Writing to reach you

These first two pictures are for my mother:
They are from the BYU ball, way back in April. Ooops.

Also way back forever ago, Kyler turned 25. Does turning 25 mean you have to start acting like an adult? Or is that 30? 40? 50? 100? I'm hoping for the latter, myself.

This is the cake I made him, completely from scratch. My aunt sent me the pecans from Texas, and boy were they good.

For Memorial Day, Liz, Jake, Kyler and I went up the canyon for a picnic and hike. We ended up not going quite so far up as we initially planned because... it was snowing. But we found a warmer (lower in elevation) place for the picnic.

We found a cave, too, but since we didn't have flashlights on us, the exploration ended here. Pity.

Kyler and I by the stream. Nice cold water.

Also, I'm a good tissue TA. Still. Even though I'm not actually TAing anymore (sad!). The reason I say I'm still a good TA is this:
We have been doing some experimentation/quality control with our staining procedure, and so we've accumulated three different procedures and we decided to test which one was the best stain. This meant we had to have slides to stain. We could have made our own, but we had some random slides on hand that were made at an affiliated company in error, so why not use them? However, we didn't know what tissue was on these slides. After I finished the staining and everything, I decided to try my expert hand at identifying the tissue. And by expert, I really mean novice. So, I inspect the slides I stained... and I reach my conclusion. It was based on the epithelium I saw (stratified squamous) and the glandular tissue (sebaceous glands and a few that looked like sweat glands), mostly. My conclusion: skin. Thin skin, more specifically, in case you cared.
So, I tried to see if I could figure out what it was for real, see if I was right. I asked around and got my answer: skin! You heard me, I was correct! I feel so successful!
Being a TA during your undergrad kind of means nothing... I need to be a certified pathologist to be taken seriously.

Two more things. First, soccer. World Cup is great, I'm mildly obbessed. I'm currently adding up points and saying things like "well, if Uruguay and Mexico tie, then France can't go on, even if they win" and "if Algeria beats the US and Slovenia beats England, those two teams will go on." Stuff like that. Also, I had to buy new soccer cleats, and I'm still a little in mourning. It all happened because I actually played midfield for one half of a game. After that, the Diadoras just weren't the same. And.... my soccer team has officially won a game! Yay

Second, I am so glad that we have the Pope and the Vatican to tell us this.