Pumpkin Pi

What a weekend! We decided to head up to Los Alamos to visit Nate's mom for a little while. It had been quite some time since we'd been up, so it would be good to visit again. Los Alamos is such a neat town - you'd be hard pressed to find another one as unique. It's jam-packed with quirky scientist-types...in fact, most everyone in town is affiliated with the labs in some manner. Add to this unusual demography the breathtaking mountain setting and it just feels like my ideal place. Now if only they had a roller coaster...

We headed up on Saturday, meeting Nate's mom in Santa Fe for lunch. Unfortunately on her way to meet us, she got rear-ended by a distracted twenty-something. His car was in much worse shape than hers, though, so she really lucked out. After a mediocre lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe, we headed over to the mall to do some shopping. As I'd discovered last weekend when we were in Chicago, Nate is the most incredible shopper! Personally, I really hate clothes shopping (as is evidenced by my glut of jeans and coaster shirts), but Nate goes around picking out just the right outfits with a discerning eye, and he always seems to know what looks just right (whereas I usually don't have an opinion...if it fits, I'm happy). Have I mentioned he also likes to cook and do laundry? I really have a gem in Nate! Well, we eventually found a suit for my real estate endeavors and a nice sweater. Then we went to Lens Crafters and got Nate a new pair of glasses - hopefully he'll like them!

That night, we headed over to Fuller Lodge (where we were married!) and saw the annual pumpkin glow. There were so many amazing designs, and many were so intricate I was convinced people from the lab had taken a laser to them. There were a few with a simple "pi" symbol etched into them, indicating pumpkin pie. Haha. I just love this geeky town! Inside the lodge, a band of scientists were rocking out to music of the 60's, and people in costumes gallavanted around. We stuck around for the costume contest, watching some pharaohs, a family of plants, and Miss Piggy (whom I am convinced was merely making a statement about the Red Hat Ladies - she was wearing one such hat and had a pig nose on) all won prizes. It was quite a scene! Next year, we're definitely going as Hans and Franz...maybe we'll even throw an SNL party and require people to dress up as their favorite characters! Good times!

Sunday we headed over to Bandelier National Monument. We were going to take one of the campground trails, but it was washed out, so instead we took the falls trail. Nate and I had attempted this one before I moved out here, and I was huffing and puffing by the half way mark. It was too dark at the time to make it to the end, and I was SO grateful. Either I was horribly out of shape or, as I suspect, I was suffering from the altitude, as per usual. This time, however, we hiked the whole way down to the Rio Grande, which was 2.5 miles one way and a 700 foot descent, and back again and I felt no impact whatsoever! It was awesome! I know I need to get out and hike more, but I was so glad my sedentary workstyle these days hasn't hindered my ability. There are so many great hikes out here, and I should really start doing them!

That brings us to today...back to work again! Luckily it's been a rather cush day of prepping nobutos for DNA extractions. (What language was that?) I guess I should get back to some data entry, though, before it gets too late!