Lady date

I have a lady date this evening for martini's with L. I have joined a young professional group that I found on-line to network meet new people in A2. I received an email from L the other day suggesting that we had similar interests and should grab a drink. Martini happy hour, grad student in molecular biology, and a tall blond; I think we'll get on just fine!

Smoking or non?

There are only a two things about moving back to Michigan I am not all that pleased with and smoking in public is one of them (the other will be the topic of a later post). It is very true that one does not realize the importance of things until they are no longer around, or in this case, when they reappear. It is some what baffling that we even allow smoking in public places in this country at all. There are numerous countries in the world, including France, that are smoke-free and just under half of the states in the US along with countless cities and municipalities. Even though some may not think so, I do understand the right one has to smoke, however, it is the non-smoker who has no choice in the matter. Once in the vicinity of a smoker, even walking down wind, the permeating smell one can not get away from, on top of the major health issues of second-hand smoke. In my limited experience of a city and state switching to smoke-free, after only a few months, the economic impact to business, in my opinion, was actually a positive one. It appeared that certain bars in Chambana actually had increased business once they were rid of the clouds of smoke. I have found a few places in A2 that have chosen to go smoke-free and there are rumors that a bill is in the works, I sure hope it passes.

Mini me

At Allison's first birthday yesterday, Marissa and her cousin Madison wanted to be a part of the show as well. They both wanted to sit in a little chair of Marissa's. They sat in it together, snuck in when the other wasn't there, and finally when Marissa had the chair to herself and her dad asked her to move (for a picture), she picked up the chair and walked away with it. We all laughed and it reminded me of the time when Stuart and I were little and he asked if I was going to finish my chicken nuggets. "No," I said, and preceded to lick each and everyone, so he would not want them either.

Manners people

First Joe Wilson


then Kanye (link isn't available yet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9413F9yQvbY

didn't their mothers teach them it is not polite to interrupt people, especially the President and on national TV.

Some progress

After a few failed attempts at getting my transformed bacteria to grow and isolate the DNA plasmid I was finally successful today. The sample still needs to be sequenced, and thank goodness there is a core facility for such a thing, to determine if our gene is what we think it is before I proceed. There are still lots of steps to do before I am able to do my tail vein injections, including learning and mastering tail vein injections. I think this maybe the hardest part, because it requires a large volume in a very short amount of time - i.e. lots of practice. I have cells growing and will hopefully get to an experiment next week; that is the plan, but one never knows in the world of science.

The week has been pretty boring and I'm looking forward to a busy weekend. By Wednesday I took myself out for a drink as cabin fever was setting in. I was in the mood for a martini and found the Babs Underground was a good spot, however, I think I was there WAY too early and it was pretty dead. So I nursed my martini until it was late-night happy hour at Vinology (half off wine by the glass) and had a good glass of petite Shiraz and some Kobe beef sliders. I think I am going to try and make this as much a weekly event as possible - Vinology has lots of glasses that I need to try.

The weekend is going to thankfully be busy. Dinner and a show with Amy - Indian and 'The Producers.' Kelly is coming down tomorrow for a trip to the Homegrown Festival in Kerrytown and then back to Grand Blanc for Allison's first birthday on Sunday.

New purchases

Coming together

The week has been fairly productive in getting research and experiment ideas on the table. I had a few more safety training classes this week and learned today that UMich has had two radiation 'spills' in the last 15 years; maybe that is why they need to have a two hour class. The plan is to start two experiments next week. One in which I will be using some material already prepared by a lab mate (which saved me about 2 months) to inject in to the trail vein of mice to hopefully over-express a specific protein in the liver. There are a few steps before the injection that if all goes well, will take about a week. Additionally, I will start a few liver cell lines to begin examining some metabolic signaling parameters on how my protein of interest affects these processes. The one great thing about being a post-doc is I already know these things are not going to work, at least the first time. If grad school taught me anything it is that one must try, try, and try again. Also there was a sign of hope shining down from the science gods. I had emailed a professor at Mt. Sinai, Dr. Friedman, about getting some hepatic stellate cells from his lab. They are not readily available commercially, and since he discovered them, I figured this was the place to go. Not only did he respond within hours, being the Chief of Liver Disease, but he was more than happy to share his cells and was very welcoming of collaborating. It is little moments like this that really get me excited about science.

This afternoon I had to take a different bus to my car, since I was parked near the stadium where my radiation class was held this morning. It is move-in weekend here so I expected it to be a bit late, however after waiting 20 minutes, I decided it was time to start walking. I met a girl who was also waiting for the same bus, and so we started off together along the bus route hoping to find it. She is starting her master's program in some environmental sciences and we talked about moving to A2 and what we did. We did eventually find the bus and as we approached her stop we exchanged pleasantries about it being nice to meet one another. I doubt I will ever see her again, one of the many random people that come in to our lives for a moment.

This evening I went to a cooking club/pot-luck of sorts. I have turned to the internets to find some like minded people and things to do in town, which was a move corroborated by Louise (lab mom) who told me somewhat jokingly that, "oh, you won't meet anyone here," referring to the lab. I found a group, A2 Women's Club, and we had a Danish themed pot-luck this evening, with a real Dane to boot. I rounded up my dessert and wine and headed over to some woman's apartment I had never met. I guess showing up with wine and dessert is a good ticket through anyone's door. Everyone I met there was great! Lots of different backgrounds and different ideas on topics we talked about, like health care and education. We are hoping to do this monthly, which would be a blessing. I miss the cooking club Desiree and I started in CU.

Finally, I am taking off to go camping with my family this weekend; what a novel concept. Not only am I actually taking the Labor Day holiday off, I'm going somewhere and with my family.