hey. i miss you guys.

time to resurrect the dinner (b)log?!? and also sister skype dates?

i guess it would be pretty difficult to come up with what i've been eating for dinner every night since my last blog post, especially since i think that was over a month ago. instead, here are some highlights:

first: last week was philadelphia science festival, which brings together universities, research institutions, companies, and other community organizations in philadelphia to highlight science and how cool it is - and there are some pretty cool events that take place throughout the entire ten days of the festival. i went to a few: first, an event on taxidermy, where i heard a cultural historian speak about sort of the history and cultural meaning of taxidermy and then i watched a taxidermy practitioner taxidermy a chicken in front of us. really. she skinned a chicken and then stuffed it right in front of us. here's a picture:

it was awesome. here's her website if you want to take a look at her stuff - she's a rogue taxidermist (that's a real thing!) because she doesn't generally taxidermy animals into their original form but rather does stuff with it -- like creates wearable taxidermy! after that event, kevin and i went to dinner at alla spina, which was delicious - but kevin actually had the fried chicken there and i'm not sure how he did it after watching the taxidermy demonstration.

a couple other events from philadelphia science festival - we watched an improv comedy show about the history of science, which was mostly really funny, and then on friday, we went to an event titled "beer chemistry" which was all about the chemistry behind beer/food pairing and was held at yards brewery. i think i learned something, but it was also open bar, so i'm not really sure. i'll get back to you on that.

second: DC was a much better work trip than wisconsin was - thank goodness!

it was actually really cool to be able to meet with some representatives/staffers, particularly Rep. Chaka Fattah, who is the congressional rep for the 2nd congressional district of PA (e.g., half of philly - i voted for him!). here's a picture of him accepting an award from my student, veronika:

he was much more interesting to meet with than the staffer from senator toomey's office (super conservative republican senator from PA - they had fox news playing in his office waiting area while we were waiting for our meeting) -- that guy didn't have any idea why we were there or what the posters on the hill event was or what the council on undergraduate research was - which is fine, because of course they can't know everything, but also kind of was a downer after having met with Rep Fattah, who is so involved in and supportive of undergraduate research.

this weekend, i helped kevin paint his living room/kitchen on saturday (it took us like 6 hours... uggghhhh... but it looks really nice now haha) and then yesterday, i just cleaned up around the house (did laundry which i hadn't done since before leaving for wisconsin), baked (banana bread nutella whoopie pies), and then dena came over so i could help her with some wedding crafts. here's the nutella buttercream frosting, which goes in the center of the whoopie pies (no idea why i didn't take a pic of the whoopie pies themselves):

and of dena and the mess of glitter that happened while we were crafting:

our couch is REALLY sparkly now.