Cracked Window

My windshield on my car cracked this morning on the way to work. The window had a ding since long before I bought it and I never thought much of it. Apparently the combination of bumpy road, extremely cold weather, and the defroster on the inside of the car caused it to POP while I was driving. Now there is a 4' crack along the bottom of the window.

I called the insurance company this morning and they're sending someone out to take care of it in the morning. It won't be covered, but at least they arranged the appointment and guarantee the work.

Parental Units

At Christmas this year we watched a slideshow of old photographs my Grandfather had digitized. I had a great time peeking into my family's past. Take, for example, the photo I have posted here. Can you tell which is my parents from their youth, and which is them after 30+ years of terror named Josh, Tricia, Nathan, and Chris?

Frisbee Golf

Ever play frisbee golf? I played this weekend. I had a pretty good score for a first time frisbee golfer. My first throw was a disaster, I ended up in a playground. From there my next toss to the hole ended up in thicket of trees. Everybody was thinking "this guy sucks." From there I made a 50ft putt into the chains. Surprised the heck out of them. :) The rest of the day kind of went like that. I got third place out of seven players.

My driving definitely improved as the day went one. People were marvelling at my distance near the end of the day, unfortunately they weren't always straight. I think I have found my new calling. I am going to drop this whole postdoc thing and try to find a disc golf sponsor.

Hunting in Tucson

Hunting is much harder than I realized. It makes me admire those hunters in the past that used rifles without scopes and had to reload between each shot. No one I was with actually took any shots this weekend. That was a vital part of my education I missed. We were never in the right position and the three day weekend meant the other hunters in the neighborhood were making the bucks kind of skiddish. The guys I was with were very very good about spotting deer with the binoculars.
Even with them telling me where to look I was only able to see about 50% of the deer they were finding. Impressive. Here is everyone milling around the campfire, it was a little on the cold side.

News Flash!

Nothing terribly exciting has happened in the last month. Bummer. Let me see if I can dredge up something interesting to report.Well, let's see. My project is barely moving, but at least it is moving forward again. What you see below is a gel used to seperate DNA bands of various sizes. The uppermost band in the right hand lane indicates a successful reaction. Take a look for yourself!

Exciting huh? Luckily I have that to keep me inspired. My lab has been pretty empty lately, which translates to a lot of work getting done (nice) but the silence can be deafening and distracting too.

Niagara Falls Update

Visited Niagara falls in late July. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not. Here are a couple photos of the trip! It was a 12 hour drive, one way.

apartment upgrade?

My bathroom had a steady stream of drops coming from the ceiling on Friday. I checked with the upstairs tenant to make sure they weren't overfilling the bathtub. I called the complex and they came and cut several holes in the ceiling to check what was going on. They left a lot of debris behind and a few large holes in the ceiling with a note saying they would come back again at the start of next week to fix it. Bummer. My papertowl roll was decimated when I got home that night, I guess they used it to clean their mess (they only cleaned parts of their mess). :)