The dumpster was picked up on Tuesday, and now we have one less porch. =)
I've been working alot - running two experiments simultaneously now, which I swore I wasn't going to do anymore. But I think project #1 is going to work this time. The last time I tried to generate tissue for this project, I got a horrible staining artifact that made capturing decent pictures impossible. So I had to tweak a few things, and try again. I think I got rid of it, but won't know for sure until I can check it on the scope up the hill.
The other project is a tract-tracing one, and right now I'm just checking the placement of my injections. So I headed into work reasonably early, and got started. Everything was fine for awhile, and then the fire alarm went off. This happens more frequently than you'd think, and it's usually cleared up in a few minutes, so I headed out of the building. (Plus, of course, there might actually have been a fire, so....)
One hour later, we were all still waiting to go back into the building. Grrrr....
I finally went to another entrance, where the campus police were not hanging around, and went back in. The fire department had come and gone, and we were apparently just waiting for the building manager to figure out what had gone wrong with the alarm system. I had to adjust my plans for the day, and will be in tomorrow to finish it.
After I burned a couple of CDs (back-ups of finished projects), I caught a bus up to our friend Mike's, and met Drew there. He'd been helping Mike with some yardwork & gardening, and since Mike lives near the Pittsburgh Trader Joe's, we took a spin over there & picked up some things that aren't available at the Giant Eagle (our normal grocery store). Then back home to improvise some dinner.
Things I did not get to today: building a fence around the garden area to foil the groundhog. Putting away the clean dishes. Scooping the upstairs cat box (I may still get to that one, perhaps on my way down to bed.)
Stuff I did manage to do: Well, work. Folded and put away some of the clean laundry. Blogged. Called my dad. Took a shower (Don't laugh, sometimes I just don't remember to).
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Another dumpster....
We have another dumpster, to get rid of the lath, windows, door + frame, back porch, and whatever other trash I can get my hands on. And the best part is: (drum roll, please) D got the dumpster permit, dumpster, and scheduled the porch demolition all without any involvement from me! Yay! I can just work on my school stuff, while other things get done! :) (Plus he did dishes today, and mowed the front lawn, which I'd been gently reminding him about for two or three weeks).
So I am obviously happy. My paper is almost done, just one more meeting (I hope!) with my statistician, and maybe one more edit (before the final edit/fixing of stuff we didn't see before), and then it will be off! I met with advisor today, and we accomplished alot, plus I ran the idea by her of not submitting an abstract for SFN this year. I have no positive data yet, so it would be very hard to write one by Thursday. I'd rather spend my time on getting my thesis work done, even if it means paying for the trip myself (if it turns out I feel I should go for interviewing/job-finding purposes). Sorry, let me explain - SFN is the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which is generally attended by ~30,000 neuroscientists. I've gone to D.C. twice, Atlanta & San Diego once, and this year it's in Chicago. I really want to go to Chicago, but it's an expensive, and extremely tiring, meeting to go to. Right now, I'm cold e-mailing people about post-doctoral research opportunities, jobs, etc., but at SFN they have a NeuroJobs search & interviewing process that lets you talk to people face-to-face. It would be good, but we'll see how I'm doing research-wise at that point. The good thing is that when I broached the subject with Susan today, she indicated she'd be willing to foot at least some of the bill (from her grants/GSR funds), so it won't be as expensive as I thought.
I also made a pretty good Indian food dinner last night. I bought a book a few months ago: South Indian Cooking (or something like that). And another one: An Introduction to Indian Cooking, by Madhur Jaffrey. I haven't actually made anything from the Madhur Jaffrey book, though I am know tempted to go to the store that sells goat meat in Oakland someday, so it can be authentic. After I received both, I went to the Indian grocery store, and bought most of the dal (lentils, and there are more types than you'd ever imagined), spices, and exotic stuff like tamarind paste & shredded coconut & asafoetida powder that I'd need. So it's pretty easy to just cook something up, should I remember.
So I knew I had a bunch of vegetables I had to cook - bell peppers, zucchini, cilantro, kale, tomatoes - and I got to work. Most of the recipes I've tried so far, this started with some lentils (in this case toor dal (small, flat & thin yellow split peas)), simmered in water until creamy. Heat some corn oil, throw in some urad dal (white lentils), black mustard seeds, asafoetida powder, fenugreek seeds (methi) & a chili pepper, cover and cook until the mustard seeds pop. [From last night's experiment, I know that it doesn't really matter if they burn a little bit].
Throw in some onion and tomato, and the toor dal, cook for a minute or two, then add a cup of water & some tomato sauce, cilantro, salt, more turmeric powder, and something called sambhar powder (hot!), and simmer another few minutes. In this case, I added some bell pepper and cooked, covered another 10-15 minutes. Serve over rice [I do jasmine rice, or brown basmati, and a rice cooker is a pretty cool kitchen accesory].
I also stir-fried up the kale in olive oil with some garlic & onions (caramelized before adding the kale) with just a splash of white balsamic vinegar. I thought that would be a good side, but it ended up being pretty good mixed in with the Indian food.
Anyway, the tomato sauce/lentil base is awesome - this is much like the sauch over chicken tikki masala, but the sambhar powder makes it spicier than that sauce. I've made it with carrots before too (sliced pretty thin, added at the same time as the bell peppers above, but cooked longer), and that was good too.
I thought about taking pictures, but it's actually pretty tough - things have to be added pretty quickly, and it's definitely best to chop everything up before you start heating the oil, or you may get caught without the right ingredients at the right time. I'll try next time I venture to subcontinental cuisin. Also, I'd like to thank Kristen for making this possible - the blue enamelled cast-iron pot is perfect for cooking the lentils, and the covered cast iron double handed skillet is good for mixing everything together. I'd also highly recommend wood utensils, and a wire basket wok tool for blanching kale (or spinach, or deep frying anything). The tools are all available at Wal-mart, or any kitchen store (but Wal-mart is way cheaper, although I always have mixed feelings about anti-labor Wal-mart policies).
That's all the new that's fit to print! M (D's mom) & D & I are still trying to get wedding reception plans together - it's insanely more expensive than you'd think, so there's alot of options to be explored at this point. I confess, I have thought about cancelling several times wistfully, but we still want everyone to be there who can, so I guess we're on the hook now :) Still, the house is still coming along slowly, and it looks like we need another Subaru (the old girl is coughing and sputtering, and I think has a bad CV joint), so we'll see what we can get away with.
Love you all, and hope you have a good night!
So I am obviously happy. My paper is almost done, just one more meeting (I hope!) with my statistician, and maybe one more edit (before the final edit/fixing of stuff we didn't see before), and then it will be off! I met with advisor today, and we accomplished alot, plus I ran the idea by her of not submitting an abstract for SFN this year. I have no positive data yet, so it would be very hard to write one by Thursday. I'd rather spend my time on getting my thesis work done, even if it means paying for the trip myself (if it turns out I feel I should go for interviewing/job-finding purposes). Sorry, let me explain - SFN is the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which is generally attended by ~30,000 neuroscientists. I've gone to D.C. twice, Atlanta & San Diego once, and this year it's in Chicago. I really want to go to Chicago, but it's an expensive, and extremely tiring, meeting to go to. Right now, I'm cold e-mailing people about post-doctoral research opportunities, jobs, etc., but at SFN they have a NeuroJobs search & interviewing process that lets you talk to people face-to-face. It would be good, but we'll see how I'm doing research-wise at that point. The good thing is that when I broached the subject with Susan today, she indicated she'd be willing to foot at least some of the bill (from her grants/GSR funds), so it won't be as expensive as I thought.
I also made a pretty good Indian food dinner last night. I bought a book a few months ago: South Indian Cooking (or something like that). And another one: An Introduction to Indian Cooking, by Madhur Jaffrey. I haven't actually made anything from the Madhur Jaffrey book, though I am know tempted to go to the store that sells goat meat in Oakland someday, so it can be authentic. After I received both, I went to the Indian grocery store, and bought most of the dal (lentils, and there are more types than you'd ever imagined), spices, and exotic stuff like tamarind paste & shredded coconut & asafoetida powder that I'd need. So it's pretty easy to just cook something up, should I remember.
So I knew I had a bunch of vegetables I had to cook - bell peppers, zucchini, cilantro, kale, tomatoes - and I got to work. Most of the recipes I've tried so far, this started with some lentils (in this case toor dal (small, flat & thin yellow split peas)), simmered in water until creamy. Heat some corn oil, throw in some urad dal (white lentils), black mustard seeds, asafoetida powder, fenugreek seeds (methi) & a chili pepper, cover and cook until the mustard seeds pop. [From last night's experiment, I know that it doesn't really matter if they burn a little bit].
Throw in some onion and tomato, and the toor dal, cook for a minute or two, then add a cup of water & some tomato sauce, cilantro, salt, more turmeric powder, and something called sambhar powder (hot!), and simmer another few minutes. In this case, I added some bell pepper and cooked, covered another 10-15 minutes. Serve over rice [I do jasmine rice, or brown basmati, and a rice cooker is a pretty cool kitchen accesory].
I also stir-fried up the kale in olive oil with some garlic & onions (caramelized before adding the kale) with just a splash of white balsamic vinegar. I thought that would be a good side, but it ended up being pretty good mixed in with the Indian food.
Anyway, the tomato sauce/lentil base is awesome - this is much like the sauch over chicken tikki masala, but the sambhar powder makes it spicier than that sauce. I've made it with carrots before too (sliced pretty thin, added at the same time as the bell peppers above, but cooked longer), and that was good too.
I thought about taking pictures, but it's actually pretty tough - things have to be added pretty quickly, and it's definitely best to chop everything up before you start heating the oil, or you may get caught without the right ingredients at the right time. I'll try next time I venture to subcontinental cuisin. Also, I'd like to thank Kristen for making this possible - the blue enamelled cast-iron pot is perfect for cooking the lentils, and the covered cast iron double handed skillet is good for mixing everything together. I'd also highly recommend wood utensils, and a wire basket wok tool for blanching kale (or spinach, or deep frying anything). The tools are all available at Wal-mart, or any kitchen store (but Wal-mart is way cheaper, although I always have mixed feelings about anti-labor Wal-mart policies).
That's all the new that's fit to print! M (D's mom) & D & I are still trying to get wedding reception plans together - it's insanely more expensive than you'd think, so there's alot of options to be explored at this point. I confess, I have thought about cancelling several times wistfully, but we still want everyone to be there who can, so I guess we're on the hook now :) Still, the house is still coming along slowly, and it looks like we need another Subaru (the old girl is coughing and sputtering, and I think has a bad CV joint), so we'll see what we can get away with.
Love you all, and hope you have a good night!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Time to submit.... a paper
My advisor and I are almost done with my first, first author manuscript. I'm a little nervous, as we're submitting to the Journal of Comparative Neurology, which is pretty much as high as neuroanatomy journals get. I trust my data, and the statistics that my wonderful consultant has done for us, but the text of the article is freaking me out a little bit. I've been wrapping things up in the past couple of days, just inserting citations for statements that I know I've read before, but as I search the literature, I'm not finding much to back up those assertions. I have found where I read these things, but know I'm not sure that I believe those sources.... So I'm afraid the reviews might be scathing....
I'm trying to step up the pace on a couple of other projects as well, since my committee decided that I just need to finish those two things for my dissertation. Unfortunately, the immuno is not co-operating. My co-localization study is almost ready to get off the ground, but I'm getting a weird background staining that I have yet to abolish. Luckily, the professor who's helping me with the imaging is very understanding, and chalked it up to, well science, today when we met.
So I've got a few more tests to run, before I can generate the tissue for that one.
D gave me some good news about the house today though - our back deck is coming off this weekend! So at least we're getting some progress there :) And last weekend we went and picked up some plants (tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, rosemary, coneflower, and brussels sprouts (D's choice, not mine)), and put most of them in the ground. We're lucky to get plenty of rain, so as long as we can keep the groundhog away, I think we should be all right.
Sorry it's all about work today, but there's not much else going on!
I'm trying to step up the pace on a couple of other projects as well, since my committee decided that I just need to finish those two things for my dissertation. Unfortunately, the immuno is not co-operating. My co-localization study is almost ready to get off the ground, but I'm getting a weird background staining that I have yet to abolish. Luckily, the professor who's helping me with the imaging is very understanding, and chalked it up to, well science, today when we met.
So I've got a few more tests to run, before I can generate the tissue for that one.
D gave me some good news about the house today though - our back deck is coming off this weekend! So at least we're getting some progress there :) And last weekend we went and picked up some plants (tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers, rosemary, coneflower, and brussels sprouts (D's choice, not mine)), and put most of them in the ground. We're lucky to get plenty of rain, so as long as we can keep the groundhog away, I think we should be all right.
Sorry it's all about work today, but there's not much else going on!
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