Much Needed Weekend

I had a very nice relaxing weekend. And a great day at work on Friday. I've gotten into a rhythm at work where I can basically predict what I'll be doing. I've spent almost all my time working with Judy who will be my project advisor over the summer. At this point we're spending a lot of time optimizing and preparing for the summer. Her project and mine are very interrelated, so we're basically working on both together. It's very exciting! I've got RNA isolation down to a science (no pun intended- well, maybe) and this week Judy is teaching me how to do an ELISA. I've done a few before, but I'm not very good at them. This will give me good practice on that.

Over the weekend, Daniel and I did some serious planting. We planted some flowers and a whole vegetable garden. Daniel has been absolutely dying to start planting the veggies in our backyard, but I convinced him that it was still a little early. The seed packets say May-July, so I want to wait a few more weeks. We planted them in those eggshell things and put them in the guest room until it warms up some more. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately! 60s and 70s every day. Although the forecast calls for a solid week of rain. I don't even care, because it's spring! Everything is blooming, there are flowers and blossoms everywhere. There are cherry trees are covered with the most beautiful white blossoms. And the flowers that we planted last weekend are actually sprouting! After a week, we can see a tiny little green stem poking up from the soil. I'm so excited because I was so skeptical that anything would actually come out of it. I also spent the weekend on the usual cleaning, homework, grocery shopping, etc.

On Saturday night Daniel took me out on a date :-) We went to my new FAVORITE restaurant, Hapa, for some delicious sushi before going to the opera. DU's opera program was putting on The Magic Flute. It was really interesting to see the difference between DU's production and the one we saw in France. Obviously, the one in France was a professional production and done entirely in German with French subtitles. The students sang in German, but the dialog was in English. Overall, I was still pretty impressed. I knew some of the students because I was in women's choir with them freshman and sophomore years. And Daniel knew a bunch of the cast too just from classes together. The orchestra was also really incredible.

Oh, and Jackson turned one year old this weekend! He's not a puppy anymore :-( But he's still a puppy to me. I think he likes the warmer weather too. He spends a lot of time laying in the shade waiting for a squirrel to come into the yard so he can chase it. He looks so funny stalking squirrels. Daniel and I made some more progress wedding planning this weekend. After a conversation with his parents, he is finally opening up to the idea of having the ceremony at a church. Though neither of us are really excited about Cross in the Desert, we are considering it. It's not a beautiful church, but it obviously has a lot of meaning to us. We have also talked about La Casa de Cristo. I'm glad Daniel is becoming less specific about what he wants. I was starting to feel a little pushed aside by his long list of requirements. I definitely don't need the wedding to be "all about me," but I don't want it to be "all about Daniel" either! So he has opened up to some compromise lately. Daniel's mom is going to check out a place that we are both excited about for the reception. It's a garden near the 51 and Bell. Lots of people have weddings there and it looks really beautiful. They have an open house on Tuesday nights, so Julie is going to go and look at it.

I have had a very productive day so far. Class, got some homework done, worked out for a little bit, lunch, and got some reading done. This week I have two tests, one of which is my first anatomy practical. So I guess I should get off the computer and study for that.