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| Movin' On |
| 09.01.04 (8:35 am) [edit] |
Today we wish to mourn the passing of Mae's first blog. It was a good blog, but too freakin' slow.
So, come read my musing on my new blog. http://www.xanga.com/home.asp...
Cheers!
-M
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| Needing a personal pachaderm |
| 08.19.04 (4:55 pm) [edit] |
Wonder of wonders: I moved again! Twice in two days. When I got up yesterday morning there were wet spots on the floor in hallway and living room of the apartment in which I was living :? . Thankfully the housekeeper came by and immediately called maintainance. In the mean time I played e-mail chess with the director of Residence Life and managed to be able to move into the other room of Caitlin's New Res suite :) . And it was lucky that I did. When I went back to the apartment after work to start moving my stuff, I discovered that the few smallish wet spots had practically turned into a swamp that encompased the entire hallway, most of the living room, and a large portion of the bedroom in which I was not living. Fortunately, the room my stuff was in stayed dry. So I moved all of my stuff, the last bit of it in the midst of a massive downpour of rain, and I'm now living in New Res 212. This place is great. So clean, like a hotel. It even smells like a hotel. And best of all, I have my roommate back :) . I really didn't like being by myself. Kind of weird given that I had a single room last year.
I'm really ready for the summer research work to be over. Tilstra is getting on my nerves, and I'm having a hard time not getting snippish with her. I don't mean to, it's just sort of an involuntary response. Thank goodness I have Caitlin nearby to intervene. I just don't want to leave Tilstra on a bad note. That just wouldn't be good at all.
I'm going home tomorrow (oh joy, another upheaval of my living location) to spend the weekend with my parents and finally meet Sophie. My parents are going to take me to the State Fair, and my dad and I will hopefully establish a final set of plans for my New Res deck so that we can start building.
I'm going to go munch on Kix and find something warmer to wear; it's cold in New Res.
Bis Spater,
-M
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| One for the record books |
| 08.17.04 (5:25 pm) [edit] |
Okay, today had a bad aura. It started poorly, got a whole lot worse, and is only now starting to seem a little less like a one-day tour of the Inferno. How shall I begin...
Flashback: yesterday the RA for this section of Skinner arrived. I'd received and e-mail last week telling me that I would be sharing the apartment with said RA until I moved out. Slight problem: the RA is a guy. At other campuses I'm sure this would not be an issue, but here at conservative old Rose, male-female cohabitance is not kosher. So, we arranged that this RA (henceforth James) would try to get Caitlin and I into our New Res rooms. No biggie. I liked the idea. We figured we'd be moving over there today...
Wrong. As it turns out, there are volleyball players living in my New Res room until Sunday :x . So, after much confusion, rearrangement of plans, and a talk with the director of Residence life and the Dean (note that the director of Res Life told us not to feel pressured to leave our apartment early just because James wanted to move in), it seemed that we would be moving Caitlin to New Res, and I would be staying put....
Wrong Again. We did move Caitlin over to New Res, but I have now moved downstairs into apartment C1. James really wanted me out. I am not happy. I don't feel comfortable being down here due to my next door neighbors, and I'm terribly apprehensive due to my lack of roommate :( . Not to mention that the bathroom smells of vomit, and I want to power wash the kitchen just as a precaution. I can't wait to get out of here.
So that covered how my afternoon was not pleasant. Now for the morning. The past two nights in a row I've felt dead tired when I was about to fall asleep, and as soon as I shut my eyes I hyperventilated. So, I'm sleep-deprived and feel exhausted in general. To make things more interesting, my mental state is doing the mambo right now too. I'm realizing how terribly much I miss bio. I'm tired of the research. I want school to start. But I also want to go home. This morning's meeting with Dr. Tilstra was a high-tension situation. I was moody, and, in this state, was more opinionated and held more strongly to my points than I usually would with Tilstra (I think Caitlin was proud of me for being more bold, but I could be wrong about that). This could have be disasterous, however, as Tilstra was also in a tense mood, and was countering me more frequently than usual. I feel bad now for not showing more respect, but at the same time I feel better for having let out a bit more. We are now, however, stuck doing menial tasks for the next couple of days. And we have once again pushed back the time at which we will move all of the spectroscopic equipement into G306 (now the move should occur on Monday).
So now that I have mentioned all of the unpleasantness, let's shoot for some of the lighter side. I finally got my memory key today that I received as a sort of restitution for having a defective memory modual in my laptop that had to be replaced several weeks ago. I heard from one of my favorite teachers from high school. And I had two good rides yesterday and Sunday (just shy of 15 miles and 20 miles respectively).
I'm presently trying to figure out what I want to do next. I should make my bed, but for some reason I want to download music (two completely different concepts, I know, but hey, it's been a long day). I think I'll go brave my odorous bathroom and then try to scrounge up some food.
Hoffentlich wird Mittwoch ein schoenerer Tag sein.
-M
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| Who is the child in the lab? |
| 08.14.04 (5:28 pm) [edit] |
Today was surreal. I awoke at 4:30 AM once again to go to the lab, having fallen asleep sometime after 1:00 AM. I was really wired last night. All of the stimulating activity of my day occured between 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM, so when it came time to go to sleep, I was done for.
Anyway, back to today. I got over to Moench a bit before 6:00 only to discover that every single door into the building was locked. I ran into Tilstra (wearing her pajamas :shock: ) as I went back around toward Myers. She called security to let us in, and 20 minutes later we were in the lab. I started out with the absorbance scans, and I think Tilstra got bored, because she started running the RLS/fluorescence stuff. No biggy. I firgured she'd let me take over as soon as I was done with the UVvis. But no. She never let me take over, and because she is so freaking slow with the scan stuff, we were not finished until 7:30 (whereas we would have been done at 6:45, even inspite of the delay getting into the lab, if I had been doing it myself; better yet, we'd have been out of there by 6:30 if Caitlin were with me) :x .
So after that ordeal, I went back and did my laundry. Then on to calling home. I talked to my sister, who told me her of her latest aspiration. She has a new translating job, and she is planning to work as much as possible in order to establish a nest egg. She plans to "jump the pond" next summer. I have my fingers crossed for her. I talked to my mom a bit, who was preoccupied watching Sophie out in the yard.
Phone calling was followed by excessive putzing about online. It was cold here today by my standards, so I was not able to get myself to ride :( . There is always tomorrow...
Then back to the lab for afternoon scans. I took my computer and left early, thinking Tilstra would want to see our graphs. She was late getting there, and so I spent a good 20 minutes playing solitare. When she did arrive, she had her six-year-old daughter with her :shock: . Talk about akward situations. First Anna (Tilstra's daughter) kept playing near my computer, which made me nervous, and then she and Tilstra were playing while I was scanning. I felt weird ignoring them, but I'm sure I would have felt weirder if I had looked at them. I multitasked and finished the set (extended scans this time) in less than 45 minutes, shut everything down, and high-tailed it. Thankfully, we decided that tomorrow's scan is not necessary, so I don't have to go in :) .
I have spent the last few hours putzing online and watching TV. I really have to think of something better to do tomorrow.
The last two days have been kind of depressing in addition to hectic and odd. I am seriously bummed that Lissa and Jen are done with their work for the summer. Lissa returned home to Charlotte today. I wish I could have taken her to the airport. It would have been a nice diversion. To compound missing my buddies (though I know it's been only 24 hours since I last saw them), I am deeply sorrowed by the passing of Julia Child. I am a major cooking junkie, and Julia was one of my idols. When I was in a junior in high school I spent part of every night reading "Julia's Kitchen" to try to teach myself to cook meats. I'm still not the best with meat (probably stems from my being basically a vegan), but I mastered her quiche and some of her desserts. She is truly a legend, and I know she will be missed my many.
So now that I have regurgitated my entire mental state into my blog, I think I will find something else to do.
Bis helleren Tagen,
-M
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| Time: 3:30 PM, Hours Awake: 11 |
| 08.13.04 (12:35 pm) [edit] |
Arose at 4:30 this morning so that I would be awake enough to function when it came time for our 6 AM scans. We seemed to have missed the rapid rise that we wanted to see on most of the cuvettes, but we are getting beautiful data from two of them. So, Dr. Tilstra has said we are to continue forth with the scanning, which means that I get to come in tomorrow at 6 AM and 2 PM, Sunday at 2 PM, and Monday at 2 PM. Oh joy...
I'm still here in the lab. I finally got my wireless connection to work so that I can use the internet in here. My brain is starting to decay from the mindless scanning. On a similar note, my muscles are starting to atrophy, as I have not had time to ride since Sunday. Not good...
Though I have yet to get in touch with her again, Ericka was of the opinion last night that she would be able to come see me/ be my lab partner on Sunday :D . That will be really awesome. I just need to talk to her again to give her directions and stuff. I hope she checks her messages at home. I seem to have misplaced her cell phone number :x .
I am presently day-dreaming of oatmeal; I've not had any all week. Hopefully I will be energetic enough to make some tonight for dinner, after my 6 PM scan, taking Lissa home, and going grocery shopping. By the way, super mega kudos to Lissa for staying late with me on the last night of her research job. She rocks.
I'm going to find some other mindless activity to kill the 20 minutes until my next scan (the long set...oh goodie).
Bis weiteres Schreiben,
-M
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| Waiting and Scanning, Scanning and Waiting |
| 08.12.04 (2:14 pm) [edit] |
This is the first time I've written a blog while at work. I'm not actually working right now; I've already put in about 8 hours, and I have to go back to the lab at 6 PM. Right now I'm in the Meyers lab, killing time. It is cold outside (what was that about August being the sweltering dog-days of summer?), and I don't want to walk back to the apartment just to have to come back in 45 minutes. For some reason, I really want to take a nap, but that wouldn't be functional right now.
Dr. Tilstra is going to have to come in with me on Saturday. I can't find anyone else. I hope that I can convince Ericka to come out Sunday/Monday to work with me. Dr. Tilstra seems cool with the idea. I will call Ericka when I get back from the lab.
Working has been intense today, but things sort of seem okay. The RLS is not as happy as I would like :x , but maybe it will get better. I really hope we see what we need to see, because this is our last chance. We are moving the instrumentation at the end of next week, and it will all basically unusable after that. It will all have to be recalibrated.
I should find something else to do/ think about.
Bis Spater,
-M
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| Fondue Frolicking |
| 08.11.04 (5:56 pm) [edit] |
This evening has been quite the fun occasion. Lissa and Jen joined Caitlin and I for a fondue dinner. Caitlin wins uber happy points for creating a cheese fondue that Lissa really liked, and Jenn get all thumbs up for divine-smelling chocolate fondue. The preferred cheese-dipping item was the sourdough bread that I made yesterday (which seemed to go over pretty well), while bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and marshmellows reigned in the chocolate pool. And Caitlin is so awesome that she did all of the dishwashing and clean up :D . She rocks! As for my personal dinner: half of a cantaloupe and a Boca burger...vegan dinner of champions.
Dr. Tilstra is now back, and we are setting up to run another experiment, which will start tomorrow if all goes well. We are going to do tons of scanning in a 48-hour time period on insulin solutions with and without thioflavin T. This involves having to scan every two hours for a bit more than half a day (from 16 hours to 30 hours), plus less-frequent scans on both sides of that time window. I really have to find someone to come into the lab with me on Saturday. Jenn and Lissa will be done with their 8 weeks this Friday, Caitlin is going home, and Emily (the other girl who works for Tilstra, who was doing research in Knoxville this summer) is going out of town. So I have roughly 24 hours to find someone to come in to the lab with me at 6 AM and 2 PM on Saturday. Perhaps I should call Ericka...
Things are pretty quiet otherwise. My parents came out briefly yesterday to see my New Res room. We also attempted to go for a walk on the trail, but, thanks to the Colts, we couldn't get through :evil: . So no walk...
I'm off to the rest of internet-land.
Haben sie alle viel Spass!
-M
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| Cooked |
| 08.09.04 (5:11 pm) [edit] |
So about me sleeping in on Sunday. That go kind of out of hand. I correlate sleeping in with at the latest 9:00 AM. But no, I turned my alarm off at 8 and went back to sleep...until 10:30. I suppose it could have been worse. In high school I was know to sleep until 2:00 PM on Sundays.
I had a wonderful ride yesterday, 20 miles in all. It was so freeing. The last four miles were the best. I was even cheered on by a pack of 20-something roller-bladers who called me "skinny legs." I did, however, have the misfortune of pulling a very inconvenient muscle, and my backside is a bit displeased with me for subjecting it to extended torture in the saddle, so I took today off from riding.
Work was quite dull today. I processed data, then made buffer, then washed dishes, and then processed data some more. Dr. Tilstra will be back tomorrow (hopefully before we are supposed to turn in our time sheets, since she has yet to sign them), so hopefully she will have better things for me to do.
The highlight of the day was making macaroni and cheese with Caitlin. She did a little bit of pre-prep work last night (grating cheese and boiling the pasta), so we just had to make the white sauce, toast the bread crumbs, and assemble the dish. It looks and smells quite lovely, if I do say so myself.
That is pretty much all there is to report, so I shall be off.
Bis Morgen oder vielleicht Mittwoch!
-M
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| A Tale of a Road Trip Well Taken |
| 08.07.04 (5:51 pm) [edit] |
Today was fun :) . Caitlin, Lissa, and I went to Bloomington for a day of looking about. We left around 9:30, after stopping at Java Haute so that Caitlin could grab some breakfast. The winding hour drive was filled with much fun conversation regarding language, life, and where we were going to go to eat.
I managed to get thoroughly frustrated trying to find a parking space and finally decided to park in the IU Union lot. Our first stop was to the Sugar & Spice bakery in the Union for cookies (and to get our parking ticket validated; if you buy something in the union, you get half off parking :D ). After off-loading the baked good in the cooler that I keep in my trunk, we headed to the shopping/downtown district. We ventured into Urban Outfitters, Greetings, the Emporium, an outdoors/hiking store, and a most awesome kitchen store. By the time we were done with that, it was getting to be time for lunch, so Caitlin and Lissa had an indecisive discussion as to where we should go for food. I had suggested Encore Cafe, the Village Deli, the Bakehouse, and Turkaz (the Turkish restaurant). It temporarily appeared that we were going to the Village Deli, and then minds changed and we went to Encore. All seemed to enjoy their lunches (though the compulsary garlic roasted potatoes, which are served with just about every meal at Encore, seemed to be the highlight of the gastronomic experience).
On our way back towards town we encountered at cat, which Caitlin and Lissa petted for a bit. We then went back to the outdoor store where I bought a new wallet (made of that cordura fabric that is supposed to last forever...my backpack that is made of that stuff has been going strong since I was in 8th grade). Then it was back to the Union to show them the bookstore. I think Lissa was in heaven (she bought two books). We then departed to places to which we had to drive. First was Sahara Mart (an Indian grocery/specialt food store), where all were tempted, but none caved. And then, the grand event and finale of the trip, we went to Bloomingfoods. It was quite fun. I got some oranges and a frozen potato-pepper-onion mix that I had been wanting to try (quite good; I had some for dinner). Caitlin got lots of cheese, and Lissa bought a few veggies. I was highly saddened by the fact that they did not have my Nasoya Lite Silken Tofu (the best for my pudding). I will just have to have my mom bring me some from Meijer back home.
We then headed back to the Haute. We made it back around 5 all in one piece, but tired (especially poor Caitlin, who ran 8 miles this morning). All in all, it was a nice diversion from the norm. I'd been wanting to have an excursion to Bloomington like that for quite some time, so it was highly satisfying. I think it helped to reset my brain a bit.
I plan to sleep in tomorrow. I have also decided that I'm going to be making sourdough bread this week (we're having a fondue party on Thursday and I'm providing the bread), so I have to start the starter tomorrow. And, because Caitlin now has way too much cheese and way too much pasta, we are going to make a big batch of mac and cheese (if we have a proper baking vessile at hand, which I shall have to check on).
I'm off to gather recipes. Good days are the best :) .
Bis Spater und Guten Abend!
-M
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| Random is the norm |
| 08.06.04 (5:37 pm) [edit] |
Most of today was same-old same-old. I ran fluorescence scans on my Th T solutions in the morning, and then washed "dishes" until lunch time. My time point scans this afternoon, of course, had to be weird. This time the middle ionic strength had the most aggregation, followed by the highest ionic strength and then the lowest ionic strength. Even better, the lowest ionic strength solution had flakes, which has never happened before in any of my experiments. The more I run these experiments, the more I understand the problem of reproduciblity. I am growing accustomed to not being able to get the same result twice. Randomness seems to dictate what I see. It is just the way it goes.
We (the coffee club girls) did have a bit of fun this afternoon. Last night at coffee we decided unanimously and without discussion that Ian (one of Dr. Brant's students) is dead sexy (both by body and personality). We decided that the four of us needed to corner him in lab today and tell him our thoughts on this. As it turned out, he was having a rough day with his experiments, so we decided that this confrontation would be a good way to cheer him up. So we "elected" Jenn to get him to come up to our lab (she told him his HPLC was making weird noises) while Lissa and Caitlin and I lay in wait. Somehow I ended up being the one who had to tell him of our conclusions about his sexiness, which was definitly at treat. He found it funny, and I think we cheered him up a bit, so it was all good :D .
For a change of pace, I'm going to take Caitlin and Lissa to Bloomington tomorrow. I think I will show them around downtown, expose them to a good food joint or two, and then take them to Bloomingfoods, which in my opinion is the best health food/natural food store in the state. I think it will be fun. Just so long as Caitlin does decided to buy more at Bloomingfoods than my trunk can hold...
Well, I'm off to non-blog-land for a while.
Schlafen sie gut!
-M
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| Fun with 3D scans |
| 08.05.04 (6:07 pm) [edit] |
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I am starting to be very strongly convinced that thioflavin T does not fluoresce unless it is in the presence of protein fibrils. In an attempt to locate the normal fluorescence peak of plain Th T, I did a number of 3D scans today in which I excited at ten-nm intervals from 250 nm to 650 nm (exhausting the excitation powers of our fluorimeter). In the 4.5 hours of this scanning madness, I saw not one peak that could not be attributed to Raleigh scattering. But then, lo and behold, when I scanned my insulin containing solutions (exciting at 450) there was the illustrious peak at 482 nm. It was a very happy moment for me.
I got in an 8-mile ride between work and going out for coffee. The wind was my rate-determining factor. My pace did not slide too much, but my thighs feel like I went faster. But that's a head wind for you.
Not much in terms of other amusement/excitement. Tomorrow in lab should be interesting (will explain later). I'm going to be off to play in WWW-world for a while.
Bis Morgen,
-M
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| Needing to be alone |
| 08.04.04 (6:19 pm) [edit] |
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The one aspect of my being that I absolutely do not understand is my seemingly excessive need to have time to myself every day. In the evenings I cannot be spontaneously social. I can handle coffee klastsch by knowing that it is coming and planning accordingly. I do not mean to shy away from random visitors, but there are some times when I just become so uncomfortable that I must seem absurd. I need my evening routine. But I always feel like I'm being horribly rude when I shy away from socialization.
There seem to be times that my antisocial nature dwindles, as it did this past Spring. I was doing so well; I wish I knew what happened that brought me back to this point, as I am presently sitting writting this as my roommate and my ex-boyfriend sit in our livingroom chatting.
There are very few things about myself that I absolutely hate, but this unshakable antisocialness sits at the very top of that short list. I wish to crawl into a hole, to disappear, to be able to have my rountine evening.
-M
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| Back to the Bench |
| 08.04.04 (5:24 pm) [edit] |
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Today was another long one, but I got a lot done (sort of). I went in at 7:30 and got everything set up to re-run my failed experiment from last weekend. Then I made all of the various concentrations of thioflavin T solutions. I had to spend a lot of time in our Meyers lab, which must have been a maximum of 65 degrees F. It made my usual lab areas (in which I normally freeze) feel balmy. By the time I finished with all of the solution prep it was time for lunch; took an hour break, then back to the lab. I spent the next four and a half hours filling my freshly cleaned cuvettes with various mixtures of thioflavin, phosphate buffer, and insulin (and in some cases, water), running 10-minute-apiece absorbance scans, and running fluorescence scans at two different excitation wavelengths. Talk about boring. And frustrating. The absorbance graphs had no definite peaks, so I wasn't really sure at what wavelength I was supposed to excite for the fluorescence scans. Then all of the fluorescence scans (at both excitation wavelengths) looked like perfect water scans. Can we say 'not happy'? Oh well, maybe things will be better tomorrow.
Called home and talked to my mom. Sophie is doing fine, but she does not bark at all. Nor does she beg. She is settling down and getting used to her new home. She is afraid of thunderstorms (just like my last dog).
No riding today...Colts Pre-Practice Party kept me in the apartment. I think I will just have to resort to longer, less-frequent rides.
I think I'm going to read for a while. I have some how managed to tire of putzing online.
Guten Abend!
-M
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| Making up for lost rides |
| 08.03.04 (5:26 pm) [edit] |
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The past two days have been horribly dull. Yesterday I did not have to work the whole day, so most of it was spent bumming about. I went to the lab in the morning to check on the waterbath and to try to determine Jenn's UVvis needs for the afternoon. I returned to the apartment and proceeded to putz around until 2 when Caitlin and I went to the lab so that I could take my single-time-point scans. Naturally, they did not come out pretty at all, so I will be doing that experiment again. I feel really bad for Caitlin; there were some really nasty fumes in the lab that did not sit with her too well. She slept for about three hours after we returned. During that time I read a lot of Steingarten. I kind of wanted to go for a ride, but thanks to the Colts being on campus, it is quite close to impossible to get onto the trail. I did not ride, got to bed late, and was displeased with myself for it this morning.
One good thing about yesterday was that Sopie arrived. My parents have yet to hear her bark, but she seems to be taking the move pretty well. She also seems to have imprinted upon my sister. I'm hoping she does the same with my mom. She seems like such a sweety.
Today was better than yesterday, but not by a whole lot. I went in a bit before 8 and spent the morning washing glassware and cuvettes (we had NO clean glassware when I got there). After a pepsin soak and an aqua regia bath failed to remove the insulin from the cuvettes, I was starting to fear that I would have to use cotton swabs again. I decided to make up fresh aqua regia after lunch and try again. Lo and behold, that was the trick! I did one soak with the fresh acid, and nearly everything was gone from the inside of the cuvettes. I immediately soaked them with the aqua regia again, and they came out spotless. Even if I accomplish nothing else this week, I can at least tell Dr. Tilstra that I figured out the mystery of the uncleanable cuvettes.
After work I decided that I really needed to go for a ride, even if it meant riding on the highway to get to the trail (and despite the heat index of 95 at 6 PM). I backed out of riding on the highway and managed to get on to the trail by going across the IM fields. I had to carry my bike across the rocky path, but it wasn't too bad. I rode 15 miles on the trail (trying to make up for lost ride time from last week and yesterday) and climbed the giant hill from the SRC without switching gears. It was quite exhilarating.
I had my fabulous fake pudding again for dinner tonight. Caitlin let me use her blender (its maiden blending) for the occasion. I really have to find a supplier of my favorite brand of tofu out here in the Haute.
So now I'm putzing again. Maybe I will try to read...maybe call home to see how Sophie is doing.
Bis spater,
-M
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| Part II: So apparently I'm a popsicle |
| 08.02.04 (1:21 pm) [edit] |
And then there was Sunday.
There were two main themes to Sunday: (1) drop off the bunny, and (2) meet the dog interviewer (she was supposed to come on Saturday, but had to reschedule).
Dropping off the rabbit went pretty well. The teacher who is taking her looks to be barely older than me (if she is older than me at all). She had her boyfriend with her. I must say big burly guy holding tiny gray bunny is really cute :) .
The dog interview was another story. The lady showed up on time, but she wasn't alone. She brought her two-year-old daughter, her four-year-old son, and a three-year-old border collie named Cooper. This dog apparently thought I was a popsicle, because he gave me a tonge bath that I really did not want. The whole ordeal was less like an interview to make sure we were capable of taking care of Sophie and more like a test to see if we could survive annoying children and hyperactive dog without going crazy. We passed the test. And my mom said that from the way I was letting Cooper slobber all over me, the interviewer never could have guess that I'm not much of a dog person (at least not one that enjoys being licked). Needless to say I took a really long shower when they left.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to packing up. Ericka came by to return a CD before I let, and that was cool. I made it back to the Haute around 7 and spent the rest of the evening bumming around.
And that was Sunday.
-M
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| Part I: the rest of Saturday |
| 08.02.04 (1:08 pm) [edit] |
So, to pick up where I left off on Saturday…
My sister never did get off the phone (at least not before my mom and I went out), so I called Ericka via my dad’s office phone, and we set up a movie date.
Mum and I then proceeded to go to coffee/pet supply shopping. We had to get Pedigree dog food for Sophie and various supplies for the bunny. We went to Petco, Pet Warehouse, and Walmart (in that succession). Walmart definitely had the best deals. So, we bought 44 lbs. of dog food, 25 lbs. of rabbit food, wood chips, and odor-eating rabbit bedding :shock: . We then returned briefly to Petco, where I bought Sophie a toy. It is a green, rubber, geodesic ball. It is supposed to be a good toy for older dogs, because it is easy for them to pick up and hold in their mouths. Then on to coffee at Borders. I wish we had a Borders out here in the Haute...
Saturday dinner was quite amusing (at least to me). I bought a package of silken tofu at the grocery with the intent to act upon an inspiration I had for making fake pudding. I mixed one lb. tofu, 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 4 packets of Splenda in the blender and came out with a remarkable approximation of jello chocolate pudding snacks :D . I ate all of it for dinner, along with what was most certainly the best ear of Indiana sweet corn I have had in two years. Eclectic, yes, but delicious.
Ericka came over a bit after 7. We played with the rabbit, played with her zesty new computer, and then watched Gattaca. It was wonderful to see her, though I am sorry that I was too tired to be the usual bubbly, happy self that I am when I see her.
So that was Saturday.
-M
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| From Hades to Home |
| 07.31.04 (11:04 am) [edit] |
So yesterday really, REALLY wasn't good. I was expecting to have nice quiet day at work; I'd do the absorbance study that Dr. Tilstra wanted me to do, then clean cuvettes (an all day task), be done by 4:00 (since I came in at 7 am), and head for home. But no. At 11:00 (after I had already failed miserably at the absorbance study) I had just finished putting the cuvettes into their acetic acid bath and was heading for the bathroom when I ran into Dr. Tilstra. She started asking me if there was any possibility that I could have switched the caps (which bear the marks identifying the contents of the cuvettes) on my cuvettes during Trial 2. It turns out that my data is gorgeous, but counter-intuative (at least to her). To make things worse, Jess (one of the former students working on this project) had run the same experiment and seen opposite trends. So Dr. Tilstra tells me that I need to make new buffer and insulin solutions :shock: and come in on Monday (my supposed day off :x ) to take a SINGLE time point scan on these things to see which trend is correct. This would not have been so bad if it had not already been 11 AM and if I had not been planning to drive home after work. To abbreviate this already long story, I finished work at 7 PM (having taken my lunch break around 4 PM), threw my stuff in my car, and drove home. I have no idea what is going to happen when Dr. Tilstra gets back from her vacation (she is going to visit her parents next week). She seemed exceedingly depressed when I saw her around 5:00 yesterday. She isn't sure that the technique we have been using to study insulin aggregation (resonance light scattering) tells us anything more about the process of aggregation than does turbidity of the insulin solution. I just hope all of this work has not been in vain :( . I do owe the greatest thanks in the world to Caitlin, who stayed with me and helped me with my solution prep yesterday. She rocks, and she made and filled a perfect capillary yesterday :D .
Now that that is off my chest, things were a little better once I got home. I got to hold Hasenpfeffer :) . We let her run around a bit, and this rabbit is funny to watch. When she runs, she will spontaneously jump straight up and a bit to the side and then dart like lightening across the room. You kind of have to see it. My sister is thinking of renaming her Lucy (a bit more fitting than Hasenpfeffer, I think).
Speaking of my sister, I must remember hence forth that when I come home, if I want to get to sleep before 2:30 AM I have to go to bed before my sister gets home from work. She came in at 10:30 and parked herself on my floor until about 11, came in shortly after 11 with the bunny, put the bunny back and came back with a jewelry catalogue... Basically, I got to sleep around 3 :x . Good thing Mum and I are going for coffee/tea in a little bit; I need the stimulation (chemical and social) to keep me awake.
Aside from blogging I am presently waiting for Ann (my sister) to get off the phone so that I can call Ericka (second most awesome person ever, trailing very, very shortly behind my Mum). Hopefully we can do coffee or a movie or something this evening (we've been thinking about doing a movie night, but thanks to minimum sleep last night, I don't think I'm going to be up for too much this evening).
The border collie adoption people are coming tomorrow to meet my family about adopting Sophie. They just need to be sure that we are nice, clean, and actually have a yard. It turns out that Sophie may be here as early as Monday :D . I wish I could stay longer so that I could meet her.
I'm going to be off. Maybe I'll go glare at Ann until she gets off the phone.
Schoenes Wochenende!
-M
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| Deer Encounters: Part III |
| 07.29.04 (5:52 pm) [edit] |
Almost forgot:
On my ride this evening, I once again saw deer, not just a deer, but SIX deer. As I was riding I saw a deer (adult female) leap across the path. I didn't think much of it until I saw that two other cyclists up ahead of me had stopped and were looking into the brush on the side of the trail. I stopped when I reached them, and, lo and behold, there were five young deer all standing together in the brush. There were four females and one male. The male had antlers that were still short and fuzzy (very cute :) ).
Up to now, I had assumed that there were maybe three deer. Seeing all six of them at once and so close (they could not have been more than 20 ft from me) was other-worldly. It was quite the Mother Nature experience.
-M
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| Chained to lab work... |
| 07.29.04 (5:36 pm) [edit] |
First an apology to all of my faithful blog stalkers for my recent lack of postings. On Tuesday morning Dr. Tilstra handed me a notecard covered with data in various formats that she wanted to have in order to write her paper. She then told me that she needed it all by Thursday :shock: . Being the good little lab monkey that I am, I worked 14 hours on Tuesday and 13 hours yesterday (plus about three hours of finish-up work this morning) and had everything to her at noon 8) . I owe immense thanks to Caitlin for converting a bunch of spectra files to text files for me; I think her doing that saved my mind from turning to jello on Tuesday. On the brighter end of things, Dr. Tilstra has given my Monday off for all of my hard work. So, now that I get a three day weekend, I'm going to go home tomorrow night to chill with the folks for a couple of days.
In terms of other things that have happened since my last blog, it turns out that my parents will not be keeping our bunny long term. On Sunday she will move to the Center for Young Children at IUPUI to be a part of their pre-K program. I hope they rename her something other than Hasenpfeffer. Luckily, I will get to meet her before the move.
Despite the sad note of losing the bunny, I have an exceedingly happy note that my family will be getting a new dog :D ! My previous dog (Dusty) passed away this past winter. My dad found our puppy-to-be on the web at Great Lakes Border Collie Rescue. Her name is Sophie, and she is a 10-year-old, full-blooded Border Collie. She is currently in Lansing, MI, but we should get her within a month. She is sooo cute!
That is really all I have to report as the past few days have been quite boring (at least in terms of variety of activity).
Bis Morgen (hopefully no later),
-M
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| Day down the tube |
| 07.26.04 (6:17 pm) [edit] |
My present level of apathy is almost to great to blog, which is bad :( . I don't know what has been with me these past couple of days. I'm stuck in some sort of weird funk and I can't seem to shake it. I didn't even want to ride today. It bugs me even more that I've been so blah, because I don't like to bring the mood down for everyone else. Maybe tomorrow will be better; it is supposed to be warmer (always a plus by my book).
I woke up sore again this morning (maybe because I was cold when I rode my 12 miles on Saturday). I fuddled around waiting for Dr. Tilstra until about 9:30, at which point I asked Dr. Miller if she thought I should run another set of scans on my cuvettes. She answered affirmatively, and so I ran scans. Dr. Tilstra's tardiness was caused by a dead car battery, but she did show up around 10:45. She was excited by the second sigmoidal rise that two of my cuvettes are showing, which was a plus I suppose. She had me run a set of extended absorbance scans (which take 10 minuetes each), which did not end up showing what she was hoping to see. She did seem to have a fair number of minor epiphanies today based on things that I showed her (all circumstantial I can assure you).
I didn't get to lunch until 1:40, worked through lunch, wasted an hour trying to track down my thioflavin (which still wasn't here this afternoon, though it is promised to arrive tomorrow morning), and ran out of useful lab time before I could do any buffer prep (which I may not have to do anyway).
I fell asleep reading Steingarten (really, really bad sign), and could not focus on the conversation when Lissa and Jenn dropped by to exchange chocolate tortes with Caitlin.
Now I'm sitting here, not even really feeling like blogging. I think I will sit and try to figure out something that I do feel like doing.
Later,
-M
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| A lazy day (relatively speaking) |
| 07.25.04 (4:58 pm) [edit] |
Oh the joys of sleeping in, which is exactly what I did until 9:30 this morning (very out of character). I was going to get up for a morning ride (due to a wonderful pre-announced power outage on campus today, I had to take my scans this afternoon, and thus knew that I would not be able to ride in the afternoon). However, when I got up at 7:30 it was raining :( . So I crawled back into bed and slept for another two hours, intermittently disturbed by my alarm clock.
Once the day got going, it was all right. It never did fully stop raining, so I did not get to ride :(. But Caitlin decided to make a chocolated torte souffle and was kind enough to let me help out a bit, which was exceedingly fun. This cake is also one of the best things I have ever smelled in my life. I envy all within the vicinity of this cake that do not have food allergies. Caitlin wins on this one :D .
The lab was the lab as usual today. I may end up extending this trial though, because my data continues to do weird things.
I added two links to my blog today: one to my apartment-roomie/fab friend Caitlin's blog and the other to the website of my awesome friend Lissa. Both are highly entertaining.
That has pretty much been my day, and I'm feeling very appathetic. Maybe it is just because it has been such a gray day here in the Haute. Hopefully tomorrow will be brighter.
Going to go chill some more.
Bis weiteres Schreiben,
-M
P.S. Cheers to Lance for winning six Tours de France in a row :) .
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| Washing Machines, Rabbits, and other Digressions |
| 07.24.04 (5:36 pm) [edit] |
So this morning I awoke at 5:30 to do my laundry. Obsessive I know, but I have a thing about getting my laundry done. Anyway, I put in my laundry and go to take a shower. When I get out of the shower, I hear some weird noises coming from downstairs and a detect a rather odd odor in the air. I go down to find the lid of the washer up and all of my clothes sitting there wet. I decide to try turning the washer on again and staying with it. It made it about half way through, then started making ugly noises and basically refused to function. So I fish my clothing article by article out of the washer (filled with water by the way), ring them out, and throw them in the dryer. Even after an hour and a half at nuclear inferno temperatures some of them still were not dry :shock: . I ended up hauling my second load over to another section of our apartment complex to wash, but I didn't get to do that until after I got back from the lab :x .
On a more positive note, I was successful at getting a replacement pressure valve cap for my bike tire. I located a bike shop here in the Haute called Fat Bikes. The guy running the shop was very nice and gave me six of the things for free :D . So if you're ever in Terre Haute, IN and need something for a bike, head to Fat Bikes.
On my ride today I had another close encounter with a deer...a much closer encounter than my previous one. It was a young deer this time, no spots, but no antlers either. It decided to jump across the road about 10 feet in front of me :shock: ! Needless to say I had my guard up for the rest of my ride (12 miles today).
While we're on the topic of fauna in unexpected places, I was talking to my mom a little bit ago, and she and my dad have apparently aquired a rabbit (now, if you know my parents well, you will fall over laughing from how ridiculously out of character this is). The deal is that my next door neighbor found this little gray bunny hopping about the neighborhood and took it in. Somehow the little creature came to be living in a box on my front porch at home. They are calling it Hasenpfeffer (which for all of you who are not up on your German or your ethnic culinary vocabulary means "rabbit pepper" and is the name of a German rabbit stew); I'm certain this must have been my father's idea. According to my mom, he is dead set on getting rid of the rabbit, and my older sister is dead set on keeping it. We will have to wait and see who wins.
That's pretty much been the extent of my day, and now that my hands are tired of typing, I'm going to go find something else to do.
Bis Morgen!
-M
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| How about them apples... |
| 07.23.04 (5:44 pm) [edit] |
Today marks the end of my fifth week of summer research; half way over already. It's kind of hard to believe that it was five weeks ago that Caitlin and I headed off for our first day without any idea at all what we would be doing all summer. I suppose I should celebrate the occasion, but I think I'll just go into the lab this weekend and take my scans (like a good little lab monkey). Two of my cuvettes have started to give me weird data today, so I can't blow off my weekend stuff after all.
I'm really beginning to wonder what has become of my elusive Yellow 5 (aka Thioflavin). I was supposed to get a bottle of it this week, so that I could start some new fluorescence studies. But it still wasn't here this afternoon :x .
Cycling is presently rather frustrating. As I went to remove the cap from the air valve on my front tire today, I discovered that the top of it had broken off, so it is effectively like having no cap at all. Problem: no cap = pressure loss while riding. Not good. So, now I have to try to find a bike shop here in the Haute where I can get a new on (preferably before I ride the bike again).
Thinking of cycling, I think I should flash back to last night. As mentioned, last night was coffee klatsch at Coffee Grounds. The guy running the counter was not our usual, quite lad, but rather a quite fine-looking guy. I noticed that he was wearing a "LIVESTRONG" bracelet (just like the one I wear). So when it was my turn to order, I asked him if he had be watching the Tour, and he said yes, and we got into a brief but nice conversation about the mountain stages of the race and Lance's awesome time trial in stage 16. When I got to the table, the girls practically gave me a round of applause for holding conversation with sexy coffee shop guy. I pretty much brushed it off at first, but the idea that I could successfully flirt with someone was rather exhilarating. I even managed to get a good night from the guy as we walked out of the shop. I win :D ...
I'm off to putz about on the net and maybe read some Steingarten.
Schoenen Abend!
-M
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| Now, what was that again? |
| 07.22.04 (2:28 pm) [edit] |
Today has just been so exhilarating (can you sense the [i]extreme[/i] sarcasm?). I did manage to get up on time this morning. The morning consisted of scanning as usual, followed by finishing that article that I thought I was going to finish last night. Then was another hour-long meeting with Dr. Tilstra, during which I received a lovely overview of the article that I read this afternoon. It took me 4 hours :shock: with minor breaks for sanity. My thioflavin is supposed to come in tomorrow, though I still haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with it.
I will not get to ride today :( , because it is raining rather viciously here in the Haute. I have a rule: no riding on wet pavement. Wiping out on the sexy bike is not fun. I guess I will just have to ride tomorrow.
Tonight is coffee klatsch with the lab girls in the coffee club (well, its more like one person gets coffee, one gets chai, one gets hot chocolate, and I get tea, but its close enough; is it bad that I know what everyone always gets?). Always fun :D . I do hope we get back at a reasonable hour, though. I'm dull and want to go to bed in time so that I won't be dragging in lab tomorrow.
I'm off to read (fun stuff; no more articles today).
:arrow:
-M
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