<$BlogRSDUrl$>

21 April 2004

Rrrrr.... 

Everything I touch today (here in the lab) is turning out to be crap. My DNA purification is total crap. My past 3 days worth of careful work maybe gone. Okay it is not totally crap; I am just getting confecting answers as to how much DNA and in the case of two samples, if it is actually there…damn machines!
I think that I should just go home and take a nap and get ready for my trips. I just home that this trend does not continue…I cannot wait until 1st of May when I am back here in D.C. and everything is over…

Do, a dear. A female deer... 

I awoke this morning a bit before 5:00 am. I was wide-awake and I could not figure out why. I knew it was not The Kitten who awoke me, because when I sat up in bed he made my all time favorite kitten noise. It is kind of a cross between a purr and…I don’t know what, but something else. It is like he is saying “Whaaat?” at having been woken up, not really angry or anything, just wondering why he was awaken. (When he is asleep, sometimes, I pet him so that he wakes up and makes that noise…Usually he just looks at me like “Okay, lovey time! And stretches out so that I can pet him better…I just love that noise so much…It is such a cat noise!) But anyway, I got up out of bed and padded around the apartment for a few moments. Took my allergy meds and turned on the fan in bedroom and settled back down in bed. The Kitten came up to me, and laid down with me so that I could pet him. (He was a bit put off when I would not feed him when I got up and was walking around, so I guess that pets were better than nothing!) And then I heard it…someone was singing arias at 5:00 am…I just laid there petting The Kitten and listening to the woman sing. She did (does) have a beautiful voice, but singing outside at 5:00 am? Wonders never stop…I soon drifted back to sleep, but kept on waking up after a few moments. (The singing stopped after about 20 minutes). So At 6:00 am (10 minutes before the first alarm was set to go off, I got up at least The Kitten was happy that he had finally gotten breakfast, after all today is “wet food” Wednesday!

Many things to fix up here at work before I head off in the morning for the start of my trips…ahhh…how I wish my bed was not calling to me right now!

20 April 2004

Heat and tempers.... 

The Kitten has been behaving better as of late. But it is only because it has been too hot for him to misbehave. When I get back from my trips he NEEDS to go get his “summer shave down”. Now, Dave and I clipped him last year, which The Kitten did not like - at first. Much of his beautiful 4-inch long hair was trimmed down to about an inch to an inch and a half – he did not like the look (and to be frank, neither did we) but The Kitten soon came to like the coolness of the shorter hair. But Dave and I were never able to all of the hair trimmed and, well it was not exactly what we had been going for in the first place, we’ll leave it at that he looked like some kind of rabies crazed animal…a cute one…but one with rabies…So this year I have spent time talking to groomers. It was not that easy to find a groomer that was willing to do a cat, even though he has no (front) claws…but finally I have found one and we will be making an appointment to see her when I get back for a “Lion Cut”…We will be keeping his face fur and tail nice and bushy, but the rest of it is going. After the past few days of sitting in front of the fan and playing with ice cubes, I am sure that he will be happy with his new “cooler” hair cut, plus I will not be the one (or Dave) that will be suffering from kitten bites…

So on Thursday morning I’ll be off to Florida (Fort Lauderdale to be exact) as my grandfather has had (another) heart attack. This was caused by a lack of communications between his cardiologist and his oncologist and the subsequent drug interaction…

****RANT****Okay people, we have programs where you can type in medicines and it will alert you to interactions…these programs were designed for a reason and you need to start using them…you have MD after your name – live up to it!!!!****End Rant****

He seems to be doing better and has asked me to come down and help him out for a bit, so that is where I’ll be. I then have to go back up to PA and hang out with Aunt Beth while my mother is on her first Aunt Beth free vacation in about 5 years…so I may not be posting as regularly as usually for the next two weeks or so…pin the mean time, I have much to do here at work before I head off…all of these 12+ hours work days are starting to kill me…

19 April 2004

My views... 

I know that you are all just SO excited!

Abortion?:Not for me thank you, but I’ll let others make up their own minds. Late term, no need for it – go ahead and ban it.
Death Penalty?:What ever happened to “hard labor for criminals and not mothers"? I say that we should bring back chain gangs! Either that or we could start a “Prometheus bound” movement. Now that would be a deterrent!
Prostitution?:It’s illegal (w/the exception of Nevada) and people still pay for it and are in the trade. Make it legal, taxable and safer for all parties involved!
Alcohol?:If you are old enough to vote, drive, buy and shoot a gun and die for your country, then you should be allowed to have a drink before our lovely President sends you out to the mine fields!
Marijuana?:No reason for it! We have it in synthetic forms for use without all of the bad crap in it!
Other drugs?:No need...
Gay marriage?:Why should gays and lesbians be happier than the heterosexuals? Make marriage only a religious ceremony. For all people weddings preformed by someone other than a religious cleric - call it a civil union!
Illegal immigrants?:Now, we could talk all day on this one...but the long and the short, if you are not “allowed” to be here, whatever the reason – go home!
Smoking?:Fine, do what you like, but other than Aunt Beth not in my house. She's 90! If you are 90, you would be allowed too smoke in my house too!, …
Drunk driving?:No patience for it. Take away their car and their license…too bad. From my father “Driving is a privilege, not a right!”
Cloning?:If that is really what you want to do. A person is who they are due to personal life experiences, not just genetics…
Racism?:Once again, no patience for it…
Premarital sex?:"Love the one you're with"
Religion?:"Reach out and touch faith. Your own personal Jesus" - Depeche Mode
The war in Iraq?:Wrong...Just so wrong...Yes, he needed to go, but then again so does Bush....
Bush?:See above
Downloading music?:I am lucky I can check my e-mail and update my journal at work! Let us not push it!
The legal drinking age?:Ummm…isn’t this redundant? You what to know what (age) it is? The law says 21!
Porn?:Doesn;t do it for me, but if you like it, go for it!
Suicide?:Not for me. It leaves a whole lot of problems afterwards...

What is your stand on..... brought to you by BZOINK!

Who would have thought? 

sandra is the #16 most common female name.
0.629% of females in the US are named sandra.
Around 801975 US females are named sandra!


BUT...for my nickname:

sandi is the #1162 most common female name.
0.006% of females in the US are named sandi.
Around 7650 US females are named sandi!
source namestatistics.com

17 April 2004

Ahhh, Sun! 

So I am here in the computer users area just typing up an update as I have my semi-monthly deep conditioning treatment in my hair right now. (It is a requirement when you have naturally curly hair!) It has to sit in my hair for at least a half hour before it can be rinsed out, and as i don;t just want to sit around my apartment, I decided to go out and take a walk around and enjoy the beautiful weather. I came by the computer users area and decided to pop in and put up an update. :)
I am very excited right now as there are so many tulips that have just started to bloom and they look beautiful. They are one of my fav. flowers! But I am always sad to see them go. They do not last long, but they are at least the start of the blooming season. They are some of the first colourful flowers to come up. Soon it will be rose season (june to september, they thrive in the heat and humidity of the area) here in D.C. - I cannot wait!
Tonight I'll be going to dinner with my old co-worker Lisa and her husband. We'll be going to mexican as the metro is having track work done right now and to try to take the Metro into the city would take too long.
I am not sure what i'll end up doing for Sunday, but I am sure that it will be outside considering that the weather is going to be in the low 80's...maybe I'll just go sit in the sun and enjoy it!

16 April 2004

Friday Funnies! 

I swear, this is one of the funniest things that I have seen in awhile. We have been watching it at work for the past few days when things get to be a bit too much! Let me know what you think!

Warm Weather! Ahhh! 

Things are beautiful here in D.C. this morning. Not much to report other than seeing Leslie Stall kissing Allen Greenspan good bye this morning at the top of the Du Pont North Metro! I was waiting to cross the street when I heard I voice that was just SO familiar! I turned around and it took me a few moments to figure out whom these people were! He was so cute! She was talking and he was just standing their ready to kiss her! Finally she said that she would call him later on at work, he nodded and then kissed her…oh so very cutely…and then wondered off down the street with his brief case.

There really is not much going on here at work today. There are just a few odds and ends to clean up today here in the lab. I am thinking that it may be an early day for me as the weather is just beautiful. No real plans as of yet for the weekend, I am just going to wait and see how it plays out. I am really looking forward to Monday (I know! Monday?!) as the weather will be in the low 80’s! Perfect! Summer is on its way!

15 April 2004

Come back to me!!! 

I have had one of those days. I have lost a bunch of DNA samples some where in one of the –20C freezers and so I’ll have to re-grow the bacteria and then harvest their DNA - Thus I’ll be starting pretty much from scratch…I am none to happy about this, but what am I going to?

I have been thinking for a few weeks now, that I was missing one of my –20C boxes but could not remember what was in it - Now (of course) I remember - It had all of my PCR reagents along with all of my DNA samples that I need…damn it!
I guess it was a good thing that my sequencing gel did not pour out correctly this morning; I have no DNA that can be run on it anyway!

I also spent a few hours this afternoon trying to figure out the difference between two groups of tubes. They are labeled in a similar fashion (they were call had code numbers on the tops), but I knew that they were different. After (finally) consulting my notebook, I figured out the difference – not only are they from two different dates (I knew that from the tubes themselves) but also they are two different projects! One group of tubes are just DNA that I have purified from cell lines as I’ll need it to mutate at a later date and the other group of tubes are from the DNA that has ALREADY been mutated…Oy Vey!

One of the other students has been looking for the DNA that he purified today. He left it in a 1.5 ml (unlabeled) tube on a bench and now it is missing. I told him that if he does not find it I’ll re-do his prep next week when I do my own…he was pleased with the offer, but still pretty pissed that it is missing. (He is walking around kicking the trashcans and looking everywhere right now. He was just standing over me looking down my front. And no, he was not looking down my shirt (okay, maybe he was) but her was checking out the pockets of my lab coat - just in case I decided to pull a VIP (vial in pocket). When I am finished writing/posting this I am going to take him out for some ice cream to make his day a bit better!)

It seems like everyone is just losing his or her DNA around here today…

I am looking forward to next week when almost everyone will be gone to a conference! It will be nice and peaceful around here and much more relaxed.

As to the weekend, I am not sure what I’ll be doing. I was invited to parties on both Friday and Saturday nights…but I am not sure if I’ll be going. My friend Lisa asked me if I might want to go out for dinner or something this weekend. I use to work with here, but got a new job closer to her house, 15 minute commute now -vs- 1.5 HOUR commute each way when she was here - I can totally understand why she left! She too is from the Main Line & Western Suburbs of Philly, which is very nice!

Other than that, not much is going on. The weather has finally started to clear up around here! I was SO happy to wake up this morning and to find out that the nasty weather has moved on. I think that maybe on Sunday I’ll walk up to the coffee house/bagel place and have breakfast out on the patio while I read my paper! Monday they say it is going to be in the low 80’s! Summer, here I come!!!!

14 April 2004

watch out! 

I just got a call from KD. She wants to go out and play. I can understand that feeling.
I have not been sleeping well the past few days. I have been having problems falling asleep, but once I have gotten asleep, I sleep like the dead. But not being able to fall asleep until about 2:30 and having to get up at 6:15 am has been no fun. I have reached the “bouncing off the walls” stage. Phil threatened to kick me out of the lab today, as I was just too hyper. He said that he could feel the energy pouring out of me today. He decided to leave and get a few things done at home as to staying here at work (with me running around). I feel kind of unloved…but I am pretty sure that I’ll be over it by Thursday morning when I get into work. I am looking forward to going out rather than just sitting around my place reading or whatever I have been doing for a few days should be much better! We have decided that we are going to go out to a place in Cleveland Park so that we can throw some darts. I have not thrown darts in a long time. My mother just called to check in and reminded me to give KD her Easter candy - so hopefully KD will give me a ride home so that I can give her the candy. After all, it is not everyday that one gets candy from Bevins. It is a family run candy story just outside Philly that makes all of it own candy (with the exception of the Marzipan that they get from a nice Italian lady in South Philly). They even make the jellybeans! (Kate has had their candy before and can attest to how good it is!) I am sure that KD will enjoy her Easter basket, whenever she gets it! I just hope that The Kitten is not too upset with me for having to wait for his dinner!

ahh? 

I got back to my place last night at 10:30 due to an ill passenger on the Metro. A man had a seizure on my train (but not the same car) and everyone had to be off loaded and they moved us to the other side so that Metro was using only one rail from Metro Center to Union Station. As were all crowded in like cattle in the stock yard, the passenger recovered and we were told that we could go back to the proper side of the tracks and re-load onto the Metro…Trust me, I am glad that he is better – but it was just the whole mixed up plans thing after a very long day. The Kitten was very upset with me for being so late…excuses don’t fly with him!

I went to the post office this morning to send in my State Tax Return (and to part with a painful amount of money). I am glad that I went this morning and did not wait until the last day that it can be postmarked. After I had finished my transaction I tanked the woman behind the counter and wished her a good day and tomorrow (as I said that I am sure that it will be crazy with everyone rushing). She smiled at me and told me that I made her day as people are usually nasty and mean after having waited in line, and I had been so patient and nice when her computer crashed and it took 10 minutes to do a simple transaction that should have only taken a moment. I told her that she made my day by telling me that. It is nice to know that when you try to be pleasant to others, that there are people who notice it, as to the ones that are just nasty no mater what you do!

I called into work to let them know that I was (finally) on my way into work and popped down the stairs to the Metro. I was reading “Bridget Jones – The Edge of Reason” while I awaited my train. When it arrived in the station, I closed the book and waited for the people to get off the train before I (and about 50 of my closest “friends”) got on. As I was getting on a man (older middle aged) rushed past me to get off the train and said “O! Good book! She gets her good man in the end, just like you will too!”

I am not sure what to make of that comment…but I guess it is good and I’ll take it…right?

13 April 2004

Old and Young?! 

You said your birthday is 8 / 31 / 1977 which means you are 26 years old and about:
60 years 10 months younger than Walter Cronkite, age 87
57 years 3 months younger than Pope John Paul II, age 83
53 years 3 months younger than George Herbert Bush, age 79
45 years 11 months younger than Barbara Walters, age 72
43 years 9 months younger than Larry King, age 70
37 years 7 months younger than Ted Koppel, age 64
34 years 2 months younger than Geraldo Rivera, age 60
31 years 2 months younger than George W. Bush, age 57
26 years 2 months younger than Jesse Ventura, age 52
21 years 10 months younger than Bill Gates, age 48
17 years 0 months younger than Cal Ripken Jr., age 43
11 years 2 months younger than Mike Tyson, age 37
7 years 1 month younger than Jennifer Lopez, age 33
1 year 8 months younger than Tiger Woods, age 28
4 years 10 months older than Prince William, age 21

and that you were:
24 years old at the time of the 9-11 attack on America
22 years old on the first day of Y2K
20 years old when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash
17 years old at the time of Oklahoma City bombing
16 years old when O. J. Simpson was charged with murder
15 years old at the time of the 93 bombing of the World Trade Center
13 years old when Operation Desert Storm began
12 years old during the fall of the Berlin Wall
8 years old when the space shuttle Challenger exploded
6 years old when Apple introduced the Macintosh
5 years old during Sally Ride's travel in space
3 years old when Pres. Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr.
2 years old at the time the Iran hostage crisis began

Thanks to broomster (over at Live Journal)
If you want to try it too, here's the link: http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdm/age1.html

Blah, blah, blah 

…I have a bad case of the “Blahs”…it has been raining here for 3 days now...but they the weather people tell us that it is going to be sunny and warm (in the 70's) this weekend, so that should help...I am having one of those days. I am going to in the lab late tonight and the weather has been icky for the past few days and it is just not helping my mood. I have to radio label fresh probes today before I start in on the experiment so it will be another one of those wonderful 9+ hour experiments. Soon, my whole life will be about these EMSA’s…the last few (okay 8 or so) that I have done have shown nothing…I just have to keep in mind that you learn as much from “no information, this SNP does not cause a shift in binding” experiments as you do from the ones that give “Oooo! A shift! All that I need to do is find out what it is and then I can publish these!” results.
At this point I am guessing that I’ll be out of here by about 9:00 pm tonight. Not always the best, but at least I will not be catching the last shuttle to the Metro and praying that I don’t miss it going in the direction that I want it to. Thankfully, I can take the Metro either way. The way that I want it to go drops me off 2 blocks from my apartment and the other way I have to pick up the Metro bus, but then it drops me off right in front of my place and I just have to walk into my building. I am sure that the kitten will be ticked off by the time that I get home as his dinner is going to be VERY late. I was going to go food shopping, but I am going to put that off now. If I am not too worn out by the time I get home, I am going to make another batch of the “finger print” cookies and send them off to Kate when I drop my taxes off at the post office. If one else want some cookies, let me know.
In the odd sightings of day report (okay maybe the week for this one): I was walking over to the radiation office to pick up some radioactive P32 ATP this morning and there were some workmen hanging out by one of the buildings. Now that in of its self was not odd as one the wings in the building is being gutted and new labs are being installed. These guys have been hanging out for about 2 weeks now and they always try talking to me, but as I do not know Spanish, it is kind of hard to communicate. The odd part of my morning was when one of them stood up and I realized that his pants were down around his ankles. And no, they were not just too big and fell down, they were unzipped as he made a big production about pulling them up and zipping them up. It just reconfirmed that “tighty whities” just don’t do it for me. I really did not know what to say to him, so I just shook my head and walked into the building…oh well…at least I got a chuckle out of it.

12 April 2004

Date Update... 

The date last Wednesday was really good! The food and company were wonderful! However, there was a small problem at the end of the date. After dinner we went back to my place, and he walked me to my door and came in for a bit. He played with the Kitten and decided that he was in love with him, but then again The Kitten is just so loveable, who could help themselves?
When it was time for him (the date not the Kitten) to go, he went to open the door to leave, and he could not get the door open and asked me to open it. I could not open it either. It ends up that the door handle broke inside. The gatehouse had to come down and take the door apart to let us out. The date waited with me until the door handle was replaced, which I told him that he did not have to do, but he insisted. The Gate keepers then told me that I would have to wait until more keys were cut in the morning to leave my apartment as I had the only key for the door. I ended up waiting until 5:30 pm on Thursday for the complex to get their act together in order to get the new keys cut (the complex keeps a copy of the apartment keys incase they need to get in or I lock myself out).
I was not please that I ended up missing work, but at least it should not be a night either one of us will forget soon. The date said that he had a really good time and that he would call me. I e-mailed him on Thursday after they dropped of the new keys to let him know what was going one and let him know that I really did enjoy myself the night before. He said that he had had a good time too and that he would call me after I got back from Easter in PA. So now we wait to see if he calls...And no, he did not take advantage of being locked in my apartment...although I told him that it would make a good story for him the next day at work and for his friends, he laughed and agreed.

07 April 2004

Ahhh! It is not funny!!! 

On Saturday Andrea and Bill were having a little get together. Lara was planning on going and I was not sure if I was going to go or not, I was waiting to see how cookie making was going. She was going to call a bit before she left for the party. The phrase for things not going well was “The lemmings were correct!”. Needless to say, Saturday never happened so there was no talk of lemmings. This morning I sat down at the table with my coffee and the Post and turned to the section that I always read first: the Style Section. So I am flipping through the comics when I come across this comic! (if it is after the 7th of April 2004, click to see the comic for that day!) I am not sure if God thinks that this is pretty funny or not…Lara found it pretty funny this morning on our walk to the metro at 7:00 am!!! At 6:00 am (when I found the comic in question) I did not find it funny at all…

I have been trying to get good DNA sequences for my work since about Christmas. There have been problems all around. I finally got everything to work and it looked beautiful until the gel got messy. Even on a mess gel, everything can look good, until the analysis…and that’s where you find out that the gel was the problem…Damn it!!! I cannot wait until we get the new sequencer that does not require gels and just pulls the liquid samples in directly…no more gels to mess everything up!

I am going to go home now…I cannot look at my analysis program anymore…

06 April 2004

"Coloured labels just can't fix every thing, you know" - Phil 

It has been one of those days…nothing seems to have gone right, but as of right now, the dinner date is still on…he has made the RSVP’s at the restaurant…and Abs…I know that you are watching! ;)
More in the morning…I have to go clean up what will now be known as the black whole of money here in the lab…my lab bench

05 April 2004

up date 

Ahh…weekends…why are they never long enough? Friday…other than staying at work to ungodly hour, I finally made it home thanks to KD. She picked me up in Dupont and drove me home as I had cramps that almost lead me to murder…yes, they were that bad. Saturday as I was running around getting everything cleaned and pretty, the boy called and canceled…I was not happy. I got a few lines and he ended up asking me out for dinner – we decided the place and the day and I said that I would call him tonight and let me know what time (I had to of course wait to see how things are here in the lab)! I’ll have to remember to call before the start of the finials tonight as I am pretty sure that he’ll be watching them. So rather than sit at home, I went over to Andrea and Bill’s for a bit with Lara and a bunch of other people…as usually it was wonderful seeing them together oh so happy. And of course Andrea and I were just talking a mile a minute! Lara and I did not get home until almost 4:00 am (due of course to the time change). I decided after getting up at 8:00 am and watching CBS Sunday Morning, that considering how cold it looked outside, I was going to have a couch day! I took a few naps, started to read The DiVinci Code, and took the phones off the hook – it was very nice to say the least! KD ended up coming over later on and we made some of the cookies that I had be going to make with the boy – I think that a good number of them were broken on purpose, but I cannot prove it exactly…She did not have to take the messed up and broken up ones…but it was nice of her to leave the pretty ones for everyone else.
My mother has also picked up KD, Andrea, and my Easter eggs! (They are handmade by a candy store in Philly, and are unbelievably good!) Everyone is excited about getting their Easter eggs and the sugar commas that will soon follow afterwards!

02 April 2004

Its the weekend! 

I could not believe that it was finally Friday this morning when I woke up. I have been waiting for Friday all week, as Friday would mean that Saturday was almost here! I have been waiting to sleep in for so long at this point. (I know, it is really silly, but we all need something!) Saturdays are the only days that I can sleep in and considering my schedule, I’ll be missing out on my “Sleep in Saturdays” for many weekends to come! When all of my crazy travel weekends are over, I am planning on going back to waiting tables every other weekend in the summer.

This weekend there is nothing much going on. I was planning on going over to the radio show this weekend when Dave said that we would be having it, but considering that I am not going to get out of the lab tonight until well after 8:00 pm tonight, and I still have to go to the food store for a few things. Sadly, I think that I am going to bail on showing up live for the show tonight and will have to do a call in.

I am going to start teaching cooking lessons on Saturday. He swears he is not sorry that he is not going out to watch the final four as his liver needs a break…how come I have a feeling that if he is still over when the Games start, we’ll be watching them? ;) The first lesson – cookies! I have figured that mosaic and finger print cookies would be good ones to start with as they are both pretty easy to make, they are colourful (as they for Easter), and they are really good! I have promised Abs that there will be cookies’ waiting for her when she gets back Friday night and Kate has also asked for cookies to be sent to her…

Lara has asked to stay at my place while I am in PA for the weekend as it is the same weekend that Abs will be back and she wants Nick and Abs to have some time alone after being apart (with the exception of short visits) for three months.

Sunday, I really don’t have anything plan. I have to remember to set the clocks ahead before going to bed on Saturday night so that I can wake up in time for CBS Sunday Morning!

01 April 2004

A rainy Thursday 

It is another rainy day outside today. It is cool which just makes everything damp. The weather people say that it is going to stop raining by Saturday. I am looking forward to a low-key weekend and sleeping in on Saturday. (I don’t sleep in on Sundays as A. it is wet food day, and the Kitten knows it and B. It is CBS Sunday Morning!) I am planning on making cookies this weekend so that I can drop some off for Abs homecoming (has it been 3 months already!?!?) and also so that I can bring some home for the family when I go back up to Philly next weekend. I may or may not have company for cookie making; I’ll have to wait to hear back from them. I have counted up the days and found out that I will be in PA for 15 days out of 30 this month!!! I’ll have the path between the two will be beaten down! But at least it is only a 2-hour drive between the two places. I went out to feed the meter a bit ago and there is a protest going on over at the hospital. There are a bunch of mommies and babies (of all ages) protesting as many of the midwives have been laid off from the hospital due to budget cuts. (Thankfully the research center and the hospital are no longer joined.) Somehow, I don’t think limiting people’s choices of who can provide their health care is going to help with attracting people to the hospital. Many of the children were little (2 to5) and they were all playing in mud puddles and trying not to get their signs muddy – but they looked like they were having so much fun that I wanted to join them – but I had to go back to work!

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Free Guestmap from Bravenet Free Guestmap from Bravenet
Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com