Bruins Win the Stanley Cup!!!

After a grueling 7 game series with the Vancouver Canucks, the Boston Bruins have come out victorious! They closed out the series with a brilliant 4-0 victory in Vancouver accomplishing a feat very few thought possible. The Bruins had difficulty scoring in Vancouver in games 1, 2 and 5, allowing the Canucks to sneak out a 1 goal victory in each of those three games. However, in Boston, the Bruins dominated the 'Nucks, outscoring them 17-3. Finally, though, Boston showed up with the A-game in Vancouver, and the rest is history.

Congratulations Bruins players, staff, and fans!

The Far Side of the Sun

For the first time in human history, we have seen the far side of the Sun. It seems rather remarkable, at first thought, that this is even considered a triumphant result. However, the prediction of space weather through the monitoring of solar active regions is hugely important for our technology dependent society. Also great, is that we can now track individual active regions to get a sense of how long they last and study other aspects of the active regions which can lend insight into the underlying physics of solar activity.

Here is a video released from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center describing the achievement.

Two Week Recap

Greetings. A lot has seemingly taken place over the past couple weeks and I'm just now getting a chance to take a step back and relax. I figured now was as good a time as ever to update the blog, since I'm sitting in the laundromat waiting for my clothes with very little to do. So here is a chronological ordering of the events that have taken place over the past couple weeks:

1) Started seedlings for the garden. Spring is almost (yes, almost) here and the vegetable garden provides some great pleasure... and food!

2) Passed my thesis proposal. This was a huge stress in my life since February. Most of March was spent writing my proposal, writing and re-writing... mostly re-writing. The beginning of April was the actual presentation. A quick 30-45 minute talk over a topic I had just spent the past month writing a paper about, so that wasn't too bad. However, after the talk your committee is allowed to ask you questions about whatever (generally related to your field of research), and can do so for however long. Needless to say, I survived.

3) The Dead River Oilers won the UVHL championship! Dead River (DR) is the men's league team I play for in the UVHL (the Upper Valley Hockey League), a men's A league. Great hockey, good fun. Turns out that although we finished 4th in the regular season (out of 6), we had the best team come playoffs. We won 5-2 in the championship against a solid Whalers organization.

4) Submitted my first "first author" paper. A letter to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, to be precise. The article is currently undergoing review, so I will refrain from discussing it here.

5) Mudleague hockey playoffs. This event was not so great in terms of the overall outcome. We lost in the first round against the Wiseguys, but it was a 1-0 final score. I probably had around 40 saves, I'd estimate. A good individual performance.

6) End of hockey season. Normally something I wouldn't find myself wanting to enjoy, but it was a long season and the end feels great. Last night was the last skate of the year, a UVHL pick-up skate; the last official skate before they took the ice out of Campion.

A great couple of weeks, in my opinion. Now I get to put effort into enjoy other things in life, aside from my thesis proposal and hockey. More likely than not, this will include Contra, gardening, and hiking.

The Best Tuna Melt

You heard me right. The best tuna melt. What about it? I made it, that's what. Okay, admittedly it's probably not the best tuna melt in the world. I'm sure someone, somewhere has either already thought of this same recipe or is making something far superior. Still, I'm no stranger to tuna melts and I've made my fair share of varieties, so I'll share what I've found to be the most delicious recipe I've yet come up with for a tuna melt.

Empty one can of tuna (drained) into a bowl. Instead of using Mayo, added the brine from a jar of pickled jalepenos until the tuna achieves the desired consistency (I like mine to be mushy so it packs well on the sandwich). Add a few dashes of garlic and onion powders and mix thoroughly. Slice a few pieces of (extra) sharp cheddar cheese. Spread half the tuna over one piece of Jewish Rye bread and the other half of tuna over another slice of bread (of course!). Place the cheese on top of one of the pieces of the sandwich. Place in toaster oven and toast until the bread begins to brown and the cheese is nice and melty. Remove from the toaster oven and combine the two halves. Cut in half (for style).

Simple yet super delicious. You could add some cumin to the mix, but I just haven't yet tried it with the straight jalepeno brine. I normally add it when I make the sandwich with mayo, but I don't know if it's necessary with the jalepeno brine. Tuna melts might be simple, but they are cheap, delicious meals with lots of protein. If anyone else tries this, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

New Widgets

Good news, I've finally decided to bring myself into the 21st century! Considering that I basically stopped updating my "Currently Reading" and "Recently Read" book lists after moving over to Goodreads.com, I gave in and added the bookshelf widget to my blog so that it automatically updates the blog bookshelf when I update my Goodreads.com page. Fancy, I know. Now people can finally keep up with what I'm reading and also get an insight into my opinion of the book via the rating system and, if one clicks on the book, presumably also, my review (if I wrote one).

Luxury

Here are two features at my hotel in Seattle that I am so grateful to have at my service:

A bottle opener for getting sauced in the tub:


And just in case I fall in, it is good to know help is always right at hand:



Now all I need is an French press on my nightstand... I guess I'll have to make do with what I have.

Seattle Coffee Quest

Synonymous, right? Everywhere you go in Seattle, practically, there is a cafe of some sort staring you in the face, tempting you to enter and sample it's wondrous elixir. Most of these cafes are owned by the big giants, Seattle's Best and Starbucks, and are not too much different from the everyday version of these places you find in most every moderately large town. However, sometimes you come across smaller cafes or coffee companies that you rarely, if ever, see outside of Seattle. Now, I tend to gravitate towards these smaller places for one reason: I don't particularly care for Seattle's Best or Starbucks coffee. Sure, they make delicious specialty beverages, but when it comes to a good 'ole cup of joe, they fall way short of delicious. The coffee always has that acrid, burnt coffee taste and is never palatable for more than a few minutes before your brain finally realizes that it's stupid to continue on pretending to like it. So I have a quest to find a good tasting cup of coffee in this city that isn't a specialty beverage... trust me, I already accidentally stumbled upon the "best cafe latte in Seattle", and trust me again, it was the best of my life. More on that another time.

It begs the question, then, "where is the best cup of coffee to be had in Seattle?" Thus far, I have no answer for you. The place that serves the best latte serves a drip coffee that contains a bit of flavor, but mostly just a pungent taste of grossness. Oh, and then there's the place in the Convention Center. Crap. I could barely palate the dirt that was put in my cup. Served scalding hot so that you first burn your taste buds off before you actually taste the coffee. Too bad for them I wait for my coffee to cool to a reasonable temperature; sickening. Absolutely the worst cup of coffee I've ever had in my life. No joke.

So I raise my coffee mug to you, readers of this post, as I venture forth to try and find a good cup of coffee in this coffee mad city; a task most would think simple. Think again.

UPDATE: I have not found anything spectacular (nothing close to a Dirt Cowboy quality cafe, but Seattle Coffee Works "wins" so far. Maybe at future AAS meetings in Seattle I will have to work a little more vigorously to get a superb cup of coffee.