Science Monkey

Emma and I went down to Orlando this morning (far too freaking early after crawling into bed at 2 last night) and spent some time with Emma’s best friend Susy and her new baby (four weeks old today!). Can I tell you what a super cute baby this is? Okay, so perhaps this first picture doesn’t quite do her justice, but she just woke up! She was very sleepy!

She’s absolutely freaking adorable, even if all she does at this point is sleep, eat, and poop. That’s really not such a bad life, eh? She slept for most of the time that we were there, but that was okay.

We also got to visit with Susy, which was great. It’s been a few months since we got to spend much time with her, seeing as she just had a baby and all. Silly baby, not letting mommy drive to Gainesville with you in her belly.

I got to hold her for a little while, too. I even got to feed her a little, but she was mostly just sleepy.

Too cute! Part of Susy’s family came in the afternoon, so we didn’t stay very long. It’s a little overwhelming for Susy, I think, having all of these people clamoring to see the baby. We had a really nice visit, though, and I think we’re going to go back down for a day after we’re back from our trip.

So we need to get Hannah a UF outfit. Susy’s sister Viv just finished orientation at FSU and they brought a hideous red pair of overalls with the logo on the front. Plus, Dad’s family is from Virginia so Hannah has at least one Virginia Tech outfit, so we need to rescue her. What we really want to do is get her an MIT outfit, because she’s going to be the genius baby. We’ve decided.

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.

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.