Sleep?!?

Without Dan around, I have already gotten myself on a weird schedule. I am working extra hard (doing the mindless, tedious stuff, mostly), trying to get as much done as possible, but still somehow falling short of my expectations...

I still have 19 brains left to do, and it is going to be the death of me. 2 SOLID days of nothing but brain cutting, and I have not even quite cut my total in half (at least, not my weekly total). Tomorrow I will most likely not get many done, since I have other stuff going on. That leaves a lot of time on Thursday (but not all day, since I am helping RJ out with some stuff), and most of the day on Friday, but I still will prob. have a few left. Maybe the weekend? Who knows. I will just be happy when it is done. Maybe I can talk Kim into giving me a break after it's all done, instead of making me work just as hard on something else? Unlikely, lol. I think that is the nature of Academia... you have to do what you are told to do, and then figure out some *extra* time to do the stuff that will actually advance you. Extra time. haha.

Anyway, I guess my life is pretty lame, since this (work) is ALL i have been blogging about. This must be why people used to be so sad during the times before labor laws were enacted, etc. At least I like my job... on some level... it must have really REALLY sucked to spend 15h/day at some FACTORY doing manual labor or something.

But anyway, here is a question for all y'all: WHAT do people talk about when they aren't doing anything interesting? It would be helpful for these times! I don't want to get [any more] boring!

Happy birthday, Dan!

Oh, and I almost forgot! This weekend was Dan's 30th birthday!!! <3

We had a fantastic time together! On Saturday we had a nice lunch at Jane's Cafe, and then went to see Much Ado About Nothing, performed by the actors at Purdue. It was really good, AND some guy proposed to his girlfriend at the end of it (she said yes!). After that, we wandered around, and then had a picnic in the park. It was a beautiful day! After the picnic, we walked around, and enjoyed the weather, and then went home and relaxed.

On Sunday (Dan's real birthday), we had lunch at Panera, and then Dan worked in the garden (he planted his tomatoes and peppers. Very exciting!) while I went for a long run (5.5 mi!). It was super hot, and the run was not that fun, but fortunately there were many water fountains over by the park on Salisbury to drink from, as well as the occasional wind gust. Still, when I got home, I was super overheated, and I kept sweating for like 2 hours!!! Today I am sore, but I am sure it was good for me. Anyway, after Dan and I got cleaned up from our respective activities, we drove to Indianapolis and ate dinner at Maggiano's with Dan's family. It was really nice; lots of food, good company, etc. They gave Dan (and April, b/c her birthday was Friday!) these gigantic dessert platters [Maggiano's doesn't do anything small] that had cookies, cream puffs, ice cream, cakes, bananas (that had been caramelized), strawberries, and probably a whole bunch of other things on it. YUM.

I hope that Dan (and April) had fun. I also hope that Dan learns a lot at his secret conference in Our Nation's Capitol!

GO HAWKS!

OK, first and foremost, the Chicago Blackhawks have moved on to Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yay. Then we will be playing the Canucks in Round 2. Simultaneously, the Mighty Ducks will be playing the Red Wings... it is rare that I root for a California team in Hockey (they can have summer sports!), but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so go Ducks! Anyway, exciting times.

The other news of the day is that Dan is gone far far away at a conference. This is sad, but it has allowed me to be productive. Remember how I said I cut 4 brains on Friday. That is actually a lot of brains. Today I cut 10. I am still in the lab, getting all of my stuff together so I can go home. I was going to try to cut another one, because I accidentally cut one that I didn't need to cut (suck!) but the cryostat started to defrost midway through my last brain, which I think was my cue that I had overstayed my welcome.

So, now I have 27 brains left to cut. 7/day I will be done this week! This is unlikely, due to classes, etc., but it IS possible!

That said, it is kinda pointless to rush it sooo much, since Kim said she would be away much of June, so it looks like getting my masters this summer is nearly impossible. That is sad; I really wanted to. It just sucks that all the profs are away during the short window of time available!

Well, I guess it is time for me to go home and sleep! It has been a long, long day!

productivity report

talk: complete
insulin RIA: complete
data entry: complete
leptin RIA: complete
readings for class: not started/due Wednesday
experimental design - human subjects paper/presentation: not started/complete
brains left: 36.

Today I got 4 brains done, and it was a lot of work! If I can do 3/day on average, that is ~15/week, which means 2-3 weeks of solid brain cutting! UGH!

That said, that means if I work my butt off I can have the brains all fixed and ready for in situ by the very middle of may. Of course, this is unlikely b/c of the Ghrelin RIA that I have to run... plus the meal testing, etc. but we will see how it goes (maybe I can bribe an undergrad or RJ into cutting at least 1-2 for me?)

In any case, if I DO get the brains and such finished SUPER quick, AND I do the in situ SUPER quick, AND I analyze the data SUPER QUICK AND there are no problems, AND I know what I am writing about, AND nobody decides to go on an EXTRA EARLY vacation, there is a SLIM chance that I could defend my masters in time for August graduation. That would be SUPER EXCITING!

...but unlikely. I am going to shoot for it anyway. It is my goal, but if I can't get it done, then I at least want to defend as soon as Powley gets back from Colorado in early August. That is definitely doable.

Happy birthday, April!

Today is April Noland Groves' 27th birthday! She is going to be my sister-in-law in around 6 months, and I am totally excited about it! I hope she has a wonderful day, and gets lots of fabulous prizes presents!

<3
Sara

Weddings

When I first got engaged, I found myself at a loss for what I wanted the wedding to be like. There were so many options, and they were all interesting, beautiful, and probably priced way out of my budget. I started scouring the web for ideas, and obsessively read wedding blogs, waiting for the perfect idea to come to me.

Well, eventually, my wedding has taken its form. It was a fairly organic process of me having an idea semi-formed in my head, only to find out a.) my idea was too expensive or difficult, or b.) my mom/sister/grandmother/fiance [not usually fiance] disagreed with it (often for very practical reasons!). Eventually, a new idea was suggested, and deemed acceptable to all, and then the focus turned to the next aspect of the event, which went through the same cycle (the flowers are a good example of this; originally i wanted a very organic, yet lavish display that would be difficult to make and encompass many different flowers and seasonal fruits. When that turned out to cost a fortune, we switched to more modern arrangements that I like a lot better in retrospect!).

Anyway, now that I have all the major details nailed down, I could honestly care less about reading wedding blogs (with the exception of apracticalwedding.com, which is awesome). 99.9% of weddings are pretty in that non-memorable way. That is not to say that these people didn't do a fantastic job (they usually did), or that it wasn't a rockin' party (probably was!). But the aesthetic of a wedding is so... wedding, it is hard for it to be anything else! That is, unless they are ugly (see below)!



Soo... since I don't think I can avoid having a weddingy wedding (and I don't think I want to), I am hereby making the conscious decision not to stress out over it anymore. We will see how long this lasts, lol.

productivity update

talk: complete
insulin RIA: complete
data entry: complete
leptin RIA: start tomorrow/finish Thursday
readings for class: not started/due Wednesday
experimental design - human subjects paper/presentation: not started/due Monday
brain cutting: like 50 to go
pick paper for TD's class.

goals for the week: leptin RIA, all homework, all talks completed. try on tuxedos with Dan. buy Jill a present.
weekend: (in Chicago) Jill's shower/bachelorette party. Rach's Dad's funeral :(

goals for next week: cut brains like it's goin' out of style. work on TD's class paper presentation. Tweak masters introduction/methods.

AAAH

Life is getting a little crazy! Wedding showers and bachelorette parties abound (Yay Chrissy and Jill!), I would love to get my masters this summer (but it is increasingly unlikely), and work is nuts. Hooray for keeping busy though!

I can get my masters if I have all of my data done by the beginning of June so that I can have it all written up by June 10th (give or take a day) so everyone can read it and then I can defend by June 25th (again, give or take!). The real deadline (for all the paperwork) is July 10th, but Powley leaves for the mountains on June 28ish, and won't be back until August! Hopefully the rest of my committee isn't taking off in June (assuming there is ANY possibility of getting everything done in a timely manner!). I guess if I'm not done by then, I can still defend in August, but it would be cool to graduate before I get married!

So, to do (masters-wise):
Insulin RIA (started today, finished tomorrow), analyze data (for presentation on Monday).
Leptin RIA (will start next Monday!)
Ghrelin RIA (early May)
Cut 45 more brains
Fix Brains
NPY and POMC in situ
analyze data
write masters

So, we shall see how long this will take. The pressure is certainly on!

Fitflops?

Weird product of the day:

FitFlops; the muscle-toning flip flop.

Apparently they work by not being as stable as regular shoes (due to "micro-wobbleboards"), therefore demanding more muscles to support you. This sounds like it might be true, but I am highly skeptical of the "miraculous" results FitFlops are having on customers. Double-blind trials, anyone?

Anyway, at approx. $50, these flip flops ain't cheap. They also ain't cute. But we'll see how the latest fitness gimmick sells.

One for you, Nineteen for me!

I did my taxes today, and let me tell you, they were WEIRD (at least comparatively weird). You see, I'm on a fellowship; or WAS for 1/2 of 2008, so a lot of my income had no taxes deducted, and was not reported on a W2. As such, it was my responsibility to report the income (or not).

I really really wanted to opt for the not option, but I am afraid of being taken away by the government. Plus, unlike my libertarian friends (<3),> I think people should pay their taxes [not that the libs think people shouldn't pay their taxes; just that we shouldn't have them, lol]. I figure if I am going to vote for people that want taxes, I should be willing to play along (here is hoping that some of my money goes to good social programs!).

Anyway, because of all of this, I was terrified that I would owe Uncle Sam $4000 or something CRAZY. Fortunately, there is this education credit that I qualified for, and that meant that I really didn't owe anything at all (in fact, I STILL overpaid by $666 on the income that I earned as a TA! Yay refund!). Also fortunately, grad students are not subject to FICA since it is not "earned income" but a "subsistence allowance" which is cool since I doubt social security will be around to take care of me when I'm old and grey.

Unfortunately, IN does not have the same kind of education deduction, so I OWED the state $427. This makes my net refund $239, which is a nice chunk of change for someone expecting nothing.

Had I cheated the government, I would have received over $1200 back. This would have been really nice, but I would have felt guilty and scared. Since I am about 98% sure I filed my taxes legally (with no errors TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH) I suppose I am paying around $1000 for peace of mind. C'est la vie!

Wedding Shoes are here!

The wedding shoes have already arrived! Yay!!! They are even shinier than the picture appears, and they mostly fit. The only thing is that the heel keeps falling off. Maybe I can get some sort of pad for that... if anybody knows any, please let me know!!!

<3
Sara

OMG [wedding] shoes!

I have been scouring the internet (and the department stores, although the pickins are slim in W.Laf) for reasonably priced, flat (or low-heeled), non-white shoes for my wedding. I wanted something elegant, somewhat unique, and something I could wear again. I went on a "something blue" kick for awhile, but blue really isn't that "in" right now, plus I have a fall palate.

Even not limiting myself to blue shoes, I was having a really difficult time finding something that fit my criteria. It was either too casual, to boring (like EVERY wedding shoe! gah!), too high-heeled, or TOO EXPENSIVE. I never realized I had such expensive taste before; I have always just refrained from buying, or settled on something from target or TJ Maxx that sort-of fit my needs... for my wedding I was being far more choosy. WAY too choosy, in fact; I was falling in love with Guiseppe Zanotti and Miu Miu, and seriously contemplated buying Blahniks because they were on sale for *only* $500.

Wow... I didn't realize I could EVER think a pair of shoes were cheap at $500. The wedding industry is clearly getting to me.
Fortunately, I stumbled upon these beauties from Martinez Valero, a designer from Spain. At $60, they are still a little more expensive than most shoes I own (I think my running shoes are the only ones currently in the rotation that cost more than $30), but well within my budget (goal price for wedding shoes: under $100; limit: under $200. Check, and check!). I ordered them from endless.com. I got the last pair in my size; here is hoping they fit!