back. I imagine we'll all be eating pie tonight.



I've been working on finishing up my last few art pieces for my independent study. I am working on beadwork projects, done onto a screen printed background.



The first one I finished is a daffodil. I'm mildly pleased with it.



This one is the original design, which is a camas flower. I'm not super happy with it, as the coloring seems more sporadic than I intended it to be. I actually like the photo of it better than I like the actual piece. Since I decided I didn't like the attempt at shading in this one, I've started another. I simply need to finish that one, finish the original sketches for the design work, write an artist statement and I'm done. I should have a degree or two shortly!

Hooray!

Zucchini!

On Friday, when we returned from the Coastal Transect, after 11 hours of work, someone had left some GINORMOUS squash on the conference table in the lab. I snagged the world's largest zucchini with thoughts of zucchini bread flitting through my head.

3 loaves later and I've still got more zucchini. It's turned out pretty fabulous too and there's only a little of the last loaf left.

With Ben off in Philly, Brian down in Southern Oregon for the weekend, and CJ at work for 8 hours Saturday, I headed over to Newport to visit Mandy and John. John is a friend from Erik's crew o' pals, and Mandy is a good friend of Will's. I spent a fair amount of time with them and Mandy had asked me to be a bridesmaid at their wedding, when they got engaged about 2 years ago. Well, the wedding is in September, so with a little over a month away, I went to go figure out the details of the wedding and my role in. Also, I got to pick up my dress for the affair. It'll be a beach wedding, so barefoot is a footwear option. The dress is "platinum", but it's more of a steel grey. I actually quite like it. Also, it's a two piece set, so it's a top and skirt, not really a dress.

I'm excited for the wedding because lots of the ol' crew will be there. Plus, CJ and I will be leaving shortly thereafter...as in like the next day possibly, for Maryland. I am not sure how far in to September my current job will go, so as soon as it's done, and as soon as the wedding is over, I'm ready to head out.

We've been working on our itinerary, which includes a day at Lake Tahoe, a possible stop in Columbus, OH to visit friends of CJ's, and then Maryland!

Anyway, I should probably be doing something productive...but it probably wont' happen.

Engaged!

Friday, CJ and I headed up to Crater Lake. I figured that we could take some time off from our respective jobs to go explore. Since, CJ is from Maryland he hasn't experienced the wonders of Oregon yet.

We took a hike, climbed a big ass hill, and at the top, CJ asked me to marry him.



The view.



CJ and I on the way to Crater Lake, at the Rogue River Gorge in Union Creek.



After Crater Lake Friday, we floated the Rogue River Saturday and then headed to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that night to watch Equivocation. It was pretty fabulous, as all OSF productions are.

A fun-filled weekend was had by all, including the parentals and sismiester. Even the hot tub frogs had a good time! Yeah...my parents hottub has been out of use for awhile and it has apparently turned into froggie playland. The frogs were relocated to the creek and the villagers rejoiced.

Sunday was back to Corvallis and with work looming over all our heads, we made merry with the wine.

Work came and woke me out of my summer vacation dreams and wishes, and I have spent most of the last two days looking through a microscope at microscopic floatsam, with the eventual mussel thrown in for good measure. Ooo, check out those eyespots!

Tomorrow, I am up at 3:20am to make the 4:00am departure. Off to Boiler Bay I go, to check out the high zone and the mid zone. Oh goodie, more mussels! Thursday, we are heading out with a different lab group to help them out, as this minus tide is not so good for what I do. Friday, is our Coastal Transect, which means water samples! I will be heading down to 3 of the more Southern sites. This means a 3 hour drive, first thing in the morning. Hey, I get paid for all 6 hours of that drive time, plus the work we do in between, so I can't complain too much. That will be the day I drink 8 cups of coffee. Hooray for caffeine! I suppose I could just drink some mate, but it doesn't give the same kick that coffee does.

Anywho, enjoy the pics and I am off!