On work and other pursuits

So I'm headed for Altanta tomorrow to visit my sister and brother-in-law for a (very) long labor day weekend. Yay! As a result I have been trying to get a little bit more accomplished at work this week. Luckily I managed to save the images I got at my early date with the microscope... that is a big step up from last time. More imaging is in my future, I think about 5 hours. Here's some good news, though, my friend Ethan is now Dr. Ethan Chiang, so congrats to him! Also, this means you can see the cake a created in his honor.

About a year or so ago, I started making cell/science themed cakes for people in our lab defending their theses (what we call the B-exam). This is a fine example, actually one of the best, I think. Ethan has been doing a bunch of studies looking at protein distribution on mast cell surfaces using gold labeled antibodies and scanning electron microscopy. So I decided to create a tiered cake representation of an electron micrograph (figure 1D, in fact), complete with gold particles (in two sizes). It was a big hit- maybe because of the chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting? Or maybe because we are all a little geeky? Anyway, the cake isn't doing me any good in the getting-back-into-pre-Brazil-shape stakes, but I always was a sucker buttercream.

The pottery studio offically opened back up yesterday, so I headed over there. Where I ran in to Gary, a great guy and a great potter, we had a nice chat. Then he snapped this picture of me hard at "work":

All this activity got me thinking about how much time I spend on projects unrelated to my "work", i.e. my PhD/technician job. I wouldn't have it any other way, I love getting my grubby little paws into all sorts of creative mischief- including this little blog. Just think , though, if I could channel all that energy into my research- wow- it boggles the mind. But it would never work, all this creative stuff is the stuff that keeps me sane so I can still do the research, even when nothing seems to be working. I forsee a lot more food, pottery and knitting in my future. Maybe even the odd upholstery project- my batting finally came in, so now I have no excuse!

Ack!

How is it possible that it has been nearly a week since my last post. That is horrible! Wait- why wasn't anyone yelling at me. Or at the very least a little concerned about my absence... hmm maybe because I'm one of the few to actually read this thing, and yelling at one's self isn't generally very effective.

Anyway, you haven't missed too much. I'm getting back into the swing of things at work, so that is taking a bit of effort. Friday I did get something cool in the mail:

It wasn't actually a surprise, but I am still entranced by Amazon's 2-day shipping. As well as the fact that they have the best garlic press collection I've ever seen (this one has two inserts with different size holes!). So now I have a whole bunch of new recipes to play with!

Otherwise my weekend consisted of the outdoor photo shoot I set up for my pottery. I used to take pictures inside my apartment, but with leaves on the trees around my house, it really resembles a dark cave inside. Not ideal for photography.

So imagine this (sorry I forgot to take a picture): me, my camera, pottery, the table I usually use to hold my portable grill, 3 plastic bins of crafts (stacked, to make a higher level on the table), and one roll of white paper for the background being held in place by a Coleman fuel tank and pink lab tap set up in the front lawn of my apartment house at 10 a.m. Sunday morning. I'm sure I was entertaining to my neighbors.

The only other notable thing I did was finally watch the netflix DVD that has been sitting around my apartment for the last 2 months (I'm really bad about watching them). So yes I just paid $20 to watch one DVD. At least it was good. So below is the copy of Bread & Tulips that can finally go onto its next destination.