Monday, January 19, 2009

Update-O-Rama

Haven't posted in a while, but I have been busy busy. Right after my birthday (oh, here was my most excellent cake.....)

(It's shaped like an octopus). Anyway, right after my birthday I was right back into the lab. I finished prepping a bunch of RNA samples, so they are ready for microarrays, one step closer to being finished. I also have been working hard on data analysis. This has not been a smooth as I hoped, but mainly that is because I have been working with software I am relatively unfamiliar with (JMP Genmoics as opposed to Matlab, which I normally use), so I have been taking the time to learn the tricks and identify potential bugs. What I am trying to say, is that all of this has eaten up a lot of my time, and being on the computer so much in the lab, I am less inclined to use it at home. I also sent out my first job application, so despite computer setbacks I feel one step closer to graduation.

Outside the lab, Russell and I went Kayaking off Bear Cut last weekend, it was a pleasant excursion, and now that we are keeping our kayaks at RSMAS again, we'll go out more frequently. Our CSA (community sponsored agriculture...you buy direct from a farmer) has continued, and we are thus learning to eat all kinds of vegetables we wouldn't necessarily buy from the grocery store. This weeks learning was collards, we made a stew of sorts. Oh, and with our Amazon.com christmas gifts, Russell and I got this book.

I already own its companion (CIA's The Professional Chef). This is the baking and pastry textbook. The recipes are cool, if very large scale, but Sunday morning I made awesome muffins out of it.

Oh, and in other christmas gift uses, I have been using my slime tires. They work. A demonstration:

That green spot is an actual size hole in my tire. I had heard what I thought was a puncture riding home the previous day, but got home, and then next morning the tire was still full. I rode round-trip to and from school on that tire (didn't notice it until I was on the road and saw the spot of green) and it did just fine. I have since changed and patched the tube, I'm not pushing my luck.

And finally, tomorrow I will be disappearing for at least a few days again. I leave for the field tomorrow. A wacky, fun(?) road trip to collect my final fish across five states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas). Hopefully we'll do the whole trip in 5-7 days, but I have the van reserved for 10. I'll blog the trip when I return.

1 comment:

Fran said...

Glad to see you back on line. What a cake. I'd sure rather eat it than the real thing!