A plea to my friends!

Dearest friends,

As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. He has been doing well and is currently trying new treatments to stay healthy. There is no "cure" for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that affects the immune system.

In his honor, I am again taking part in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. This is a great event that raises money for cancer research and cancer survivors. For 24 hours, my BOGS team will walk the track at a local high school to raise awareness!

With your help and support last year, I was able to raise over $700 in honor of my dad! Thank you all!!

I urge you to visit my webpage and make a donation. Both in support of my dad and in honor of everyone that you know that has been affected by cancer.

Please share this webpage with anyone you know that would also like to help out with this wonderful cause!

You can donate directly on the webpage using a credit card or you can send me a check in the mail!

Every little bit helps! Just a few dollars really does make a difference!

Thanks so much for your support and contribution!

Go to my Relay for Life webpage by clicking here!

or cut and paste this into your browser:http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifePennsylvaniaDivision?pg=personal&fr_id=7077&fr_id=7077&px=6186164

Off again

Another summer of fieldwork officially begins ...

Sigh.

8 hours of snorkeling in the tropics each day for the next 2 weeks.

I know it sounds awesome, but trust me ...

I'll give you updates when possible!!!!

Happy Summer!

Celebrating Joe's Qs!

Labmate Joe took his Q exams over the last week or so and last night he passed his orals! Yay!

I'm very excited for him and knew he could do it (he is way smarter than me, and I managed to pass them last year!)!

Last night's celebration was a bit much for me, as I am now old and no longer have the tolerance for alcohol that I had at 21. Or 19. Or 20. Or 22. Or 23. But we all enjoyed ourselves and won $50 at trivia and celebrated Joe!

Congratulations JOE!

(Just 6 months until your proposal is due! Tick Tock, Tick Tock!)

BF Baby

Oh, I almost forgot -- now that BF Kimmy's shower is over, I can show you all the baby blankets that I knit for her baby (whom I will from now on refer to as BF Baby, as he/she is the baby of my Best Friend! And she/he does not yet have a name!!)!

Because I am just so excited about BF Baby, I knit 2 blankets! Actually, I started one before BF Baby was even conceived, but it took me this long to finish it!

The light green and white stipped blanket is made out of a giant ball of self-striping boucle yarn. I just knit on the diagonal, adding a stitch at the start of each row, and then decreasing stitch at the start of each row after I was about half way through the yarn. It was easy, but took time because it is thin yarn on small needles (size 8, I think).

The dark green one is a modified Big Bad Baby Blanket. I made it out of Wool Ease Thick n' Quick yarn on a size 13 needle, with less stitches than the pattern called for, so it wasn't too huge a blanket. I just love the pattern, which is difficult to see here, but is basically a square with a seed-stitch border around the edge and then 4 alternating blocks in the center. It's my favorite pattern to knit and this new bigger yarn makes it look very fun!

I hope BF Baby and her parents enjoy them for years to come!

Showered!

For those of you dying to know -- Shower Weekend was a massive success!!

BF Kimmy's Baby Shower was a wonderful event full of lots of green and lots of frogs and lots of fun!! I am just so excited that my bestest friend (for 20 years now!!!) is having a baby! And I am so happy for her and her husband Bill that they got so many wonderful gifts last weekend and so much love from everyone!

Anna's Wedding Shower (which began just 20 hours after the baby shower ended) also went fabulously! Lots of fun had by all and lots of gifts for Anna & George to start their married life with! (Umm.. however, I am a horrible MOH and failed to take ANY photos. I suck!)

I realized something though, that I had previously failed to notice as a shower-giving friend: Moms are crazy. The only real stress associated with each shower was with the Mothers of my girlfriends. Baby Shower Mom hated the ugly room we had the shower in and was upset about the lack of seat assignments. Wedding Shower Mom was in arms over the fact that we didn't buy those pastel mints (gag me) to put on the tables and that another bridesmaid and I kept telling her to sit down and enjoy herself rather than running everything. I always tried to be nice to the Moms, but ultimately I feel like my role is to make the mom-to-be and the bride happy. Who knew that showers could make Moms so crazy?? Luckily, I am sure my mother will be totally calm whenever I get around to having my showers. We'll just share a few drinks and have a good time (right Mom?)!

Cake from Kimmy's shower (made by Bill's Aunt, not a professional bakery!)

The 3 girls!
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In addition to all of the Shower-Craziness, I was also able to spend some time with my awesome family! I had dinner with everyone (from Buffalo's famous Chinese/pizza/wing/bar restaurant), caught a movie and did some shopping with Kel (my lil' bro's gf), watched Nephew play some soccer (perhaps full-contact sports are not his thing, but he wants to be an animal rescuer anyway, so lay-off!), had a super fun time at a party thrown by my sis-in-law (and bought lots of yummy treats), and enjoyed having the "Sneks Girls" (Mom, sis-in-law, Kel and me) at both of the showers! I also enjoyed the whole 6 hours I spent with Ry!!

An action shot of my favorite Nephew at soccer!!!

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Oh, and did I mention that my car had to stay in Buffalo while I came back to the Little Town with my mom's car (Thanks Mom!) because I HAD to give a final??

Overall though, I think the weekend was a HUGE success!! And I already miss all my friends & family!!