buzz buzz

this week has been amazingly busy. I have had commitments, time has been short - thus I do not post.
Monday started off tame enough, except for that heinous smell. Easy enough to recover from.
Tuesday was busy busy, trying to get protein stuff done in a timely manner. Tuesday night was spent with Queen Barkms and Mrs. Omar, at QB's house. Ostensibly we were supposed to be quilting, but we were not so motivated this time. The Fabric Place, where we are taking quilting classes, has pissed us off royally and this is reflected in our lack of driving force to finish the quilt. This Saturday is the last class, when the last square pattern will be distributed. I have been nominated to go to the class (in the beginning we all attended the class and spent the rest of the morning brainstorming and shopping for projects). I am the most likely to let the management of FP know just what has pissed us off. So I get to go. But the actual act of quilting on Tuesday night yielded a really cool square. Cooler than what we were supposed to get in the end.
Wednesday was more rushing around to get work (shock!) done, in time for dinner at my friends' new house. It was also the first joint departmental seminar and a CSA day, so there was a lot to pack into 8 hours. Finally made it out to Wayland and had a wonderful dinner with the friends. It included a tour of the new house, which is so darned cute I have house envy. halley came along for the evening and there was a bit of a scare with the wooden stairs. IGs don't do bare floors as a rule, and bare wooden stairs pose a whole 'nother challenge. Halley was determined to follow me up the stairs, made it half way - hesitated - and then fell/slid back down. No iggy death scream, no obvious bruises and after a good shake, no limps. All in all one of the best falls My Little Graceful One has ever done. It did scare the bejeezus out of my hostess though. Poor girl, I think she lost a year or two.
Thursday slowed down a little, but not much. Time to catch up on the work. And I had this annoying encounter and reencounter with my fellow biophizzy grad student from upstairs. He and I are generally thick as thieves, but he started off yesterday on my last nerve and did not relent. Any other day, more than likely I would play along. Yesterday was different, though. I am still not sleeping well, so I am overtired. I am feeling like I am behind on my protein stuff, so I am feeling stress about that as well. Most of this I can brush off and usually play along with whatever (we are great debaters and have some of the best irrelevant discussions). Yesterday he starts in with the Sanctimony. And if there is one way to start on my last nerve it is with Sanctimony.
Ugh, what a pain in the ass. And all of this builds up to the grand finale of every week - Stoopid Group Meeting. SGM is just as it's name implies. A huge waste of time and energy. This week, the graduate students in the lab had to be reminded of some fundamentals of thermodynamics. Fundamentals that 6th year grad students should not have to be reminded of. Then we had to debate those same fundamental principles. People, the best part about thermo is that there exist these rules that are not ever violated and make our lives (and research) that much more straightforward to predict and interpret. Period. There is no debate. And yet, somehow in this void of reason and intellect, there is debate. It is truly exhasperating.
Friday's capper is lunch with the Italian Post-doc. He will describe the circumstances of his recent engagement. Holy shit, I didn't realize he had a girlfriend. First, there's gossip I missed?!?! And second, I know this girl. Now she's a shocker!
Oh joy.

The ID "debate"

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7052/full/436753a.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/309/5732/221.pdf

for those of you not up on the debate, there is a sizable fraction of the US populous (or at least those elected to legislative office) that wants to redefine what the word science means. This would ultimately result in a redefinition of what I do for a living - hopefully it will not get that far. I find this to be so distressing words fail me.
ugh.

Monday morning in my building

This was the first Monday of the semester, as last Monday was Labor Day. The parking lots are all full by 9:30, the kids are all scurrying to their classes. Today is forecasted to hit well above 90 F, so I drove in, opting not to bike in that heat. I walked up from the carpark at a leisurely pace, stopping off at the health center to return their cane - a remnant of my back throwing out occasion a couple of weeks ago. I complete the walk up the hill in blazing sunlight, thinking to myself how wonderful that airconditioning is going to feel once I step inside. And when I do finally walk into my building, ready to tackle the week head on, I am accosted by the most God awful, nose burning odious smell... ever. Rank and rotting... something. Could it have once been dairy? Surely fruit doesn't ever smell that bad. What could it possibly be? Or more importantly, where in the hell is it coming from and how do we get rid of it? Now!
Like bloodhounds, my labmates and I pace the hallways, trying to pinpoint Ground Zero. Over here? No, more here... maybe, yea. Is it the recycling? How do old soda cans and beer bottles ever get this bad?
All possible sources of stank were removed to outdoors, and yet the odor persists. I had such high and lofty goals for the amount of work I was going to get done today, and now I don't want to venture outside of my room, because the smell in the hallways is nausea inducing. I already have a headache; spontaneous vomiting would just be the capper.
This weekend I took a bit of a rest from work. I popped my head in on Saturday to make sure some plates did not overgrow and then went about my errands. I did some food shopping in prep for hosting the stitch and bitch ladies on Sunday. Then Sunday was consumed with food prep. I went a bit overboard, but I was not sure if there were going to be 3 or 6 of us. I prepared for 6. Besides, it was high time I cleaned the kitchen, and what better reason to clean the kitchen than to make everything dirty again by cooking.
I made an eggplant and tomato frittata, which came out particularly well. Recipe was from my Tuscan cookbook. A reasonable amount of prep work, but it tasted wonderful. It is just as good cold at it was warm. The remainder of it is my lunch for today. After the ladies left, I watched a little bit more of the USOpen men's final, until it became clear that Agassi would not pull it out. I just couldn't watch the decline. Federer is a great athlete, but he's just not compelling. At least not enough for me to watch.
The insomnia has not broken, and I am still waking before my alarm. Unfortunately, this means about 10 or 11 days of 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Something I could have pulled off without breaking a sweat ten years ago, but now, I am wearing thin. Ugh.

My goals for this unedited portal:

As the title implies, I mean to vent/gab/wax philosophical on three topics nearest and dearest to my heart - work, fiber arts and dog. This by no means limits my subject choices to just this, but it serves as a launching off point for all things ME.
Work is, well, work. I have been stymied the last two days in my purification. The column I am using has unexpectedly started to act up. No one to whom I describe the symptoms can diagnose what is wrong. This means that I am in a bit of a foul mood as I try to rectify this. Meanwhile, protein is wasting away, awaiting further purification steps that I cannot yet get to b/c of aforementioned column issues.
Add to my latest bit of foul mood my insomnia. This week it has been particularly difficult to get to sleep before 2. Insomniacs last night were treated to a wonderful show of tennis in the Agassi-Blake q-final at the USOpen. Holy cow, those two guys battled like gladiators to the death, neither relenting. They each raised the level of play of the other, and it was spectacular. Got the adrenaline pumping.
I opted not to knit last night, giving myself a break for an evening. Queen Barkms and I got together yesterday afternoon to divide veggies from the CSA, and afterwards got into one of our 'What's it all for?' conversations. Protein issues plus wide-eyed newbies plus insufferable elder grad students that still don't know their asses from their pipet tips plus insomnia plus what have you have gotten me into this funk which then manifests itself in the life defining question - do I really want to do this for the rest of my life? There, I wrote it. Up 'til now, only QB and my therapist have knowledge of that question. So I gave myself this night off from knitting.
But not from taking pictures of my dog. Here is another cutie with her silly ears and all.

And another from the other day when she accompanied me to work:

Java

I realize in these modern times that java means two things. But to the purists, such as myself, it will always and forever be coffee. Black gold. Lately I can't get enough. Multiple cups during the day and when the opportunity arrises - in ice cream form.
Monday, after working with half assed intensity, I rewarded myself with a trip to Lizzie's for a cup of their coffee ice cream, which is literally coffee mixed with cream and sugar. No fanciness. It is like the perfect latte - not too sweet but creamy goodness - with chocolate jimmies, of course. Afterward I finally caught a showing of The March of the Penguins that everyone has been buzzing about. First off, what great birds! They were hysterical and tragic; it was epic. Secondly, I am glad I paid $9 to see it in a theatre, for two reasons. The continent of Antartica is one I will probably never see in person. Seeing this movie on my little 20 in TV would not have done the cinematography justice. The grand scale of A, the vastness would have been lost. Then there are the movie makers, who deserve whatever cut of my $9 they get. To stand out there in -80 with howling winds, freezing what God gave them off, well, my hat is off to them. So go see the movie. And stay for the credits.

At the left is the penguin I made for my friend, the pos- doc upstairs, and his lovely wife's first born. The bird made it just before the kid was born. It is all cotton, which worked up really well, quick and easy and hard to split stitches. The body and feet are stuffed with polyfil and the wings and belly have beads, for that little bit extra. I wish I could remember the name of the book that has this pattern in it. I will try to remember to make a note for future reference.

Today, I am off to Drumlin Farms to pick up this weeks CSA (community supported agriculture) shares. It is a really pleasant drive from here, the weather is immaculate and I just might stop at that little lunch hut on the side of the road. The last time I was there I had a fabulous cone of coffee soft serve dipped in chocolate. Ahhh, java.
The sad part of all this coffee is that my sleep patterns are way off. I am not getting to sleep until 1:30 or 2. Bad girl. Will have to remedy this.

workin' my fingers to the bone

This is my latest fantasy yarn. It is a handspun, kettle dyed superbulky wool from Uruguay - handpaintedyarn.com. Color is Cognac and it is divine, in my opinion. I am going to us this to make the Cape May capelet on knitty.com. A little math was required, since this is 65 yds/ 100 g and biggy print from Rowan is 33 yds/ 100 g. I will order the same number of skeins - I might just have to use two threads to get the desired thickness. I am salivating just waiting for this yarn to come. Of course, I have plenty of unfinished project that need my direct attention. I have finished the Pig, and will post pictures as soon as I take them. I am finishing the basketball - I managed to finish the second hemisphere, joined them and filled it with polypropylene beads. The weight of the ball is a little bit more than I expected, but the tension and squishiness is right on. Now I will embroider the ribbing on with the deep purple to make it look like a BB. Not sure which stitch I will use yet. I think it will require a bit of trial and error.

Skipped out of work yesterday, but am here today (Labor Day, how appropriate), purifying yet another prep of protein. It took me about three days to convince myself that my last prep was crap, especially after it sat in the fridge for four days while I recovered from throwing out my back. There is little to no motivation to be here today. My mind is very distracted and I guess I should be grateful that I am doing a mindless prep and not something more mentally taxing.

I am still learning my way around the blogger website. I have yet to figure out how to get a pic into my profile area. I click all of the requisite buttons, but I am convinced they are just taking me in an electronic circle.

There is only a skeleton crew in here today. My Husky friend ( a UConn grad ) is here. Unusual for him to work a holiday. I guess he is getting more motivated to get work done and graduate. Time marching on and all. Also, our Wonderfully Talented Undergrad is in. No sign of the Boss, though B was in on Saturday, when I had Halley with me. I was impressed this time she remembered Halley's name - first time I think in about 3 years?!?

So I am going to start knitting the third dinosaur and need to finish stuffing and sewing them up. There is a deadline. The niece is expected sometime near the end of November. So crunch time is here - need to get the projects finished so they can be sent out.

Off to prep the protein...

first contact

Well, since this is my first entry into this new-to-me medium, I probably should have thought of something witty, urbane and erudite to write ahead of time. Well, tough. No such forethought here.

Halley is with me in the lab. The cells are hopefully proliferating. It is a beautiful day so why not spend it with my dog at work? At work, yes. More truthfully, on the computer on the internet at work. And growing cells don't really need me to babysit for them.

So, I have been reading a ton of other people's thoughts promulgated through this here trend called blogging. Maybe this can help me overcome one of my most retched and loathsome traits - not staying in touch with my friends. I am absolutely horrid when it comes to communication. They go off to foreign lands, or move to distant cities, and try as I might, resolving every year to 'do bet-ter', as my old band director used to say, ... yeah, it just never happens. I have letters and cards and pix going back years that have not been sent. Remedy du jour: I will put bits of my life out there, as it were, and if they come, they will see it. I shall try not to over edit. It just not fun if everything is peaches and cream. Yummy, yes, but not fun.

And hey, it's the internet! You all get to see it, too. In all it's technicolor glory. Bon Voyage!