Summer is here!

Ahh, summer in San Diego. When finally the temperature is... well, exactly like the rest of the year. But the probability of rain drops to about 0.01%, which corresponds to the probability of wildfires being about 50%.

So its summer, and I am out of school and working at a local biotech. Its been awesome to get started working for a great company in an exciting industry. Its all new to me, though ~ My interest in Biotech is recent, and I'm not exactly trying to hide it.

In fact, I've actually done the opposite. I'm playing the "student card" to the hilt, and going with the assumption that "no question is too dumb to ask." I'm finding it to be refreshingly liberating to ask things I would previously be too ashamed to admit.

Example: Upon meeting a person at a networking event who identifies himself as a synthetic chemist, rather than trying to bluff my way into a conversation, I ask, "Hey, what the heck does a synthetic chemist do?"

Ironically, ignorance actually DOES lead to some interesting conversations... even with Synthetic Chemists.

So as I said, summer is here, and hopefully our trickle of blog readers has not TOTALLY dried up during those lean months while I was busting it through school. I'll try to share some of our adventures this summer, and we'd love to hear from you, too!

Two Extra-ordinary Things

Today was not quite what I expected. It began normally enough, but two unusual things happened:

1. My ears have been majorly stopped up for a couple of days (I have small ear holes, and this happens rather easily), so I called the doctor to squeeze in an appointment. I arrived at 11am, got the right ear flushed out, and then was told I had a "foreign body" in my left ear. After several painful minutes of them trying to remove it, they called down to the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialists. They were off at lunch, so I was told to wait. (Actually, my options were to either wait or make an appointment after July 21st...obviously, I didn't want to leave that foreign body in there for another month and a half.) Anyway, the ENT doctor saw me at 2:30pm and not less than 30 seconds later he had extracted a disposable plastic dome from my hearing aid. That sucker is kinda big--8mm in diameter (see below).



2. After that painful and surprising operation, I went to the gym for a quick workout. As I walked into the locker room, a friend of mine stopped me and squealed, "I-just-saw-Tiger-Woods-he's-in-the-gym!" Faithful readers of the blog will remember I had a sighting of Tiger several months ago, but it was brief. This time, I was on the elliptical machine not three feet away from him for 15 minutes. Then I casually followed him into the weight room and watched him do crunches out of the corner of my eye while I pretended to do bicep curls. I didn't talk to him - didn't want to bother the poor guy - but I did confirm with the trainer that it was him.

So that's my story for the day!

Oxbridge Here I Come!

This is going to be an INCREDIBLE summer. Brent and I are going to Boston for a week over the 4th of July, and then I'll do research for a couple of weeks at Woods Hole. Then I'll fly to England, where I will attend Oxbridge 2008. This conference is going to be amazing! I am looking forward to seeing C.S. Lewis's home, The Kilns, and seeing terrific speakers like John Polkinghorne and Francis Collins. They have a Science & Theology symposium which is exactly aligned with my interests. Sigh...to make things even more incredible, my super-nice boss is paying for the airfare, while the Foundation has awarded a tuition grant. I'm only responsible for the Room & Board!!!

Check out the ad on YouTube when you get a moment!

The Stache

This morning marked the end of one era and the beginning of a new. My husband, as straight-laced as they come, has been sporting a beard for the past couple of weeks, and while I liked it, it was kinda scratchy. So this morning he shaved, but I implored him to keep a 'stache for at least a day. I tried to bribe him with Golden Spoon (frozen yogurt) if he would keep it for his internship interview today, but he emailed me moments ago to say he just couldn't go through with it. By 8am, the 'stache went the way of the beard, down the drain. Thank goodness I took pictures!

Confessions of a wannabe computer geek

I need to confess. I'm a computational biologist, but I don't really know that much about computers. Until recently I didn't know the difference between a 32-bit and a 64-bit machine. I don't know any programming languages except Matlab, which is easy. And perhaps worst of all - I can't believe I'm saying this on the internet - I prefer Windows over Linux. Sigh... I'm sorry if I disappoint you, World!

Why Leisure Matters in a Busy World - New York Times

NY Times advising on Leisure...

We need to plan for leisure — perhaps by doing one small thing every day, identifying long- and short-term leisure goals, putting enjoyable activities on the calendar — like we do other aspects of life.

Why Leisure Matters in a Busy World - New York Times

My leisure goal is to start wearing more leisure suits. What's yours?

Gummy Joe

OK, it's countdown to my periodontal surgery. 6 hours... That's a special kind of dental surgery that for some reason gets paid for out of my limited dental insurance plan, rather than my super-generous medical plan. But who's counting anyway?

So by the end of the day, I will be the proud owner of two slightly-less recessed tooth/gum intersections... and one heck of a headache. But that's where the Vicadin comes in... Ahhhhhhhh.....