Thursday, August 21, 2008

Journal Article

It's official, the article has been published. You can find it by just searching my name on PubMed, and you'll find a link to download the entire paper on the abstract page.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Unfortunately, it turns out there are several authors with the same name out there already - however none of them are in Microbiology so that at least cuts down on some overlap.

But that still doesn't beat the ironic/humorous fact that if you Google my name..you get a VERY popular British porn star. *sigh* I'll never be more popular than her (or get higher in the Google search results), no matter how many papers I publish.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Painting

Yay! I finally got something done around the house. One day I might even actually get to host this elusive house warming party! The dining room is finally completely painted (with minimal paint smears on tiny hands and doggy fur), which means that we are one step closer to eating at a real table....in an actual chair! The only issue now is that Gilli's highchair doesn't fit at the table, so do I buy a booster seat and risk the oft-maligned new carpet below? Or trust in the speed scavenging skills of my four-legged table beggars? I'm pretty sure that Delia can catch things out of midair, and that Mel is convinced she has telekinetic powers over food, all she has to do is stare hard enough. So one room down, six to go, and classes start this Thursday *sigh.*

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Monday, August 4, 2008

How NOT to order Chinese

Just a quick post while I wipe away the tears from laughing so hard at Joey:

Do not tease the poor foreign woman on the other end of the phone when she can't spell your address by saying " M - as in magnitude, I - as in igloo, L - as in longitude, F - as in fairchild......" It's never a good idea to use words that half of the semi-educated native population of this country couldn't spell/pronounce/even-flippin recognize, to explain another word the listener doesn't understand in the first place.

It's just not nice Joseph Michael! (and in all fairness, the howls of laughter in the background were not very polite either Jamie Lynn)

Does anyone remember if this was actually fun?

I seem to remember a point in my life where I would have KILLED to have my birthday bash at ChuckECheese's. This was an especially appealing idea because my little sister absolutely refused to come within seventy feet of anyone wearing a large character costume, thus she wouldn't be present to ruin said party. But now I wonder if she didn't have the right idea all along. Case in point:

- Those creepy people in large character costumes. My head says that they are unfortunate employees who are paid far too little for the indignity, but I can't help but wonder who exactly is behind that furry smile and mesh eye-holes...and why do they want to hug my baby?

- The animatronic version is no better, with jerky movements choreographed to terrible music (about bellybuttons, hot sauce, and SPF no less!) - I was just waiting for its head to slowly spin around to look at me with red glowing eyes.

- All the employees have a glazed-over look in their eyes, kinda makes you wonder what it's like from their side of the counter.

- All those surfaces, do you think they're sanitized............ever?

- The person at the front door who stamps your hand with the same number as your child's - to be checked when you leave. Is this because I might steal someone else's kid, or better yet forget which one is mine? (not such an outrageous assertion given the sheer number of them running around without leashes)

- The fact that you can buy the prizes!!! They have large signs that say "1 Ticket = 1 Cent" prominently displayed where anyone with rudimentary reading skills might comprehend its oh-so-complex meaning. I know that you have always been able to pay for the prizes, but seriously?! When I was little we were told to save up our tickets until we had enough to 'buy' our dream prize ourselves. It taught responsibility, patience, and money management skills (since you also had to figure out which game was the best value for your token). And so what if the ticket price was astronomical, after a few visits your parents could always slip the cashier the difference when you weren't looking (especially effective if the child is very young). But this way, it's letting them know upfront that all the work they put in will only get them a cheap non-denominational plastic dradle, unless Mommy & Daddy cough up some cash. The larger prizes didn't even have ticket prices anymore, only $$$!

Mom, was it like this for you when I was little? Is this simply disillusionment on my part? Do I remember it with the rosy glow of childhood, or has the establishment deteriorated that much?

(On a side note - despite this wandering theorization, we did actually take Gilli and cousin Marlee to ChickECheese's the other day. They seemed to enjoy it as much as any play area they've been to, and the food was decent. We'll probably take them there again, but next time I'm thinking about paying a kid some money so I can see what the employee at the door would do when I leave with a child that's got a different number.......and so the kid can use the $$ to buy that Hanna Montana purse of course!)



(click to enlarge)