Met with my family for dinner at a “steak and potatoes” joint  called Haab’s tonight. It’s  stuck  in the 1950s, it serves rumaki as an appetizer, the happy  hour   (discounted  drinks and  apps, including  rumaki) can’t  be beat except by the exceptional  service of the wait  staff.

I sat by my 18 year  old niece  Anabel. She was valedictorian  of her high  school  class, and won a full scholarship  based  on her athletic  AND academic  mojo. So  I struck  up a conversation  with  her about…chemistry! I’ve  been  trying  to brush up on the names of chemical  elements  and  their  symbols  because  of  my “trivial  pursuits.”

She took enough AP high  school  chemistry   (and did well enough  in it) to earn  college  credit. She’s  in her  first  year  of college now.

I shared  a recent chemistry  tournament  question  with her that  wanted  the names of the two easternmost  U.S.  capital cities that can be spelled  entirely with symbols for elements.

I think we would have  teamed up  well with my knowledge  of capital  names  – combined  with her chemistry  knowledge   (but really who  knows what  would  happen in a high stakes tournament  setting).

I learned  tonight  that  both  of us like the names of the elements  Oganesson and Darmstadtium. And I told her Rhodium is where  Rhoda Morganstern was derived. She was  way too young to get  the Mary  Tyler  Moore  reference, but it made her mother chuckle!

I’m  very  proud  to have such a smart (and goofy) young woman as a relation! We are both such…dorks! The apple  doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I am going  to  continue  with  my  quest  to make the Periodic  Table  my bitch! As Thorium is my witness ( is that element  named for Thor?)

Ahem!