Science Monkey

See you in 2007, you big chickens!

One quick picture I’d like to share. I took this earlier this afternoon with my aforementioned camera. The sky was very pretty this afternoon, a lovely shade of blue with high, fluffy white clouds.

As you can probably guess, I’m back home safely. We were very fortunate on both of our travel days…we flew home the day after the blizzard in Denver, so there were delays all over the place. When we were leaving Madison, we heard an overhead page for a bus from Madison to Detroit. That’s a long bus ride. We landed in Gainesville about half an hour late, which is really not bad at all. Hell, half an hour late is largely par for the course flying into Gainesville, let alone flying in on such a busy day.
Emma and I spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with my folks. We had a nice smorgosbord-style dinner on Christmas eve, with very nice cheeses, sausages, and meatballs. We had pickled herring — apparently called ’sil’ — that my dad always has at Christmas. I’ve always found it repulsive, but this year I tried some. I was wrong. It’s pretty tasty. There’s probably a lesson there, eh?

Christmas day was warm and rainy, so we spent almost the entire day inside with my folks. I got some nice presents, including a new bed (well, Emma and I got a new bed) and a digital camera. The rose picture in the upper right corner of this post was taken with the camera, in fact. It’s a Nikon Coolpix P1, which is significantly more camera than I had before. I’m happy. It has lots of features that will take me months — at least — to explore. Okay, so admittedly it’s not the digital SLR I’d like to get someday, but it’s pretty nice.

Work is work. I’ve been gone for a week, so it’s nice to get back to the lab. The building is remarkably empty…I know it’s winter break and all, but I figured there’d be more people around. Whatever. I’ve only seen maybe two or three other grad students, and absolutely no faculty. I appreciate the quiet, but it’s just a little odd. I’m continuing to have encouraging data, so I feel pretty good about the path I’m on. Moving forward slowly is better than not moving at all.
Emma and I have three new residents at the house. As of Tuesday, we have three Plymouth Rock barred chickens living in a coop in our backyard! Woo! I’ve got a few pictures up on my Flickr page, with more to come later. They’re remarkably cute, actually. We’ve been spending a little time with them each morning and evening, trying to let them become accustomed to us. They’re friendly, but are (understandably) anxious about these two new big, pink monkeys who keep poking at them.

That’s probably enough for now. I’m tired and need to do a little work before I go crash. Type to you later.

We made it safely to Wisconsin by mid-afternoon today. The Atlanta airport was as busy as I’ve ever seen, with more army apparently going home than I think I’ve ever seen in one place before. We decided that this was probably a busy travel day, between the students heading home from school, the holiday travel crowd, and the every-Monday road warriors. Our flights were smooth and on time, but it was clear that even one hiccup could have sent our plans spiraling out of control. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and we had an easy trip.

Grandma seems very down. I’ve seen her physically infirm before, but this is the first time I think I’ve seen her without her usual personality. Hopefully it’s a lot of little things — and maybe she needs an antidepressant or her antidepressants adjusted slightly — but I’m a little concerned. We’ll see.

Before I crash into a travel-addled coma, I would like to reiterate one thing: Leinenkugel’s beer is excellent. If you’re able, go buy some. I’d personally recommend the sunset wheat, but that’s all I’ve sampled so far. Why don’t we have nice, small breweries like this in Florida? Too many rednecks drinking Keystone Light, I suppose. *sigh*

I finally went and had my eyes examined today, for the first time in at least two years. Probably three to four. My prescription didn’t change significantly, and in fact one eye improved slightly. Odd. I bought a sweet new pair of glasses which, unfortunately, won’t be ready for 3-5 days, which translates to after Christmas for me as I’ll be gone next week. They’re matte black, rectangular with rounded corners, made with some really cool flexible metal. Emma gave me an old pair of frames of hers, so I also ordered new lenses for those. They’re very much like my current pair, oval and gold/bronze-colored. Like my new glasses, though, they’re made of the cool, flexible metal. I’m pretty stoked, which is totally lame, I know.

Work is still showing progress, which makes me very happy. I’m not going to believe that this is working until we’re done, but I’m very cautiously optimistic. I actually have enough data to make two figures for our current grant application!

Emma and I, social butterflies that we are, have four parties to attend in the next two days. Tomorrow night is a party for the residents in her program, hosted by one of the faculty. Then, on Saturday, we have her departmental party, my departmental party, and a party for a friend who is leaving Gainesville. She’s heading home to Scotland (I think), which is probably good for her but sucks for us. I wish I had spent more time with her, because I think she’s very interesting. Oh well. I’ll try to be good about emailing. Plus, nice excuse to visit Scotland, eh?

Enough for now. I’m going to go crash.

WTDISTT: 2:45 PM.

I had a spark of progress today at work, for the first time in what seems like months. I’m getting results that fit with our current models and are reproducible, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

More typing tomorrow. I’m exhausted and heading to bed.

WTDISTT: 1:45 PM.

Nothing exciting to report for Tuesday. I’m trying to button things up before next week’s trip to Wisconsin. Hopefully today will be more interesting.

WTDISTY: 1:30 PM.

Tonight’s Jeopardy! featured a familiar face to Emma and me. We met the contestant in the middle, John, at my audition. He’s retired from “law enforcement” (I think that translates to FBI) and is a really nice guy. We actually met him and his niece at the audition.

I thought he was probably the best out of our group, but I think I was second best. Man, oh man did he ever get plastered today, though…I’m almost (*almost*) happy I didn’t get called for his spot. I’m not sure I could’ve beat Christian, who seems to have the Ken Jennings buzzer-fu going on, but I’d like to think I would have been a little more competitive. Hard to say. Maybe the phone will ring tomorrow.

WTDISTT: 1:30 PM.

Vince and I went out to Paynes Prairie last night and watched the shuttle Discovery launch. The night was wonderfully clear and we had a great view. I managed to take a few pictures which aren’t terribly exciting, but we had a nice time. I was pleased to see how many cars and families were out last night to watch the launch.