Countdowns are on

Fifteen minutes to write this post.

Probably the last day I have this update to Facebook as notes.

Two days to my brother getting here.

32 minutes until my transformations done

Three days to graduation Pre-party.

Four days to graduations.

Six days to fill the PODS container.

Seven days until closing.

Twenty days before we start work in Texas.

Sixteen before I want to be in Chicago.

Six months before I start paying on my student loans.

About 95 days before we start moving to CA.

Just a few things on my mind.  Most pressing is the experiments I need to do before I leave, getting the house ready for the party, and getting the house ready to move.  And getting out of here (work) tonight, with an eye to helping my wife who's packing our kitchen right now.  (Good bye Tupperware!  I'll see you in Texas!)  I might miss my tongs most of all.  Other things not directly on that countdown include getting new tires for the car.  Oi.  We also don't know exactly how many people are coming down for our graduation.  There is some flux in the system.  So, we just ordered food for 25 from Sonny's BBQ, and the grand plan is to shut down the kitchen before this week is over, and eat Sonny's leftovers for three days.  Pulled pork.  Yum!  By the way, if anyone reading this wants to buy some of our stuff, talk to us about it.  We've got a book case, end tables, entertainment center, a great gas grill all still out there for purchase.

If anyone in Athens is reading this, your welcome for the rain.  I watered my herbs this morning.  Of course the meant it was going to rain.  It helps that the Weather Channel also predicted rain for us, but I'm still taking credit.

Does anyone else watch the weather channel religiously like us?  I wonder what they do during the commercial breaks.  Do the ever talk about California?  It seems like the forecasters are fixated on the east coast.  Granted, that's where the cool weather happens, hurricanes and such.

But still.  I have a theory.  When they cut to comercial, they go to west coast coverage.  Then when my commercial is over, they switch back to east coast.  It may have something to do with it being 3 am in CA as to why they don't talk about LA in the forecast though.

stay at home Tuesday

So the massive amount of catching up I had to do is finally showing a light at the end of the tunnel. I finally finished updating my notebook (YEA!) and now the -80 sheets are coming along. I don't know if anyone will ever work on my stuff again in my lab but I want to make sure that at least someone might be able to make sense of my stuff. My lab notebook writing has improved but still needs a lot of work. I hope the whole industry job thing will not only force me to keep up-to-date but also help me with writing a more comprehensive notebook. I mean sometimes I look at what I wrote and go 'what was I thinking here' and then have to read a week before to go 'oh yeah that was what I was trying to do.' But the huge weight of the notebook is now off my shoulders so I am ecstatic.

We are still packing away. The pod is filling up little by little but there is still thank goodness space left. We have ALOT of stuff. I'd like to think that I am not a packrat but I like books and I have a hard time letting them go. I know that I probably will not read them again but I like having them on hand to....I don't know collect dust. I just like having them around. In case you didn't know, books are heavy meaning Dawn does not get carry such boxes because of her back meaning John has to suffer for my addiction to books. That poor man didn't know what trouble he had gotten himself into marrying me. Grandma was right when she told him good luck after we got engaged :)

Today I saw the SURP student from our lab present her research. She did a great job though the talks were quite distinct from each other. The program encompasses all disciplines, not just science. So we heard about Melissa's talk on V. fischeri, moved to Respiratory Syncytial Virus and then ended on Female Genital Mutilation in Africa. Yea it's a big leap. I think its great that there is this kind of program for students but it would be nice to kind of group the talks by section so that way we could see all the science kids together and then the history kids together. Maybe there point is to keep us all awake and the FGM talk was definitely disturbing to say the least.

On the way back from the talks, EVS, Noreen and I ran through a thunderstorm. Yes we need the rain but no I did not want to be soaked through and through. It was full of laughs though. I mean how many times do you get to kind of play in the rain as a big kid :)

Like Dawn Says...

So yea, another boring Sunday round here.  (Sarcasm. That's original.) As Dawn said, I started to load the container today, at noon.  Could I have been any dumber?  I don't work out much, and today was a hight of Georgia summer day.  I think it was at least 95C.  So, I

 just took a shower, but an hour later was taking one again for the purposes of photographs.  I think they came out pretty good.  Again, as Dawn says, it's difficult to look good in a shapeless sack and funny hat.  But, there it is.  Also, li

ke D

awn says, roadsideamerica.com is a pretty cool website.  It's user updated though, so it's tough to tell if some of the roadside attractions will still be there, particularly along the Gulf Coast and post-Katrina.  We don't even seem to be going to Louisiana at festival time.  I thought it was always festival time there.  But no.  Our estimated travel times seem to miss all the festivals.  Either we're too early, or to late.  We'll even miss the opossum festival in Florida.  Darn it all.  On other big problem with roadsideamerica.com is the interface is kinda clunky on safari or opera.  Also looks as if the page coding has not been updated in a very long time.  I guess if it works, it's good though right?  Though I do remember seeing the site in earlier web searches for guides, but didmissing it because the web design in strange.  For many websites, particularly blogs, it can be difficult to tell what's still active, and what's died a long time ago.  It's no

t necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes there's a lot of fun to be had mining the archives of websites.  notmydesk.com comes to mind pretty quickly in that department.  zug.com as well.  How about some more pictures of the container?

The moving has begun...

The POD landed yesterday as John described. It was pretty weird having no idea what to expect on how this thing would end up in the parking spaces. I'm sure the guy delivering it had to think I was pretty weird taking pictures of him dumping off our pod but hey we had to keep you all informed :) John has begun the stashing boxes from the second bedroom in the pod so the house is beginning to empty out a little bit more. There is just still too much to do but little by little we are moving.

The tradition at UGA is to have your picture taken at the arch for graduation. Well I don't want to stand in line next Saturday after graduation so with a little help from Dave in John's lab we took our pictures of us in our regalia. It sorta seemed more real that we were graduating but still its pretty surreal. The pictures are pretty good. Let me warn you that huge robes are not flattering on anyone. I look like a short round black blob and John looks like a tall round black blog, but hey we have our PhDs so why not dress us up in funny costumes and take pictures :) And also they are not the most lightweight, cool temperature things to wear on a 95 degree day in Georgia at 1pm. I think I lost 2 pounds of water weight just to take the pictures. I'll post the pictures after graduation. I'm still worried about jinxing us that maybe if I post them graduation won't happen or something. Damn me and my superstitions.

Friday was my lab's end of summer, Noreen's got a new house, yea REU and SURP are soon to be over, Dawn graduated, etc. It was fun and nice. Big thanks to Noreen and Chris for hosting. It always is a pain in the butt to have a party-madly cleaning and prepping the house to then have everyone come over and dirty it up. I hope everyone had a nice time. I gave all the girls in the lab these really cute squid change purses. I found them through a vendor at AthFest and just had to have one for everyone. The artist, Jude Stuecker, has some wonderful stuff but the change purses (under small works on her webpage www.judestuecker.com) just couldn't be passed up. She was also more than willing to make more and alter colors and everything. I hope the girls liked them. EVS and family came so it was nice to see them. EVS and I exchanged gifts. He gave me a $30 gift card to Borders and I gave him 4 of these recreations of SunJar's that I am calling Light Organ Jars because they glow blue due to a nifty trick that James H helped me with by taking an overhead sheet and printing blue ink on it. They looked pretty cool. I found out how to make them by using the Instructables website. Check it out at: www.instructables.com/id/Home-made-Sun-Jar/. The website is also full of other diy projects. We used this before to make a fabric covered headboard for our bed. Ah the internet. What did I do without you in my early days.

Tonight we had dinner with John's lab. It was also nice to hang out with everyone from his lab. Brian is in town so seeing him was good. He's been finishing up some stuff for a paper so he spent his vacation from his post-doc at Princeton here in Georgia doing science. Oh the dedication.

By the way thanks kt and James for the suggestion of roadsideamerica.com. It definitely rocks. John and I are already exploring for cool things to look at while we are on our way to Texas in the next few weeks. We are already looking forward to getting on the road. I think the move will be good for us (or at least I think so now). This whole moving thing has been something new for our relationship so I am hoping we will continue to grow as this big event happens. I said in my defense that if we could both defend our dissertations at the same time that we could get through anything together. I hope that includes a very long car trip with a sometimes easily bored person :)

PODS has landed II

PODS has landed.

Today, the Pod came.  Dropped off buy the nicest guy.  I have to say, that PODS customer service again has been unfaltering.  Well, one fault.  I asked if the PODS fits in a parking place, and they said yes.  What they don't make clear is the need space on either side to bring the container off the truck, so really, it's a two space minimum, to drop off and pick up the pod.  I imagined a car wrecker style of drop off, where the bed of the truck tilts and to pod rolls off.  Nope.  There's a self-propelled lift carried on the truck, that takes and lifts the pod off the bed, the truck is then rolled out from under the pod.  The pod is lowered onto the ground, and then the lift is pushed back towards the truck, it's put back on, and he drives away.  I'll eventually post pictures of the operation somewhere, but for now, trust me, it's cool.  And the interior, except of the roof of the container is wood, with eyelets screwed into the support posts to make it easy to attach ropes.  Also there are horizontal bars to hang clothes, but only a few.  But there is enough space to hang pressure rods if you wanted to.  So far, thumbs up on the PODS experience.

Since this has mostly so far about moving, but we've been trying to introduce more people to our blog, we'll throw these questions out again,

What are your favorite car games?  We've already gotten one good suggestion from Katie, but more are always appreciated.

Also, anyone know a good guide to roadside attractions?  We'll be spending many hours driving down I-10 so the break for the worlds largest house of mud, or second largest ball of twine, might be nice to stop at.

I've always talked about stopping and photographing all the historical markers between here and Dawn's grandparents house, so be on the lookout for that.  Maybe.  We'll see how annoying that gets.

There are many things I'll miss about Athens, but the bureaucracy is not one of them.  Now, the tag office is alright, and the driver's license off has much improved since I've been here, but the water business office.  My experiences with them have always been a hassle.  They seem to run such an outdated system, every time I've had to do something about the bill, that doesn't involve just paying it, it's a trip to their offices.  I called yesterday to get the water turned off, and after about 10 minutes of hold, I was shuffled between to operators.  After another 10 minutes, I hear the phone pick up and someone further away say "...Don't want to deal with this..." and put me on hold again.  Well!  After five more minutes I finally gave up.

J.

(I'll transfer the pictures later.)

trying to get caught up...

You know I usually am on top of things.  I pay my bills on time.  I meet deadlines for things.  I obsess over trying to get to places on time.  And yet, I always put off the stuff that I don't want to work on, ie my notebook and my primer/-80/strains lists.  With my freakish love of having things organized you would think this would be a passion of mine.  So now I'm trying to get caught up especially since the deadline for my finishing is so close.  I just keep telling myself that it will get done, it will get done, it will get done.

I found someone with a capillary electrophoresis machine which means I might be back to the grind next week with work.  I quickly ordered the supplies I need and if they come in next week I should be good to go.  It seems a tad crazy for me to expect to start a new technique and have it work before our projected move date of Aug. 5th but hey you never know.  It might work (*shaking head in despair*).

Other than that the beat goes on.  We need to be packing more, we need to be cleaning more, we need to be doing more.  Graduating isn't really as relaxing as I thought it might be.  We did find out that we will be heading to California from College Station between October 25th and November 1st.  Well that is when the movers for the lab will come to move it away.  Our actual move date is still undetermined.  I think John and I are more than a little anxious about the whole thing (ie me having panic attacks, John sighing a lot).  It seemed like a great idea at the time to take these jobs and hopefully it will pan out.  Right now just a lot of stress, but we have a whole road trip to play with.  

By the way, anyone who actually reads this, we've been on the hunt for roadside attractions on I-10 (the road we will be on for the majority of our trip).  You know, like the Gaffney Peach or Paul Bunyan and the such.  Anybody know of any attractions on I-10 that we should stop at (the cornier the better) or know of a good website/book where we could find some?  If we're going cross-country we could at least see all there is to see.  Hopefully when this blog goes mobile we can post all our exciting (and fun!) sightings on our adventure for you to see.

and Living arrangements were found..

but, like Dawn said, maybe too far away, maybe too expensive, we'll see how it goes.  Well, we'll have to.  I don't know how it can go any other way at this point.  But, it's a residence.  M&T said it was some of the best rental housing they've seen in CS, TX, so it should be good.  It does have a washer drier.  Do I sound like I'm trying to convince myself?

I got all my stuff in  under the deadline for graduating.  I even (thought) I had done my corrections before midnight.  Little did I know EndNote was quietly screwing with my references, and stuck them all at the end.  Dawn, bless her soul, came down to fix it all for me, just for the cost of lunch.  She's been very supportive through all of this, and I don't thank her enough for minding the details that keep us running as a pair.  Or even keep me running solo.

But, just the same, all the other paperwork and submissions were done before 1 pm.  Pretty good for me.  (I've a terrible habit of doing things at the last minute.  I'll work on that.  Will I ever change?  Stay tuned....)

Today it was more protein purification, this time the last, I hope.  A few experiments short of a paper, but I think I've eluded to we're always a few experiments short of a paper.  That means binding assays tomorrow!  Big fun that is.  But like I said, get it done, and then it's done.  And as Claude told me, don't try and catch a pig in an alley.  So, don't look for me doing that in the near future.

We got our robes today, and as I was screwing around, trying it one, it really felt real for me today, that this graduate school thing might really be ending.  Also though, I might've felt a little faint because of the heat.  I did carry three boxes of robes in 100 degree heat.  So, I was a little sweaty.  Part of my purification protocol involves me standing in 4 degree room, rarely have I been so happy to stand in that room.  I had just about enough of it though, after 40 minutes, I was starting to shiver.

I wonder how I'll do in the Texas sun. 

Waking up somewhere else...

Ok so its not as bad as it sounds. But I've been thinking that I wish I could just wake up and all the paperwork/packing/apartment hunting/moving deal would magically be done and I would be somewhere else. Today was especially hard for some reason. It should be exciting. We've got a lead on a great place (thanks to Tasha and Matt) and that should put me in the jumping up and down spirit, but for some reason it is just hard to deal with the whole thing. The place isn't on the TAMU shuttle system meaning we have to buy a parking pass to get to work on. Which brings to my mind the whole one car issue. John and I are two people (if you haven't realized already) and we don't always work on the same schedule. I mean we work hard and long hours usually but sometimes one of us is done and goes home while the other is at work. Meaning late nights the person at work gets the car meaning the other person is now stuck at home instead of having the extra car to get around. Like today for instance, John is at work. I'm at home without vehicle. Now there isn't really any place I need to go today but what if I did. I know it seems stupid but I hate feeling like I am stuck some place. The benefit of being on the shuttle service meant that we didn't need a parking pass and because the shuttles run late (like after 11 pm), it wouldn't be a big deal if I went home and took the car around somewhere else because John could still get home by shuttle. I'm not exactly sure why this is such a big deal to me but it is and I can't deny it that's for sure. I just hope it all works out. We need a place to stay and if this is the best then we should probably take it. Period.

By the way, Andy (of Wendy and Andy) told us about Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog by Joss Whedon (http://drhorrible.com/). It is pretty awesome. It doesn't hurt that Neil Patrick Harris is in it (who I had a super crush on in the Doogie Howser, MD days) but Joss Whedon is just too cool. I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Serenity. I just want the man to succeed because his stuff is just too cool for me and I keep wanting to see more from him. So check it out. If you can't get it free anymore, pay the 3.99 and buy it off iTunes. It's worth it.

Also I am religiously visiting postsecret.com lately. Every Sunday, more postcards are posted and I seem to just have to look. I don't know what it is about seeing someone else's secrets to make you put your own in perspective. I mean some are funny, others just sad and then some just give me a smack in the face about my own fears and problems. I haven't sent one in (yet) but the big thing is I probably should rid myself of some of my own secrets and stop hiding them whether I send them to postsecret or just realize they aren't that important anyway.

Since I've already given two sites I'm into right now might as well list some others. I've been using www.pandora.com alot lately. My Dave Matthews Band playlist is growing little by little. And finally, I'm visiting http://icanhascheezburger.com/ regularly as well. For some reason the more I see of them, the funnier they get. I mean I know they are dumb but I just can't help laughing. I guess the PhD classiness hasn't started up yet. I think I'll probably still watch my terrible television (Project Runway started up again and there is still American Gladiators to watch and then there is always the rerun of Girls Next Door) and be proud to enjoy it. Who says a PhD can't have a little fun? :)

Another Milestone

I've turned on facebook notes to link to this blog, because a number of people have asked about our blog after we've brought it up.  And we generally want people to know about our blog so it can be easy to keep track of us as we move across the country.  I only plan to keep the link going a week or so, so that you aren't constantly bombarded with John and Dawn have updated their notes notifications on facebook.  So, if you like this, keep checking out dawnandjohnblog.blogspot.com.  If it's really annoying, you can always defriend me, and then refriend me later.

I've been trying to write 15 minutes a day, stream of consciousness so forgive my terrible spelling and grammar.

Today I've already finished most of the typing corrections I needed to fix in my dissertation, but I've got a figure to add, a figure to make, and four figures to correct.  I'm thinking that will take me a few hours to work at work, but I think it will all be done before Monday morning.  I also have to go to work this afternoon to take care of culturing stuff needed so I can purify protein this week.  There's a big difference between finishing high school or college and graduate school.  That difference is the actual end point of "Now you're done."  Almost everyone I know defends their dissertation, and then has to stick around, not just for corrections, but usually has experiment or two to finish up.  Then there's graduation, the actually ceremony, but even there, there's sometimes agreements between graduates and mentors of what sort of work needs to be finished, even as they start their next legs in life.  Often it's just writing a paper to be published on their work, but in some cases, people "take work with them" to be done in the hours they are not working at their new job, and even the occasional return from the new job for a few days or weeks to complete one more experiment.  Again, usually these "one more thing deals" are predicated on one more paper.  But, if we knew exactly what experiment to do, and what the results would be, then that's not the most exciting experiment, and probably not paper worthy.  And even with all this post-Ph.D. work, the papers don't always come, or come particularly fast.

Graduation and good data

YEA!!!! John defended his thesis today!  The changes don't look so bad at least from what he tells me so we are looking good.  I am so proud of him.  He has worked so hard and done so much.  He deserves this PhD so much.  I think Emily was right when she said that I felt like it was me up there with him.  I just wanted him to show everyone how smart, intelligent, and incredibly wonderful that I see him as.  I've never seem him give a talk on his research so well.  It was clear, concise and just overall great.  I guess if you are going to give the best talk about your research it should be the last one you give, right?  I just can't explain how proud I am of him.  The corrections will hopefully go smoothly this weekend and soon this whole bundle of stress will be behind us.  Then it is just finishing up the research (you know only research that should be easy right?!).  I'm really happy that Peg and Dave were able to make it down.  I know John knew they supported him but having them there I think made him feel even better.  Having my family here was also great.  I know that the whole science thing isn't their forte but having them there here means so much.

It is weird that all 5 of us (Chandra, Emily, James, John and I) are all done.  When we first joined forces with the dissertation support group, I could only imagine the day when we would all be done.  Now 10 days and 5 defenses later, its over and pretty surreal.  I don't think I'm ready for us to all go our different ways.  It is kinda funny that we are all heading west (Emily and James to Idaho, Chandra and James to Montana and us to Texas/California).  We're already talking about Vegas trips (which will be super fun since John's sister Sara is living there now) and meeting in different places.  You know I'm glad to finish with graduate school but I'm going to miss Athens and all the people and places here.  Speaking of missing Athens, man am I going to miss the food in this town.  We went to Harry Bissetts tonight and it rocked.  Last Resort, Aqua Linda, Mellow Mushroom, DePalma's, Caliente Cab (and its variety of other names), etc.  It definitely shows on both of us that we are good eaters and in this town we definitely haven't starved :)  

AND...my recent squid data that I've been so worried about finally is plated and the data held true.  The complementation works and returns the phenotype to wild type and the parental plasmid doesn't effect the mutant phenotype.  I sent the data to EVS and am now hoping that that will be my last squid experiment maybe forever.  You never know where things will lead so I can't say for sure that I never will end up in the squid field but I would rather not have to work with squid for awhile.  They are cute but only when your graduation doesn't depend on them.  

And Scene

Today I defeneded!  Huzzah!  And all my paperwork was completed!  Double Huzzah!  Now all that's left is corrections and more science.  In the final strech now.  The paper work jab has to do with this school not confirming that files they should have had already got to them.  Paperwork is always a drag, but an unresponsive bureucracy is worse.  The panic button was hit yesterday around 4:30.  After some quick typing and printing, there was a mad dash to the gradschool offices and papers flying in, and blank stares from the staff.  As if they'd never seen the forms we were handing to them.  So, that was fun.  As worried as I was that I was going to have weird dreams last night of paperwork and such, around midnight, I fell asleep, and didn't wake up until the next day, 6 am, with the alarms going off.  And for the most part, I couldn't have asked for a smoother day.  Only one moment of panic when my laptop mysteriously died just before my talk.  Wouldn't wake up from sleep.  Oddly enough, Dawns did the exact same thing.  But, a quick yank of the battery, and a hard re-boot, and things were back together and running at full power.

Many thanked me for giving such a great presentation, even giving such high praise as, "I usally don't get into that recombination stuff, but I understood your talk."  That was cool.

I was glad my famillies came to town to shar this day with me, and I am excited to see them again in two weeks, at the actual graduation, with the hoods and all.

The selling of stuff has cooled off for now.  Then again, there's not much more to sell.  We've also hit that point where we look at what we have left, and it doesn't seem like all that much, and maybe it will fit in the PODS container.  We may be short one more table and the gas grill soon. Maybe as soon as Saturday.  The grill will be a sad sale.  I didn't think I'd like gas grilling as much as I do, but what do you know.  I do like it.  It is more convient then gas grilling, and I can get some rocket hot temperatures on my cook top.  Broiler and pan fry burgers from here on out, I guess.  I hope we sneak small charcoal grills into where ever we go next.

On to corrections, and then the next thing

Goldfish memory...

So yes I just finished my dissertation and did my defense.  Yes that chunk is over with yet I'm still doing experiments.  However, I can't remember someone telling me that they are coming over to the lab more than a minute from when they called.  I keep forgetting where things are supposed to go or what I am supposed to be doing.  I am distracted more than I have ever been.  What is wrong with me???!!!  Wasn't there some magically cloud to be bestowed upon me after my defense?  I mean they didn't even teach me the secret handshake :)  I guess I am just super distracted with everything that is going on.  I mean the living situation is getting more than a little overwhelming.  We sold our bedroom furniture last night leaving us our bed frame and mattresses.  The cardboard boxes with our clothes from the drawers is a little off putting.  The housing crisis and then the trying to figure out what is going on with the whole capillary electrophoresis stuff...ARGH!  So maybe my goldfish memory is just a part of that or my brain is going through a massive dump.  Maybe if I walk around with my fingers in my ears I can hold what is in there but I have a feeling people will look at me pretty funny walking around work with my fingers in my ears especially if I talk to myself in the process.  Maybe my decent memory will return after we move to Texas or maybe California or at least I can hope so.  

Ahhh the joy of science

So met with the bossman today and went through the changes that LJS wanted.  Some it was good, some was well that's just a preference and other stuff it was just nope we're leaving it our way.  Only a few overall changes to make really.  I'm very lucky with that.  EVS wants to run through it another time and then I can finally get it submitted to the grad school.  Chandra already beat me to it so I'm super jealous :)  Still some squid experiments that I need to plate.  Only plated one today but hopefully plates will be dry enough to get the other plated tomorrow.  Keeping fingers and toes crossed in hopes that this will be the last squid experiment that I need to do.  EVS found another protocol to analyze peptidoglycan, capillary electrophoresis, so he is wanting me to try that out.  I'm worried that I will be pressed for time to get it done (we're hoping to leave after we close on the house on Aug 5th) but maybe I can really push it.  No one I've talked to so far has done it before so I'm going a little blind into this endeavor.  EVS really wants more consistent data before we submit this final paper and I really really really want to get this paper out since I'm not sure if my post-doc will deliver on the paper front.  The whole doing a sorta industry post-doc means chances of papers are slim.  

On the home front, stuff is moving out.  It was really sad to see the sofa and chair that I bought to move to Athens be sold.  I didn't think I was attached to them but apparently I was.  We moved the futon out to the living room so we have somewhere to sit but tonight after the bedroom furniture is gone it is going to be really weird.  We already have cardboxes as nightstands so not having any other furniture is just going to add to the weirdness.  I'm still pretty cranky at people that tell me they are going to buy something and then email back saying they aren't.  I mean it is just frustrating.  I'm learning a lot about being a saleswoman I guess.  

The looking for a place to live thing is going pretty well.  One place that I found seems great.  The sublease ends Dec 1st which is right after we are supposed to be heading to California so no extra money spent on the whole "you must have a 6 month lease."  The weird thing is the renters are having new carpet installed in the 1st floor.  Now it could be that the management got a great deal and is putting it in.  Or it could be the renters killed somebody and had to have it replaced :)  I really hope it is the first one.  We are going to have Joe, a friend of John's from college or Tasha/Matt look at them for us because we have no idea what we are getting ourselves into at this point.  It would be great if we could do a little looking around but too much to do here and too little money to just fly out there and look around for a 4 month lease.  I'm just hoping for no bugs and little danger.

I'm worried about the traveling as well.  I mean how many times can you play I Spy with my little eye when you are traveling through the desert of New Mexico and Arizona.  I'm thinking this car trip will be a growing experience for John and me.  We've spent very few days apart since we started dating and fewer apart since we got married but there was always time "away" from each other either at work or even at home we had at least a distance between us.  So being less than 2 feet from each other will definitely different :)

By the way, aren't I supposed to be feeling more relaxed now that the defense is over?  My skin is overly dry, my stomach is still nervous and some days it feels like my heart is going to jump out of my chest all signs that I am still stressed.  So now is it going to be the move to Texas will finally calm me down or once we get to California or am I just going to stay stressed forever? 

Chromatography and the waiting game

When purifying protien, it's often a waiting game.  Wait for the culture to grow, wait for the protein to induce, wait for the centrifuge, wait on buffers or you sample to flow through the column.  This I'm all used to.  Done it enough times.  What bugs me is when I'm waiting for something unexpected.  I'm waiting on radio labeled chemicals to show up so I can test the activity of my protein.  I know this type of paper work and delivery screw up can happen anywhere.  Key people get sick, and things get backed up.  It seems to happen here more than I like though.  But, then again, I'm kind of impatient.  (Calls have been placed, radiation is coming at 1pm)

One more defense yesterday, and a great party went with it.  Many pitched in to get it going, Wendy, Barny, Joy, Dawn, Vanessa, Caran all worked on various aspects.  Good job all around.

 Now I'm just waiting for my own defense (4 Days.)  I've got the talk together, need to run through it again, as I keep chaning the slides.  I'd hate to get up there and be surpirsed by something on the screen.  I do know from my practices I need to slow down my speach pacing.  More practice will help with that too.  

A couple more leads have poped up onthe housing search.  Got to get some eyes on those properties.  Maybe by this Saturday we'll have a place to live sqaured away.

More of our stuff continues to be sold, and that's a good thing, don't want to jinx it, but a number of larger pieces should be out the door tonight.  All the more money to fund the move and buy new/used stuff for us to take to CA.

Speaking of which.  Anyone know any good "car games?"  You know, like the alphabet game?  Things you can do on long distance car trips to stave off boredom?  With two long car trips coming up, it is something I am concerned with.  They don't need to be car specific though.  And two player games would be best, as the chinchilla can't participate much.

Sunday, Favre, and Moving

First Sunday of Blogging.

Before the craziness began, Sunday was a very quite time in our household, Dawn and I would get up late, and make breakfast foods, or go to the Grit, and try and keep up with a few house chores or go to work for a light day of work.  Today has been the first Sunday in a long time where we've spent a majority of it at home.  Now, it hasn't been entirely relaxing.   The quest for housing continues.  so that ends up being high tension, and I've got protein purification to do tomorrow as well, but I've got the mechanics of that down, so that shouldn't be so bad.  We've got one more defense to get to, I'll need to schedule around that too.  We also need to get to the local giant food discount store to pick up supplies for that party.  The selling of stuff continues, and we've got appointments to take care of some of that stuff too.  I've got to plan around that too.  Makes Sunday sound real relaxing no?

Just got a call from a potential location in CS, TX, it was looking good until I found out it was a Special Enforcement by the Police area.  Not so good.  As soon as I get done with this, it's a call back and a no.

I know it's not worth it to even write an opinion on this, but Brett Favre is annoying me, but so is the coverage surrounding Brett's reinstatement.  The reporting mostly "General Franco is still dead," stuff.  And really, despite all the text messages, (reporting on text messages for cripes sake...OMG, UR MY BFF, I WNT 2 PLY again!!!!!)  and now formal letters, Favre is still retired.  As far as not "accepting" a back-up role in GB, what does he want?  Remember when others would hold out on their contracts?  He'd say, publicly, that they signed the contract, they are bound to honor it.  Guess what?  Brett's got two years left on his contract.  If he want's to play, he does what the Packers want.  I can't imagine being Rogers back as being all that bad of a spot anyway.  Rogers, because of injuries, has never appeared in two games in a row (I think.)  The odds of the back-up laying are pretty good.

And furthermore, why does he want to play again?  Sure, he still can play, and he's relatively healthy.  Why have an injury kick you out of the game for good.  Be happy you can walk, complete a sentence, and throw a football.  Stay away, Brett.  Stay home.

The calls are out and the waiting game

So I think between John and I we have emailed/called at least a hundred different places to live.  I for some reason just can't stop check craigslist to see if someone else posted somewhere.  One may say I have a slight obsession but I'm done for the day.  I just can't take it anymore not knowing where we are going to live.  We've got some good feelers out there and one place that we're going to see if Matt/Tasha or John's friend Joe can check out for us.  I'm afraid that we'll end up with college old party hearty neighbors but hey its only for 4 months right :)  John actually got a call back from someone that said the apartment was an area that is targeted by the local police (eek).  I really hope we can find a nice place where routine police attention won't be part of it.

Today we are going to prepare for James and Emily's After Defense social.  It is going to be awesome hopefully.  Cheeses, bruschetta, and the all.  I'm going to try and make a fruit salsa; however, the first round a mango/tequila mix is a little less than great but I think I'm going to try something else.  Found a pretty cool one that is more sweet so I might try that one tonight.  I just want it to be great for them especially since they are combining their social and they are such great people and super smart scientists.  

Noone came over yesterday to look at stuff even though they said they would.  I guess I just don't understand this whole selling thing very well.  When you say you're going to come over and look at something I kind of expect you to follow through.  Not something I should do I guess.  

John's First Post

Like Dawn says, it's pretty crazy around here.  Lots of boxes in the house.  We counted this morning how many times each of us has had a different address, and while I won that count, (more than 20,) I've never had to move with someone the way I am now.  I've also never had more stuff worth keeping than I do now.  Most of the time, the sum total of my possessions fit into either three suitcases, or at the high point, a sedan.  Oh sure, I've rented moving trucks before, but I could've tossed that stuff just as easily.  I got most of my furniture for free before now.  Now it's worth keeping.  By the way, so far, big props to PODS.  Their customer service has been incredible friendly, fast and helpful.  Also $1000 cheaper then the professional movers.  For now though, it's time to give the cell phone a rest, and try and get some work done.  Before Dawn and I can leave, with both have experiments to do.

I think we're both excited about our move to Texas, and I'm trying to take things one at a time.  Trying to keep my self focused by thinking about the next experiment, the next hour, the next day.  Trying to avoid thinking too far into the future, and the second part of our trip to California.

It's been big doings at the Micro department lately, along with Dawn finishing her defense, two other friends of ours defended, another defends Monday, and I defend Friday.  The department ears are going to be worn out from too many words by the time I hit the stage.

The beginning of a crazy time

So here we are trying blogging for the first time.  We thought it might be worthwhile to record this crazy time in our lives.  I just finished defending my thesis and John is defending next Friday.  We're now down a car since it sold and our furniture is slowly disappearing as it sells on craigslist.  It's pretty weird being in a semi-empty house and still living here :)  Today it is all about finding a place to live in College Station.  Short term leases (ie 4 months) are few and far between and I'm starting to worry whether we will have a place to live there.  I'm not even trying to think about what is going to happen in San Diego.  Hopefully, it will all work out and we'll find a place to live and live happily ever after for the few months we're in College Station.