DIY

I finally managed to construct my last part of flat pack furniture. It took a little ingenuity on my part but hey I now have a table!

Who would have thought that high heels and a teaspoon would have such uses?

Baseball night

As I think most people know, Baseball is one of america's national sports and like the other national sports, unless someone is explaining what is happening to you it's a little confusing. Luckily at my first baseball event I was surrounded by ex-little league players that could give me the low down on what was going on!

It was a corporate sponsored event for the interns so there was food and alcohol on the company. This allowed me to drink more Bud Light and eat hot dogs!  Although I was informed that monkey nuts were the really food to eat at a baseball match. Just open them up and throw those shells on the ground! 

I'm not going to try and explain the game to you guys as I'm still not sure I followed it but it's kinda like rounders but with cricket terminology throw in! All I know is it went on for ages, in fact I didn't even stay to the end but that's another story, for another time.  As a social event it was great as you could still be involved in the game even if you were chatting about what not. 

As part of out ticket we also got $15 to spend in the gift shop. Sadly that didn't buy you much (got myself some sparkly earrings!) but it did give me the chance to try on this awesome hat...

Remember, everything is bigger in Texas!

Christening my oven

I just finished off the last of my brownies that I made earlier in the week and they were so yummy I thought I would harp back to the roots of this blog and talk about my baking!

After searching around for my baking equpiment (most bought from Walmart) and resiting buying a Kitchen Aid (only $300, this temptation is going to be hard to resist) I stumbled across, what I am now calling, Craft Mecca!  Michael's is a craft superstore that literally sells anything you can think of craft related.  Its incredible and puts Hobbycraft to shame.  I held back on my purchasing as was not sure about how good my oven would be and if I would be able to find the correct ingredients, as I like to hone my skills in the dairy and gluten free baking while I am here.  Luckily Central Market came to the rescue when it came to the ingredients and the oven is amazing, even has a light in there.  Such luxuries I do not have back in the UK, the door to our oven doesn't even stay open!

I assembled the ingredients and start to make my go-to easy bake dark chocolate brownies.

Ingredients and equipment out on my counter 

Dark Chocolate Brownies (recipe adapted from BBC good food)

Ingredients

375g Dark Chocolate

375g Soya based spread

6 large eggs

500g soft brown sugar

225g Plain gluten free flour

Method

Pre heat your oven (180C) and grease a brownie tray (not sure of the size of my tray as do not have a ruler in my flat!).  Melt the chocolate and butter together.  Can use either a bowl over water or the microwave.  I used just a saucepan on a low heat on the hob.  Leave to cool a little.

Mmmmm melted chocolate

In a large bowl, using an electric whisk, whisk together the sugar and eggs until pale in colour and a few air bubbles form.  Add the cooled chocolate and whisk some more.  Then fold in the flour, if you can sieve before adding the flour but as long as there isn't any lumps you should be fine.  Pour into the pan and then pop into the oven for about 35-40 minutes.

Finished product!

 Cut into pieces once it has cooled a little and then stuff your face!

Chasing my tail

As probably everyone who reads this knows, I'm pretty crap at keeping in contact and I really wanted to try with the blog to keep you all up to date with the comes and goings in Houston.  At the moment I feel like I need to do a little chasing my tail to keep you up to date on whats occurring this side of the pond.

Once Vicky left, sob sob, I have spent some time getting the flat up together and I almost have everything now!

My last trip to Walmart for those essentials like a hoover and a table (which is still in pieces on my front room floor as I do not have a screw driver!)

This weekend I caught up with an old friend Meghan and her boyfriend.  I knew her from my days studying in Denmark and it was odd to think the last time we saw each other was about 7 years ago.  We indulged in some local beers and some random Rock'n'Roll karaoke to top off the night.  Sunday was spend remembering that I cannot really drink the same amount I could do 7 years ago without feeling the effects pretty hard the next day!  My salvation was watching the series Once Upon A Time....awesome!

Work has continued to be quite intense, with the middle of my first projects fast approaching I am feeling the stress.  But this stress is something quite different from PhD stress.  Once I can work out the finer details as to why that is, I might blog about it! I did my first presentation to some of the other researchers in the lab and I actually felt it didn't go too badly (my fear of public speaking I think is pretty well known!).  Hopefully with all the practice I will be getting I will get better at it!

I have met some more interns and we have our first Unofficial happy hour tomorrow night, which should be fun.  Then on Friday I have a ticket to watch the Baseball which will be awesome- Vicky I can finally find out what a corndog is for you!  Also went to see This is the End with one of them last night, very amusing comedy and I would recommend it.  I think its more of an American humour thing (there was so much laughing in it) but I did enjoy certain parts of it a lot more than I thought I would.

Also, I have recently blogged for betweenarock and if you don't read that blog...mmm why not?! Head over there now and enjoy some science blogging joy. And to top it all off I christened my oven with its first baked product tonight, once I've tried it I will put a little bit about it on here.

Finally, my sister Vicky (yep there are two special ladies in my life called Vicky) sent me my birthday present early...she knows me so well. :)

TARDIS fairy lights....how amazing!

Done! Think you are all caught up.  Maybe at the weekend I will get the chance to tell you about my brownies and what it is like to go to a baseball game, watch this space!

San Antonio baby!

It seems like a lifetime ago when Vicky and I piled into the car on Friday 5th of July to head down to San Antonio, just 200 miles down the road!  To start off our road trip in true American style we got ourselves a drive-thru Starbucks and I visited a drive-thru ATM machine, oh yeah in Texas you don't even need to leave your car to do your banking these days.

To illustrate the two closest cities to Houston are hundreds of miles away!

We loaded up on snacks and Vicky got on the stereo and sorted out the party tunes and we were on our way.  There is very little to see when you are on the highway between two major cities, if it were for the amazing singalong classics that were pumping out the speakers and the sheer volume of caffeine I had consumed I am sure I would have fallen asleep (just a joke!).

Snacking on sweets during the road trip!

  Once we arrived in San Antonio we headed out for some food along the famous River Walk.  The San Antonio river cuts through the city and along part of the river they have developed it into a tourist haven!  There are tonnes of bars and restaurants and you can even take a boat tour down the river (which we did!).  It is very beautiful however, absolutely PACKED (probably as it was 4th July weekend)!  We went to one restaurant and it had a 2 hour wait!  Finally we found an establishment called the Iron Cactus which sold Mexican food and Margaritas and  had a fairly pleasant dinner which was then topped off by a truly unique boat tour of the River Walk area with an incredibly strange tour guide.  I know nothing more about the city than I did before I got on the boat, however I do know a lot about the etiquette of driving a boat tour.

View from the River Walk tour, who needs to know about the city when its just so truly beautiful

The next day we headed off early to the Alamo, for which San Antonio is famous for.  I have to admit, much like the Declaration of Independence, I had no idea about the Alamo's historical significance.  From what I can gather, mostly from a great dramatisation from the US History Channel which was played in the visitor centre, this was where a pivotal 13 day fight was lost by the Texans when they were trying to claim Independence from the Mexicans (eventually they got there).  It was a really beautiful old building and I'm glad we got there early as the crowds drew in quickly around 11am.

Vicky outside the Alamo

After the Alamo, Vicky had found a flyer for a ranch themed park just 30 minutes northwest of the city and we decided that this was the best way to spend the afternoon, and we surely were not wrong.  It was AMAZING! Enchanted Springs is pretty hard to explain this place, I have linked to their website but I feel it just doesn't do the place justice.  We arrived to be greeted by the sheriff who informs us that in the salon we would find Pistol Packing Paula doing her show.  Oh my what a show it was, if you are bored to check her out on YouTube, this lady was even on America's got Talent.  Later on she let us hold her guns and man they were heavy!

Us with Pistol Packing Paula.  Oh yeah and Vicky got her proper cowgirl on with a new accessory!

The remainder of the day included a really staged, yet amazing, stunt show, a tractor drive around the farm to see the exotic animals and wondering around this incredible place.

Some of the buildings from the Enchanted Spring's Ranch, top left is the Church (where actual weddings are preformed), top right is the Sheriffs office and the bottom picture is the salon bar.

To end off the trip at the ranch we took the bull quite literally by the horns!  Naturally this got us in the mood for some steak so headed back to San Antonio on a mission for meat!

4th of July: A truly American day

For Vicky and I the 4th of July started off with a lie-in.  I'm still trying to get used to getting into work early; most employees are there for 7-7.30am.  And also we had been having a few late nights doing with the gradual moving in process.  The lie-in was blissful.  Once up and about we started upon our celebrations of this national holiday in the only way we could think appropriate: by dressing in red, white and blue!  The first stop on our itinerary was the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.  They were holding a reading of the declaration of independance in the afternoon which included birthday cake. That definitely grabbed our attention! 

Beautiful old house

The location was beautiful, with a lovely  large house with a collection of furntiure and art from different periods of american history nessles in some wonderfully calming gardens. 

I wonder if any of them had been to Band Camp?

As we arrived we noticed some gentlemen sweating happily as they played a marching song on their whistles and drums. Impressed by the sheer level of dedication to re-enacting we wondered what else this place had in store for us. Well after passing a lady dressed as the state of liberty and a giant copy of the declaration of independance (we signed it!) I thought that would be it. But no I was wrong, around the next corner was more people dressed in period clothing and depicting different players in the war of independance. From the photo you can see that the red coat (English solider who wasn't doing the accent sadly) probably had one of he hottest outfits, why a furry bag is necessary I'm not sure but it made me kinda want one!

Heavy duty uniforms are very practical in nearly 40C heat

At 3pm another man in custome read the declaration of independance and also explained what it was. I may sound pretty native but up until that point I didn't really know that it started the war of Independance not ended it.  Poor men had to keep fight for years in those sweaty uniforms before they got their independance!  After the reading, which was surprisingly long, cake was served.

Vicky and I then headed off to Party City to find some more red white and blue things to wear for our evenings entertainment Freedom over Texas, a large concert and fireworks display.

Mmmmm America, fun how your flag has the same colours on it as the United Kingdom's flag.

After some confusion on whether or not we could take in our cooler full of beer (we couldn't) we took our seats to listen to the end of the concert (Sheryl Crow) and watch the fireworks while dressed head to toe in red white and blue and drinking a bud light. Felt pretty American right then and there!

I am connected!

After a long and tedious conversation with yet another service company, I finally have wi-fi at home.  I can not express how brilliant this feels to finally be connected without have to walk to another part of the building to steal free wifi or pop into the computer suite (yes this apartment complex has a computer suite, along with a gym and a number of swimming pools).  So I thought I would catch you guys up on what has been going down since I last blogged.

Basically LOTS has happened so to make it easier for you guys I thought I would split it up into separate blogs so you can pick and choose what you read about.  The selection I have for your reading pleasure is as follows:

• 4th of July
• Central market
• Tour of the empty flat

To give you all an insight into what is happening right this moment.  I am sat on the balcony of my flat, in a camp chair watching the sun set over the building opposite, eating sushi for dinner and drinking a nice big Gin and bitter lemon...bliss!

To follow at the weekend is the 411 on what Vicky and I got up to in San Antonio, was pretty cool to say the least.