Brains, Eyeballs, and Biochemistry

So... I, B-Rad, rarely find myself blogging in the midst of the rush of school and life in general, but this Sunday I thought I might make an appearance and actually write in a short report. Things at school have been amazing! As the title suggests, over the last couple of weeks we have cut off the top portion of our cadavers head, (yes, with a large power saw and chisels and mallets... now what could be more manly!?) and then we took out the brains. How many times in your life do you get to come home and have your wife say "so how was your day?" and you get to respond "oh ya know, the usual, we cut off the top of somebody's head and ripped our their brains". After the brains were out we got to go through the top and the front to get to the eyeballs. It's amazing how awesome the human body is!! And we have started biochemistry which I love. It's been fun and has really added to what I learned and taught as a TA in undergrad biochem. I'm lovin' it!! Needless to say, with all this adventure, I need a nap and some fishing real soon! (Sorry they don't allow pictures in the anatomy lab so this is all ya get... I'm sure you're all real disappointed not to see the brain...)

Harvest Fair

We went to to Harvest Fair on friday with a group of friends. Pretty much it was like the state fair but with more pumpkins and scarecrows around and it was FREE. Pretty much you can bet when there is a free activity most of the medical students will be there. Here are some pics that we snaped at the fair.

They had pumpkin bowling, but it could have been done better if all the kids hadn't taken over.

Here is the petting zoo.

Necia is petting the cute llama.

And the best was the Zebra, how many people can say they have pet a zebra?

Justin here is competing with the scarecrows on how much chest hair he can show.

We also bought herbs to start our own herb garden: rosmary, oregano, citris thyme, and chocolate mint (that one was for me).

Almond Shortbread Cookie Bars

I made these for chior last week and people asked for the recepie so I am posting it below.

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup chocolate chips (optional mini)

Oven at 350 degrees.
Grease 13x9 in pan.
Mix sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add flour and almond extract. Blend well. Add chocolate chips. Pat into greased pan. Bake for 30 min. or until brown. Let cool 10 min. Cut into bars and cool in pan completely.

Retraction

So I have to retract some of the comments on my prior post because of the new evidence that has come about as to the real instigators of the toilet paper scheme, yes Scott I know it was you now!!! So we really did get our house toilet papered, but it really wasn't that bad. We actually just left it in the rain and we did watch the entire BYU game, come on we couldn't miss that. And thanks to our friends we did get help picking it up. But that is not the last you have heard from us so beware for later retaliation...

The TP Friends

So this morning I realized that we all have different types of friends. There are those friends that we call up to hang out on a friday night when we have nothing planned, there are those friends that we love to hang out with because they make us laugh so hard that we cry, and then there are those friends that we decide to play pranks on when we are not hanging out with them. And I realized that we are those friends, yeah, the ones that you would toilet paper their house when they are fast asleep. Okay, so I have to admit, we were got. We went to bed early on a friday night so that we could wake up early to make the trip to the temple. And in the morning as we pulled out in front of our house we found out we were got, and got good! Don't worry we have come to grips with being the toilet paper friends and are just glad that people would go out of their way to use precious toilet paper on us. Though it wasn't the amount of toilet paper used that made it good, but the fact that is was poring rain. Now I will tell you something about this community that we live in, Wauwatosa. They are like one big homeowner society that is super duper proud of how beautiful their city looks. Now we were warned when we moved in that we had to keep the lawn up to certain standards, only park on a certain side of the road and do something with the neighborhood watch program, you know things like that. So we were worried about getting fined or even worse arrested. Now you laugh at the outrageousness of that last comments, but need I remind you about the lady in Orem that got arrested for an unkempt lawn; look it up if you don't believe me. So anyways we stopped and got out to pick up the white goo that now was draped across our lawn. I don't know if you have ever picked up soaked toilet paper, but it is something I would prefer not to touch. It is like a soggy white mushy substance that you can't just pick up in big hand fulls. No, toilet paper is not like the brawny paper towels that hold together when saturated, they fall apart into little chunks of mush. As we were slaving away all morning I had wished that Brad had brought home some of his plastic gloves that he uses in the anatomy lab, because I swear this stuff was just as bad as those insides. Thank goodness for Brad who cleaned up much more that I did we felt comfortable to leave to the temple. The saddest part of the whole deal was that being late to leave for the temple made us late coming back and we missed the whole first half of what we hear was an amazing BYU football game, yeah, 42-0 against UCLA at the half and ending with 59-0. Don't worry the second half was still good to watch as they played their second string pretty much the whole time and still dominated. Go Cougs!!! So I know I normally post pictures with my posts, but it was still raining when we were picking up so no pics this time, but I do have a poem instead that I will like to post.

Toilet Paper

by Jinxerella

Toilet paper, toilet paper!

where for are thou toilet paper?

I sit here, waiting.

in need of something to wipe my bottom with.

one drop, two drop, three drop thats it.

I look to the roll...

Oh no!

Help!!!!!

I am stranded, I must wait for it to dry!

I wonder how long I will be here...

maybe until I die?

I would haunt this toilet.

Actually that might be fun.

I will ponder this thought as i sit atop,

Stranded on this toilet.

"knock! knock!"

Oh my who is that!

its my mom and she has brought me...

some toys?

but I am in no need of toys,I need toilet paper!

"Well too bad we don't have any, now wipe down with your teddy, and get ready for school.

"I'm so sorry teddy!

http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/funny/poems.php?id=1067829

So we have decided that our friends just wanted to make sure that we had enough toilet paper. Thanks Guys.

The Milwaukee Art Museum

When we moved here to Wisconsin I did a google image search for Milwaukee to see what would come up, half the images that appeared were of this crazy looking white building off the lake shore. Latter I found out that that was the Milwaukee Art Museum famous for it's Spanish inspired architecture and the wings on the building that move during the day.

So we really weren't ever planning on going to the art museum, not that we don't like art just that we thought it would be too expensive for our meager med school budget. This last Wednesday though Brad got off school early after his test and we decided to go explore out new city. After walking down the lake front for a while I had to take a phone call for work, while on the phone Brad got restless and walked over to the Art Museum and decided to go inside to see how much it really cost. Come to find out it was FREE Wednesday for Milwaukee residents. So we were fortunate enough to be inside this inspiring architectural feat and also see the wide selection of artwork that they have there. For anyone that also happens upon the art museum we would suggest going over to the Sensory Overload collection they have some displays that are really intriguing and just plain cool. Here are some pics we took ourselves of the museum.

The fountains out front.

The wings.

The back.

The hallway to the maze of galleries.

Beautiful picture spot.

This amazingly cool piece in the front lobby.

Looking up from the center of the lobby.

Tag! I'm It!

Four random things I love about my husband:
1. How much he loves me
2. How he giggles when I tickle him
3. His ability to make so many friends
4. His dedication to school and his future career as a Doctor

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Traffic Engineer
2. Teachers Assistant
3. Sign Holder
4. Lifeguard

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Just Like Heaven
2. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
3. Fiddler on the Roof
4. Enchanted

Four TV shows I watch (we haven't had TV for a long time but we got a special offer for free cable for a month when we moved here and this is what I have watch):
1. The Olympics
2. Any show on HGTV
3. Scrubs
4. MASH

Four places I have been:
1. Milwaukee, WI
2. Ketchikan, AK
3. San Fransisco, CA
4. Provo, UT

Four of my favorite foods:
1. CHOCOLATE
2. Gelato
3. Panda Express Orange Chicken
4. I also agree with Rachel, anything I don't have to cook!

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Norway
2. Denmark (especially as Brad is trying to teach me Danish again)
3. New Zealand
4. Jerusalem

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Spring Break (Brad actually gets one this year)
2. The BYU football season, Go Cougs!
3. Finding all the cool things to do in Milwaukee
4. Making lots of new friends

Four People I tag:Robyn Larson, Chelsea Beauchamp, Krista McOmber, Megan Schow

Pikes Lake

We wanted to go hiking for Labor Day, since it was a free day off. We picked Pikes Lake for two reasons; first, it reminded us of Pikes Peak in Colorado and second, it is the second tallest point in southeast Wisconsin. Well this was described as a day hike and it really was just a day hike, we hiked from the parking lot on one side of the park, to the lake, then detoured out off the park accross the highway to the local BP gas station to buy batteries for our camera, then back into the park and up to the peak. Now I should clarify that when they call this peak they really mean a hill or rather a slight incline in elevation. I wouldn't have known we were "so high up" except they had an oberservation tower marking the top. So really the most out of breath I got was climbing the elevation tower stairs. Though I would have to say it was a pretty nice view from the top, and even better we read in the fall with all the colors. So because we didn't have batteries for our camera for half the time we didn't get too many pics, but here is a little peak of what Wisconsin Parks are like.

Lots of Trees

Some Wetlands

The observation tower

And the view

This adventure has been brought to you by the color GREEN. (We are finding a lot of that in Wisconsin)