Supplies in

Little things make me happy. Today I got a new timer. Yes, my old timer could time four different things at the same time, and this one can only do one. But I've dropped my old one too many times, trying to carry too much stuff at once and rushing around. If I move it wrong or set it on the desk too hard it resets. I have lost track of too many experiments too many times. The way I see it, I can still use my old one for multiple timing, I'll just leave in on my bench and not touch it. The time that will go off first I'll use my new one. It's great! It's super thin, the buttons are covered by flip top, and it's like a key chain so I can clip it to my jeans.

I also got a new stand for the biohazard bag by my desk. Because of the way the labs were organized when we moved we were one stand short. So our old lab manager ordered a new one but it was the wrong size. I've been sharing with LB. Who NEVER changes the bag. Not that he does that much work. But when he does he fills the bag with blue diapers. I will not take out his crap. He'll fill it until it's ready to overflow. So now I have my own. I put the old one by his bench.

There are benefits to having to place orders while Ding is gone.

I also ordered boxes of biohazard bags for each hood room and where the benches are located. We aren't supposed to be taking things out of each of the BSL2+ rooms but we have been because we don't have enough stuff. I got tired of it and ordered more. And those boxes are heavy! So I took them all to the hood rooms, even ripped off the top of the boxes for easy access, with my bare hands because scissors could not be found. They seem to have walked away. Anyway, while I'm moving all this stuff, the boss sticks his head in the hood room and says "You're getting a good workout today," like I don't do anything any other time. I just stared at him. Yes, I can do manual labor. Does he see anyone else doing it around here? Even with a bad shoulder and possibly a broken finger I'm still doing it. So he can get that stupid grin off his face. I thought he was going to yell at me for not gowning up in the room and wearing sandals. Because he did look at my feet. But noooo, all he commented on was that I was doing manual labor.

My first meme

This is my first meme. I've been tagged by Dr. Brazen Hussy who lately has been posting really cute kitten pictures.

Rules

• I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

Random Facts

1. I've gone swimming with a tiger cub. One the most memorable moments of my life.


2. I love fresh tomatoes, especially out of the garden. I love tomato sauce. But I don't like chunks of tomatoes in my tomato sauce. I think it's because I don't like stewed tomatoes and cooked chunks of tomatoes are too much like stewed tomatoes. Is that weird?


3. I always wanted an older brother, but that wasn't going to happen.


4. I like to cross-stitch, draw, and paint.


5. I just bought a new set of golf clubs, ones that are the right size. The first set I bought were too long, I didn't know any better. And the dude at Dick's who sold them to me obviously knew nothing. Never buy golf clubs from Dick's.


6. Hardwood floors are nice but I miss carpet. Carpet catches cat hair so I don't have cat hair tumbleweeds blowing across the floor. Right after it's been swept.


7. My real hair color is brown.


8. I've been in school since preschool. I've never taken time off. Summers don't count.

Now, I'm supposed to tag 8 people but the problem is I haven't been surfing the blogs long enough to know that many people to tag. So, I think I'm just going to randomly pick people from the blogroll's of people I do know! Ones that I've been reading on and off. Hopefully they won't mind and I'm not breaking some blog etiquette. If they feel like doing it fine, if not, that's okay too.

Here we go - Geeka507, Kisha, ScienceGeek, Am I a woman scientist?, Profgrrrrl, The PhD Explosion, A Natural Scientist, and YoungFemaleScientist. Have fun!

Random updates

As I'm sitting here waiting for my timer to go off, I realize that during the time I was MIA on my blog a few things of note have happened.

• Ding, our lab tech (our ONLY lab tech) had her baby early. Only a couple weeks early so the baby was fine. Our boss was going to visit her but never got around to it. She lives near me so I'm going to deliver her a care package. I wanted to give her some time to settle in with the baby first before I came barging in.


• My boss got a puppy. Just what he needs. Now he leaves early to take the puppy out. He really should be a stay-at-home parent. He doesn't balance family very well with work. Not well at all. His wife wears the pants in the family so he has to work around her schedule. Right now she's gone to a conference or something back in his home country - and left him behind. Hee-hee!


• He hired a post-doc. Our mission to thwart him has failed. Mainly because we never met this one, neither has he. Kiwi doesn't have enough money to bring the post-doc for a visit (he's in another country) so he hired him sight-unseen. Great, just great. He's not coming until the fall so I hope I'm gone by the time he gets here.

I know there's more but beep-beep-beep, I have to go.

Another reason to get done

Geeka will appreciate this. So will Geeka507.

I decided today that I need to get done before I permanently injure myself or break something. Again. I wore a dark purple shirt today. When I got to work only then did I realize that it matched my finger. About the only thing I can do with my finger that doesn't cause pain is type, because the end of it is kind of numb.

I have cut myself with a broken coverslip, cracked my head off an incubator door, gotten an unidentifiable rash on my arm, gotten blisters on my toes, and smashed my finger. And this is just in the past few weeks. You don't want to know what's happened in the past few years. It seems the longer I am a grad student the more that is happening to me.

It is extremely difficult to remove pipettes from rappers, uncap reagents and flasks, and so forth when I can't use my pointer finger. And I have to be careful because I'm working in the hood with blood and everything has to remain sterile.

So now that I'm done with blood I quit. No more today. I have microscopy data to analyze and more experiments to plan but I'm not going to do it. I'm going home. Before something else happens because I can't work properly.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm cursed. Or if there is a grad student curse. The longer a student seems to remain a student I notice the more physical ailments they have. And it's not just me!

Typing with one hand.

So this is the end of a completely unproductive work day. I got up early this morning, as mentioned in the previous post so I could get work done and go home early. Now I get to go home early with no work done.

Earlier today I went to sign up for the flow cytometer. A technician was performing a tune-up with the machine wide-open. I able to see the sign-up sheet but not reach it. I couldn't get on until 6pm. I was going to leave a note on the computer to sign me up when the tech was done but didn't have time because the fire alarm went off and evacuation of the building was ordered.

I went back later to write my name in so the last person wouldn't turn the machine off. The rep was still working on the cytometer. I had baaad feelings. So I went to track down the people who are in charge of the machine to see what was going on. When I went in their office the large, heavy, I repeat heavy, metal door smashed closed on my finger. The end of my pointer finger is now red and purple and almost twice the size it should be. I'm keeping it in ice to try a stop the swelling. It doesn't bend properly. I can't use it very well.

So not only is my finger smashed, my experiment is ruined. All my cells and time have gone to waste. I'm more pissed about the time. I have to run the cells the same day as I run the experiment or they aren't any good. So I've just completely wasted a day.

Maybe I should just forget about my good intentions of getting up early to get work done and get home early. It just backfired.

I'm going home.

An explanation

I feel like I need to explain why I haven't posted in such a long time. It's not because interesting, ridiculous things haven't been happening. Many times I have thought "Damn, this would be a great post" or "I can't wait to talk about this!" But alas, experiments have gotten the best of me lately.

I feel like I have been getting up, going to lab, working, going home, sleeping, then repeating the same cycle over and over again. With some eating here and there. Actually, it didn't just feel that way, it was that way. On the weekends when I finally had some time to relax and spend with family (both cats & people) I couldn't bring myself to turn my computer on. One reason was I can't seem to turn it on without checking my email. I didn't want to check my email because I didn't want to hear from work. The only weekend I actually got on my computer was when I went home to my parents house for my dad's birthday/father's day. I needed to show him somethings on my computer - and dial-up is so slow at home that I didn't bother logging on.

Here is an illustration of how slow the Internet connection is. And it isn't because DSL has spoiled me. They live so far off the main line it is verrrry slow. A program that took me 7 minutes to download at my apartment took over 4 hours. It was sooo frustrating because we got my dad an iPod nano and I was trying to download iTunes. He couldn't use it until I got the software. Then we had to format it for a Windows computer, which it wouldn't even do because it took so long the program would timeout. I had to bring it back with me and it literally took less than a minute to do at work. Now I have to go back this coming weekend to return his iPod and teach him how to use it.

So today I renew my commitment to write. It also helps that I could have actually been home by 6:30pm this evening. But nooooo. I couldn't get on the cytometer until after 6pm. I'll be lucky if I'm home by 8pm.

My volume is dirty.

This is a new one for me. I turned my computer on and it told me that my volume is dirty, okay, the exact words were "the volume is dirty." It then proceeded to go through several checks. I'm still not exactly sure what it was doing. It was eerily similar to the 'blue screen of death.' But a different screen, and a different blue.

It sounds funny just saying it - my volume is dirty.