not what I planned on today.

But it did include a hard cider and Stargate, even if these things were by my lonesome.  But I also shouldn't fail to note that I have a roof over my head, people who care about me, fresh rosemary from my garden, carrot cake muffins to bake tomorrow, friends who come to my orchestra concerts and today was a beautiful day.  No, it wasn't a beautiful day on the Cape.  But it was a beautiful day. 

 

So go suck an elf, flour beetles and thirty yeast minipreps-turned Mach1 transformations.  You are so not worth my time.

Now---I'm going to going to put on my homemade skanky dirdl and beat the crap out of Barbie Peep.  Or read some Jane Austen, do the dishes, and go to bed.  Because that's how I roll.

oh goodness.

After a morning (and half my afternoon) spent cleaning out my pantry and throwing out a bunch of food (thanks flour beetles that mysteriously appeared) ---and then dealing with the aftermath of dishes and such that followed...I needed this:



Can I take a nap now?

currently loving

blinding light.

At just the right moment in spring and fall afternoons, my apartment is suddenly lit by the blinding reflection of the sun setting...a suprised moment of clarity, of eyes blinking, mind confused. 

My world needs more of this brightness, more of this smile-creating light.  I'm no Frodo in the lair of Shelob, but that light is still most welcome in my life.

Sunday in the City

long time no see.

gaaahhhh

Email from my professor this morning at 10 am:

The assignment in Golan for this lecture is Chapter 5, but that is a little thin for my lectures, so I have added (and uploaded) 2 papers that are essential reading assignments. I have also uploaded today's slides.

Really?  Two papers, by 1:30 pm today?  Really?

Add that to the fact that I didn't get paid this September, jeez. Thank goodness for MIT's payroll employees that are on the ball and figured it out for me.

Now to try and figure out when to squeeze in a trip to the Verizon store at Cambridgeside Mall (oh the horror!  I bet they already have Christmas stuff up) --- my phone can last about five minutes on full battery, which is why there has been a distinct lack of long-walk-based phone calls recently, a real shame.

Oh.  And take around muffins, figure out why Netflix thinks I've already opened an account with them (?), plan meals for the next couple of days, do my laundry, make dinner, collapse.

And my thesis proposal is November 29th.  Commence studying. 

(fact of the day: there's a gene called hERG that stands for "human ether a-go-go" after the dancin' legs of flies with a mutation in this gene when they are put under with ether-based anesthetic.  Thanks, William D. Kaplan.  I wish there was a video, but no luck) 

fall Saturday

Things I did today:

I biked the mile to Trader Joes, my skirt flying up here and there, because I made the stupid decision to look at the pretty fall colors on Memorial Drive.  Instead, I frantically tried to pedal and not flash anyone at the same time, which was a losing battle because of the wind advisory today (really Boston?  Thanks). 

I worked in our freezing cold lab, a miserable experience because they did an unannounced steam shut-off this morning.  Brr.  BRR. 

I dressed in red, orange and green today.  Yes, I've noticed.  I'm kind of a kindergarten teacher in disguise.

I bought bread ends at Flour, the world's best deal for $1.50 - I expected them to be stale and perfect for crouton-making, but not so!  They were beautifully soft and fluffy.  Perfect for a dinner of bread and cheddar broccoli chowder.

I made apple butter!  So delicious, oh my.  Along with the maple cream I purchased, the crepes study break later in the year is going to be so tasty.

I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with my apple-butter-making-GRT-partner-in-crime.  Started out very cool and mad sciencey---ended really, really odd (let's just say Owen Wilson voiced the part of a guy that ended up inside a radioactive half sentient chicken carcass)

I went to bed before midnight.  Always a winning time in my book!


PS  Making the Hippo Dance is a fascinating look at how the folks at Radiolab make the hippo---hard-to-understand scientific concepts ---dance and come alive.  That's exactly what I want to do...Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, do you need a science intern in Boston?

so close!

I was so close to posting every day this month.  Thanks ants.  Thants.

But in lieu of rambling, I give you the powers of ten:

the beauty of words.

Unknown words I looked up while doing toxicology homework tonight:
dysphonia
hyperesthesia
syncope
ptosis
paresthesia
eructation
dyspepsia
melena
micturition
arthralgia
paroniria
leukorrhea
pruritis
furunculosis
hyperkeratosis
purpura
seborrhea
parosmia
xerophthalmia
asthenia
rigors
chloestasis
thrombocytopenia

There's a beauty to these words with their Latin and Greek roots.  But when you find out what they are, it's a little unsettling and/or gross.  Thank goodness my biology education has given me a staunch constitution. Definitions below:  you've been warned.


dysphonia - vocal impairment
hyperesthesia - sensitivity to stimuli
syncope - fainting
ptosis - eyelid droop
paresthesia - tingling skin (similar to what it feels when your foot falls asleep)
eructation - burping
dyspepsia - upset stomach
melena - tarry feces from gastrointestinal hemmhorage
micturition - urination
arthralgia - joint pain
paroniria - nightmares
leukorrhea - white vaginal discharge
pruritis - itchiness
furunculosis - boils
hyperkeratosis - thickening of the skin
purpura - purple rash
seborrhea - inflammation of oil glands
parosmia - can't identify smells
xerophthalmia - unable to produce tears
asthenia - weakness
rigors - chills
chloestasis - bile is blocked from moving in your liver to your intestine
thrombocytopenia - you don't have enough platelets for blood clotting

Wait---they celebrate Oktoberfest in Japan?

Just in case you need another reason to drink beer:

"It is concluded that beer administration reduces the radiation injury caused by photons and carbon ions, depending on the tissue type."

Protects you from the xrays, just like those tinfoil hats protected you from alien abductions back in the day. 

You stay classy, Japan.