Entering the busy season

The end of the year is usually a pretty busy time of year for me. Normally I’m trying to get the last of the x-ray units tested before heading into the holidays. Add school into the mix and busy turns into crazy.

Four mammography units, 3 CT scanners, 1 RF room, 1 x-ray room and 1 bone density unit left to test. There’s also a ton of other miscellaneous work stuff that needs doing in between all that.

On the school side, one project for bioengineering class and tests/homework/project for stats class.

Top it off with trying to get my research work going again.

I’ll be glad when the end of the semester rolls around.

Cupcake Camp Charleston photobooth

Jason Layne ran an interactive photobooth off in a side room at Cupcake Camp. It’s a rare occasion that I get captured on the other side of the camera, and even more rare that I do it voluntarily. It seemed like a fun thing to do and this is what happened.

Cupcake Camp Charleston 2011

Yesterday’s Cupcake Camp Charleston was another great success judging by the number of people that came and the number of cupcake bakers. The number and variety of cupcakes seemed almost endless, with some very creative cupcakes.

This year’s Cupcake Camp was also a fundraiser for Pattison’s Academy, a school for children with multiple disabilities.

I didn’t have too many cupcakes, but the ones I did have were all really good. Would have liked to try them all, but that probably wouldn’t have been too healthy for me.

There were clearly people who had been to last year’s Cupcake Camp. Not content with a mere paper plate, they were the ones that brought their own boxes and large containers to hold their cupcake haul.

You might think being a Cupcake Camp judge would be pretty awesome, but after looking at all the cupcakes they have to sample, I’m thinking maybe not so much (although I still probably wouldn’t say no).

Judging table

Also present was Coastal Coffee Roasters, roasting up some beans and serving some freshly roasted and ground coffees for people to try out.

Another good time was had at this year’s Cupcake Camp Charleston. Next up in April is Cupcake Camp Summerville, in case you haven’t had enough cupcakes yet. That will probably be enough time for people to recover from this year’s cupcake binge.

Charleston Eats: La Fontana

Zuppa di Pesce

Zuppa di Pesce

It’s good to see La Fontana and Chef Gary return to West Ashley. The new La Fontana is a slightly smaller place (a former Pizza Hut) than the old location (where Grindz Burgers and Brew currently is) but it has a nice cozy atmosphere, friendly wait staff, and great food.

A non-stop 5k!

Decided to head out for an early morning run today. It was a little on the cool side, around 10°C or so I think, so getting started was a little rough. Felt pretty good once I got going though.

The out-and-back from the house up to the main road just happens to be pretty close to 1.5 miles and doing it twice is just a hair over 5k. And that’s what I did today, without any stops. According to RunKeeper it was 5.1 km in a little bit under 32 minutes. Kept it at a slightly slower pace but after I finished, I felt like I could have pretty easily done it at a faster pace and done it in under 30 minutes. Next time.

With “winter” coming, I’m going to have to get some new gear for the cooler weather.