July 18, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 6 Comments
I can’t decide which of these 4 photos I like the best. So, I’m posting them all. 
Last Saturday, I took a vase out into our front yard and cut these out of our landscaping. I decided I might as well have them inside where I could enjoy them the most.
I think that this brown blanket background might show off the details on the yellow flowers better than the black.
As the weeks/days go on, I’ll post the close-ups. I took 75 good photos (88 total), so I’ll have a fair number to post.
July 11, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 5 Comments
While I was eating breakfast this morning, I noticed that I had a visitor on our deck!
Interestingly, he or she had to jump up a flight of stairs to get up there, since this deck is one flight up from ground level!
Don’t pay much attention to my crappy flowers. I forgot to water them at one point and they are struggling to make it back.
I wonder if the nice cornucopia of greenery was the draw for the bunny….
July 10, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 2 Comments
Hey there!
I had wanted to post small updates more regularly this summer. But what I’m finding is that during breakfast I’m doing curricular editing. I’ve been doing some editing of the Intro Bio lab manual to incorporate some of what I learned in my upper division molecular bio course this past spring.
I’m super behind on my lab notebook and it is driving me nuts not being able to jot things down in it continuously in lab. I don’t like having it out of date order, so until I get the old things put in, I can’t put new stuff in. That will be a task for this weekend.
I’ve also been spending most of my work-day trying to set up the cell culture side of my lab. For this week, I’ve been dealing with the quality of the water. It is getting really frustrating, because we thought we had it all figured out a few weeks ago. But one of the chemists in the chemistry department introduced a new concern. ugh. I hope to make a final decision today about what we should do. *sigh*
This means that part of my goals for this summer are getting delayed and delayed and probably won’t be met.
However, my students are thinking about doing research during the school year. So, even if they don’t get it done by August 7th (rapidly approaching), we can pick it up again when we are all back for classes around the 20-somethingth. I guess I should figure that date out too.
But in other news, as I type this, I notice that my fingernails are a beautiful purply-pink. I painted them red for the church variety show and have been painting them since with some special nail polish that is devoid of endocrine disruptors (i.e. bad things for your health).
Speaking of endocrine disruptors, this week, we also figured out that you should avoid all odd numbered plastics when microwaving your food and/or storing food and liquids for extended periods of time.
#7, PC (polycarbonate) is the worst. But the other odd-numbered ones have issues too – although the research is in its infancy.
This means that I’m going to try popping my frozen meals (lean cuisine/smart ones) out of their plastic containers and putting them into pyrex to microwave. Not ideal that they’ve been stored in an odd-numbered plastic at all, but what’s a girl to do? There is only so much that can be done until the plastics industry gets on board and changes their composition.
So that is my public safety message for the day. I hope all is going well with you! More from me later.
July 3, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 4 Comments
Texas Seestor and Trainwreck are expecting a new daughter or son!! Official predicted date of birth: early Jan, 2010!
You know what this means, right? I will have another wee one to pour out my love upon. *grin*
If we are lucky, our new family member will be with us when I visit for Christmas/New Year’s (assuming that they don’t mind my being around). I promise I can cook….
… simple things. I do make some mean chocolate desserts. And what else will calm the raging postpartum hormones better than chocolate dessert?
I’m also good at playing with my niece to keep her busy.
Does it sound like I’m selling myself enough, here?
At this point, she is too little to know what is going on. She will be three when she gets a new sister or brother. At this point, she just knows my sister’s belly button is more fun to poke at right now. *grin*
Congratulations!