No one seems to be updating their blogs lately- myself included. There's nothing on TV and my neighbors are playing their stupid techno really loud (it's 3:30 in the morning). It really is stupid music. I don't get it, the same line repeated over and over and over again? Maybe I'm exaggerating. I am grumpy when I'm tired.

My friends and I went to see the Gounod opera Romeo et Juliette the other night.

Can I just say, even from the nosebleeds I was smitten. Romeo was amazing; I'm glad I paid the extra five dollars to rent binoculars.

I think the techno stopped. Maybe I should go to bed now... before I am tempted to buy the magic jack. The Tummy Tuck Belt people already got me.

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea." ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Today my friends and I went for afternoon tea. Tea parties are as fun for grown women as they are for little girls. We went to the Scarlet Tea Room on Green Street in Pasadena.

The next time I'm at Ross I'm going to buy a fancy hat to wear for our next tea party.

The tea service began with a sweet raspberry sorbet- "to cleanse the palate."

As part of the tea service each of us chose a different tea "infusion." Cristina chose Eve’s Temptation - An infusion of blood orange, mango & apple; for Lisa- Once Upon A Tea - An infusion of chocolate bits, vanilla, mint & a secret. I chose Really Raspberry - Raspberry, rose hips, orange peel, hibiscus, fruit blend, berry leaves & pomegranate. They were all very good, but my favorite was Eve's Temptation.

I have to admit that I liked having my own tea pot. It was fun.

It was also fun using gold tongs to handle the sugar cubes.

We enjoyed a scone...

The scone was accompanied by fresh, whipped cream, strawberry preserves, and lemon curd.

The small, dainty sandwiches were just like the ones you read about in Jane Austen novels (or if you are like me you see them in Jane Austen movies).

They varied from walnut, chicken pesto and Parmesan to fig and goat cheese, sun-dried tomato and mozzarella, to green apples and cheese, salmon and chive spread, and brie, walnut and watercress.

I don't think I need to elaborate about dessert- this picture is enough.

Just when we thought the tea service was done, the waiter came out with fresh berries and whipped cream. I LOVE whipped cream.

It was so much fun. I think the only males in the entire joint were the waiters and the pianist.

I'm totally serious about getting an outrageously fancy hat for the next time we have afternoon tea.

"This website is the brainchild of my brainchild, Ryan. It is my brain-grandchild."- Michael Scott, The Office

This semester I am working in a lab that studies Alzheimer's disease. This lab is WAY better than the last one I was in. There are no cranky, pregnant, French, wenches that take delight in making my life miserable. My boss is really cool- President Obama thinks so too- he gave her a citizen's award because she started a program that gets minority, high school students involved in scientific research.

I am taking a systems physiology class; we are currently talking about the nervous system. The professor brought some human cadaver brains for us to see.

I'm sorry if this grosses you out. (Well, not that sorry because, hey, I took pictures and posted them online). I've recently been learning to dissect mouse brains. There is a "mouse model" that parallels Alzheimer's disease in humans, so basically the mice get Alzheimer's and we learn about the disease (and hopefully develop treatments for it) by studying them. Taking the brains "out" is really creepy and gross at first. I feel guilty and like I'm going straight to hell every time I dissect out a brain.

Once the brain is out you don't really associate it with the animal that died- you run your experiments and do cool stuff with it...

... Cool stuff like fluorescently labeling a 10 micron section of brain to look for specific molecules and their interactions with other molecules within a cell.

When I held the cadaver brain in the pictures above, it was really fascinating and cool, not creepy. It would be totally different if I would have had to remove it from the cadaver- actually seeing the person it came from. I bet more people would be vegetarian if they had to butcher their own cows and chickens- it's a whole different feeling when you see the animal die. Then again, maybe it's not. A lot of people go deer and duck hunting. I'm not opposed to hunting- let me clarify- I'm not opposed to other people hunting.

I like to eat meat, but I don't want to see where it came from. I like to do cool experiments but I don't want to be the one to kill the mouse (I'll do it, I just don't want to). Maybe this makes me hypocritical, maybe not. If it does, I guess I'm okay with being a hypocrite.

What are your thoughts?