I saw Bill Gates!

On Wednesday, Bill Gates came here to give a talk called "Giving Back: Finding the Best Way to Make A Difference."  There was a lottery for tickets, and even though I never win anything, I won a ticket!  The talk was really interesting, since it addressed an issue I've been thinking about a lot lately.  Unfortunately, he didn't give any concrete suggestions for recent or upcoming graduates.  So I went up at the end for the question and answer part to try to get his advice, but there were too many people before me and the time ran out just before my turn :(  I tried to find him afterwards to ask him in person, but my search was unsuccessful.  I guess he's a pretty busy guy.

Today I babysat again for the first time in over a month.  I really missed the little boy I've been babysitting, and it was fun to see him again today and play outside together.  Speaking of kids stuff, on Friday my boyfriend and I saw the kids' movie "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3D.  It was really good!  I definitely recommend it. 

And in camera news, I ordered a new camera and the memory card arrived on Friday, but the camera hasn't arrived yet.  I am very excited to get it, though.  Hopefully it is better than the old one!  I will be relieved to have a way to take pictures again, and then I can get back to the important business of posting pictures of things I eat.  This time it's a Panasonic, so we'll see if it is better than the Sony.

Last week my boyfriend and I went out to dinner with his uncle and his uncle's girlfriend.  We went for sushi, and it was really delicious.  Also, we had a great time spending time with them and having delicious dessert afterward.  It's really fun to have people visit, even if the visits are short.  If you're thinking of coming to visit me, you should!

Academically, our lab had a dessert bake-off a couple weeks ago.  I made chocolate chip cookies, and I wish I could post a picture of them - they were very tasty!  Other competitors were super-chocolate brownies, pear and key lime pies, cookies and cream mixture, dirt (pudding with gummies and oreos), cupcakes, a Portuguese egg custard dessert, and maybe some more that I'm forgetting.  We didn't end up voting, but I'm sure that my cookies would have won.  Right?

Our last home crew race is this Saturday, and my dad is coming to watch.  Then on Sunday, we're riding in the New York City 5 Boro Bike Tour .  It should be a fun, busy weekend!  The only problem is figuring out how to get my bike to and from New York.  But I'm sure I am up to the challenge.

And that's it for tonight!

It's so windy!

We're in New Jersey now for crew, and it's so windy!  We had a really hard time getting our boat into the dock because we kept being blown off course.  We almost crashed into another boat on our way in, which was scary.  Hopefully tomorrow will be calmer, but I'm not optimistic.

Being at races makes me feel like I really need to get a new camera.  I returned the one I got not too long ago because it was so bad, but I haven't replaced it yet.  I miss taking pictures!  Especially of things I eat.  But picture this, if you can: bananas, white cheddar rice cakes, bagels with cream cheese, and clementines.  I know that wasn't 1000 words, but hopefully they were worth a small picture :)

In other exciting news, I got a share certificate, or certificate of deposit, this week.  It gets a teeny bit more interest than my savings account, so this is pretty big news.

I guess I don't have much to say if I'm talking about my share certificate, so I'll call it a night.  Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

Today was a beautiful day!

I'm very busy with work right now, but I couldn't help commenting on what a beautiful day it was today!  The rest of the week has been and will be a pretty normal week for early April, but today it hit 90 degrees, with a lot of sun and a nice breeze.  It was perfect for taking my computer outside to do some work while sitting on a bench under a tree in a courtyard that I think of as the "Secret Garden".  It's really pretty, and I don't think many people here know it exists.  Anyway, for most of the two hours or so that I was out there, I had it all to myself.  So peaceful, and surprisingly conducive to getting work done.  I was working on figuring out which cognitive tests for executive function we're going to use, and there are more than we had originally thought.  It's probably going to come down to the Stroop test, just because we have easy access to it.  But there's another test, called the letter-number task (creative, I know), which I think might be better.  I won't bore you with the details, but I think it's a cool test.

Anyway, back to work!  We're going to New Jersey again this weekend for crew, so I won't have much time for work on the weekend.  Depending on how things go, we might have to race 4 times in 2 days! Yikes!

P.S.  I'll be happy if you leave me a comment!