May 28, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 6 Comments
As SeaQueen predicted yesterday, the sun did indeed come out today!
Hooray!
Here is the Saturday morning progression – in the words of the Girlie-girl.
“All of the elements are in place for a nice sunny morning. Danielle has her tea and laptop, HB has his tea and laptop, and I have my sunbeam.”
“hmmmmm… the sun looks pretty good up on the bay windowsill. Maybe I’ll go up there.”
“Oh, but I’d better pause and take a moment to clean my face. I just get sooooo dirty. It is hard to keep the white parts white, you know.”
“All clean, now I can go up there.”
“Boy this sun feels good. It hasn’t been sunny all week. I thought it was never going to stop raining!”
“dang, something doesn’t feel quite right. I obviously missed a spot on my face. Better get it off. ”
“Huh, now I’d better rotate and get some sun on my back too. Gotta get equal coverage, you know.”
“Wait! What is that!”
“huh. Well, it is gone now.”
“Guess I’ll just take a little nap.”
“mmmmm…. life is good.”
“NOW if Danie would just QUIT taking pictures of me and keeping me awake, I could enjoy my sunbeam in peace.”
“Geeesh. It is rough, being the Girlie, you know.”
- the end -
Note: the happy tail.
May 27, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 5 Comments
No matter how crazy things get, I always try to go ahead and dig up a flower photo and post it on Friday morning.
However, this week has been a bit more hectic than usual and I am doing a particularly crazy experiment today, in that I will be rush rush rushing from 6:30 am – 5:30 pm or so. Actually, right now, I’m going to set up my notebook while I eat my oatmeal and drink my tea.
So, hopefully the sun will come out (?) this weekend and I can take some photos.
I’m sure I’ll be posting over the weekend. But if you are not a weekend reader, have a great Memorial Day weekend!
TGIF!
May 22, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 9 Comments
Today was the last Sunday our choir sang for the season. Yup, no choir during the summer, we have “special music” instead (i.e. solos, duets, small groups). So, today was the last day of practice and singing as a group until the choir reconvenes in September.
I’m going to miss them.
A lot.
I have never been in a choir like this one, and I doubt I’ll ever find one like it again.
It is hard to pinpoint what made it so unique, because part of it is a feeling. A fellowship, if you will. The kind of community that forms because of a shared love of music and love of singing praises to God.
A big part of it is our director. She has a beautiful spirit about her. She is the kind of Christian I strive to become, supportive and understanding of all people, a remarkable relationship with God, a loving/teasing relationship with her husband, and grace under pressure, to name just part of them. Musically, she is phenomenal.
But it is not so unusual for me to work with musically talented directors. Heck, one of my former choir directors was an accomplished organist in addition to being a choir director, and would play technically challenging pieces while directing us with eyebrow movements and head bobs.
I think what really stands out is how she helps us share the emotion and message of a music piece with the congregation. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in the details. But she will bring us back to the point of why we are singing. “Think about the words. Think about this message,” she would say.
It isn’t just the quality of the choir. Although it is notable that almost every person in the choir is a strong soloist or duetist in his/her own right. I have been in choirs with a lot of good voices. In fact, part of how I usually end up choosing a church is the quality of the choir. Enough voices on the 4 parts, good blend, harmonies, some sense of precision about a piece.
And this wasn’t the choir with the most energy. That was the choir I was in back in Maryland. Back where I had difficulty finding the right UCC church, so I ended up attending a United Methodist church. Talk about a denomination that loves their music! The Methodists have got that down. That choir really appreciated a more gospel/contemporary Christian/high energy style of singing.
So, I think it comes back to the community and the spirituality.
Even though I’d have to draaaaaaaaaag myself out of bed extra early on a Sunday morning to make it to the 1.5 hour rehearsal that took place 2 hours before church started… once I was there. Wow! We’d joke around, and laugh. And sing really tough pieces. And get lost during the sight reading, and we’d laugh at our mistakes. And we’d pick apart the hard parts where we’d just fallen apart, and tease the tenors. And the tenors would tease us back. And we’d sing for a while. And we’d tease the sopranos. And we’d sing for a while. Then they’d tease us back. And the sopranos would tease the basses. And we’d sing for a while. And the basses would get their moment to tease the sopranos…
… and you get the idea.
And our director would smile and laugh and let us have our fun. And then we’d go back to trying to make beautiful music.
And most of the time we would.
And sometimes we’d find out that while we were singing a piece for the congregation, more than one of us had gotten chills.
And sometimes we’d all get so emotional, that we’d get tears in our eyes and would be trying not to give into crying… because, Dang It, it is hard to sing when you’re crying!
And that may be at the heart of what I will miss the most.
May 20, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 8 Comments
Yes, the tree that I was convinced was going to bloom while I didn’t have the camera, did indeed bloom while I didn’t have the camera. HOWEVER, HB was right (yeah… You Were Riiiight) that it still looked nice last weekend.
When I was sitting at our dining room breakfast table and looking out through the enclosed sun porch, the tree just seemed to glow in the sunlight.
I saw some big, fat bumblebees buzzing around the tree and I started thinking how cool would it be to try to get a shot of a bumblebee on a blossom. Then I kind of chickened out of hanging out with the bees to get a photo. Ever since I was stung by a wasp as a kid, stinging insects have kind of scared me.
Mind you, with all of the perennials (and soon annuals) in the front of the house, I see plenty o’ bees. And I usually do okay with just walking past with the attitude of “if I don’t bother them, they won’t bother me.” But I decided not to push my luck with the tree out back.
When I actually did go out back to take some pics, I couldn’t believe how many blossoms were there.
Inspired by La Pix’s afternoon light series, I decided to take one photo that caught a bit more sunlight.
This one reminds me of weddings.
I also really like the parallel branches.
Now, lest you think I never take pictures except at my own house anymore, I give you a couple shots from the neighborhood.
This spot, next to our lot, makes me smile. I see mushroom bushes marching up a hill when I look at these.
When I see them, the fanciful side of me wants to lightly
bounce . on . top . of them .
up . the . hill .
from bush . to bush
as if they were stepstones or lily pads.
bounce . bounce . bounce .
*crash*
as reality sets in
The woman who owns the mushroom bushes had these flowers out in front of her house near the street. I really like the light and shadows in this photo. And I will close with it. 
May 19, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 7 Comments
I passed Qui-Gon on the sidewalk yesterday as I was walking to lunch.
It all happened so fast, I barely got to react…
… first I noticed that this guy was striding toward me with really unusual boots “hmmmm… a very East German military look you got going with those boots” I thought. Then I noticed the karate robe that wasn’t white but was more of a cream color.
Then as his dark brown cape swirled away in the wind, I saw the lightsaber (!) attached to his belt and it all came together.
May 18, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 5 Comments
I have the camera with me this week (yay!), so I brought it into work with me on Monday. As I was doing my experiment, I realized that I’m in a bit of a unique situation, in that there are tools and equipment that I use in my daily life that I pretty much take for granted. However, I’ve decided to take pics of them for two reasons.
1. Certain views of them can be pretty &/or semi-artistic.
2. With the way technology advances, these things may or may not be the tools that we use to do molecular biology in 5, 10, or 20 years.
Even within the 15 years that I’ve been doing research, I have seen techniques, that used to be considered standard, get phased out as the technique has become more automated. For example, I am one of the few people my age who have done DNA sequencing by hand (because I did it in my undergrad research project and for my work-study job). Right after that time period in 1996, a different kind of DNA sequencing became more affordable and individual labs quit spending time and energy doing it themselves. At this point, I don’t know of anyone who regularly does sequencing in their own lab anymore. Nowadays, you pretty much just send a sample of DNA to a sequencing facility (in house) and get the results back. tah-dah! No effort involved, except to trek the sample upstairs.
So, with this idea in mind that the kinds of techniques and tools I use today are likely to change in the future, I have decided to document some aspects of my experiments.
Here are some close-up views of my experiment on Monday.
First an overview shot of my protein gel. I don’t really want to get into a lot of detail about what each thing is or how it works… I just put this pic here so that the close-up shots can be put into a wee bit of context.
Next, a close-up of the swirling bubbles…
I also really like how a dye that intially appears purple in a tube, begins to separate into green and purple (and at one step pink).
If you look really, really closely, you might notice that there are two sets of 4, 5, 6, and 7, in the pic above.
I like this last image for the soft/fuzzy watery gel part of the image contrasted with the hard/solid very electronic part of the image.
AND you can see that the dye has now separated into a red/orange line and the blue lines.
AND, from a “good job on your experiment” standpoint, it ran really, really straight.
FINALLY, from This Gel, I got some of the BEST data that I’ve collected in a while (yesterday).
May 17, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 13 Comments
If I lived in South Park, I would look about like this when I’m home in the evenings or on the weekends.
Mind you, there are a few things missing, not limited to, but including, HB, Girlie-girl, my laptop, and the camera. And, of course, the new Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling) won’t be out until July 16th, but that is a minor detail, right?
On a weekday, I’d look about like this.
Oh wait! Who is that coming through the lab door?
HEY! It’s a few of my non-blogging school buddies!
I’m so glad you showed up! Here, let me take off my gloves and lab coat, wash my hands and I’ll make us some tea.
Sorry the office is kind of a pit… but you’ve seen it all before.
There is just enough space here for the tea… is Blue Note okay? and um… lessee… I guess Vanilla Almond, cause I’m all out of All Day Breakfast right now.
Here, pull up a seat and have some tea and chocolate (chocolate/peanut butter cookies).
yummmmmmmm.
(Note: Teatime picture from the left is Jenski, Me, SeaQueen, and Lola. Apologies to Alex and Texas Sister for not making you South Park characters.)
May 15, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 8 Comments
Max is a new member of my extended family. Isn’t he the cutest!?
Texas sister welcomed him into her home, oh, about a month ago.
You see, she’d had an english rabbit, Zippy, for 10 years. 10 years is a long, long life for a rabbit.
We all loved Zippy a lot.
For some reason, this is the only pic I could (easily) find of Zippy.
He was a very soft, friendly, lovable rabbit who loved to be petted, especially between his ears. If you were sitting on the floor and he was out hopping around, he’d come up and bonk you on the arm when he wanted to be petted. He also loved to chew, as most rabbits do. And he loved his cheerios for breakfast, a rabbit after my own heart. 
Texas sister has become quite the expert at how to bunny-proof a portion of the house so that a little rabbit fellow can be let out of his cage with proper supervision and not get into too much trouble. So, after a period of time without Zippy, she decided that it was time to look for another bunny friend.
When they were at the pet store, Max is the one who, as Texas sister’s fiance was petting one of the other bunnies, came up and bonked him in the hand to be petted. This was a Good Sign, because it is also what Zippy had done when Texas Sister was trying to decide between rabbits. It also meant he was very friendly and comfortable with people.
Texas sister tells me he is very fast and can be quite tricky to catch.
He doesn’t appear to be one to stand still for long.
She also tells me he is rambunctious and ornery.
Yup, looks full of bunny mischief to me.
At least until he wears himself out.
Whew! Must be tiring running around and investigating, eh Max?
Look at those back feet!
Supposedly, he is going to stay little. Of course, we’ve heard that before with a particular rabbit who ended up being 11 pounds at his heaviest (a.k.a. Zippy).
But maybe he’ll stay little.
Goodness knows he is going to stay cute. I can’t wait to meet him in person.
All pics of Max taken by Texas Sister and adjusted for red-eye by me. I took a digital pic of the print of Zippy (originally taken by Mom).
May 13, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 9 Comments
Last weekend, if you will recall, I mentioned that it was cloudy and rainy on both Saturday and Sunday.
This was, of course, the only time that ‘our’ camera was at home with me these past two weeks. Yes, once again, I was without a camera all week.
You can imagine my frustration at Sunday lunch when HB said to me “You know, I’m taking the camera with me again this week.”
And I replied with something along the lines of
“Dam* it! Have you LOOKED at the TREE out back lately?! It is ready to BURST into bloom. We’re supposed to have NICE weather, FINALLY, on Wednesday or so. Then it is going to BLOOM and I won’t get to take ANY PICtures of it!
AND the Waldstenia out front looks GORGEOUS right now!
You DO realize that this is our LAST spring in this house, RIGHT? How am I going to get PICTURES of the perennials before we MOVE?!”
(yes, I really do speak with that kind of emphasis when I’m riled up)
HB says soothingly, “It’ll be okay… I’m sure it will still look nice next weekend.”
To which I say “NO. Cause by then the flowers will be fading already.” “Dam* it! I just need a little bit of sun today. What time do you leave”
HB “um, at 3:00″
*glancing at clock and seeing that it is 1:30*
HB “how about we pray for some sun, really fast?”
—
Yeah, so the sun didn’t really come out. It was doing that “Oh, here I come, out from behind the cloud. oops! changed my mind! ha ha ha!”
But the rain stopped long enough for me to run out and take some pics, and I didn’t get ALL that dirty crouching and laying on the ground to get these shots…
… just a little bit.
Waldstenia ternata (Barren strawberry)
This would be the aforementioned ‘gorgeous’ Waldstenia.
Yes, that is a gnat crawling around on the one in the center.
Especially when I’m coming home, the flowers are all angled toward me as I walk up the path, and really look amazing. (no, they aren’t turned to greet me, although the fanciful side of me likes to think of it that way, that would be the direction where they get the most sun during the day)
As you can see in this photo, they really are very small little flowers. But something about them really appeals to me. Maybe it is because they look so bright against the green background. Or maybe it IS because they face me when I walk up the sidewalk.
The funny thing about the Waldstenia is that it is probably THE hardiest perennial we own. It can have snow dumped on top of it for 3 months, and when the snow melts, it is the only ‘evergreen’ perennial that really does stay nice and green. The rest of them kind of turn to mush green.
Mush green, yeah, not so appealing, eh?
These epimediums were supposed to be the big filler of our mostly shady perennial garden.
We bought them not for the flowers, but for the leaves. Of course, the flowers are a nice bonus.
Epimedium x versicolor ‘sulphureum’ (yellow epimedium)
The thing is, they really haven’t spread all that much like I’d hoped. So much for the idea of epimediums as filler. Ah well, at least they look pretty.
Most of our hostas are past the early shoot stage, but this one is lagging behind a bit.
This is the first year I noticed that when the shoots are only an inch or two tall that they are actually purple. I noticed that on almost all of our hostas. I know they will eventually bloom purple flowers, but I don’t remember ever noticing that the shoots themselves were purple.
And in the back of the house, behind the porch, we have the tree that was causing me such angst, and that did indeed bloom this week.
I decided I like having some pics of it in this pre-blooming stage too. Something about the shape of the buds and the way the budding flowers stick out.
HB comes home tonight, and he promised me that he made GOOD USE of the camera while he was gone. Of course, it wasn’t like I had all that many chances for photography this week. But there were a couple moments when I would’ve pulled over (on my drive home) and taken some pics.
It is interesting that I find myself looking at the world a bit differently now that I am in a sort of photography-mode.
I know Sheryl (La Pixiatrix) has written about this some… but I hadn’t noticed it in myself until just this week.
And this week also hammered home the point that I’m really itching to have a camera where I can control the aperture, exposure time, and focal length (among other things).
Not too much longer…
May 8, 2005 - Posted by danielle- 15 Comments
Texas sister took this pic of Mom at Christmas, pretending to be scared of the storyline in Jude Deveraux’s book Always
I don’t know if you have ever heard the phrase “The family that prays together, stays together.”
Well, in our family, we joke about how our version of that phrase appears to be “The family that reads together, stays together.”
No, it doesn’t rhyme quite so nicely, but it certainly fits.
The Family That Reads Together: Kick off your shoes and pull up a chair to read a good book
Here we are at breakfast on vacation in St. Croix, and look! books and reading material are all over the place.
I asked my mom once why she thinks Texas sister (my only sister) and I became such avid readers. Of course, my mom is an extremely avid reader and I assumed we’d gotten it from her, but I was curious to hear what she thought.
Well, she told me how she and my dad always read to us a lot when we were little. That is, I’m sure, the main reason we got so interested in reading books. However, she also mentioned that she read all of the time, and we pretty much wanted to do whatever she did.
Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
I remember living in southern Indiana, back when I could only read very simple children’s books. I remember that we would drive out of our little rural farm town and into The City to go to the City Library. That library seemed soooo huge. Mom would send us off into the appropriate children’s section so that we could pick out as many books as we wanted; perhaps there was a limit (?) but I don’t remember ever having to put a book back, so probably not. And I remember how I’d stand there for what felt like forever and come up with maybe one or two books. I’d get so frustrated, because I couldn’t find any books that I liked.
At some point, Mom would come over to check on me, and I’d be all upset. And she’d calmly scan the shelves and pull out one book after the other saying “Oh, I bet you’d like this one and this one.” And she’d hand me books with witches or fairies or princesses or little cuddly animals. And I’d get so excited, because, of course, they were all Exactly What I Wanted To Read. And I could barely wait to get home so that I could read them all.
We’d end up with this HUGE bag of books, and we’d laugh how they’d probably last us, oh, a week or two, and then we’d be back again.
Tangent about the library
This City Library in southern Indiana was also the first place I ever saw baby rodents. Texas sister and I vividly remember when the hamster (I think?) had a litter and how the pups were all red/pink and squirmy/gross looking. eeew. but a fascinating kind of ewww to a couple of little girls.
End tangent
As I’ve gotten older it is easy to recognize that the love for reading that my mom (and dad) instilled in me has gotten me where I am today as far as my education and schooling goes. And I thank you for that, Mom and Dad.
It is pretty rare to find Texas Sister or I without a book, particularly when we have some free time.
Texas sister reading a book while on vacation in St. Croix
Of course, since I am usually the one taking pictures, I don’t have a picture of me reading while on vacation.
But I laugh, because here is Texas Sister on a different vacation, and what is she doing?
Yup, reading. (and looking pretty happy with that drink in her hand too, eh?)
I probably shouldn’t comment on her enjoying a nice frosty beverage, because that would be like the pot calling the kettle black.
HB and I holding our nice frosty beverages at Dugan’s restaurant in St. Croix
And of course, who do you think Texas sister and I get that love of frosty beverages from? mmm?
Yup, Mom too. *grin*
As for my dad, you are more likely to find my dad having a conversation with someone than reading. But he usually has some reading material nearby. (yes, I get my gift of gab from him)
Dad’s feet are on the right. Note the magazine underneath the binoculars and hat. He is too busy talking to Texas sister’s fiance (feet on the left) to be reading his magazine.
As you might imagine, Texas sister and I were attracted to men who love books too.
Texas sister took this pic of her fiance with a book
Pic I took of HB at breakfast in St. Croix.
Note the Janet Evanovich book in the foreground. And in the background, the pool, banana tree, and ocean. Gorgeous way to spend breakfast, eh?
Over the years, Mom has found a whole slew of authors that I’ve become hooked on as well (um, we’ll save the detail for a future post).
In fact, she is the one who introduced me to The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly.
It is fitting, is it not, that it is a book that has a title involving tea and flowers? Mom also got me hooked on chocolate, but that is also a story for another time.
Thank you, Mom, for introducing me to the joy that can be discovered among the pages of a good book.
I love you…
….and I’m sending a BIG HUG across the miles to you, today, and everyday.