I'll post pictures in a bit, but I am so excited that we got something accomplished concerning the garden today! I dug out quite a bit of earth for our back vegetable garden, and D arranged bricks in a wall structure - so now we have at least two levels for our gardening efforts. We might still put in another wall, and turn it into a 3-tiered bed. Our backyard can be a little difficult for planning, because it slopes in two directions simultaneously. But we have plenty of bricks and cinder block to try to contain things.
Now, bricks were not exactly my first choice for a retaining wall (since I don't feel that they stand up well to the continued pressure of the soil trying to redistribute itself. But, they were free, and D wanted to use them. Only time will tell if his designs will work better than I suspect.
After a bit of yard work, we headed inside for a cool drink (water, which is all that we had), and then walked down to our local hardware store (Keystone). I picked up a detachable shower head with hose, and D got some fireworks. The shower head is not as nice as the one that came with our faucet setup, but it will make it much easier to rinse down the shower when I'm cleaning the bathroom.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Kvetch, kvetch
Sorry for all the kvetching in my last post; what can I say? sometimes that stuff just comes out. Having taken the morning off from work, I am in a much better mood, and now blogging again. Thanks for all your comments too.... the thing is that I am also lazy, and our combined laziness yields a house that looks... well, you can imagine.
But, watching the cats do really crazy stuff this morning, and doing some yard work last night helped. We have a small strip of what I would like to call grass, but is really just weeds, between the wall of our property and the sidewalk proper. Since the weed-wacker broke (sometime last year) I have not been good about keeping this trimmed. And, it's overgrown-ness is highlighted by all the neighbors' neatly trimmed sidewalk areas. So, when I got home last night, I sat on the porch for a minute, and then got to work with the long garden shears. I got most of it done, and will finish up the rest when I get some time this weekend.
But, watching the cats do really crazy stuff this morning, and doing some yard work last night helped. We have a small strip of what I would like to call grass, but is really just weeds, between the wall of our property and the sidewalk proper. Since the weed-wacker broke (sometime last year) I have not been good about keeping this trimmed. And, it's overgrown-ness is highlighted by all the neighbors' neatly trimmed sidewalk areas. So, when I got home last night, I sat on the porch for a minute, and then got to work with the long garden shears. I got most of it done, and will finish up the rest when I get some time this weekend.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I am a very poor 1930's wife
I had seen this test on a Slate.com posting, but the document shown there was only the first 10 questions. Somebody had the good sense to go get the whole thing, & make it interactive. You can take the test here.
That being said, I scored a 2 (very poor...failure) as a 1930s wife. When I redid the test as D, I(he) scored a 27 (also poor, but not a failure) as a 1930s husband. Hmmm..... does that mean that he's better at this relationship thing than me? Or that it's harder to be a good 1930s wife than a 1930s husband? Or is all of this irrelevant? I'm going with that last one.
Perhaps I should retake it with me as the husband, since my lack of femininity seems to hurt me on these things (that and not having or wanting to have minor children to take care of). Which is strange, because I think of myself as being pretty far along in the feminine role between the two of us - I do more of the meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, planning vacations, reminding him to get presents for people's birthdays, or Christmas, or other holidays (or just going and doing it myself), and in general arranging things so that 'our' goals are met as a couple. I wonder how much weight they attached to that complaining question in that quiz. If it's alot, then I totally fail there, but I feel I've earned the right. I also do more of the working (though not more of the earning, but we're 50/50 on shared expenses (my credit bills, extra mortgage payments, savings, phone & retirment all come out of only my money).)
Urrgggghhhh. This is why it's so easy for me to imagine myself happy outside of this relationship. D used to say that he was here to make grad school easier for me. But so far all I see is the huge increase in housework, and utility bills, without any concomitant increase in help. Oh, and the expectation that I will of course want to be social with all of his friends, and babysit their wives/girlfriends (who I have nothing in common with except similar anatomy) while the guys go off & have fun. Strangely, he never feels obligated to accompany me to social outings - and he frequently declines, because he's not friends with any of "those" people.
Sorry, I keep thinking I'll stop complaining in the next paragraph. But then I just start on a fresh rant. Hmmm.... good things, good things. He's entertaining in his own weirdness. Yesterday I came home to find him picking berries off the mulberry tree. Repeatedly and until his hands were all stained purple. He doesn't criticize me. He will help, if you specify exactly what you would like done, and ask 7 or eight times, and then explain that helping "later" (as in when you remind him 7 or 8 times the next day, and the next, and the next, until he finally does it) isn't helping at all - since I could do whatever needs to be done in much shorter time. Um. I know there are other good things, or at least that if I keep coming up with bad ones, I will be in a very bad mood by the time I get home, so I better quit while I'm ahead.
That being said, I scored a 2 (very poor...failure) as a 1930s wife. When I redid the test as D, I(he) scored a 27 (also poor, but not a failure) as a 1930s husband. Hmmm..... does that mean that he's better at this relationship thing than me? Or that it's harder to be a good 1930s wife than a 1930s husband? Or is all of this irrelevant? I'm going with that last one.
Perhaps I should retake it with me as the husband, since my lack of femininity seems to hurt me on these things (that and not having or wanting to have minor children to take care of). Which is strange, because I think of myself as being pretty far along in the feminine role between the two of us - I do more of the meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, planning vacations, reminding him to get presents for people's birthdays, or Christmas, or other holidays (or just going and doing it myself), and in general arranging things so that 'our' goals are met as a couple. I wonder how much weight they attached to that complaining question in that quiz. If it's alot, then I totally fail there, but I feel I've earned the right. I also do more of the working (though not more of the earning, but we're 50/50 on shared expenses (my credit bills, extra mortgage payments, savings, phone & retirment all come out of only my money).)
Urrgggghhhh. This is why it's so easy for me to imagine myself happy outside of this relationship. D used to say that he was here to make grad school easier for me. But so far all I see is the huge increase in housework, and utility bills, without any concomitant increase in help. Oh, and the expectation that I will of course want to be social with all of his friends, and babysit their wives/girlfriends (who I have nothing in common with except similar anatomy) while the guys go off & have fun. Strangely, he never feels obligated to accompany me to social outings - and he frequently declines, because he's not friends with any of "those" people.
Sorry, I keep thinking I'll stop complaining in the next paragraph. But then I just start on a fresh rant. Hmmm.... good things, good things. He's entertaining in his own weirdness. Yesterday I came home to find him picking berries off the mulberry tree. Repeatedly and until his hands were all stained purple. He doesn't criticize me. He will help, if you specify exactly what you would like done, and ask 7 or eight times, and then explain that helping "later" (as in when you remind him 7 or 8 times the next day, and the next, and the next, until he finally does it) isn't helping at all - since I could do whatever needs to be done in much shorter time. Um. I know there are other good things, or at least that if I keep coming up with bad ones, I will be in a very bad mood by the time I get home, so I better quit while I'm ahead.
Monday, June 16, 2008
A New Year
No, I haven't lost touch with calendar reality, but every year on june 15th we (the graduate students of the CNUP) have to turn in an annual review. I suppose this is the closest we get to having a real job - I remember having to do self-evaluations of my work at the end of each year as a technician, but then again, I usually got a raise for my efforts :) - but it's also a big pain in the butt. Particularly when you have a bunch of other things to do, and at least one other progress report to write (that one has to go to my thesis committee, was technically "due" on the 10th (although I don't think anyone is itching to read it) and hasn't been started yet). But, I finally got the thing done and handed in this morning. It is a dismaying sign of how lazy I have become that I found three or four typos after I had hit the print button, but didn't bother to reprint the corrected version. I doubt anyone reads these things that closely, especially when it comes from a 5th year graduate student, but if they do, it may inject some humor into the mind-numbing process of reading them.
With that done, this marks the beginning of my 6th year of graduate school, and I believe the beginning of my 23rd year of schooling overall. And I'm still not sure why I'm doing this to myself. But its cool to think that several hundred years ago, I would have qualified as a Druid a few years ago. If I remember correctly, they had 20 years of formal education before they "graduated". I wonder if that's where we get the tradition of funny robes & hats at our modern graduation ceremonies.
So, that was pretty much what I did this weekend. On Friday night, there was a big party that I just didn't feel like going to. D & I stayed up far too late on Wednesday night, drank too much wine, and I was incapacitated on Thursday by something that I'd like to call an alcohol-induced migraine, but was more likely to be an actual hangover. Just when I thought I was over the drinking too much thing (its been over a year since my last hangover), I get pulled back in. Granted, I get hangovers from 4 glasses of wine over 6 hours, but still..... i'd like to think that someday I will be an ultra-responsible person that doesn't ever overindulge, but I think for that to happen I will have to give up drinking all together - which might not be a bad idea.
In any case, I wasn't feeling up to a party that was most likely to be like a frat-house type of ordeal. So D went by himself, and I stayed home, ate popcorn & watched a movie, painted my toenails, pulled my eyesbrow hairs, and all that other stuff that women do when they get an evening to themselves at home (okay, the eyebrow plucking was pretty much the extent of that). Saturday, I got up & went to work for a few hours, so that I could get some uninterrupted time on the confocal microscope. Since it's a shared piece of equipment, you can usually only sign up for 2 hours/day of usage, but few people use it on the weekends, so I can spend 4 hours down there before I start to go a little batty from sitting in the dark for so long. Unfortunately this didn't turn out to be uninterrupted time. There are particular individuals who, for some reason, are completely unable to look at the calendar (sign-up sheet) on the door of this room. So, an hour before my time was up, the door was thrown open, letting all kinds of nice, interfering room light into the darkened fluorescence imaging environment, and I was asked when I would be done. I was able to suppress the response I wanted to give, "At four, like it says on the f'ing sign-up sheet", and was polite. But, I resigned an hour of my time, for no good reason. Or perhaps because I wanted to be able to complain about it later. Or maybe I was just lazy, didn't want to work anymore, & figured I needed to get to the grocery store, get home, and start my annual progress review.
On Sunday, D & I got up relatively early, and were out the door by 11 am. Don't laugh - this is a pretty major accomplishment for us. We went to Lowe's, bought some grilling stuff, a drill press (well, D bought a drill press, I don't as yet have much use for one, but it's kind of comforting to be acquiring big tools for the house), some silicone sealant (so I can re-caulk around the tub), and various other things that jumped right into our shopping basket. I then went to DSW shoe warehouse to see about some new sandals. The only pair I have left is a pair of Doc Martin like sandals, and they're a bit clunky for me lately, especially as I have started wearing some skirts. I managed to find a pair I liked, that are comfortable, don't have bows or beads or stiletto heels or that weird big-toe separating loop. The bad part is that they cost me $60. But, with any luck I will get close to a decade of use from them, so it might be worth it after all (Heck, even if I only get 2 years out of them it will be worth it). I also bought another pair of brown shoes, since my Clarks have a big split in the sole that lets in water. But I put these on this morning to go to work, & they didn't feel as comfortable, & they were pinching my right foot (which is the smaller one - I have no idea how they're pinching that foot, but not the left one, perhaps my feet swell differentially at night?). So I will probably bring these back.
Okay, that thread is getting a bit boring. After the shopping extravaganza, we picked up some discounted gas (my Giant Eagle card & fuel perks points brought the cost down to 2.54 per gallon, ~ 28 bucks to fill the tank), then headed back home. I did more work on my report, and we headed to D's mom's house for dinner. When we got back, I still had more tweaking to do on the report, so I did that with only a few breaks to play some Guitar hero. This game is way too addictive. I'm thinking about playing it again right now. After I was finally satisfied with my progress report, we each played a few more songs, and went to bed. Which was good, because I managed to get up this morning at 6:30, with no going back to sleep.
With that done, this marks the beginning of my 6th year of graduate school, and I believe the beginning of my 23rd year of schooling overall. And I'm still not sure why I'm doing this to myself. But its cool to think that several hundred years ago, I would have qualified as a Druid a few years ago. If I remember correctly, they had 20 years of formal education before they "graduated". I wonder if that's where we get the tradition of funny robes & hats at our modern graduation ceremonies.
So, that was pretty much what I did this weekend. On Friday night, there was a big party that I just didn't feel like going to. D & I stayed up far too late on Wednesday night, drank too much wine, and I was incapacitated on Thursday by something that I'd like to call an alcohol-induced migraine, but was more likely to be an actual hangover. Just when I thought I was over the drinking too much thing (its been over a year since my last hangover), I get pulled back in. Granted, I get hangovers from 4 glasses of wine over 6 hours, but still..... i'd like to think that someday I will be an ultra-responsible person that doesn't ever overindulge, but I think for that to happen I will have to give up drinking all together - which might not be a bad idea.
In any case, I wasn't feeling up to a party that was most likely to be like a frat-house type of ordeal. So D went by himself, and I stayed home, ate popcorn & watched a movie, painted my toenails, pulled my eyesbrow hairs, and all that other stuff that women do when they get an evening to themselves at home (okay, the eyebrow plucking was pretty much the extent of that). Saturday, I got up & went to work for a few hours, so that I could get some uninterrupted time on the confocal microscope. Since it's a shared piece of equipment, you can usually only sign up for 2 hours/day of usage, but few people use it on the weekends, so I can spend 4 hours down there before I start to go a little batty from sitting in the dark for so long. Unfortunately this didn't turn out to be uninterrupted time. There are particular individuals who, for some reason, are completely unable to look at the calendar (sign-up sheet) on the door of this room. So, an hour before my time was up, the door was thrown open, letting all kinds of nice, interfering room light into the darkened fluorescence imaging environment, and I was asked when I would be done. I was able to suppress the response I wanted to give, "At four, like it says on the f'ing sign-up sheet", and was polite. But, I resigned an hour of my time, for no good reason. Or perhaps because I wanted to be able to complain about it later. Or maybe I was just lazy, didn't want to work anymore, & figured I needed to get to the grocery store, get home, and start my annual progress review.
On Sunday, D & I got up relatively early, and were out the door by 11 am. Don't laugh - this is a pretty major accomplishment for us. We went to Lowe's, bought some grilling stuff, a drill press (well, D bought a drill press, I don't as yet have much use for one, but it's kind of comforting to be acquiring big tools for the house), some silicone sealant (so I can re-caulk around the tub), and various other things that jumped right into our shopping basket. I then went to DSW shoe warehouse to see about some new sandals. The only pair I have left is a pair of Doc Martin like sandals, and they're a bit clunky for me lately, especially as I have started wearing some skirts. I managed to find a pair I liked, that are comfortable, don't have bows or beads or stiletto heels or that weird big-toe separating loop. The bad part is that they cost me $60. But, with any luck I will get close to a decade of use from them, so it might be worth it after all (Heck, even if I only get 2 years out of them it will be worth it). I also bought another pair of brown shoes, since my Clarks have a big split in the sole that lets in water. But I put these on this morning to go to work, & they didn't feel as comfortable, & they were pinching my right foot (which is the smaller one - I have no idea how they're pinching that foot, but not the left one, perhaps my feet swell differentially at night?). So I will probably bring these back.
Okay, that thread is getting a bit boring. After the shopping extravaganza, we picked up some discounted gas (my Giant Eagle card & fuel perks points brought the cost down to 2.54 per gallon, ~ 28 bucks to fill the tank), then headed back home. I did more work on my report, and we headed to D's mom's house for dinner. When we got back, I still had more tweaking to do on the report, so I did that with only a few breaks to play some Guitar hero. This game is way too addictive. I'm thinking about playing it again right now. After I was finally satisfied with my progress report, we each played a few more songs, and went to bed. Which was good, because I managed to get up this morning at 6:30, with no going back to sleep.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Summer is definitely here, now.
Well, I'm sure you've all had your share of strange weather this year (and last year too, come to think of it). But this past weekend it was 90+ every day, and it doesn't look the heat is going to let up anytime soon. D wrestled our small & solitary air conditioner into our bedroom window on Saturday, and last night we ate outside on our patio. This still isn't completely finished, mainly because no-one can get up the motivation to lift those giant rocks again - it's pretty much a one-shot deal. Once someone has done this once, it's very difficult to convince them that they want to do it again. And, we have to lift them up in order to add more marble chips & get everything levels. But, it will get done someday.
Otherwise, I got a chance to clean up the house - especially vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen up (including the floor), and getting some laundry done. I'm getting much better at grilling, too. We ate bar-b-que chicken wings and vegetable kabobs last nite, while watching 60 minutes on a small b&w portable tv. We also broke out some new citronella candles. I'm still not convinced that these work to repel mosquitoes, but I hate having bug spray all over me, so I'm giving it a whirl. If they don't work, I may try out a new trap I saw recently - that uses CO2 to attract the little bloodsuckers.
Not much else to report. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of DMR, and trying to get a lot of analysis done while I have the time this summer. Plus, I'll be really pushing to get some other experiments done (these will generate cool pictures that I will have to post).
Otherwise, I got a chance to clean up the house - especially vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen up (including the floor), and getting some laundry done. I'm getting much better at grilling, too. We ate bar-b-que chicken wings and vegetable kabobs last nite, while watching 60 minutes on a small b&w portable tv. We also broke out some new citronella candles. I'm still not convinced that these work to repel mosquitoes, but I hate having bug spray all over me, so I'm giving it a whirl. If they don't work, I may try out a new trap I saw recently - that uses CO2 to attract the little bloodsuckers.
Not much else to report. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of DMR, and trying to get a lot of analysis done while I have the time this summer. Plus, I'll be really pushing to get some other experiments done (these will generate cool pictures that I will have to post).
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Beer!!!! Real Beer!!!! At the liquor store, where you can buy wine too! And not just the wine that the state of PA has decided to buy & resell to you!
Okay, so I don't want to sound like an alcoholic ( I may still occasionally be surprised by a hangover, but overall, I don't think I really drink that much). But.....
I hadn't realized how much I suffered because of the state system in Pennsylvania. I do miss being able to buy a bottle of wine & a six-pack in the same place, in fact, I miss being able to buy a six-pack for less than $20.
PA's system is this: the state runs the alcohol game. They buy certain wines, and spirits, and sell them in state liquor stores. But, you can't get just any wine you want. And I think, you can't have wine sent to you from a vineyard out of state either (although that may have changed recently). And, most importantly, you can't buy beer there. If you want beer, you have to go to a beer distributor. They generally carry crappy, hugely commercial beer. And you have to buy a case - there are no smaller quantities available. Don't ask me how this supposed to discourage drinking in large volumes, I have never understood it. Except that when I first moved there, I didn't have access to a car, and I wasn't going to carry a case home (plus it would take me over a month to drink that much), so I stopped drinking beer. Except at bars. The exception to the case rule is that you can buy a six-pack at a bar - but at bar prices. Hence, a six pack costs, on average, $20. I guess that does cut down on beer consumption. Plus, now there is an additional 10% tax on poured drinks in Allegheney county (which includes Pittsburgh, thanks Dan Onorato!), so drinking at bars is now pretty distateful to me, and D flat out refuses to go out for a beer.
So, to get back to my point, I decided, on the way back to my hotel room, to stop at a liquor store, and pick up a bottle of wine. I'm still in Michigan, so it's different here. I walked in, and was instantly stunned. So many different wines! So many different beers! I didn't know what to buy, and I decided to pick up some extra, different beers (i.e. ones we don't get in PA, and that our friend Mike hasn't brought to our house yet). I spent way more money than I planned to, but still less than equivalent beers would have cost me in Pgh. (Oh, Pgh is the abbreviation for Pittsburgh, which only people who live there recognize. You can even mail things with Pgh as the city, and the post office knows what it is. But maybe only if you mail it from Pgh. THis also relates to the URL for this blog: I do neuroscience in Pgh. Get it? Very creative, I know ;)
Here are the beers I purchased (I tried to get local ones, the lambic was just because I love the stuff, and it was really cheap here):
Arcadia Ales Cocoa loco, brewed in Battle Creek, MI
Existetinal Ale, brewed in Holland, MI
Issaquah Brewery Menage a frog (okay, it sounds gross, but it has a cute picture of frogs on it!), brewed in Issaquah, WA
Lambic Framboise, brewed in Belgium somewhere (I've gotten up off the bed too many times to try to photograph these, only to find out that the stupid SD card shouldn't be formatted after all, and now I can't see the pictures on my computer. Darn technology!)
Unibroue Ephemere, the apple one, this is a brewery in Canada, and very good! When D & I were in Seattle last year, we went to a National Park on Puget Sound, and afterwards we found this place in the middle of nowhere (Stanwood, WA, the Stanwood hotel) and had a really good Chicken Philly sandwich, and Ephemere on tap - served in Bell Jars. It was awesome!
Okay, enough about beer. Someday I will actually post pictures from the camera - but in the meantime, here's one of my work photos. High affinity Choline transporter (green) + vesicular acetylcholine transporter (red) in the retrochiasmatic division of the supraoptic nucleus:
Michigan, part II
So, I got here fine, & have been going into the lab every day & talking with people, and watching experiments. I am not, in fact, giving a talk, and that has made me even more irritated with my boss for suggesting it & making me spend two weeks working on slides, etc. I could have been using that time to read more, prepare for these discussions, & actually get some friggin work done! But, on the good side, it has been very interesting up here, & Dr. S is willing to let me come back to run some experiments. I have to talk it over with my boss & committee, check on the money situation, & gather some data on a separate, yet parallel, project, but the possibility is there. And, although he disagrees with my ideas, he's willing to try it out. So yay!
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