New Apartment

I am deep cleaning our new apartment! (Which you can see more pictures of by going here). My weekends have been strange (Tuesday/Wednesday), so I spent yesterday and today scouring the place. I LOVE it. It is really vintage and cute. But the person who lived there before us must have been pretty messy. Yesterday I took apart the whole stove and found tons of food underneath, so I had to scrape that all out and de-grease all of the parts to get the burners to work properly. Even now, only two of them light without being lit with a match. Today I've been scrubbing everything with ammonia to make sure it's actually clean. Still need to do the floors.

I REALLY disliked the cupboards:

I found a blog post online talking about how to use fabric as a temporary solution for ugly cupboards and ran with it. I'll be scotch guarding them as soon as I get the chance, to help keep the fabric clean. A lot of people seemed to think this was a really gross thing to do in a kitchen, but the people who have actually done it say that if you are mindful of what you are doing, it actually doesn't get all greasy and stained. We'll see :) If it doesn't work out, I'll just buckle down and ask for permission to paint them.

This is what they are looking like as of now:

Not so bad! I would like to add knobs to them. The ones that are still ugly wood will be covered with cream fabric and then will have elastic strapped across them so they can be used as sort of bulletin boards. That's the plan, anyway.

I'm not a terribly crafty person and I've never made a real effort to interior decorate before, so I am overwhelmingly proud of Andrew and I for this. I'm really excited to see it when it's all done.

Exciting things have happened!

First. . .*drumroll*  Andrew got into the U of U's Philosophy graduate program! Somehow all of the applications he sent off to grad schools ended up getting messed up one way or another (misentered names and addresses, professors not sending their recommendation letters to all of the schools, etc). But after wading through the confusion, the U has offered one of their Masters program slots to Andrew and he will be starting up there in the fall. This is particularly exciting because one of the professors there specializes in Ancient Philosophy, which is what Andrew would like to focus on right now.

Second, we are officially moving! Not out of state, of course, but we are leaving our endearing-but-too-expensive apartment in Sugarhouse and moving into a nice one bedroom duplex a few blocks away. It has a little shared backyard, is two blocks from the TRAX station that runs right up to the U and is a 2 minute bike ride away from the Aviary. It is still within our trend of vintage-y places and should work out really well for us. Pictures pending :)

Other than that, Andrew got a raise at work, my job is currently incredibly hectic and wedding planning marches on to the beat of its own drummer. It's shaping up to be everything we've been hoping-- heartfelt and a damn good time. Sue and Will, Andrew's parents, came into town to meet up with my parents this weekend and we had several awesome meals and covered a lot of ground in terms of wedding logistics. I feel a lot better about everything now that the 6 of us have hashed out details that have been stressing me out up until now. And even though I actually worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it has been a really, really awesome weekend.

Difference between structural color and pigmentation

Bare with me. I've been typing up this HUGE document at work that tells you everything you would ever want to know about feathers, and probably more. Part of this document discusses different types of feather color in birds. So here I am, getting ready to leave work, and I look across from me and see this BEAUTIFUL example of the difference between structural and pigmentation color right before my very eyes:

The feather on the left is a turkey vulture feather, which is colored by melanin (the very same melanin that colors darker skin or freckles). As a pigment, melanin functions to protect against UV light and in birds makes their feathers more durable. The melanin pigment itself is what creates the color (blackish brown, in this case) in the feather.

The feather on the right is a macaw feather, and the blue is a 'structural color'. There actually aren't any naturally occurring blue pigments in birds. The blue is caused by only the blue wavelength of light reflecting (refracting?) off of microscopic air pockets in the structure of the feather (air pockets in the keratin to be precise--feathers are made of the same material our fingernails and hair are made out of), which reach our eyes and make the feather appear blue to us. So you can see where parts of the feather AREN'T blue, but instead are a brownish color, because for whatever reason the blue wavelength of light isn't reflecting into the camera lens at that angle. So all you are seeing is the very thin layer of melanin under the air pockets, making the feather appear brown.

Tada!

To make this a real blog post, though, (*SIGH* I GUESS so), Andrew and I worked all day, debated some politics and then had Wendy's for dinner while watching the newest Glee episode. Also, over the past couple of days I have really noticed how skinny Roman is now. Skinny and affectionate. I'm sure she is plotting to kill us. She just must first figure out how to achieve a constant supply of sustenance without us, and then we're gone. Maybe the dog is the key to it all...hmmm...

I'm up late finishing drawings with Andrew keeping me company. I am SO not a night owl anymore.

Here is what I'm currently working on:

It's displaying the brood patch that a scarlet ibis has while raising chicks. I'm slooooowly getting there.

New York

We're back from New York! What a BLAST! I'm now working on more artwork for work while watching the third season of Doctor Who after having devoured the second season yesterday night and this morning.

But back to New York. I think I can speak for Andrew and say that we had a magnificent time. It was full of phenomenal new sites, extraordinary food (including tongue, chicken's feet and oysters), excellent plays and lots and lots and lots of walking. Since I'm 3 weeks post-surgery, it forced me to really exercise my knee, which was much needed.

Some of my favorite parts of the trip that I don't have pictures of:
+Lend Me A Tenor. It's one of the funniest plays I've ever seen and it was incredibly well done (which I guess is to be expected since it was on Broadway)
+The Marina Abramovic "The Artist is Present" exhibit at the Moma. An incredibly powerful experience.
+An artist at Union Square who was selling little slips of paper with a message written on them "especially for you", and whichever one you chose was "meant for you". Mine said:
"The power and the force is with you my love...whenever things in your life get too stressful or confusing, go home and into a quiet place or room with no cell phones, no TV, no iPod and no computer. When ready, close your eyes, listen to your breath, feel your heartbeat. Listen to your breath and feel your heartbeat. In that moment, you will find peace and clarity you need * I will support you...be well."
+The BLT restaurant. Holy crap. Not only was the food amazing, but they took ALL of my silverware away after each course. I liked the sea bass best, as well as the haricot verts. I tried raw oysters (definitely not awful but, um, more of an experience) and mussels (REALLY good) and the Red Snapper looked terrifying when it was brought out. Totally awesome.
+Literally running through the middle of a pillow fight in Union Square.
+The Greek halls of the Met, where Andrew and I spent most of Saturday.
+The Donut Factory. I had a vanilla bean donut filled with blackberry jelly. Oh. MAN. Amazing!
+Having a squirrel walk right up to me, paws outstretched, and then look HORRIBLY disgruntled when I had no food to give it. New York squirrels. Geeze.

\

The rest of our photos are here: New York 2010 Photos

Fantastic weekend :) Now it's back to work!

Whew! Andrew and I are in New York right now having a BLAST. I'm exhausted, but before I go to bed I wanted to post my favorites of our engagement photo shoot with Anginet, our wedding photographer:

I've been working my butt off the past few days trying to get my illustrations finished for the aviary's new exhibit that will be opening some time at the end of the summer. I have to complete 8 total and 4 are nearly done. I had desperately hoped that I would have at least six totally done by the time we leave tomorrow afternoon, but I think that is wishful thinking. We'll see!

Here's one I'm nearly done with:
The colors aren't QUITE right for the chest and head yet (a little too fluorescent) and obviously the coloring for the chicks on the left isn't completed yet, but I'm geting close. Phew :)

Second walk

On our second walk today, I remembered my telephoto lense:

It makes me believe that maybe spring is ACTUALLY here!

And then, of course, it snows.

(Knock on wood).

First post

So, I know I beat Andrew to our blog purely by virtue of my having just MADE the blog, but it still stands:
First!

This morning we took Linus, who is looking really sleepy right now, on a walk to the grocery store and did some good urban bird watching. I'm teaching 'Birding 101' to my AVES 4th graders right now, meaning I'm learning a ton myself and teaching Andrew everything I'm learning too. We saw lesser goldfinches for the first time:

My guess is that it was a male and a female, but the male had less distinct coloring than they usually do, so hopefully the ID is right. The female was plucking fuzz from these dangly bits of the tree:

I totally forgot my telephoto lense, so the photos are a bit hard to make out, but the female is behind one of these fuzzy dangly bits, pulling the fluff out of another one. Spring is here! Nest building has begun!

And needless to say, Linus had a lovely walk as well.

It's been a busy week (looong days for both Andrew and I) and a good weekend.  Friday morning we had our Super Date engagement photo shoot with Anginet, our wedding photographer. She was SO COOL! We had a phenomenal time. We woke up to snow, which cleared to sun for just long enough to get the park portion of the shoot done, and then we had nice, diffuse lighting in the downtown library when it got a little stormy again. Anginet was really talented and we can't wait to see the photos in another week or two, when she is done editing them.

Then later that night we went to get food at a local pub with some friends as a post-birthday celebration for me, and have relaxed for the rest of the weekend.

In other news, I've been practicing origami flowers, which may or may not find a place in the wedding. They've certainly found places around our apartment, in an effort to save them from finding their way to the recycling:

Now for another three days of work, and then OFF TO NEW YORK! Woohoo!