Saturday, March 17, 2007

Blah, blah, blahg

Well, the trip to the Mall of America for the last day of my class left me with little blog fodder. The weather was good, the driving was easy, the mall was huge, the food was tasty, and we all had a good time. I’ll have to make another trip up there sometime to do some real shopping.

Two cool things I learned from class (not to say that class wasn’t informative, but some things stand out more than others): how to measure a small volume using a Pipetman, and that Bailey’s Irish Cream is the perfect blocking buffer for western blots because it has all the proteins you need in the cream, won’t spoil with the alcohol, and if your data is particularly crappy – start drinking early! Genius.

Since then I have been introduced to a little natural area where my friend and her husband “walk” their dogs (walk = let them run around with shock collars). It’s a nice little hike and the dogs have a great time running around and cavorting while we take in the scenery and chat. Good times.

In social news:
I’ve made a new friend. She was recommended by my parents, (well, scratch that, my stepdad), who met her once and chatted her up a bit. He found out she was moving to Rochester, and seeing that she was short and female, assumed we could be fast friends. Not having had the best of luck with set-ups orchestrated by my parents, I was a tad hesitant. But, I made the effort and she is, in fact, rather nice and funny to boot. She’s a dentist in a neighboring town, but lives not 5 minutes from me. Her husband will be joining her in about 3-4 months, job permitting.

She’s got me coming over to her apartment complex to work out in the evenings (she’d like to improve her abs and stamina, and I’d like to have some semblance of muscle tone). Thankfully there aren’t usually other folks around, so I feel much less self-conscious flailing my skinny frame about. When there are others, they’re usually some cute young men. Too young for my tastes, but eye candy nonetheless.

And, just for the record (for those of you I haven’t complained to already): working out is kicking my ass. I know it’s good for me, so I’ll stick with it. I ran for 30 minutes straight yesterday without my heart exploding, and for me, that’s quite an accomplishment.

In work related news:
My old boss has asked me to do the last few experiments to finish up my paper. I’m not thrilled about it, but hopefully, with any luck, I can get them done quickly and they’ll even look publication quality. I just want to be done with him and that project. He has also demanded a bound copy of my thesis. I’m thinking FedEx Kinko’s is the way to go. I think I can get just one made and shipped to him all via their website, which would be sweet. I wish he’d just print it out himself and throw it in a binder, though. Or hand it off to one of his secretaries. I know, I know, that would require *effort* on his part, and he’s not about to start doling that out.

My new boss left today for a 3-week vacation in Hawaii. Now that’s what a good boss *should* do. In the meantime I’m to do the experiments for my old boss, and do a fair bit of reading - his last two students’ theses, to be precise (and “theses” is the plural of thesis, I checked). When he gets back we’ll hammer out plans on what my project should be, hopefully in more detail than we have so far. He’s not the micromanager my old boss was, and sadly, it’s going to take some getting used to.

1 Comments:

Blogger Dressage Mom said...

I know it was hard for me to get used to having a different kind of boss. I missed the holey short-shorts and the Member's Only jackets when I left the lab, but, dear friend, you will get used to having a boss who dresses appropriately. And showers regularly. Oh! And gets more than two haircuts a year.

Shall I go on?

9:34 AM  

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