Soufflé - FAIL

A few weeks ago, Joyce posted a link to the fail blog. That site cracks me up! And it also reminded me to post about a recent FAIL of my own.

Perhaps I was high from my recent tres leches cake triumph. Perhaps I was suffering from delusions of culinary grandeur. Whatever it was, my apricot soufflés were a massive blow to the ego.

Observe: beautiful, fluffy, perky soufflés

Then, ten minutes later: sad, deflated shells of their former glory

The original straight-out-of-the-oven creations were actually much fuller than the first picture captures. They had already started sinking so quickly I grabbed the camera to document their slow demise... At least I had no guests to witness my shame. (But then I'm now posting it on my public blog so... Whatever.)

If any of you cooking whiz kids knows the secret behind non-deflating soufflés, I'm all ears...

Know What's Beautiful?

Attending a scientific talk given by your friend when he manages to drop the words "shit" and "butt ugly" into a seminar room full of profs and grad students. It wouldn't be a Gunther talk without that kind of authenticity. :)

Since he's kidnapped occupied with his old boss and other nerdy grad students tonight, I'm hitting the mall and buying two pairs of Levi 501's - long and skinny - for him. He already got the new boots yesterday. By the time he flies back to Madrid tomorrow, his supplies should be well stocked for another couple of years.


And on a completely different note, I've managed to neglect this blog for 3 weeks now. So sorry. We've been inundated with guests and parties. It will be my mission in life to complete some mass back-logs in the next few days. Patience, grasshopper.

Greg's 15 Minutes of Geek Fame

Remember when Greg had pro pictures taken for work?

Well, his photo, along with those of several other coworkers, made it into the new company booklet that will be distributed at meetings and conferences. His cute, little face will be making the rounds all over the U.S.!

And that same photo is also going to run in a full-page ad in the Journal of Toxicology!

Click on the image to see a larger version.
And sorry for the censorship.
It's not like it'd be hard to track down this ad or the company
but had to do it for some semblance of retaining privacy.

Is it ridiculous that I'm so excited?

It is the journal used by the bulk of customers in the forensic market, but honestly, how many people are we talking about here? When you think about the tiny fraction of a fraction of people in this world who are scientists and then how many of those actually read the journals and then how many of them actually read this particular journal... We're talking about a teeny-tiny population, but STILL! This means his cute, little face is going global, baby! :)

Their Baby & Ours

They could be twins, right?

Lani keeping a watchful eye on the strange squirmy thing

On Saturday I prepared dinner for us and our friends Claus & Morgan - enchiladas and tres leches cake. That's right, tres leches cake. And it was mmm-mmm-good if I do say so myself. As usual, we had a great time with them and their little August. He's such a flirt, shooting us huge smiles and blowing bubbles for us all night long. I could just eat him!

But I won't.

Sadly, we'll soon be missing these evenings of good food, wine and discussion. Claus & Morgan, our only set of friends with whom we regularly rotate dinners, are moving to San Diego in three weeks . Claus has a new job at UCLA, and Morgan's parents live in SD so we understand the appeal. But it's still very sad. We've been good friends ever since they moved into the apartment next to ours on Far West three years ago and our dinner tradition began. We're really going to miss them, the semi-drunken debates and the culinary fun. :(

But I'll stop being selfish just long enough to wish them the best of luck in this new adventure. They will be greatly missed and will always have a place to stay when they come back to visit.

Ok, back to being selfish... So far that's two things I do not like about Austin. 1) The humidity, and 2) the constant transition of friends. Being a college town and the fact that we've met most of our friends through UT, we're constantly having to say good-bye. It's always hard. And always leaves us with a little hole for a while. But I guess if I'm looking on the bright side, that also means that we have new places to visit and stay throughout the U.S. and, really, the world.

So, Claus & Morgan, we'll give you some time to settle in, but don't be surprised by a raid from the family K sometime in the not too distant future. You've been warned.

European Championships

Gomez tried to get his attention.

Then I gave it a shot.

But in the end, Greg only had eyes for Spain.

What IS That?!?

Another downside to working in a chemistry building: the intermittent smells of death and fart.

Right now a potent waft of the latter is making its way through our labs. We have no idea where it's coming from or where it's going. We just want it to move along, never to return again.

Personally, I blame the organic kids down the hall - possibly a nasty trick but more likely some unfortunate soul forced into research requiring a sulfurous compound that not even the venting of the chemical hoods can contain. I don't know whether to hate him or pity him.

No. Pity, definitely pity. Off to steal a few breaths of fresh air...

A Dining Room! Finally!

This past week-end I dragged poor Greg out to the Four Hands warehouse sale. He was grouchy and wasn't really in the mood to fight the crowds, but guess what... Those sale prices cheered him up really quickly. What can I say? The boy does love a good bargain.

We finally have a real dining room table! Complete with 8 chairs!


Isn't it beautiful? It sure beats our crappy college buy.

Here's a look at the dining room from our stairs. The only thing missing now is a rug to go under the table.

We also bought a new coffee table!

I loved our old one, but it wasn't very functional. This one has a shelf underneath and two drawers to store our remotes. Plus, the new coffee table fills out that space much better.


Unlike the too-small old one...

We also ordered a matching end table that was supposed to fit between the couch and love seat. Unfortunately, it was somehow left out of the delivery. Looks like I'm going to have to track it down. Yay. :(

We're almost done with living room furniture now. The last item will be a TV cabinet to fit a new TV. I've stopped resisting the idea of a big set because I know it will make Greg very happy not having to squint while watching such quality programming as Hell's Kitchen and Wife Swap. ::insert rolling eyes here::

Plus, I think my 13-year-old set may be possessed. A few times I've turned it off, and the screen goes blank but the volume stays on very, very quietly. Maybe it's time to retire the poor thing. Hmmm... I see some plasma vs. LCD research in my near future.

Where the Hell is Matt?

I stole this from my friend Katie's mom's blog.
Because it just makes me very very happy. :)

World peace and cultural understanding through really crap dancing... Love it!

Greg's Birthday Week

Long over-due photos from Greg's birthday extravaganza

On Thursday, happy hour at 219 West

The Turks and Greg in his new Poland top

Janice, Dave & Glenn

Then on Saturday we had a few people over for burgers and games.
Otherwise known as the infamous mojito night...

Greg and Glenn manning the itsy-bitsy grill.
Greg's got mad burger-making skillz.

Glenn & Beth perfecting their Catch Phrase strategy

Drunk Jim, Aubrey, Lance & Brian

Greg, ready for mafia

The dudes - done with mojitos and moving on to Crown and Coke at this stage

Lance mixing super-mojitos - I blame him for my pain.

Cupcake decorating contest - Glenn samples the goods

Ugliest. Cupcakes. Ever.

Maniacal Mark

Greg declares the winners via taste-test.
Jim is deeply engrossed in the evaluation process.
Glenn just really, really wants that cupcake.

New, Pimped Out Deck

You may remember the great deck fiasco of last month. It was, in a word, horrendous. Here's a recap:

Greg in acid-resistant gloves & goggles
about to pump base solution all over our deck
and embark on an 8-hour journey into hell.

That tiny stretch of stripped deck took about an hour. Maybe more...

Still smiling, still optimistic
Or possibly stoned from chemical inhalation
Hard one to call...


It took us days to recover but when we finally did, we hired
Apex Wood Refinishing to complete the job.
Brett stripped, power-washed, and replaced a few rotting boards.

And then painted...

And the final product!

We bought the table, chairs & chaise lounges from Home Depot.
The cushions and umbrellas are from Garden Ridge.

The deck, sexified with flowers, tiki torches and colorful cushions

Ah, now this is what decks are made for...



One final image:
Proof that Greg does manly house stuff, like mowing the lawn.


Busted...