Science Monkey

I have some exciting news, but I’m forbidden from blogging about it for the time being. If you ask, I’ll talk to you about it in person, but we don’t necessarily want it to be public knowledge for the time being. No, it’s not a baby.

I’ve had a really nice few days since I wrote to you last. When was that? Thursday? Friday? I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s been good. I’ve been able to spend some decent time with my lovely wife which has been a nice change. Pain management is good. Well, the pain management rotation is good. Chronic pain management is probably good, as well, but I’m not making any statements about that at this point in time. Yesterday, for example, I rode in with Emma to work so we were able to go out to both breakfast in the morning and dinner at night. How cool is that? And on a Tuesday, no less.

I also went and gave blood yesterday, which always makes me feel good. I feel good every time that I donate, but then put off donating when I’m next able to for months and months. I’ve been eligible to donate since approximately Thanksgiving, but kept putting it off for minor, trivial reasons. Maybe this time I’ll remember. I did a “double red” again, which is where they take out two units’ worth of red blood cells, centrifuge them, then return the plasma. My hematocrit was 17.2…I guess I had hemoglobin to spare. Since it’s a two-unit donation, I’m not eligible to donate again for twice the time, so I can give again in September. Somebody remind me, eh? The t-shirt is totally cool, too, so there’s a reasonable chance that Emma’s going to steal it from me before I get a chance to wear it. Heh.

Emma and I also got to go see Spider-Man this weekend. It was okay, I thought. Not great, but not as horrible as some of the reviews had intimated. Most of the action sequences were really great-looking. There was definitely too much extraneous plot — I mean, who cares about MJ’s horrid singing, anyway? — and I thought it was about half an hour or so too long. I’m glad we saw it on the big screen, though…the fight scenes won’t be quite as cool on a home TV.

Enough for now. I’m going to go do a little work, rather than dither on my computer all day. I’ll just dither most of the day, rather than all of it.

Emma and I are finalizing our vacation plans. We even rented a car for the trip…a Ford Mustang convertible. Ooooo…

Here’s our draft itinerary:

5/29: Drive from Gainesville, FL to Raleigh, NC. Stay overnight in Raleigh.
5/30: Drive from Raleigh, NC to Meriden, CT. Stay overnight in Meriden.
5/31: In Connecticut.
6/1: Mystic Seaport, CT.
6/2: Drive from Mystic to Pittsburgh, PA.
6/3: Pittsburgh.
6/4: Drive from Pittsburgh to Columbia, TN. Stay overnight in Columbia.
6/5: Drive from Columbia to Gainesville, FL.

The total trip will be about 3600 miles (give or take), and we should be able to see the vast majority of Emma’s family (Meriden is their prime radiant). These plans are still subject to change, so if you’d like us to swing by and see you, let us know and we’ll see if we can work it out. If you’d like us to stay away from you in particular, let us know that as well.

My LMPCR worked! Fuck a hairy duck, it worked. Twice now, even. I should go out and celebrate…the day can only go downhill from here. First round at the Shamrock on Friday night is on me.

What? Yes, I realize that it’s not publication-quality. Screw you, man. It’s good enough for what I needed to do.

Okay, this is just silly. Now there’s *ash* falling from the sky in addition to the smoke. It’s almost like it’s snowing except, well, the white flakes falling from the sky aren’t cold or made of water or good for skiing. Actually, I’m not sure about that last one. Maybe they’re good for skiing. I’ll let you know if there are any ashdrifts when I get up in the morning.

This is my number. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Not yours. Nope. Can’t have it.

76 7A 4B 3E 87 11 4C 80 1A 1D DE 41 98 11 1E E9

Okay, okay. You can use it. I hereby release this number under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Even you, hard-hearted AACS.

Okay. As of this morning, I am officially over the wildfire smoke. I’m done with it. Finis. Kaput. Now will it please go away? My bike rides home have left me gasping for air more lately than ever, which is saying something. So no more smoke? KTHNXBAI.

As I mentioned earlier, my sister graduated from college this weekend. Both of my aunts and uncles came to town and it was nice seeing them again. I think the last time I saw them was Grandma Heggestad’s 90th birthday, but I can’t remember if that was before or after Blake and Donna’s wedding…I seem not to have taken my camera to that, so it’s harder to date. Before, I think, so I saw them at the wedding most recently. At any rate, that was several years ago.

You know what I’m not good at? Explaining what I do. Um…molecular biology? Oh, more specific than that. It’s called genomic imprinting. *eyesglazeover* Sigh. That probably means I don’t really understand what I’m doing well enough. At least I’m able to describe Prader-Willi and Angelman Syndromes, then hit them with the “both of these diseases come from the exact same deletion” bit, which I still think is pretty damned cool.

The rest of the weekend went by quickly. Graduation festivities took up most of Sunday, so I really just had Saturday “off.” Emma was on call — poor dear — so I bummed around the house most of the day. I didn’t do a whole lot that was productive, but I did do a little vacuuming, just in case somebody wanted to come by. The house wasn’t clean enough for me to actually *invite* anybody over, but it was clean enough that I wouldn’t be mortified if anybody wanted to. Lauren and her roommates had a party for their families at the folks’ house on Saturday evening which was fun. I had a cool drive home, too. But do you know what I missed? My uncle Jim likes going to Irish bars when he’s traveling (or when he’s home too, I suspect), and I completely forgot! I told him that next time he’s in town we’re taking him to the Shamrock. It probably would’ve been crazy downtown, the Saturday of graduation weekend, but it was a good opportunity missed. One of these days I’ll just jump out of my shell and go by myself, or find someone who wants to go drink a pint or seven of Guinness so I’ll have company. Drinking by myself seems like a bad idea, eh?

Sigh. The water bath is warm, so it’s time to do go my thing. Nice typing to you all, the lurkers who read my ramblings. Maybe I’ll hear something from the rest of you one day, eh? ;-D

My kid sister’s a college graduate, y’all! And even though she’s going to law school, rather than something real, I’m still proud of her. Congratulations, Lauren.

Just a few quick notes before I dive into the work of the day. I’ll write a more thorough entry later tonight or tomorrow.

1. Spent two hours this morning fixing a flat on Emma’s car, by which I mean I spent half an hour putting on the spare and then drove it to the shop, where they fixed the flat and put the regular tire back on the car.
2. I’ve re-installed Gaim (now Pidgin, I guess) on the notebook, so feel free to pester me whenever. If I’m busy I won’t answer and if I don’t want to talk, I’ll turn it off. ‘arneheg’ on AIM and ‘thebrightboy’ on Yahoo. Should work with both.
3. Chickens are cute and fun but not very cuddly.
4. The backyard rabbit may have discovered the garden. If not yet, it’s only a matter of time.
5. Bought a graduation gift for my sister and mother’s day presents for my mom and grandmother, so that shopping is over. Hurrah. I actually even went to the maul…
6. Umm…I guess that’s it.

Off to get some mouse pups and do that voodoo that I do so half-assedly. Type to you later.

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Just a random number. Has nothing to do with anything.