Indian Cave State Park

Hey everyone! Mara and I got a chance to get out for a weekend. Mara has been studying really hard, and had a week coming up without any tests, so we set up a camping getaway with Nate, Tim & Allison. Nate suggested Indian Cave State Park in Shubert, NE, and it was perfect! The weather was excellent (83F during the day, 60F at night), and the trails were just what we needed. We went up and down a dozen or so large bluffs alongside the Missouri River, and hiked probably close to 10 miles.

We were all a little hungry when we got back, but after a quick nap, everyone was up and ready to go again. We had epic games of bocce ball, and plenty of refreshments...:)
Tim and Nate were, as always, spectacles. First, Tim demonstrated his self-taught samurai skills:


After our hike, we needed to cut some logs down to size so we could burn them. Tim had some issues, so Nate took over...
(I Fixed The Sound Issue. Does Anyone Have More Fun Than Us?)

Despite all this fun, Mara still found time to study anatomy...


















She also downloaded some Histology & Anatomy lectures to her MP3 player so the 4.5 hour drive was filled with descriptions of the brachial plexus, arteries & innervations of arm & shoulder muscles, and cellular landmarks of leukocytes. How Exciting! I think we won the battle of "Nerdiest Car On The Road" this weekend!

A Little Piece of Milwaukee Delivered To Our Front Door

As many of you know, Mara and I have been eating a lot of Indian cuisine in the last 2 years or so, especially North Indian.

One of our favorite grocery stores was a little Indian Grocery & Spices store near Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee. We've been craving Indian food since we moved here. On our way down from Milwaukee we took a different path and ended up driving through Fairfield, IA. To our surprise, they have a Maharishi University, and have 3 Indian restaurants in a podunk little town in IA! A couple of weekends ago we took the 2 hours drive and ate at one. It was really good, and it satisfied our craving at the time, but not worth the 4 hour round trip.

We finally broke down and went to the Indian Grocery store's website (found at the top of our blog) where you can order prepackaged food you just boil and eat! If you order $70 worth, you get free UPS shipping too! The free shipping is nice because our order came to 27 pounds!

We ordered it Thursday, it shipped Friday, and it arrived here today:







This should last us quite a while!

Can you tell I'm happy?!?!?










Since they are only about $2/dinner, we got enough to feed us for quite a while for $70.
We were so happy to have it we had some tonight for supper. I had the Channa Masala, Mara had the Paneer Tika Masala, and we spit a Lemon Rice, and a Masala Rice. YUM!!!

If you ever want to try some, just come and visit and let us know!

The Many Talents of Linus

Linus demonstrated yet another talent that wouldn't help him in the realm of Natural Selection. Apparently he is such a die-hard peanut butter fan that in order to get to the sweet nectar at the bottom, he tries to dislocate his jaw to get his tongue all the way down. Luckily he has a tongue like a hummingbird and he can reach the bottom.

Of course we were taking a break so we got it all on video. Hope you enjoy!

Stuffed peppers!

Awesome!!! Especially when the weather is chilly, high was only 65 today. Since school is BUSY and I don't do much outside of school, today's post is our stuffed pepper recipe (serves 4):

• 4 Medium yellow, red, orange, or green peppers (we like orange the best)
• 1lb lean ground beef (the leaner the better, or drain the grease)
• 2 cups dry Wild rice mix (this adds a nice nutty texture)
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can diced seasoned tomatoes
• 1 can corn
• 1 can black beans
• 1 egg (or eggbeaters)
• Grated cheese (we like the premixed varieties)
• Salt/Pepper/Garlic to taste

Cut the tops off the peppers, clean out the seeds, boil until tender, drain, and set aside. Brown the beef and set aside. Prepare rice according to package. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Once rice, beef, and peppers are ready, open the cans, drain the corn, beans, and diced tomatoes (if you don't the stuffing will be runny). Mix beef, rice, paste, diced tomatoes, corn, beans, and egg. Stuff as much as you can in the peppers and place in a glass baking dish (foiled lined makes for easier clean up). Put the extra stuffing in another baking dish, place in oven for ~30 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle stuffed peppers and stuffing with cheese and cook until melted (2-5 minutes). Remove from oven and enjoy!

If you see Daniel Bacon...

...wish him a happy 60th birthday! This picture is from the 5k day we did in April, as you can see he's keeping young! Happy birthday dad, wish we could have been there.

And, Happy Grandparent's Day! (His first, and mom's, too!)

No Squirrel Is Safe

Well, Lucy took her hate for squirrels to a whole nother level.
They used to be safe when they went up the tree, but now Lucy is mastering tree climbing...


As you can see, Linus has more of a "spotter" role, and probably won't be climbing any trees soon.

Painting Your Soul

I was just skimming CNN's technology & science section and I came across an AWESOME article of a scientist/artist who will take your DNA fingerprint and put it on canvas! How cool is that?!? OK, you might not think it's that cool, but 2 science nerds couldn't ask for anything more!

Check these out:




It would be so cool to have your DNA hanging above your bed!
Not only is it orange, but it even has the appropriate molecular weight markers on the ends! Every scientist knows you have to have standards and controls... :)
This is an even COOLER idea!
You can put you and your spouse's DNA next to each other! You can have them individual or have them emphasize areas that are similar.

This is just too nerdy to pass up!


While this is really cool, it will have to wait a while. The company that does it, DNA11, charges $400 for an 18"x24" of just one person's DNA, and the 24"x72" of both of our DNA is about $1000.
It's pretty simple how they do it. If you've ever seen a CSI episode, or been implemented in a crime where they had DNA evidence, it should be familiar. They send you a kit that contains a Q-Tip you swab your mouth with, you send it back, then they extract the DNA. They then cut it with things called restriction enzymes that cut at specific parts in the DNA, then run it on a gel that separates things by molecular weight (size). Since each person it unique, when the entire genome is looked at, there won't be any 2 alike.
Maybe in 20 years you can expect this as a birthday present from us...or maybe we'll just send you a picture of ours... :P