The final rose goes to...

...Sarah! The adorable Travis chose Sarah on The Bachelor last night, making all of us nice girls very happy.

Mardi Gras, SLO Style

Just incase you didn't get the sign on your door, read or watch the news, or even talk to people, the over-excessive amount of cops throughout San Luis Obispo this weekend made sure you knew "The Party Is Still Over". I got a good laugh as I drove home Friday and Saturday night and saw the "command station" at Santa Rosa Park, the 10 CHP officers at Foothill/California, and 10 more infront of Campus Bottle standing in a line infront of their cars. I wanted to get a picture of the $350k worth of security SLO spent, but I figured in good SLO fashion they would arrest me on some made-up charge. One benefit - I was able to speed up to Paso in 20 minutes without a single worry (or sight of a cop) as I realized all the CHP was in SLO and not watching 101!

Frankenbath

C and S came to my rescue tonight by creating Frankenbath (aka Larry). I needed my samples to shake/rotate at 50 C for 20 hours, but the only idea given to me by The Boss was to take one of the rooms in the pilot plant and increase the temperature to 50 C (122F)! They came up with the idea of putting a rotator in a bucket of water maintained at 50 C ... a slight electrical nightmare but it works! Gotta love engineers!

Where did February go?

So my life is a little busy/crazy/stressful right now. It seems like everything in my life is due by February 28:

• PO Project - Finish and analyze TRF patterns for The Boss so he can justify the grant money for a project. (Note: We STILL have contamination in our PCRs – I hate TRFs).
• IDF Abstract - Complete preliminary 2D gels (which I have never run before, so I have to track down a professor in Biology who doesn’t return emails or phone calls - I have turned into a stalker to track him down).
• Symposium – Completely boring and a waste of time for me! I do think I get to skip it this year per The Boss. I’m sorry S that you still have to go…
• Industry Visit – Important people are coming (including the elusive B) so we must clean and be on our best behavior.

No wonder I’m at the lab until 1 am every night, the house is a mess, and I am only able to function on minimal sleep due to Starbucks (I LOVE Starbucks). I vote we make February have 31 days, who’s with me!

Rainy Day

I was about to brag about how wonderful California is and how it was 80 degrees in February ... and now it's raining. It's not a light rain either, but a downpour with sleet (or hail - the few grad students working on a holiday couldn't come to an agreement). Oh well, at least it's over tomorrow and back to sunshine so I shouldn't complain too much considering how the rest of the northern hemisphere must still deal with winter weather!

Happy Valentine's Day

Even though Ben is thousands of miles away, he still remembered Valentine's Day and gave me beautiful roses. The best card came from S who gave us all vintage Mario Bros. cards from 1989 (he found them cleaning out his room at his parent's house over Winter Break).

Tagged!

Someone (who is still unknown) left this on my car Friday sometime between when I went downtown with C for craft supplies and dinner with Ben. Definitely was a total surprise and I still laugh every time I think of it. I need to figure out who it was and seek my revenge.

The Olympics Have Begun!

We lit the olympic flame (or bunsen burner), so let the Work games begin!

Thanks!

Thanks to Jesse for introducing me to this blog (definately like the design). Hopefully I will post often, but I make no guarantees. I do guarantee pictures will be added in a timely matter so check the photos link to see what I have been up to!