Subject: PHYSICIAN'S DICTATOR CODES [sic]

I do believe they meant dictation. Lols.

Thank you for a totally awesome weekend. Things go boom, big badda boom! Thanks for hosting and making creme brulee french toast, missysedai, and thanks to vayacondia and 3339666 for driving - wouldn't have made it otherwise. And, for the record, the mint juleps were insane.

P.S. There should always be cupcakes by angelcorrine and jam by hennyanya.

jsbowden
We continue to live in fear. (That was what you were going for, wasn't it?)

I apologize for being so behind on lj, I hope I've caught up with everything important.

Beyond that, I just really felt the need to mention the following.

In the middle of all the coverage of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays, the fact that somebody really admirable died was lost, and that makes me sad. She received none of the attention of the others, as they were more familiar to the public at large, but she deserved at least that much respect and more. I wish her and her family peace. The world's lost a good one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/25/2608384.htm?section=justin
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/23/obit.jerri.nielsen/index.html

Posting for a few select people - in case you find your way here.

Inquiry:

1. Leaving Thursday, 7/2 in morning??
1a. Directions to my place? your place? any place?
1b. Happy to acquire map-age as needed (I think I still have some, actually).

2. Exchange emails so we can exchange cell numbers, in case of last minute type stuff or getting lost?

3. Hopefully there's room to bring 1 bag, 1 sleeping bag, 1 pillow? If you'd like, I can bring more than 1 sleeping bag and pillow.

4. Coming back Sunday, 7/5 early-ish? If I could get back by 7 or a little later, that would be very awesome, as I have to be at work at 7am on Monday.

5. Plan to take a turn paying for gas with swipey card, but happy to provide cash if you prefer, although you'll have to let me know so I get some beforehand.

I'm goin' home early! (insert mildly deranged giggle here)

C'mon, guess!

I finally went to dance class again last night. Allow me to point out that it is not a good idea to suddenly exercise after not exercising for a length of time (say elbow, back, knee and ankle). Started layering doing stuff with your top half while shimmying; this is not easy. One's body apparently is under the delusion that both halves are generally supposed to go in the same direction. Other moves, could not seem to kick with hip drop, only hip lift - which is not how it works and is really not attractive - and does bad things to your balance. Although it amuses other people when you keep listing.

The tire thing is getting more entertaining, but I think I am going to stick with what I decided to try in the first place and go to the least expensive place and just deal with it. Interestingly, there is a site called My Tire Monkey in NC, which, if I'd found it sooner, I might have tried. It seems to save money, if nothing else. I'm mildly amused by the whole nitrogen thing. I'd try it just because I'm into the whole do the experiment yourself and make your own observations thing, but you seem to have to go to more expensive places to get it and that's not worth the money at all. Besides, I'm sure I could find a whipped cream cylinder somewhere.

Got the July 2 - July 5 request approved. Now, must find out if road trip is, indeed, a possibility (feel free to facilitate).

2 - two - whole slides done today = 16 images! That's only because I cheated and got to start early so had 3 1/2 hours on the scope. Shh, don't tell.

Ear worms du jour: Oo, ah, just a little bit; It feels so good; Shine on harvest moon. I told you there was something wrong with my brain.

Went for a short walk, maybe a mile, between thunderstorms last night (or was it the night before?). My brain's definitely not working. Anyway, failing utterly on the whole running thing thus far.

On the upside, I'm hoping to get my new tires tomorrow morning. I have to go see what they've got.

Also, if I have missed your birthday this week or am about to, I would like to formally offer congratulations on the annual acknowledgement of your continued existence.

I got a lot done today, but look at the time.

Finished another 1 1/2 slides worth of pics (12!!!).

Day 2 on the IHC. Minor (ok could've been major) emergency there. Did check to see if we had antibodies before starting. Did not actually remove from box and light-proof wrappings to see if there was anything in vials. Oops. Somebody, who would suffer greatly in Guilder if I could figure out who, put back an empty vial of antibody (ok, it might have had 1-2ul of something in it). Fortunately, found another lab after poking around for a while that had unconjugated antibody, so am making an educated guess on dilutions and crossing fingers.

Pretty sure I did something else, but am not remembering.

Kind of tired.

Wonder if have wine at home, although, I should get some sorting and discarding taken care of and need to be semi-functional for that.

Twelve images this morning!
8 new controls of various kinds running on IHC (with a control for the controls :))
Sort of organized chart of all remaining images to be done.

Not exercising much. Good start on packing, though. Lots of trash (omg, I think I'm going to end up having killed an entire forest by myself, nevermind the petrochemically derived stuff). Wow, I have a lot of books. And they are heavy. And I have not packed a third of them yet. Did I mention I seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff? Have already filled one large box with things to donate or give away.

It seems my brain cannot simply rest quietly. At every opportunity the last couple days it has been doing things I do not remember suggesting. Today, it has been talking to me in a British accent (the upper crusty kind) and singing "This is a fine romance" (Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire old movie version) and some other things. Yesterday, it was playing variations on "Victimae Pascali Laudes" on a full blown organ. I wonder if you can retrain your brain.

I got 6 1/2 hours of sleep last night! Whee!

One more slide/8 more scope pics done.

Control mouse ascended to the pantheon of research mini-gods. Or maybe that's hemi-semi-demi gods. They're brave, though, they don't quaver.

I need to buy tires. I am perusing tirerack.com, which is quite useful, but I don't know where to go around here that's reliable. Any suggestions? I have already determined that it is likely unnecessary for me to purchase anything fancy and high priced.

Today's xkcd was painfully punny enough, but the comment threads include such gems as "Fun fact: A 28-day period is almost exactly 30 octaves below A-440."

Hahahahahahahha! Ow!

This makes everything better :)

Cool! NPR did a piece on the Detroit train station, otherwise known as Michigan Central Station, this morning.

Lazy links:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104873009
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/06/trains.html

-Department lab meeting in am.
-Pictures on microscope (only got 4 done in 2 hours, but they do take a long time). 3 pairs=6 slides=48 images down, 5 pairs=10slides=80 images to go.
-Took care of some clinical paperwork.
-Thought I was going to join some people out for lunch, realized do not have car, called to tell them couldn't join them and found out they decided not to go anyway because it was raining.
-Had 3 oz. of tuna, some ryvita, dried apples and water for lunch.
-Got signature from last committee member approving my thesis draft and faxed to program office.
-Mailed reimbursement paperwork from big meeting.
-Discovered highlighting while walking is not as efficient as it might seem.
-Thought I was going to take a walk, chickened out because it was raining heavily, realized it stopped raining so heavily, chickened out anyway.
-Printed out directions to park where will do 2-3 mile (they are unclear on this point) fundraising walk thing tomorrow am, realize due to weather it will be muggy, muddy, buggy walk and decide need to get more sunscreen and repellent, as well as plastic bags or something to prevent mudding of car.

I think that's most of it.

Missed a chance to see Up last night. Went home and ended up asleep on the couch. I's tired. I slept decently Thursday night but almost none Wednesday night. Last night was so-so once I relocated from the couch to the bedroom. Spent this morning in the lab (surprise). Plan on working on cleaning up/organizing and throwing out large amounts of stuff starting today. I need to downsize. I have a tendency to keep everything because, eventually, almost everything has some sort of use. Also, growing up without the wherewithal to constantly buy something new every time you needed stuff is an encouragement to keep and creatively reuse stuff. At some point, though, that's too much stuff. Especially if you keep moving around the country every 3-5 years. Yes, I plan to stop that sometime soon, but meanwhile will be downsizing for all the practical reasons.

Will take a break this evening to attend a birthday party for two acquaintances that is supposed to involve laser tag, go carts, bumper boats and other mature type entertainment.

I spent an hour sweating and ouching in dance class last night. That's exercise, right? It just reinforces that I should be doing more to increase my stamina and muscle strength, though.

P.S. There's no mood icon for sweaty.

Arrived intact. Thank you for an awesome weekend. It was great to see everyone.

One meeting, 5 minute talk, finish up some paperwork - airplane! Not completely paperwork free, but airplane! Whee!

*bounce**bounce**bounce*

no, not packed - planned to yesterday but fell asleep when sat down - oh, well - none of you care what I'm wearing, right?