So I've been doing this apprenticeship thing (research in another lab) for a couple of months now, and enjoying it. But, despite the relative simplicity of the experiments, it is actually very hard to get data. First you have to make decent probes out of very small and delicate materials, plus a lot of epoxy. Then you have to implant them into a brain. Then you have to hook them up to liquid that is pushed through them. Then you have to inject the liquid that you collect into an HPLC machine. Then you pray that the HPLC will reveal some nice peaks.
However, I have discovered there are many things that can go wrong at all stages of this procedure. 1) Animal dies while or immediately after you implant probes. 2) Probes, which were flowing fine before you put them in brain, immediately cease flowing once you put them into brain. 3) Probes stop flowing at some random time during experiment, usually because air has somehow gotten into the line. 4) HPLC freaks out & won't show you anything useful.
Since the whole process takes two days even when its working well, it's frustrating to have it crap out on you towards the end. Especially since you'll just have to do the whole thing again if the data aren't complete. Actually, you have to do the whole thing again anyway, to prove that your results aren't just a fluke. Why am I doing this again?
Oh yeah, at some point I thought science was exciting and fun.
In other news (aka Holiday update), many of my holiday cards went out yesterday. Which is in itself surprising, since the postman only comes by our house on a random schedule (I think it's based on whenever he feels like climbing the stairs). Cookies are done, I have only one more batch of toffee to make, and cheese straws. And then, of course, lug gigantic boxes to UPS for shipping. I think I will have to borrow the car for this.
One more note, I've been bugging D to get the Voice-over-IP working in the house. I feel I have waited long enough (over a year now) for this to be working, since my cell phone doesn't work in the house, & no-one ever calls me anymore due to aforementioned cell phone problem. I miss talking to my family (not a problem for him), and would like to be able to cook or clean while I talk to them (also not a problem for him). So I threatened to get a landline installed, which I may do anyway, since the VOIP will not work whenever the computer crashes, which, in our house, is every 35 seconds. There are times when I understand why he gets fired so much - nothing ever works without having to reset it 45,000 times. Or having to call him to do it, since I don't have his passwords, or don't know which of his 15 computers is having the problem in question, or don't really care to learn how to fix it. I just want to be able to talk on the phone (or watch TV, which also breaks constantly because he has to have a free Tivo like program running on some Frankenstein computer - my favorite part of this is that it will pretend to record things, but then have an empty data file - just kidding! you can't actually watch that show!)
Urrgh, sorry to complain, I know I said I wouldn't do that here. But a lot of things are getting to me right now.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Ohmigosh, it's so cold here!
Just a quick post - it's been snowy & cold for a couple of days now. I must go through some stored things & find gloves & long underwear & some better shoes. I'm unprepared for winter.
But after I shoveled the front walk and put salt down, I got to witness one of the cats (Bathtub Kitty from the picture) jump into a laundry basket, only to realize that the sides were too high to get out again. I love cats :)
Hope everyone else is staying warm & having a good night.
But after I shoveled the front walk and put salt down, I got to witness one of the cats (Bathtub Kitty from the picture) jump into a laundry basket, only to realize that the sides were too high to get out again. I love cats :)
Hope everyone else is staying warm & having a good night.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Silly songs
I realize it's been nearly a month since I last posted, even though many funny things have happened. It's actually a virtually daily occurrence in our house, and that's something I am frequently grateful for. D & I spent a pretty relaxing weekend at the house, but still managed to get a lot done. On Friday, I held the second Pittsburgh Neuroanatomy Group meeting, which is something I've been trying at work. Basically we have a bunch of neuroanatomists in the department, but because they all work in different areas of the brain (hypothalamus vs brain stem vs midbrain vs cortex), we never really all get in one room together. Which is a shame, because on technically related matters, there's a lot we can learn from each other. So, I've been trying to get everyone in one room, talking about their projects, techniques in general, and also socializing (since one of my main problems is talking to professors, and I imagine I'm not the only grad student who is intimidated by these pretty-famous-people). I still feel like most of them don't like me, but I'm working on getting rid of this negative thought. I've been going to therapy for this kind of thing, and I'm going to try to get better at getting myself out there, professionally.
But, back to our weekend. After the meeting, I met up with a couple of friends for some beer, pool, and darts. Then D met me at the bar, and we went home. Unfortunately, he got a new Sims game (Sims castaway), and so he spent the majority of the evening playing that. Well, so did I (we took turns), but I also went to bed at 9:30. Saturday morning, I met my friend M for coffee (as is our habit now). I walked down to the So Side Flats, which was good for me even though it was 22 degrees out. Warmed up in her house for a bit, then we headed out. She's going through a bunch of annoying legal stuff over her husband's kid from a previous marriage (big custody battle in the last year, and the mother is incredibly unreasonable), so we usually chat about that, and we caught up on our respective Thanksgiving stories (she went to Massachusetts, where we're both from, and D & I spent the weekend in Phila). After coffee, we usually wander into the insanely expensive kitchen store where I spend too much money on little gadgets I don't need, but I avoided it this time. I did go to the bookstore though, and found some really good holiday cards. Then both of us went to the grocery store, & I got candy making materials.
So, Saturday afternoon, D & I made toffee. I also just about finished wrapping presents for my nephews, and started making out envelopes for the cards we'll need to send out. D did a heroic amount of laundry, I made an edible dinner (though not fabulous by any means), and finally cleaned my bathroom. with Lysol :) The real stuff, not the stuff that's in meadow blossom scent or whatever. I bought 5 bottles of the concentrated lysol off the internet for very cheap, but was dismayed to find that all of the caps were defective - D couldn't get them open any more than I could. But, I just drilled holes in the bottles, and transferred them to another container. I know you're not supposed to do this, especially since I don't have the secondary container labeled, but I assume that the cats still can't open bottle caps & that D would realize that it doesn't smell like something one should drink. Plus it's in the chemical cabinet. Maybe I'll get around to labeling it soon.
Oh, but back to my weekend. Sunday, I got up early-ish, made it to work for a couple of hours, & then went grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I coated the toffee with chocolate, made soup for the week, and made a roast beef for dinner (something I very rarely do).
After dinner, D & I watched cartoons, and got ready for bed. As I was leaving the third floor, I told him I would switch the laundry for him (since he was still going to be up for awhile), and he started singing, "I'll switch the laundry" to the tune of "I shot the sherriff". This is one of the things that I love about him. We both do this - I have a song that I sing to my cat "Kitty, kitty, oh-o kitty cat, what are you lookin' at?" that is a supremes song, I think - and have done this for a long time. I can't claim credit for it even, my mom always made up songs when we were growing up, and she usually came up with her own music too. But I love that he's as silly as I am in this respect.
I actually first noticed it when we made our first drive from MA to PA. We drove overnight, and somehow kept singing, "I been driving all night, my hands white on the wheel, durn-nurn-nur-nur-nur-na na na" at intervals when neither one of us had anything left to talk about. It would crack both of us up, and it made the trip more fun. I don't remember the first silly song he made up, but I do distinctly remember him backing me up on a rendition of the themesong from the Jeffersons. He's a good back-up singer, and it was one of those moments when you realize you really love this person. (There's also the tale of der Muffinmacher, and der Snuggler, but that's for another time :)
Hope everyone is having a good day!
But, back to our weekend. After the meeting, I met up with a couple of friends for some beer, pool, and darts. Then D met me at the bar, and we went home. Unfortunately, he got a new Sims game (Sims castaway), and so he spent the majority of the evening playing that. Well, so did I (we took turns), but I also went to bed at 9:30. Saturday morning, I met my friend M for coffee (as is our habit now). I walked down to the So Side Flats, which was good for me even though it was 22 degrees out. Warmed up in her house for a bit, then we headed out. She's going through a bunch of annoying legal stuff over her husband's kid from a previous marriage (big custody battle in the last year, and the mother is incredibly unreasonable), so we usually chat about that, and we caught up on our respective Thanksgiving stories (she went to Massachusetts, where we're both from, and D & I spent the weekend in Phila). After coffee, we usually wander into the insanely expensive kitchen store where I spend too much money on little gadgets I don't need, but I avoided it this time. I did go to the bookstore though, and found some really good holiday cards. Then both of us went to the grocery store, & I got candy making materials.
So, Saturday afternoon, D & I made toffee. I also just about finished wrapping presents for my nephews, and started making out envelopes for the cards we'll need to send out. D did a heroic amount of laundry, I made an edible dinner (though not fabulous by any means), and finally cleaned my bathroom. with Lysol :) The real stuff, not the stuff that's in meadow blossom scent or whatever. I bought 5 bottles of the concentrated lysol off the internet for very cheap, but was dismayed to find that all of the caps were defective - D couldn't get them open any more than I could. But, I just drilled holes in the bottles, and transferred them to another container. I know you're not supposed to do this, especially since I don't have the secondary container labeled, but I assume that the cats still can't open bottle caps & that D would realize that it doesn't smell like something one should drink. Plus it's in the chemical cabinet. Maybe I'll get around to labeling it soon.
Oh, but back to my weekend. Sunday, I got up early-ish, made it to work for a couple of hours, & then went grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I coated the toffee with chocolate, made soup for the week, and made a roast beef for dinner (something I very rarely do).
After dinner, D & I watched cartoons, and got ready for bed. As I was leaving the third floor, I told him I would switch the laundry for him (since he was still going to be up for awhile), and he started singing, "I'll switch the laundry" to the tune of "I shot the sherriff". This is one of the things that I love about him. We both do this - I have a song that I sing to my cat "Kitty, kitty, oh-o kitty cat, what are you lookin' at?" that is a supremes song, I think - and have done this for a long time. I can't claim credit for it even, my mom always made up songs when we were growing up, and she usually came up with her own music too. But I love that he's as silly as I am in this respect.
I actually first noticed it when we made our first drive from MA to PA. We drove overnight, and somehow kept singing, "I been driving all night, my hands white on the wheel, durn-nurn-nur-nur-nur-na na na" at intervals when neither one of us had anything left to talk about. It would crack both of us up, and it made the trip more fun. I don't remember the first silly song he made up, but I do distinctly remember him backing me up on a rendition of the themesong from the Jeffersons. He's a good back-up singer, and it was one of those moments when you realize you really love this person. (There's also the tale of der Muffinmacher, and der Snuggler, but that's for another time :)
Hope everyone is having a good day!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Oh Geez!
Well, I have finally had to get stitches. I was up watching a professor's house & kids from Sunday till Tuesday. Everything was going well, they're great kids & in high school so all I really had to was show up & stay overnight to prevent parties. They even cooked for me.
Tuesday morning I went outside to smoke, and after I was done, I crouched down to put the cigarette out on the wet ground before I brought the butt in to throw it out. But I reached over too far, and fell off the 4 inch deck. Onto the slate stones. Onto my face. I did get my arm out a little bit, but not enough.
I had my glasses on, so I was immediately worried that I had broken them. I rolled onto my back, and put them back on, and was glad to see that they were intact. Then I felt something running down my face. Blood, naturally, so I got up & went inside to clean off the wound & see what the damage was.
Now, maybe the glasses protected me in a way, because my eyeball is not damaged at all, and my vision is fine. But the frame of them got pushed up into the orbital bones, & I got a big gash around the outer corner of my eye. Which needed three stitches when I went to the ER. I do have to say that UPMC Presbyterian is great, I was seen right away (it was 9:30 am, so that may be part of it), and the people were nice & did a good job stitching me up. The tetanus booster I got was a little rough though (Nursing student, and I firmly believe that they have to practice on somebody.)
So now I look like I got beat up. But it should heal quickly (they said five days). It's just hard to walk around in public. And I'm worried that I left blood somewhere outside at my prof's house. And about explaining what happened when I see this person tomorrow.
In other news:
I voted for a Republican for mayor. The race was between Luke Ravenstahl, the incumbent 27-year old Democrat who got the job because Bob O'Connor, the guy people voted in last time, got a brain tumor and died like 6 months after taking office. In the past year & a half, Luke has been caught: 1) flying to New York on a private jet of a corporation that had upcoming decisions concerning advertising permits with the city; 2) using a Homeland Security vehicle to go to a Toby Keith concert; 3) playing in a golf tournament, with the $27,000 entrance fee paid by the same company in #1; 4) skipping a meeting with local women's groups after allowing three police officers with recent and/or multiple domestic assault charges filed to be promoted; 5) skipping a community development meeting with a North side residents group concerning how the casino that will be built in their neighborhood will impact the area (i.e. working out some rules so that the community will actually derive some benefit from its presence, not just the crime). And the worst part is, that when he's confronted with this, he says that people are just blowing it out of proportion!
Needless to say, I don't like the guy. He's too immature to realize that accepting bribes is actually kind of serious?? The other guy isn't great, but at least he has some sense of reality, and the actual problems facing this city! So I voted for Mark DeSantis. And predictably, he lost. By like 60%. So we're stuck with Opie, as the local paper calls him. The only comfort is that this was a special election, so it's only for a 2-yr term. But I'd be really surprised if we don't end up with Mayor Luke for the next four too.
Tuesday morning I went outside to smoke, and after I was done, I crouched down to put the cigarette out on the wet ground before I brought the butt in to throw it out. But I reached over too far, and fell off the 4 inch deck. Onto the slate stones. Onto my face. I did get my arm out a little bit, but not enough.
I had my glasses on, so I was immediately worried that I had broken them. I rolled onto my back, and put them back on, and was glad to see that they were intact. Then I felt something running down my face. Blood, naturally, so I got up & went inside to clean off the wound & see what the damage was.
Now, maybe the glasses protected me in a way, because my eyeball is not damaged at all, and my vision is fine. But the frame of them got pushed up into the orbital bones, & I got a big gash around the outer corner of my eye. Which needed three stitches when I went to the ER. I do have to say that UPMC Presbyterian is great, I was seen right away (it was 9:30 am, so that may be part of it), and the people were nice & did a good job stitching me up. The tetanus booster I got was a little rough though (Nursing student, and I firmly believe that they have to practice on somebody.)
So now I look like I got beat up. But it should heal quickly (they said five days). It's just hard to walk around in public. And I'm worried that I left blood somewhere outside at my prof's house. And about explaining what happened when I see this person tomorrow.
In other news:
I voted for a Republican for mayor. The race was between Luke Ravenstahl, the incumbent 27-year old Democrat who got the job because Bob O'Connor, the guy people voted in last time, got a brain tumor and died like 6 months after taking office. In the past year & a half, Luke has been caught: 1) flying to New York on a private jet of a corporation that had upcoming decisions concerning advertising permits with the city; 2) using a Homeland Security vehicle to go to a Toby Keith concert; 3) playing in a golf tournament, with the $27,000 entrance fee paid by the same company in #1; 4) skipping a meeting with local women's groups after allowing three police officers with recent and/or multiple domestic assault charges filed to be promoted; 5) skipping a community development meeting with a North side residents group concerning how the casino that will be built in their neighborhood will impact the area (i.e. working out some rules so that the community will actually derive some benefit from its presence, not just the crime). And the worst part is, that when he's confronted with this, he says that people are just blowing it out of proportion!
Needless to say, I don't like the guy. He's too immature to realize that accepting bribes is actually kind of serious?? The other guy isn't great, but at least he has some sense of reality, and the actual problems facing this city! So I voted for Mark DeSantis. And predictably, he lost. By like 60%. So we're stuck with Opie, as the local paper calls him. The only comfort is that this was a special election, so it's only for a 2-yr term. But I'd be really surprised if we don't end up with Mayor Luke for the next four too.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Ben Folds Five is bad for you
or maybe just for me. I like to listen to iTunes at work, since I can tap into other people's music collections and listen to the radio as well. However, I absolutely have to stop listening to Ben Folds Five. I love it, but I end up crying hysterically at this one particular song (okay, and not so hysterically to many, many other songs), Smoke. It's a beautiful melody but something about it just gets me. So work went well today, as you all can probably tell. At least no-one was there to see me a teary, mucusy mess.
I'm back home now, watching the first episode of Heroes, 2nd season. There's this weird channel that we get called G4 tv, that is definitely geared to adolescent boys that play lots of video games. They actually have shows where they review video games, but they also re-run StarTrek episodes, so we actually record a lot off of this channel. And they run this thing called the Spock Market on their website, where you buy stocks (with play money, not real) like Dilithium Mining, and Red Shirt. The value of the stock is determined by the demand for it, and by events that occur in Star Trek re-runs that they link up with. So, if you own James T. Kirk stock, and he does something to save the day, your portfolio increases in value, but if he gets court-martialed, the value tanks. D & I used to play at night when we were going to bed (the show aired around 11 p.m., so it coincided well with bed-time), and I got pretty good at it. I'm not very risk-tolerant though, so I'd often sell before a stock peaked. I'm not sure if they still run this, I'll have to check, but it's been a few years since I've played, so it might now be defunct.
I'm waiting for water to boil, so that I can scald tomatoes, and make more sauce for the freezer. I also have to roll out cookies & get to use my cookie cutter collection :)
I did get a good amount of work done tonight. It's never as much as I hope I will get done, but it was a fair amount & I'm glad that I went. I have about 1/2 of my last VTA case to re-analyze, and 1 full SNc case, and then I'll just have to go back and re-analyze a 3rd time on a few sections , and I might be done with this project. Unfortunately, I think I'm losing my effect from this re-analysis, and so the paper will probably not be re-submitted, and about 3 years of work will really be down the drain. But better that than re-submitting several times and wasting any more time.
To make up for the depressing results of this work, I also analyzed some of my images for my thesis project. This is slow going, because I have to capture serial images off of 5 consecutive ultrathin (~65 nm) sections in order to determine if any particular terminal is labeled enough to be included in my dataset. So far, I'm not losing the effect that I got preliminarily, so that looks promising. (Sorry, I'm boring everybody with science data. I'll try to keep some of that off this blog).
I think I'm also going to take a webcourse in Statistics. I can never really find the class that I want at Pitt, but this directly addresses Mixed Linear Models, which is usually what ends up being applied to my stuff. Anyway, there's a $400 course over the internet that I think I will take even if I can't the credits to apply to my degree requirements. I actually like statistics a lot, and can do pretty well with the SAS programming if I keep up with it, so I'd like to develop these skills a little bit, and make myself a little more desirable to a wider range of employers.
I'm back home now, watching the first episode of Heroes, 2nd season. There's this weird channel that we get called G4 tv, that is definitely geared to adolescent boys that play lots of video games. They actually have shows where they review video games, but they also re-run StarTrek episodes, so we actually record a lot off of this channel. And they run this thing called the Spock Market on their website, where you buy stocks (with play money, not real) like Dilithium Mining, and Red Shirt. The value of the stock is determined by the demand for it, and by events that occur in Star Trek re-runs that they link up with. So, if you own James T. Kirk stock, and he does something to save the day, your portfolio increases in value, but if he gets court-martialed, the value tanks. D & I used to play at night when we were going to bed (the show aired around 11 p.m., so it coincided well with bed-time), and I got pretty good at it. I'm not very risk-tolerant though, so I'd often sell before a stock peaked. I'm not sure if they still run this, I'll have to check, but it's been a few years since I've played, so it might now be defunct.
I'm waiting for water to boil, so that I can scald tomatoes, and make more sauce for the freezer. I also have to roll out cookies & get to use my cookie cutter collection :)
I did get a good amount of work done tonight. It's never as much as I hope I will get done, but it was a fair amount & I'm glad that I went. I have about 1/2 of my last VTA case to re-analyze, and 1 full SNc case, and then I'll just have to go back and re-analyze a 3rd time on a few sections , and I might be done with this project. Unfortunately, I think I'm losing my effect from this re-analysis, and so the paper will probably not be re-submitted, and about 3 years of work will really be down the drain. But better that than re-submitting several times and wasting any more time.
To make up for the depressing results of this work, I also analyzed some of my images for my thesis project. This is slow going, because I have to capture serial images off of 5 consecutive ultrathin (~65 nm) sections in order to determine if any particular terminal is labeled enough to be included in my dataset. So far, I'm not losing the effect that I got preliminarily, so that looks promising. (Sorry, I'm boring everybody with science data. I'll try to keep some of that off this blog).
I think I'm also going to take a webcourse in Statistics. I can never really find the class that I want at Pitt, but this directly addresses Mixed Linear Models, which is usually what ends up being applied to my stuff. Anyway, there's a $400 course over the internet that I think I will take even if I can't the credits to apply to my degree requirements. I actually like statistics a lot, and can do pretty well with the SAS programming if I keep up with it, so I'd like to develop these skills a little bit, and make myself a little more desirable to a wider range of employers.
Lego Advent Calendar
Okay, so I've started my semi-annual obsession with Amazon.com toys section. This is a great thing about having nephews - I get to still look at toys & games.
But, in the spirit of Kristen's smores nativity set of a few years back, I need to post this:
Can I buy this for somebody? The only thing is that it looks like there are Lego Teamsters included. I'm not sure what they have to do with Christmas - maybe that toys don't get delivered to stores without Truckdrivers?
Crap - I have to go to work, then make cookies & tomato sauce (separately, not as a meal). If anything funny happens, I'll be sure to post again!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
I heart Zillow.com
I love going to check out the completely insane and arbitrary real estate valuations on Zillow.com. They usually over-rate my property by something close to $20k, which makes me feel good, even though I know it's way off. Plus, you can fill out a completely fictitious set of repairs that you have supposedly done on the house, and they don't require any proof. The updated valuation is kept as a private one, so others don't see your fantasy real-estate appraisal, but it gives me hope that if I ever do get all these things done, my house will be worth about twice as much as it is now, and I will have gotten a really great deal on it. Of course, all this comes crashing down when you consider I live in a depressed neighborhood that doesn't seem slated for revitalization anytime soon, but what the hey.... it's still fun to look.
The last few weeks have been really boring. Well, not to me, but from the outside, I must have the dullest life imaginable. Last Friday, I took off from work unexpectedly, because I didn't feel like going. It's the one good thing about grad school, and the trade off for the extremely low pay - you can generally skip whenever there's a day without classes, or crucial experiments, and in most cases, there is no need to inform anyone that you won't be there. I have tried calling in to my boss when I'm actually sick, and the end result is usually that she doesn't get the message because she herself played hookey that day. But I digress....
What did I do with my fabulous day off? I watched TV, of course! D has a free version of Tivo called MythTV that has taken him 4 years to get working right, but it records Law & Order, cartoons, and Homicide: Life on the Street for me. It also records Steven Segal and Chuck Norris movies for some reason, and every single Star Trek episode ever made (I think that's where it got the idea that we might like Chuck Norris), so there are downsides. But usually when I get home, I'll watch some Homicide, which is a pretty good show. After TV time, I did actually manage to do some cleaning, and then I put up insulation in the attic. Which was fun, but also a pain to do by yourself. Still it needed to be done, and I'm glad I made some progress. I did however, discover that I need to buy more insulation, as the Pepto-Bismol color only covers about half of the attic right now. And our staple gun is unreliable.
See what I mean? I'm boring. D & I have been watching Heroes almost every night now, although thankfully we're through Season 1 and I can get back to work. Other than that, we: put out the trash on trash night, snuggle, talk about which building permits we need, find some way to eat that doesn't involve actually having to cook (only the last couple of weeks), play with the cats, do laundry. He also does things on the laptop, that almost always involve a program called Putty. I hate this program, as he opens it and leaves it running on all my computers, and it eats up their battery life & processing capacity. But I'm sure it's a small price to pay for someone who is generally very silly, and therefore fun to be around. And now does laundry (though I'm still trying to get him to understand that part of doing laundry is putting it away, not just piling the clean stuff on the bed, where it can be a) vomited on by bathroom kitty; b) thrown on the floor with the dirty laundry & rewashed without ever being dirtied; or c) folded and put away by an irate, and muttering, Ericka. Baby steps to household chore equality.
The last few weeks have been really boring. Well, not to me, but from the outside, I must have the dullest life imaginable. Last Friday, I took off from work unexpectedly, because I didn't feel like going. It's the one good thing about grad school, and the trade off for the extremely low pay - you can generally skip whenever there's a day without classes, or crucial experiments, and in most cases, there is no need to inform anyone that you won't be there. I have tried calling in to my boss when I'm actually sick, and the end result is usually that she doesn't get the message because she herself played hookey that day. But I digress....
What did I do with my fabulous day off? I watched TV, of course! D has a free version of Tivo called MythTV that has taken him 4 years to get working right, but it records Law & Order, cartoons, and Homicide: Life on the Street for me. It also records Steven Segal and Chuck Norris movies for some reason, and every single Star Trek episode ever made (I think that's where it got the idea that we might like Chuck Norris), so there are downsides. But usually when I get home, I'll watch some Homicide, which is a pretty good show. After TV time, I did actually manage to do some cleaning, and then I put up insulation in the attic. Which was fun, but also a pain to do by yourself. Still it needed to be done, and I'm glad I made some progress. I did however, discover that I need to buy more insulation, as the Pepto-Bismol color only covers about half of the attic right now. And our staple gun is unreliable.
See what I mean? I'm boring. D & I have been watching Heroes almost every night now, although thankfully we're through Season 1 and I can get back to work. Other than that, we: put out the trash on trash night, snuggle, talk about which building permits we need, find some way to eat that doesn't involve actually having to cook (only the last couple of weeks), play with the cats, do laundry. He also does things on the laptop, that almost always involve a program called Putty. I hate this program, as he opens it and leaves it running on all my computers, and it eats up their battery life & processing capacity. But I'm sure it's a small price to pay for someone who is generally very silly, and therefore fun to be around. And now does laundry (though I'm still trying to get him to understand that part of doing laundry is putting it away, not just piling the clean stuff on the bed, where it can be a) vomited on by bathroom kitty; b) thrown on the floor with the dirty laundry & rewashed without ever being dirtied; or c) folded and put away by an irate, and muttering, Ericka. Baby steps to household chore equality.
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