400 posts!

That's correct!

This is post number 400!

From the girl, who, 4 years ago, would say "I'll totally have to write about that in my blog". Even though I didn't have a blog. Just because I thought I was hysterically witty.

Here are a few facts about 400 to brighten your day!

• The roman numeral for 400 is CD
• 400 is a self number in base 10, since there is no integer that added to the sum of its own digits results in 400
• 400 is a Lebanese card game
• The year 400 was a leap year
• On Thanksgiving day (just 14 days away), it will be 400 days until RyGuy's and my wedding!

So much going on ...

I know that my audience has been checking daily for updates about my exciting life .... and let me tell you, life has been busy!

But soon ... so very soon ... I will post about:

• 4th of July celebration in Buffalo
• Vegas, baby!!!!
• leaving the Little Town ...
• ... and moving to NJ!

So much fun in such a short amount of time!

Memorializing with Hannah!

It's been a few days since I last put of photos of our niece Hannah, so I thought I'd share some of the cutie from Memorial Day Weekend! We had a great time with her -- a BBQ at her house, playing in the rain, going to the local fair (where I totally beat RyGuy TWICE in the watergun game and won 2 giant prizes for Hannah), and (the next day) dinner out (Hannah's Favorite) and some more fun! Enjoy this little cutie!!

Hannah at the restuarant -- she loves dining out!
*******************

Uncle Ry teaching Hannah how to ride a tricycle
*******************

Hannah & Mommy on the Carousel!
**********************

So cute!!
*************

Trying hard to blow BUBBLES!
**********

"Say Cheese"!
*************

Dancing in the rain!
****************

Aunt Sneks had to join in the fun!
**************

She's ridiculous!
***********

A video of her favorite Uncle Ry activity!
(I just love her laugh!!)

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Our niece Hannah turned 2 a few weeks ago, and we had a fabulous time at her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party! There were so many family members there to celebrate the first birthday that Hannah celebrated with us! We can't wait for next year's party!

Here are a few photos of the exciting day:

"Mama" dressed as Mickey!
(The rest of us had cute Mickey ears ... but I will save those photos for blackmail)

***********************

So many presents!

***********************

She's so good at looking at the cards! She loves them!
(Our's played the Mickey Mouse song!)
***********************

I hope everyone liked the Mickey-shaped cake I made!

(And Ry carried on his lap for the whole 30 minute drive)
*******************

And Hannah had her own cookie-brownie-cake with a giant "2" and Mickey!
**********************

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!

Showers & Floods!

I just HAD to blog about Joe flooding our lab today. Because he didn't want me to tell the world that he let a tank overflow. All over the lab. Into the hallway.

As for showers, we have another one this weekend! Matty (whom I started grad school with) and his wife Em are having a baby girl in a few months! And we're excited to celebrate!

This is the first "couples" shower I've ever been in charge of! I am thinking the typical baby shower games might not be appropriate! Maybe just some baby trivia? And lots of champagne punch??

I hope Matty & Em have a good time!

Happy 200th Birthday Darwin!

A friend sent a "Darwin Birthday Letter" this morning and urged us all to celebrate life today, in honor of Charles Darwin, THE evolutionary biologist!

A bit silly, but I urge you to do the same!

Celebrate Life!

28 has hit me hard!

Last week I turned 28! (And my mom called me to remind me that I was old now!)

The weekend before my birthday, Mom, lil' bro and Kel came in to celebrate (Kel's B-day was the week before) and Ry came in too and we drove to AC and gambled away a super fun day! I actually came home with more money than I brought (a first for me!)!

I share my actual birthday with labmate Joe, so, to celebrate, we had a little poker tournament and drank Jamaican Rum. I also got lots of wonderful presents in the mail (Thanks everyone!!!) Good times!

I then headed to NJ to spend the weekend with my RyGuy! He made me dinner and gave me great presents (including post-it notes with our picture on it! so cool!) and we watched some Harry Potter on BluRay. All awesome!

Of course, because everything was so wonderful, I got sick. Another sinus-type infection with fever and total body aches and sleepless nights and loss of appetite and horrible headache. And now some weird blind spot thing that is apparently an ocular migraine (good times)!

Oh well ... at least my 28th Birthday celebration started out well!!

Very Thankful!

Well, things have been exciting since RyGuy & I got engaged! We met Ry's new niece and did some wedding planning!! More on both of those things soon!

We also travel to Buffalo for a wonderful visit with the family! We visited with Grandpa, had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, "tailgated" Black Friday on Thursday, had a great dinner made by sis-in-law and hung out with Nephew and then spent the morning with all of the crazy shoppers! Good times had by all!

A few photos (of course!):

Nephew, with his pilgrim hat and green tie. And sleeveless shirt.
**************************************

Ry, lil' bro & Kel in line at noon on Thanksgiving!
*******************************

We're actually second in line! With a nice tent to keep us warm!
*****************************

Gotta check those ads!
**********************

Food, family, fun, shopping & deals!! I am happy!
**************

The perfect day!

Yesterday, Ry took me to NYC to celebrate our 3-year anniversary!

It was a very beautiful day .....

.... but it was very rainy!

So, Ry decided we should go on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Central Park!

At Strawberry Fields, our carriage driver pulled-over and said he'd happily take our photo along the path!

Suddenly, Ry dropped to one knee. And I start saying "What are you doing?"

Then he repeats himself a few times because I am having trouble listening to him! Finally I hear "You haven't answered me! Will you marry me?"

And of course I say "YES!!"

Such a beautiful ring!

Then we walked around the park until Ry took me for a wonderful dinner at Tavern on the Green!

With its beautiful trees and fancy dining rooms!
And we celebrated our engagement!

Another wonderful trip home!

Ry & I had another wonderful, busy, quick trip home! I think we managed to spend 40 hours in Buffalo! The main reason for our short trip was Nephew's 5th Birthday Party, but we also managed to squeeze in some trick or treating, lots of errands and lunch with Mom & Dad, a great family dinner and some fun at the casino in the Falls, a spinning class (not Ry, just me and Mom and Kel, who both kick my ass at the spinning) and lots of fun!

Here's some photos from the weekend!

Nephew, the bat!

********************

Someone got a few pounds of candy!
****************

What's a 5-year-old's birthday party without a bounce house?

*****************

Kel, me and Ry snuck in while the little boys were distracted!
(Go Bills!)
*********************
Why can't Ry hit the Transformers pinata?
Because lil' bro stole it away while Ry was blindfolded!
(5-year-olds find this hysterical)
****************

Happy Birthday Nephew!!
***************

Lots to celebrate!

Birthday wishes to my RyGuy!

Happy 29th Birthday, my love!

And it's also our 3-year Anniversary!!

Here's us 3 years ago when we had just started dating!

Umm ... hope you voted!

Because I had to post on election day ...

Even though I voted weeks ago through absentee ballot, because I am still an Empire State resident. So, basically, my vote didn't really count because of the stupid electoral college.

While I was not a strong supporter of Obama, I will post my favorite line from one of his speeches, as I think that we must all believe it in order to change this world, regardless of whom we wanted to win tonight.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.

~Barack Obama

Birthday wishes for my favorite Nephew!

Happy 5th Birthday Nephew!

Uncle Ry & I are so very excited to celebrate with you at your birthday party this weekend!!

I hope to take lots more pictures of you to share with all of my friends!
(You're 3 in this photo! I can't believe how fast you've grown up!)

300

Yes, it's my 300th blog posting!

Wow ... I thought I'd be bored with it after just 100 ...

In honor of blog posting #300, this is brought to you by the number 300!

300, of course, is a triangular number and the sum of a pair of twin primes (149 + 151), as well as the sum of ten consecutive primes (13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31 + 37 + 41 + 43 + 47). It is a Harshad number. To learn more about the number 300, click here.

300 is the number of Spartans that fought in the Battle of Thermopylae. Um, totally one of my favorite films! That queen is so bad-ass!

300 is a perfect score in bowling. Someday, I will achieve a 300 ... in Wii bowling, of course!

300 was apparently the year in which lions went extinct in Armenia, the elephants went extinct in North Africa and the wild ass went extinct in Algeria. Poor extinct animals. Other important happened in the year 300 as well.

Oh, 300. How important you are!

Too much time in the basement men's room ...

It's not what the title leads you to think ...

My scientific laboratory is acutally in the men's room in the basement of the science building.

And, really, a converted bathroom/locker room/shower room without windows (and thus outside light) is ideal for a fish laboratory.

But lately, I have spent far too much time there!

This semester I am not teaching and I am my advisor's research assistant (or ... as I like to say .. I'm my advisor's bitch).

Most graduate students would be thrilled to avoid teaching and get to spend all of their time in the lab! And I am.

It's just a lot of time in a hot (92 degrees) room, alone, with only a couple hundred fish to talk to. And I need to be there at "dawn", which means I have to be to work and ready to collect data at 7am. And, because the rest of my depatment does not function before noon, most meetings are after 4pm, so I rarely get home before 5:30 (more like 6). Thus, the 10 or 11 hour days are starting to take their toll ...

So today I found myself especially cranky. And maybe not 100% nice to everyone. And maybe I just need to get out of the men's room ...

Good thing Ry & I are headed to the B-lo for Baby Ally's baptism! Yay for a whole weekend away from work filled with family and friends (including a visit to the zoo with my awesome Nephew!!!)!!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs.!

And they've finally done it!

Anna & George got married!

So much fun was had by all!
Definitely up there in the top 5 most fun weddings of all time!
More details to come!

I wish you both the very best!
May you live happily ever after!

Congrats Dr. RyGuy!

The week before I left for Jamaica was filled with lots of celebration & fun! Ry celebrated getting his actual PhD!! (Yes, technically he became a PhD in January, but the ceremony was in May!)

We started the week of celebration by a surprise present to go see the Yankees vs. Mets at Yankee Stadium! I was very excited about this because I have never been to Yankee Stadium! And Ry is a huge fan!! (And it took me weeks of eBay bidding to get the tickets!) Ry was happily surprised when his name came up on the scoreboard in the middle of the game! LOTS of fun!

Then there was the big "Hooding Ceremony" where all of the graduating PhDs recieve hoods from their advisors! Followed by copious amounts of champagne and celebrations by all!

The next day was the giant graduation ceremony which takes place on the football field because there are close to 2,000 graduates! Although it is geared towards undergrads, Ry insisted on going (because this is the only time he will ever get a PhD!). Ry was the 3rd person to get his diploma. Then it started to rain. The ceremony continued through the downpour, but most people left as soon as they got their diplomas. Not Ry (because this is the only time he will ever get a PhD!). He sat in the rain until the very end, so that he could throw his cap (because this is the only time he will ever get a PhD!)!

The next day we left for a 4 day vacation in Treasure Island, FL! It was lots of fun to stay right on the beach! We got sunburned the very first day, but still enjoyed the pool, Busch Gardens, a movie and a TB Rays baseball game!

A supposed a week is a bit long to celebrate Ry's PhD! But -- this is the only time he will ever get a PhD!

CONGRATS again, Dr. Ry!!

Ry & I at Yankee Stadium!

****************************

Ry gets a hug from his Diva advisor just after hooding!
*****************

Celebrating Dr. Ry with some chapagne!
**********************

After much champagne, Ry's sis & I think it would be brilliant to all wear T-shirts to the graduation! Oh, champagne!
*****************************
Dr. Ry, alone in the rain, waiting to throw his cap
*****************

Ry in the Gulf!!
*****************************

View of the sunset from our window!!
***************************

Rhino & baby at Busch Gardens!
****************

Ry & I at Tropicana Field (2 MLB stadiums in 1 week!)
***********************