Busybusybusy!
Theme of this week: oh crap I still have this pile of papers to grade!
Yes, I am grading exams. I wnat to point out one funny answer: One girl wrote that skeletal muscle cells do not have plasma membranes. Wow, super cells! Lol, sorry. It's funny.
So ok what have I done since I last posted. Well, last Friday was Neil, Niles and Susie's party, that was very fun, although I think more fun for Susie. Then my parents came up the next day and I spent the whole weekend being sick, which was pretty sucky, becuase I couldn't do much besides sit on the couch adn speak in minimal word phrases. Luckily my parents were ok, all they had planned to do was help me clean up my place and finish moving in. So now it's clean and organized (as organized as it can be when I'm one bookcase short. I can deal with piles of books though, I've lived that way for many years) and I have curtains and pictures on the walls and it's just great, I love my place now (before it was kinda like, oh I own it, I'm forced to love it. Now I genuinely love it).
Monday the Bio15 kids had their exam, and from Monday til Wednesday morning I fretted over my journal club presentation. Ok basically it sucked but it's over so it doesn't matter. I think it was the paper more than my presentation, they ddn't really prove anything, they just showed this one actin binding protein localizes to the Golgi. So Duane (the faculty head of my jc) was bascially like, ok that's nice, but what is it doing at the Golgi? Duane, you have a point. But I have no idea.
Then at choir I realized I will give up on the hopes that a certain person will ask me out. He's obviously not interested, but that's ok! Semi formal next week.
Thursday I had a GNO (girl's night out, but we stayed in) and Eileen adn Stacey came. We drank wine, ate brownies and pizza, adn talked. The subject of the graduate semi formal came up, and I had completely forgotten we had one. Yay it's next Friday! So then I'm thinking, ooh semi formal, I must go, but oh don't have a date. But I think Eileen wants to play matchmaker (ok!!I trust Eileen), so I was thinking, on Thursday night, ack nothing to wear! So I ordered some cute black strappy low heeled shoes from nordstrom.com, they were only $35 and black strappy shoes are such a staple and I actually don't own any. Then Friday after class I went shopping for a dress (some pretty ones online, but I really hesitate to buy a dress without trying it on. And then if it didn't fit, yes I could return it, but not before the dance). So I found a nice black velvety long spaghetti strappy dress at Bella, $85 down from $342. Yaybaby! Great sale stuff, only most of the stuff left was tiny sizes. But I found something. So then I get back to lab, and Davor had emailed about a semi formal pre party at his house. So thisis perfect! I will go with a group of people and won't have to worry about being dateless! Yay!
Speaking of dateless, my ex is so not, and on one hand, yay for him, he has a girl he really likes. But on the other hand, oh my god stop giving me the details, it's very awkward for me,especially since out of all my friends here, Jack and I are the only single ones, and Jack hardly hangs out with us anymore anyway. And I'm very happy for another friend who is head over heels for this guy, but when I'm surrounded by newly formed couples, it's just.... not fun. And I don't know if B is just oblivious to the fact that this is very awkward and he should not be giving me details, or if he's trying to hurt me. So, I'm just going to be busy in the near future (which I am anyway, I have so much work for TAing). I don't think he would hurt me though, but no one is that clueless. So I don't know. Guys are dumb (no offense).
And so this brings us up to today, and today my plans include buying a few collage picture frames, which will hang in a group on the wall above my couch, and grading the 2nd page that I have to grade for the Bio15 exams, and working on my lab presentation, since Lab2 is Tuesday adn I haven't done anything besides make the titel slide, which says: "Lab 2: Quantitative Protein Determination The Bradford Assay". Yeah it needs work.
So that's all. I'm working on finding the perfect brownie recipe, this time I made Martha's peanut butter swirl brownies. They're good but man they're dense, you can only eat like one a day.
Love, semi formals and we singletons need to band together
- posted by Catherine @ 10:59 AM

 
um...
and now it's there twice. but i'm afraid to take one out, both might go away.

- posted by Catherine @ 4:34 PM

 
the lost post
yeah so i posted this on friday. why is it not up??? arg.
weekend update later...

Sick!
Do you ever feel like life is playing a great big joke on you?
So I was sick over the weekend, I wrote about that. I was almost better, I was so excited that I would be well when my parents come to visit so my mom wouldn't freak out and be all anal, and then I got sick again. This is just a standard sneezy, sniffly cold. But my poor nose matches my beautiful red coat.
I don't think I blogged about this next issue earlier, so I'll start from the beginning.
So I met my upstairs neighbor when I was moving in, she seemed very nice. Well, 2 nights ago her boyfriend came to visit, and they kept me up for a long time- they were talking, not doing anything else. Just talking, but it was loud and annoying and I wanted to sleep and could not. But I would have to go outside to the -10 degree weather in my pjs and upstairs to knock on their door. So I figured it was easier just to put the covers over my head and lay on my side.
So then last night I went to bed early because I was going to get up at 5:15am so I could get to lab early and have enough time to backdilute some cell cultures before class. So I'm reading in bed, and at 11:30 I finish a chapter and turn off the lights. And I'm all cozy in my nice fuzzy flannel-lined bed, and then I hear her. Laughing, talking, pausing. Repeat. I think she was on the phone (or having an imaginary conversation, but I don't think the pausing would have happened so much). And carrying on and oh my god she talked on the damn phone til after 12:30. I could not fall asleep til 1ish.
So then I overslept and got to lab late adn hurried and broke a few things (nothing important) and got to class late and oy, somehow I have to convey to her that she's LOUD. But I don't know how to do that without being evil and nasty like the obnoxious "I have to study, turn your radio OFF" next door neighbor. Dudes and dudettes, she's scary! She glares at me whenever she sees me. I'm sorry! I didn't know! I always play my music at the same volume, there have been times when it was louder and I didn't know it bothered you! So I want to be nice about it to upstairs girl so she doesn't think I'm evil. Becuase I'm not! I just like to sleep.
Party at Susie's tonight. Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow morning. Presentation on Wednesday. Busy busy! Hopefully all of this will also be lots of fun (well, I'm not hoping for *lots* of fun on wednesday).
Happy weekend!
- posted by Catherine @ 4:27 PM

 
Sick!
Do you ever feel like life is playing a great big joke on you?
So I was sick over the weekend, I wrote about that. I was almost better, I was so excited that I would be well when my parents come to visit so my mom wouldn't freak out and be all anal, and then I got sick again. This is just a standard sneezy, sniffly cold. But my poor nose matches my beautiful red coat.
I don't think I blogged about this next issue earlier, so I'll start from the beginning.
So I met my upstairs neighbor when I was moving in, she seemed very nice. Well, 2 nights ago her boyfriend came to visit, and they kept me up for a long time- they were talking, not doing anything else. Just talking, but it was loud and annoying and I wanted to sleep and could not. But I would have to go outside to the -10 degree weather in my pjs and upstairs to knock on their door. So I figured it was easier just to put the covers over my head and lay on my side.
So then last night I went to bed early because I was going to get up at 5:15am so I could get to lab early and have enough time to backdilute some cell cultures before class. So I'm reading in bed, and at 11:30 I finish a chapter and turn off the lights. And I'm all cozy in my nice fuzzy flannel-lined bed, and then I hear her. Laughing, talking, pausing. Repeat. I think she was on the phone (or having an imaginary conversation, but I don't think the pausing would have happened so much). And carrying on and oh my god she talked on the damn phone til after 12:30. I could not fall asleep til 1ish.
So then I overslept and got to lab late adn hurried and broke a few things (nothing important) and got to class late and oy, somehow I have to convey to her that she's LOUD. But I don't know how to do that without being evil and nasty like the obnoxious "I have to study, turn your radio OFF" next door neighbor. Dudes and dudettes, she's scary! She glares at me whenever she sees me. I'm sorry! I didn't know! I always play my music at the same volume, there have been times when it was louder and I didn't know it bothered you! So I want to be nice about it to upstairs girl so she doesn't think I'm evil. Becuase I'm not! I just like to sleep.
Party at Susie's tonight. Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow morning. Presentation on Wednesday. Busy busy! Hopefully all of this will also be lots of fun (well, I'm not hoping for *lots* of fun on wednesday).
Happy weekend!
- posted by Catherine @ 5:14 PM

 
A Day for Chocolate
Highlights of the past 2 days-
well after the gel incident, I stayed in lab to do calculations for the lab I'm TAing. Didn't get to Joann's for the knitting needle, but that's ok, because this morning Molly mentioned a knitting store in Norwich, VT, that she likes a lot. I would rather go there than Joann's, I think the selection would be much better.
Oh then my ex got a date. This is always an awkward thing, I guess, when your ex finds someone before you do. Well, the only other guy I ever dated, I havent' talked to since the day we broke up, except for a few "hi, how are you" emails in the four months that followed. So this is.... weird. Yes. You can all guess how this makes me feel.
In other news. Not much, really. I just found a neat recipe for lemon-ricotta pancakes. My parents are coming up Saturday morning so I might make these on Sunday for them.
I have a presentation on Wednesday, I should get as much done as possible now, before weekend events begin.
I am almost no longer sick. I am also running out of dating options. Oh for Wellesley, where dating is almost a figment of hte imagination, or at least, a fairy tale-esque concept.
Where's the love? I can only offer info about tropomyosin, or pancake recipes.
- posted by Catherine @ 2:25 PM

 
Lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did
I actually have no idea who Brian Wilson is, but it's a good song by BNL.
Lying in bed is just what I wanted to do this morning... but I was a trooper and got up before dawn to go to class. I made good use of my time though, I had some thank you notes to write to family members for various Christmas presents. I got half of them done during class, and I did pay attention... to the second half. Well, hearing a very soft spoken prof lecture about stuff you know like the back of your hand just isn't interesting 4 days a week.
So the big excitement of today was making gels. Woohoo! Everyone here hates making gels. So, scenario:
My lab uses 12.5% polyacrilimide gels like there's no tomorrow. We also use other various %ages, but we always have 12.5%s on hand. So, basically, if you are using the 12.5s and there's 3 or fewer left, you must make more. Any other percentage we generally make fresh, becuase the lower percentages only stay good for about a week.
So I go to class, I fractionate some cells, I go to journal club (Susie presented, she did a good job but the paper was confusing.), I come back to lab and I'm making 7.5%s- you can see how alkaline phosphatase isn't processed correctly in my mutant- sexcellent phenotype!! :) So then the 7.5s are done around 2, so I'm like, yay run gels now. I want to run 2 7.5s adn 2 12.5s. But oh haha in the fridge there is only 1 12.5% left. So I could a. not run my 12.5%s adn leave that one in there, or b. run only one (half my samples) 12.5%. I opt for b, I only ran the totals adn the pellets, not the sups. But either way, people are going to be pissed that I used the last 12.5% and didn't make more. When hello, it was not my place to make more, the idiot that used the others should have made more! Arg. So I am now making another batch of gels.
All you non science people are probably like wha.....? Sorry...
Ooh so evening lab from yesterday- they stared at me blankly all through my lecture. That's just great! I'm really motivated to teach you people when you're all sleeping with your eyes open. Well I can't blame them. They didnt answer my questions, and since the afternoon group was so.. almost excited to be there, it was just comparison issues. But we got through it, and turns out I have a lab klepto. He wanted to take one of the 50mL conical tubes. He said, I like containers. Um, well ok. I do it too, actually. Like there are things in lab that you take for granted, and hten you go home and you're like, damn, if I just had a tabletop centrifuge, life would be so much easier... Well actually, more like lab tape, ethanol, lab markers, and shh don't tell, but I am so tempted to swipe a case of those nice 100mL square glass bottles. They would be perfect for a spice rack! But I think people would notice if those left. Oh and a timer. Lab timers are great. I have a timer on my oven, but it's just not as cool. But if I take my lab timer home, I will not have it for lab. And lab is where I really need it. So I will deal with the oven timer.
I guess that's all. More TA meetings for tomorrow- ack must do calculations, I think we're going over the calcs the kids will need to do for their report tomorrow. Meaning I need to do my own. Arg.
My parents are coming up on Saturday, and Susie and her housemates are having a party on Friday, adn I have to present in journal club next week, so I have a busy weekend ahead of me.
The goldfish crackers in my bottom drawer are calling to me... I had a very boring lunch (no time to make one this morning, and too poor to buy much at the gross/outrageously expensive cafeteria)
Toodles!
- posted by Catherine @ 4:16 PM

 
Professor Catherine
Lab 1 of 2 on 1/20 is complete!
My first lab to TA went very well, I must say. And that's due in a huge part to Peter, the undergrad TA, who is insanely competent adn knows exactly what he's doing and what needs to be done. And thank God, because I feel like crap. I woke up this morning (slept late at my mom's insistance... well, she didn't have to twist my arm!) and felt worse than I have ina while, all congested but not really stuffy, and dizzy, and just baaad. So then I just didn't feel better at all, but by noon I had to come to school because oops I hadn't emailed myself my ppt presetation for lab, or photocopied the quizzes or anything! But it ended up being ok and I have survived. My students are very amusing, it's 2 girls and 9 guys and in a stereotypical coed school fashion,the guys totally dominated the lab. But they were really funny so it was ok. Hazel said they will be chatty with me, like asking what I do research on and where am I from, etc, but Susie waslike, um no. I concur with Susie. I mentioned how labs at W had negative pressure so fires andthings would get sucked into the labs instead of spreading to the rest of the building, and they thought that was neat. But they weren't curious about me as a person.
And the last kid to leave said, "It was nice to meet you, Beth". Well, thanks... oh well, he'll get my name straight in lab 2.
I only hope TA day 1 part 2 is as successful as part 1.
Love, new fuzzy pink socks (oh the fuzziness is unbelievable) and responsibility for people younger than you, and happy Tuesday
- posted by Catherine @ 4:53 PM

 
Sick! :(
So today is Monday, tomorrow will be my first lab to TA, and oh haha, I am sick! I'm also home and had a hell of a time logging on to blogger, since I have the password saved on my laptop adn therefore never type it in. But I eventually remembered!
Aside from getting sick, my weekend was good. Thursday was free food for grad students night at 5 Olde, so I met Stacey, Eileen and Brandon there adn we partook in free food. Then Friday I met Susie at the men's hockey against Clarkson game, which was fun to watch, but ended in a tie. Saturday I went out with Dave and Brian from choir, and how awkward, but I think they think I'm still with Brandon. It was subtle, like Brian asked about Brandon a couple times, so it could be that they think we're going out still, or it could be that he's just trying to make conversation. So how do I correct that, not knowing if they really think we're still together? Oy. Brandon's coming back to haunt me. Thanks a lot, buddy.
Sunday we had a bio 165 study group reunion over the Indian Buffet. Molly ended up skiing longer than she planned, so we will have to do it again. No problemo! I am always up for the Indian Buffet.
So I guess that's it. I am sick, and annoyed that I am sick. I'm home, resting, adn will go back to lab to see if my cells have grown enough around 3 or 3:30.
Love, ambiguous relationships due to others' ambiguous knowledge, and Tylenol Cold & sinus
- posted by Catherine @ 12:57 PM

 
WARM

I am The Hermit The Hermit often suggests a need for time alone - a period of reflection when distractions are limited. In times of action and high energy, he stands for the still center that must be created for balance. He can also indicate that withdrawal or retreat is advised for the moment. In addition, the Hermit can represent seeking of all kinds, especially for deeper understanding or the truth of a situation. "Seek, and ye shall find," we have been told, and so the Hermit stands for guidance as well. We can receive help from wise teachers, and, in turn, help others as we progress. For a full description of your card and other goodies, please visit LearnTarot.com

What tarot card are you? Enter your birthdate. Month: Day: Year:

scary how true that is...

So it's warm now!!! This is very exciting. Warm, for non-No Hammers, means it's above 0. I think right now it's about 15 degrees, adn omg it's so pleasant out!! I wore only one scarf, only one pair of gloves, adn I was hot inmy big puffy jacket! And no hat and my face was uncovered. Wow....
Last night was the men's hockey vs Clarkson. I went, I met Susie there, it was a tie, we had hot cocoa. Good times. Then my VCR had an evil streak and did not tape Joan of Arcadia. But it might be due to an issue with the tape- it taped the first 3 min and then stopped, even though it was the middle of the tape. But at least 3 things had been taped on that spot, so maybe... Oh well. Now I have missed 3 eps that all looked very good. Maybe soon season 1 will come out on DVD...?
Possibly going out tonight with the chamber choir. I have a fever so maybe not. But I'll see. Tomorrow is a Bio165 study group reunion at the Indian Buffet, so that will be both fun and yummy.
In other news... that's it. I'm TAing my first lab on Tuesday. Otherwise my life is boring.
Oh and blogspeak, who did my commetns before, died, so HaloScan or something took them over. But before they sent that email out, I got comments supplied by somebody else, Comment This, I think. So I will prob fuss with my comments tomorrow or Monday. Not in the mood to deal with it now.
Happy weekend!



- posted by Catherine @ 3:22 PM

 
Welcome to the land where it is too cold to snow
It's cold. That's what everyone's saying. However, damn you all because I am colder! It is currently -8 degrees F out there in the fine Upper Valley. And the interesting thing about that is that that's actually colder than the lab freezer (the -20, not the -70. I think if it were-70 we would all be dead). So, technically I could hop inthe freezer and warm up.
In other news. I made brownies on Monday, and unpacked my espresso machine. And relearned how to use it (sans owner's manual. No idea where that went). I am reading a good book and basically all I do in my spare time is read. It's a trilogy. Halfway through the third one now (The Sevenwaters Trilogy).
TAing is going well, Susie did lab yesterday and Molly's in there now. So I've had powwows with them to get their opinion (Susie's after she taught and Molly's when she was gettingr eady. That was more like mutual spazzing, it's all good).
Reading about actin and secretion- good stuff there!
I have no idea where my comments got to. One day they just weren't there, and they still aren't back. Very confused.
Keep warm! (I have 2 layers covering every part of my body- tights under my jeans and socks, a shirt under my sweater, 2 scarves, gloves and mittens, a hat adn a hood on my jacket. Tomorrow I will also add in my knee high boots, they were quite warm on Sunday and the soles of my Dr Martens freeze and are weird to walk in when they are frozen. Tomorrow will be yet another nope-we're-not-getting-above-0oF day. Yay!
Love, winter weather, and made-from-scratch brownies (which I am donating to choir tonight)
- posted by Catherine @ 1:55 PM

 
Hungry?
So today at cookie time, there were pecan sandies (which I hate, unless they’re homemade. The Keebler ones are just so dry and tasteless) and mint oreos. You know, the ones that are half regular white cream, and half light green min cream. I like them. Oreos are really something now, you have chocolate, chocolate/peanut butter, chocolate/cappuccino, and then all the colored creams for holidays and things, and the uh-oh oreos (which are good). But here’s the main observation- what happened to the regular oreo? Yes I know they still come with just the white cream. But technically, those are “double stuf” oreos. Remember those? They had magenta/purplish packaging instead of the oreo blue. They don’t have double stuf anymore, because all the other oreos are double stuf. So “double stuf” now is technically a regular oreo. Therefore, what happened to the regular ones? Making a double oreo sandwich (the origin of the original double stuf) really isn’t the same unless you have a regular oreo. I guess I should start eating Hydroxes instead.
On to more healthy food. Yesterday, since I’m such a nice person, I went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for Brandon, since he has the flu. And when I was there, I passed the utter beauty of giant boxes of citrus fruit. I looked at them and said wow, I could get a giant box of grapefruit. And I paused and then continued on with the mental grocery list. I figured, oh I’ll buy a couple single grapefruits in the produce section, 40 in a giant box is a lot. So when I got to the produce section, they were 59 cents each. Well some quick calculations informed me that if I bought the giant box, the grapefruit would be 35 cents each. And I could have several a day and not worry about running out and having to go back to the store! So I bought the box. So far I have consumed 4 of the 40 since I bought it yesterday evening. Mmm I love grapefruit.
I also bought soups- canned butternut squash (which was vegan so pricey comparatively, but I love butternut squash soup and won’t have time to make any til this weekend at least) and tomato/cheddar, which is made at the coop. Had that for lunch today, quite tasty.
I can only write in such detail about food because I just had lunch. Otherwise I would be devouring the old leftover pecan sandies (because everyone hates those. On a jelly/cream sandwich cookie day, or actually, any sandwich cookie day, the cookies are gone in 15 minutes. On a pecan sandy day, they’re there at least an hour and a half).
Love, healthy food and "treat yourself" food. and food. just food in general, anything that's good to eat
:)

- posted by Catherine @ 5:05 PM

 
Yay so I am Arrrragorn. The best part of that is how Legolas will date me if I'm clean. Dude as soon as I get home from lab and errands, my ass is in that shower! Heh Orlando Bloom....
Ahem, yeah so anyway.
Yay for Christmas adn being home with family and getting good and useful (sadly, the main reason I will tend to like a gift these days is if it's useful or can be used as a clever/coordinated decoration in my condo.When did I become so boring?) gifts, and seeing friends that I have not seen for very long. And then yay for New Years in Boston with other people I have not seen in a very long time, and other people that I do see more often but wish I could see even more.
So here's a synopsis:
I went home the Monday before Christmas, saw Mona Lisa Smile (the Wellesley movie- saw people I knew, saw places I knew and ho boy much excitement when Julia Roberts ran outside to that little courtyard/walkway next to Founders overlooking Rhododendron Hollow where I used to sit freshman year and do my German homework because it's just so pretty there). Helped my paretns get ready for Christmas. We did Xmas Eve at Grandma's, then Christmas Day everyone came to our place and I cooked yorkshire pudding and Mom and Dad did roast beef and mashed potatoes and green beans and we had loads of cookies and ice cream for dessert.
I received a Holiday Plaid demi bag with matching cashmere/lambs wool scarf from Coach. Oh heaven!!
Then Mom and I hit the after Christmas sales at Westfarms (got new oven mitts from Williams-Sonoma, and pjs from Disney Store) and on Saturday we saw LoTR(mmm Orlando) and then Monday I had lunch with Jenn M and her friend Nicole, and Tuesday I came back to NH for a night before heading down to Bostonia for New Years with the MPS girls. Stayed there for 2 nights, hung out, played cards, ate munchies, didn't really go out except for the fireworks on NYE. Much fun was had there, and people need to come visit me once I get my place in order (which will hopefully be this week. I mean, this week I will get it in order, not this week people visit me).
Then last night was Stacey's 30th bday party (her bday is tomorrow-Happy Birthday!) adn that was fun.
So now I am back in lab. I am actually somewhat frusterated, I need to change some of the Erlenmeyer flask holders in the shaker incubator, and I can't find the screwdrive anywhere to unscrew them fromthe base of the shaker. I dunno where that stupid thing went!! I haven't grown anything in those incubators in quite some time, so I have no idea how long it's been missing. Alas, I will just have to change the dumb holders tomorrow morning (when I need them anyway, I'd just hoped to do it tonight to save time tomorrow) and remember tto bring in one of my screwdrivers.
Well I thinkthe autoclave is probably done now, so I must get my YP out of there and then run to Pier 1 and Staples, the bank and the Mobil station to get my errands done before dinnertime.
:)
Love, parties and ever-flowing wine
- posted by Catherine @ 4:32 PM

 
I'm back, I'm back, you know it, uh huh
Ok so first let me share this, which is a quiz I got from Roxanne


Congratulations! You're Aragorn!


Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by Catherine @ 4:22 PM