Who wants kittens!?
These are living next door, under the back steps. This video was taken from the safety of our kitchen.
Crazy Columbus Weather
Note: it is partly cloudy right now, quite pleasant. Also, my 3rd IM soccer game is scheduled for 6:40 pm. The previous 2 games were rescheduled due to rain.
an update. I thought that 95% would be a sure thing.
Mr. Buttercream
Today we saw the albino squirrel that Angela has dubbed Mr. Buttercream (no idea of it’s sex though). This was the first sighting of the squirrel that I have had since last fall.
UPS is on crack this week
Here is the tracking information for a recent package (that still hasn’t arrived):
Date Time Location Event Details
February 9, 2011 03:44:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US Arrival Scan
February 9, 2011 03:44:00 AM Columbus OH US Out for delivery
February 8, 2011 08:59:00 PM COLUMBUS OH US Possible delay in delivery due to extra carrier processing
February 8, 2011 08:59:00 PM Columbus OH US Arrival Scan
February 8, 2011 07:38:00 AM Columbus OH US Out for delivery
February 8, 2011 07:37:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US Arrival Scan
February 8, 2011 06:18:00 AM Columbus OH US Departure Scan
February 8, 2011 05:02:00 AM Columbus OH US Arrival Scan
February 8, 2011 04:24:00 AM Louisville KY US Departure Scan
February 8, 2011 02:45:00 AM Louisville KY US Arrival Scan
February 8, 2011 12:27:00 AM Columbus OH US Departure Scan
February 7, 2011 10:15:00 PM Columbus OH US Arrival Scan
February 7, 2011 10:05:00 PM Columbus OH US Departure Scan
February 7, 2011 09:05:00 PM Columbus OH US Arrival Scan
February 7, 2011 08:09:00 PM COLUMBUS OH US Possible delay in delivery due to extra carrier processing
February 7, 2011 06:23:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US Arrival Scan
February 7, 2011 06:23:00 AM Columbus OH US Out for delivery
February 7, 2011 06:22:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US Arrival Scan
February 6, 2011 05:20:00 PM Louisville KY US Departure Scan
February 6, 2011 12:51:00 PM Louisville KY US Shipment received by carrier
February 5, 2011 04:17:16 PM US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
Sometimes you just need a “W”
Tonight, the IBGP intramural soccer team had our 2nd official game. We lost last week 5-4 (scoring all 4 goals in the last half), it was quite a comeback, just not quite enough. Tonight’s game was a different story. The opposing team wasn’t as fast as the team from last week, so we took advantage of that and posted a 10-0 shutout. No game next week, and I’m going to miss the game the week after, but I’m looking forward to our fourth and final game, with hopes of the playoffs afterwards!
One of these would be excellent as well. *drool*
The Satchel
This is what I bought with the gift certificate that my dad gave me for Christmas.
Angela has been fueling my addiction for Saddleback leather for the last 6 months. First, she got me a “small gadget pouch” that I use for my iPod for my birthday. Then she surprised me again this winter with a “small wallet,” which is similar to my timbuk2 wallet but much cooler. It has two slits for CCs, a spot for cash, and the coolest part is the windowed slot for ID (easy to show and slide out with your thumb). Both of those items are the “chestnut” color, which looks great on the small items I think.
Now, I now have the large satchel and I am irreversibly hooked on saddleback. The satchel is the “tobacco” color. The coolest part of this finish is the feel. It has matte finish and a satiny draw when you run you hand over it, not like the smooth shiny finish of the chestnut. Lastly, the smell of the leather is exquisite. I find myself pulling out my iPod case occasionally just to give it a whiff.
5 fingers
My vibram five finger ‘shoes’ just came from moosejaw, courtesy of my mom’s holiday gift. Thanks mom!
It was recommended that I start out with some socks, too. These things
Also, seeing as there is about 2″ 3″ of snow on the ground now, and sub 20 degree temperatures, I’ll just be using these inside for my exercises for a while. I’ve been playing with a little P90X videos, and they are wearing me out!
Tonight I am playing soccer with my fellow classmates, our team: “The Nerd Herd”. As usual with teams that I join, we lost our first game (luckily it didn’t count). Tonight’s does count, so hopefully we will step up our game.
A new year
I’m back in school after having about a month off of classes. The time off was nice, I spent some visiting family and hanging out in Columbus, while Angela was still working.
Along with resuming classes (not terribly exciting), I’ve begun a new rotation as well. I am now working in a Pharmacogenomics lab. My project is to determine which of two mutations is responsible for alternative splicing in a gene. The project is cardiovascular related, and I am finding that I am somewhat drawn to that field. I think that I will enjoy this rotation, as I will be using a lot of hands on molecular genetics, as well as potentially using (or at least being near) some big fancy instruments, such as the SOLiD next generation sequencer.
Which should be able to do what the human genome project took years to do in just a few days.
All-in-all, things are going well, and I am looking forward to getting deeper into this project!
Almost finished the first full quarter
Classes have been going well, I may have even learned something. So far we’ve covered nucleic acids, proteins, and genetics and cancer. Tomorrow we will be starting a new module on transcription and translation. This will go through the end of the quarter in early December.
My second rotation is going very well. I am enjoying the research (creating an mRNA library and generating mutations in a cancer susceptibility gene to determine changes in protein expression). The lab environment is also much more welcoming than my previous lab, so I could see actually staying here as an option.
Outside of school things have been going pretty well, too. Hanging out with friends, eating out for tasty food (mostly indian), dog parks, working out at the RPAC (campus gym), biking and learning about bike repair have been just a few of my recent activities. I have also been, on occasion, rowing with the club crew team, and assisting with novice practice. I am looking forward to some time off in December.
Angela just said that Dill “prostated herself across the floor”
Over a month
I’m about to wrap up my 5th week in graduate school. Last week I took my first test (haven’t gotten it back, of course). I finally wrangled my cells to grow about as fast as I can handle, but they immediately proceeded to not work in my experiment. Oh, well.
This last weekend I went back to Philadelphia to ride in the Livestrong Challenge. Unfortunately, due to severe weather the ride was cut short (forced to finish on the 70 mile loop, instead of the 100 mile loop). At the time, it didn’t bother me since I wasn’t sure I’d make it very happily. Now, after realizing that the 70 mile route was significantly easier (shorter and much smaller hills), I don’t have as much of a sense of accomplishment.
Tomorrow is the last day of wet-lab in our class. We will be moving on to microscopy and introduction to the core facilities on campus, I’m looking forward to it.
All-in-all, things have been good. I’ve been working out a lot more (running with the dog, biking to and from school, working out on campus), I even ran 3 miles this morning!
