The mouse trap car competition

I was just reading about how my nephew won the Pinewood Derby. This reminded me of the day I won the state mouse trap car competition.

It started out like this: Show up for the school competition. I did not win. I did not come in second place. I went home. Received a call from the teacher. Second place person had dropped out. Could I go to the state championship? Yes, I would get school off. My dad made some major upgrades to the car. Went to BYU for competition. Only girl there. Everyone laughed at my car. My mom was embarrassed to be seen with me and my "loser" car. Had to stand in the corner alone while she pretended not to know me :). Race began. Half of the cars were disqualified because they did not meet regulation standards. One car went backwards. My car won. My mom and I were in complete shock. Actually, everyone was in complete shock. Gave the nerds who scoffed earlier a smirk. Went back to school. Thought I was cool. Was absolutely humiliated when not just my involvement but my success at the event was announced over the loud speaker. Everyone found out I was not so cool. I think this may have pushed me into nerdiness. At least my dad was quite elated with his success :) Future: look for me LARPing about the neighborhood.

For the record, the Pinewood Derby and the mouse trap car race are not at all the same thing. For starters, everyone loves the Pinewood Derby while the other, well, there's a smaller crowd out for that...
Fortunately, my nephew looked ecstatic in his pinewood derby photos and I have by now realized that nerds can be cool too :)

The Circus!

It was a day of two firsts, my first circus and my first pair of sweats (well, first pair since fourth grade anyways).

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to join the circus. I have no idea why-I'd never even been-but I dreamed of running off and becoming a trapeze artist. As you can imagine, when we finally went (I was in high school), I was nothing short of ecstatic! I even wore my new blue capri sweat pants (which, to this day, mystifies me almost as much as the lady hanging by her hair).
My experience under the Big Top (of the Delta Center) left quite the impression on me. It inspired me to create two new goals. 1: ride an elephant, and 2: get up on a trapeze.

To be honest, these goals proved harder to accomplish than I had anticipated. First, in an attempt to stop animal cruelty, people had shut down the elephant rides at Hogle Zoo years ago. I quickly realized that if I was going to get anywhere near the majestic beast, it would have to be in a country where PETA holds less sway. (Hence my desire to visit Thailand)

Second-it turns out the circus is a tight knit community and they are not exactly recruiting new members, and where else was I going to get on a trapeze??

So I did what I could. I took gymnastics and while it was amazingly fun and fab, it was not quite the same thing. (Not to mention, my lack of anything resembling arm strength proved to be a bit of a hindrance. Translation- I could barely lug my body up on the parallel bars even with my teacher shoving me from the ground). All in all, I started to wonder if I was really made for the trapeze.

Well, imagine my delight when E found a life-long learning class called Aerial Silks and Trapeze!! I don't have to tell you that I signed up before I even read the description. It proved to be one of the most marvelous things I have ever done! In fact, I think I have begun a life-long love affair with the trapeze and aerial silks!

I was initially concerned that I would not be able to do anything (the weak arms again), but, in our five session class, we learned quite a bit.

Here are some photos-courtesy of L and O. They were kind enough to come to my "recital" as I was fairly desperate to capture these moves permanently!

Wish I could go back to 7th grade gym and climb the rope now!
I don't think I could walk for several days after this-been a little too long since ballet class

I look quite pleased with myself, and, I'll admit, I was :)
Made it up, which proved to be quite a feat
Swinging around, hanging on for dear life




My crowning glory


I think even the great Vivacamente himself would be proud! (Now all I need is for O to turn into a homicidal clown and my story will be complete)
Look for me at Ringling Bros 2027!

A tip from a cleaning chemist

So, everyone keeps asking what I do all day at work.

Let me rephrase that-no one ever asks me what I do all day at work. However, you really ought to because I have the most phenomenally interesting job ever!
And to prove that, I thought I would attempt to imbue in you all a little love for the magic of chemistry

So today-something practical- how to clean your glass shower door with chemistry, not work :)

Fill a spray bottle with vinegar.
Thoroughly spray the shower door.
Let the vinegar sit for a period (a few min or sometimes I leave it there for an hour).
Wipe off the door using a sponge and plenty of water.
When it dries, it should be nicely clean and clear. If the door has quite a bit of build-up, you may need to do this twice.
(you can also soak a rag in vinegar and leave it hanging on the faucet overnight to clean off any calcium there)

I don't want to disappoint you, but this is not magic at all.

The hard water stains on the door are calcium carbonate, which is not soluble in water. Calcium carbonate will however react with vinegar (dilute acetic acid-just image how fast this would be with concentrated!) to form carbon dioxide and calcium acetate-which readily dissolves in water.

CaCO3 + 2CH3COOH = CO2 g + H2O + Ca(CH3COO)2

Voila-you have a clean shower door!

The APS at Argonne National Lab

I just found these photos and thought they were really fun

My trip to the APS (advanced photon source) in Chicago (March 2010)

To visit the APS you submit a proposal describing your intended research. Once approved, you pay for your travel and lodging and can use the facilities free of charge. This source provides the brightest x ray beams in the western hemisphere (the electrons are accelerated to 7 billion eV, traveling at >99.999999% the speed of light or 186,000 miles/second!) The cost to generate these photons would be beyond the price any private group could afford so there are a few government run labs around the world that researchers can use.

The photons are generated in a ring that is 1 kilometer in diameter that is divided into sectors and there are little stations (see blue doors below) set up for different experiments. There are adult sized tricycles all along the wall to help you get around to different stations faster-they were quite the highlight of the trip!



It was an interesting experience to say the least-I was rather ill (bad timing!) and we had to run around the clock from Tuesday at 8 am to Sunday at noon so it was a loooooooong week (one I would not mind never repeating). Because time is so hard to get-you don't waste it, you use every minute! It was fascinating and, though the pics don't do it justice, I thought you would all like to see what it looked like inside.



The ring is a huge warehousy type of building-like a Scientific Cosco. No windows in the inner circle and the lights are the same all day and night (no sense of time except at noon when everyone power-walks around the ring-imagine the hallway above filled with men with 70's mustaches-not joking about the 70's fashion!)

Here I am riding around at 3 am (this was rather entertaining and I'm thinking about getting one of these for leisure rides around Provo)


As you walk (or preferably ride) around the ring you see the blue doors-different beam lines set up for different experiments

the beam actually travels to one of the chambers through the silver pipe-lucky we weren't killed :)



getting closer

Inside the blue doors! In the maybe 5 x 5 foot room you set up your stuff, then have to press like 10 buttons (one on each wall to make sure you have not missed a person hiding on the floor and accidentally close them inside) before the doors will close, the safety will come off, and you can actually get the beam into the chamber. Additionally, while you close the doors, a warning elevator type voice repeats loudly over and over again some warning about the doors closing, once again, to hopefully warn any stragglers to get out. (unfortunately, the only way you would get locked in there is if you had been tied up and shoved in, in which case the warnings would not really help you). Fortunately, we all made it out and our DNA was not fried. (they are actually very safe there and there was never any question of this happening-you are hardly allowed to breathe without clearance-I had to take a test before I was authorized to plug in my computer-I never got clearance to turn on/off lights though.)

back outside the doors, we made our little home here-we would switch samples every 30-60 min and then control everything from the computers.





here I am frantically pelletizing samples at 2 am-apparently rather cold in the lab.

Well-in case you never visit Argonne, this little tour may suffice!

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

I may have tendonitis from playing cards too much. Alternatively, I may have a cracked bone. Either way, I am now wearing a medically approved rollerblading wrist guard which is really quite mortifying.

Halloween Part 1

The first week of October we decided to attend a Halloween park in Logan, complete with animals, a train, and more activities than you could possibly survive-here are a few

First off we went through the corn maze (M and I having a grand old time)

This, however, did not last long as Mom, peering about for workers, started running for dear life through the rows-specifically going against about 80 posted signs-to the entrance, and yelling at us all to do the same. (apparently she did not have high hopes for us completing the 500 acre headless horseman corn maze)

Next we watched as Dad, attempting to rope some steers (horns taped to a chair), 

ended up roping himself.  

M just begged me to take this pic

Several of us participated in sliding down the mountain in a flour sack, crashing into a pile of straw at the end.  We watched as child after child flew down, bounced off the straw, and bounded up the hill.  We thought it looked pretty fun and perfectly save so we hopped in line.  As my turn came around, I sat on the bag and off I went.  20 sec later, drowning in straw, I realized I had miscalculated some things, including the fact that weight has some effect on your landing.

We finished off our day-o-fun with an in-the-dark maze-has there ever been a worse idea?  Yes, lets take a pitch dark room, cover up the exits, and create a maze, not with soft cushions and padded walls, but with metal lawn ornaments and tables etc.  We could not see a thing, our phones could not even provide any adequate amount of light.  Whenever someone made it to the exit and opened the door, we would all start running like little crazed mice in that direction, hoping to make as much progress as possible before once again being left in the dark.  We eventually made it out, after F ran into a light fixture poking out of the wall that could have cracked his head open, and all the rest of us were banged up from hitting tables and such.  That was  a moment of pure relief.  

That was the start of our Halloween Season, which only got better...

Some wise words

There are some things you just should not do if you ever want to sleep again 

that includes watching movies on the FearNet TV station (pretty soon I'll be like P and have to get rid of my TV)

Soon I will post about happier things, including a Bachelorette Bash In Vegas with the Earl of Pleasure