There are days where I waste time at my desk, and then there are days like today, where I get a whole lot done but don't get out of my chair. It's kind of a sad way to pass the day! So, what was I doing at my desk all day? Market analysis! Ha, how funny is that?! As Angela said, well, if anyone has to do it, it might as well be the one with the MBA.  Steve and I are putting together a proposal for a small amount of funding from the UW Tech Transfer office - the proposal is supposed to show how an invention has commercial potential, so one aspect of it is the market analysis. Yes, even with fruit fly research we stumble upon inventions with clear market potential. No laughing! This proposal pertains mostly to Steve's thesis project, but I, of course, am taking the lead on putting the proposal together (there's a reason he's called 'the slacker!'). The proposal is due on Monday (eek!), so we have our work cut out for us this week.

 

After I had pounded out the market analysis I moved over to Powerpoint to put together a talk. My graduate program is having its second recruitment visit this Thursday and Friday - lots of undergrads come to meet the faculty and students, see Seattle, and get a sense of the program. The program manager asked if I could present my work for them and also talk about the MBA on Thursday morning. Of course I'm happy to do it, but I'm not used to making my work accessible to undergrads (and their clearly less complicated/sophisticated view of science). I worked through my slides, got rid of my more complex standard ones, and tried to simplify the flow a bit. At this point in the game I have given so many talks that I rarely have to make new slides; I'm generally just editing preexisting ones and rearranging them to suit the situation. I made a couple of slides about the MBA, though; I'm sure that there will be a lot of questions about that whole thing. Questions about my research, on the other hand...we'll see. *lol*

 

Anyway, I spent my day at my desk.

 

Yesterday I did end up going to the nursery. Spring is pretty much here in Seattle (it'll be full blown in the next 3 weeks or so), and I've been getting the itch to have some flowers around. I bought a beautiful red begonia that's currently in full bloom, new primroses for the porch planters (our hard freeze last week did the current ones in), a zebra plant to replace my maidenhair fern (Cory ate half of it when we were gone over Xmas and it never recovered), some dahlia bulbs (not sure what I'll do with them, but I love dahlias!), and a potted hyacinth that's just starting to come up (I was hoping to force them from bulbs indoors, but the bulbs aren't available at this time of year). So, that was quite a fun trip. I think I'm going to hold off on potting the primroses for another week or so to be sure we don't freeze again. I'll need to put the other plants into 'real' pots, but they're doing very well as they are, so I'm in no rush. That is, except for the hyacinth bulbs - those I want to move into this pretty dish that I have for a spring centerpiece. Molbak's, the nursery, is the most amazing place. You could easily wander and enjoy the beauty of it all for hours on end...that was the real reason I went, I suspect.

It's been cool and overcast all weekend - not exactly inspiring weather, but it's nice that it's dry. After our crazy, wet January we're very short on rain for February. I'm certainly not complaining because our net rain total is still way up on the positive side. It has been chilly, though - there was snow Thursday night (overnight) and a lot of black ice Friday morning. I'm not sure how warm it is out there right now, but I'm hoping that it's at least a little pleasant for soccer later on this afternoon.

 

Yesterday was good. We went to Noah's Bagels for breakfast and ran into Melinda, Ashley, and Brian. That was fun - we never go out for bfast. We ran an errand and then came home for the day. I talked to my mom, Jay watched Napoleon Dynamite (which I still haven't seen), and then we jointly cleaned the bathroom. After nearly 5 years of wedded bliss it was nice to have Jay participate in that unpleasant task.  We did a little laundry, I did some knitting, and we watched some of the Olympics (yay, Apolo!) and two episodes of The Sopranos. Things on the knitting front are quite exciting. I 'finished' my scarf, and while I really like it I forgot that the stitch I used tends to curl up. It might just drive me crazy, so I may take it out and make it again. Why am I such a perfectionist?!? The yarn for the Anna/Molly sweater showed up on Friday, so I checked my gauge last night on a set of Aunt Ev's needles (it was right on, how unusual is that?) and then started on the edging. I now have to change needles and don't own the right ones. But since I checked my gauge I know exactly what I need. ANYWAY, the yarn is really pretty although not soft. It's wool, but it's not scratchy, just kind of stiff. Maybe when it's bigger it'll drape a little more. I'm starting with the back (the easy part), but in looking ahead I already have a couple of questions. I'm going to try to figure this all out on my own, so wish me luck.

 

So, today I need to get the needles I need, go to the grocery store, maybe hit a nursery, and play soccer. I really should go into lab later on to do some writing, but we'll see how I feel about that as the day progresses.

It's quiet today in lab - Leo, Laurie, and Kat are out, and it is after all, Friday. The fun event of the day, though, is that Alex, a former post-doc from the lab, is visiting from London for the next couple of weeks and will be in today. He's a really fun guy, and everyone is eagerly anticipating seeing him (he left here at the beginning of June). So that should be fun.

 

Mentioning Alex made me think of something...we have pet spiders here in the lab. We're in a building that was built in the '60s (ie, not so well sealed), and we're on the first floor looking onto a small courtyard. So, we have resident spiders in the winter as they flee the cold. We don't see most of them, but every so often they make their presence known. The lab, seeing as we work with fruit flies, has a larger than normal interest in insects and eagerly captures the spiders - and then provides them with a home (fly vials) and food (fruit flies). We generally hold onto them for about 2 weeks and then let them go outside or until they die, whichever comes first. Well, this winter there has been a spider boom. In the last two months we've had at least 6 spiders (not all at the same time), but about a week and a half ago Steve caught an enormous one (enormous on an indoor spider scale). Well, she just seemed to be getting bigger, and jokingly someone suggested that she might lay an egg sac (do you see where this is going now?). The ladies of the lab all agreed that in the off chance that an egg sac appeared the spider would immediately be removed from our lab's supervision - can you imagine coming into work one day to find thousands of tiny spiders everywhere?? (we don't think the foam that plugs the spider house is dense enough to prevent baby spider escapes) The idea was enough to get us all shivering with fear. So, today, what do we find? An egg sac! On the one hand, this is great biology (and spiders really are amazingly cool). On the other hand...thousands of tiny spiders in the lab! No way! So, the boys think we should keep it around, perhaps with a denser plug, but the ladies are just like, uh-uh, no way, she's got to go. Someone said that we have to wait until Alex sees her to get rid of our little terrarium, so she's still happily hanging out with her egg sac (10 feet from me!). Alex will like it, he was always the biggest fan of our spider catching habits. Aren't we dorks?

 

I think that qualifies as a random story for the day...

These photos are from China, but I have no info about the details of the bears....

At the end of my committee meeting last month we all agreed that there are three major things left for me to accomplish before I can write my dissertation. Today, I made huge progress toward one of them. I've been working on this very slow process for months, and after a lot of frustration and negative results, I finally got what I needed. From here on out it should be straightforward - and more importantly, fun and interesting - to finish up that prong of my work. That leaves me with just two others, one of which should be very simple and is underway. Yay! There's serious work being done here...

Time is flying by these days - I can't believe Tuesday is almost over already! Tuesdays are always quick, though, because I have a couple of different seminars to attend in the middle of the day, so the whole thing is always chopped up.

 

I'm really looking forward to going home today because I'm so pooped! Soccer was late last night, and it was a hard game that really wore me out. I got home a little before 11, showered, and chopped up some veggies in preparation for my lunch salads. Jay came home around then and heated up the leftover pork chop while I finished my salad prep (I had made waffles for my dinner earlier - yummm). I really wanted to watch 24, so we did...which meant that I wasn't in bed until 12:45. UGH. I slept until 7:15 this morning, but that's really not enough sleep. I think I'll nap when I get home so that I can watch the women's figure skating tonight. I did go home around 4:30 yesterday, and I caught up on my recorded shows and started my scarf with my 'new' size 11 needles. I think it's going to be great - warm and soft...the yarn I ordered for the sweater shipped really quickly, so I need to hurry up with the scarf because once I start the sweater I won't have any interest in it. Either that or it'll be so overwhelming that I'll flee to the easy project instead...

 

So tonight Jay is supposed  to be home earlier, so I'll make dinner (chicken prepped somehow - we need that grill!) for us and then we'll just relax.

 

I mailed in our tax return today after making a photocopy. While I was near the mailbox I bought stamps from one of those vending machines. I put in $8 for the $7.80 stamps, and the machine gave me back $4! Lucky day, I guess. If the vending machine was inside of a post office I'd have told them, but this is just in a student union. I guess that's my random story for the day.

Ah, federal holidays. Aren't they great? Well, they're great if you work for a public agency. I'm in lab, but only a few others are, and I'm thinking that I might take off pretty soon. The strange thing about nearing graduation is that I literally don't have very much to do anymore. I finished up a major set of experiments last week which leaves essentially one more big thing. That's it. Isn't that great? I can't believe I'm almost done with this. I do have a bunch of organizational things to deal with, but that's so boring...

 

Yesterday was great. I stopped by the yarn store to sign up for crocheting class, but I think it'll probably be cancelled because there are only two of us so far, and it starts Thursday. Luckily, though, I just found a class offered by another store for next Thursday, so if this first one is cancelled then I should still be covered. I'd prefer the first class because it's beginning crochet whereas the second one is crocheting for knitters - how to use crochet in your knitting. Either will suffice to finish off Samantha's blanket! Soccer was good, too - it was a beautiful day (I even got a little sunburn), and it felt good to run hard. Soccer tonight is late again (9:00), so it'll be pretty chilly...I came home from soccer yesterday, showered, made a grocery list, and talked to Claire.  I went grocery shopping and made dinner (pork chops and asparagus). Kat came over to watch last week's '24' (it was great, of course), and then Jay and I remained seated and watched two episodes of 'The Sopranos.' Then, bed. See, a nice day (although we didn't mow like we should have).

 

So, like I said, tonight is soccer again. If I take off soon I think I'll do some cleaning - I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped. Maybe a little knitting, too - this lull between projects is the perfect time to make that scarf I've been dreaming of! I have this fabulously soft yarn, and I haven't started yet because I was debating what size needles to use. The intermediate size that I think I want is what I used for the blanket, and it seemed silly to buy new needles for a simple scarf. Then, miraculously, on Saturday a package arrived from my Aunt Carol with a ton of different needles of many sizes that I didn't already own, so I'm thinking that I'm all set to start that scarf now. The needles and some other knitting supplies were ones that my great-aunt used, and Aunt Carol sent them out to Claire and I - so fun. Thanks again, Aunt Carol!

 

 

Jay and I had a pretty lazy Saturday, and I don't think today is going to be much different. We've had beautiful weather - very cold but very clear - so we went for a nice walk yesterday morning to enjoy the views of Puget Sound from the neighborhood. We then went to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Costco  to look for a gas grill. We found one that  I think we'll get at Lowe's, so that was kind of fun. Jay had carpooled with Mike from work on Thursday to a dinner, so left his car at work that night. Mike took him back to work on Friday, but Jay forgot his keys, so we went over to Redmond to pick up the car yesterday. While we were over there we stopped by to see Carmen, Matt, and Tyler - Tyler is getting so big! 15 weeks already...he's holding his head up all the time and is so engaged in his surroundings. So cute. After we got back to Seattle is when things got lazy - I did some laundry, watched the Olympics and a little HGTV, took a nap, etc.  Mike and Melinda picked us up to go out for a belated birthday dinner for Jay, and we spent the rest of the night with them - that was a lot of fun. Son now here it is, kind of late Sunday morning...

 

I have soccer at 1:00, but other than that I don't really have any plans. I think I might stop by the yarn store to sign up for a crocheting class - I really want to learn how because I do love the look of crochet. Besides, Aunt Carol insists it's easier than knitting, although when she tried to teach me how in '03 I certainly didn't agree.  I'm thinking a quick little class is just what I need. I finished Samantha's blanket on the plane ride home from Rochester last week, but I haven't sent it yet because I need to sew in a few ends, block it, and then decide how to do the edging. The pattern calls for a crocheted edge, but since I don't know how I thought I'd look online but had no help finding what I needed. So for now it's just sitting there, hoping that I'll figure out what to do. The first crochet class is this Thursday, so maybe I'll bring it along and ask for a quick demo after class...anyway, the blanket is adorable. This is definitely a pattern that I'll use again.

 

I just ordered the yarn I need for the Anna/Molly sweater. I can't wait to get started on that! The pattern seems straightforward, but I haven't made a sweater or assembled anything, so this is definitely going to push my knitting skills - if it turns out half as cute as the picture then it's totally worth it.

 

Sorry, I got off on a knitting tangent...as for the rest of the day, Jay and I are going to talk money (we're getting $3500 back from the IRS!!!! Woo-hoo!!), I (we) have some cleaning to do, and the yard needs to be mowed. Hmm, maybe I'll go do that right now before I shower...it hasn't rained in a long time, so now is the time to take advantage of the dry weather and the sun (although it's probably only 30 degrees outside!). So, a kind of routine Sunday, I guess. I'm not going into lab, and that always makes me happy.

OK, I just posted the photos; although they're out of focus (they look worse on Spaces than they do on my computer because of the sampling during the upload process), I think you'll get the idea of the trip. Right now there are ~60 photos all together, but I may separate them into categories that make some sense. I didn't work on the red eye yet, so if I get to that I'll switch out the photos. Enjoy!

So, as I promised I'm sitting here getting my photos ready to upload...and every single one of them (100!) is out of focus. Well, I take that back, there's one picture of Jay and I that's perfect. That's it. UGH. Do other people have this problem with digital cameras?? This is the new camera that I bought Jay for Christmas, and I was hoping that this one would be better - our old one had the same issue. I'm sooooooo frustrated with constantly thinking photos are in focus and then finding out that when you really take a look at them, they aren't. Sometimes I think that we'd all be better off just using the disposable Kodak cameras that never ever take bad pictures. *sigh* I'm too bummed to upload the photos now - maybe I'll work on them and post them tomorrow...

What a bizarre week...I can't believe that it's already Wednesday...hmm.

 

I didn't get the photos off of our camera because we haven't unpacked yet, and while I found the camera I didn't find the USB cord that I need. Sorry, I'll deal with it this evening. I can't believe we haven't unpacked...Monday night was soccer, last night was Valentine's Day, today - unpacking and laundry! Jay and I took a nice walk last night to the library (for tax forms) and to Blockbuster (for the Sopranos DVDs). We got home, made dinner, and watched the first two episodes of the show. I missed the first season the first time around, so it was fun to see some 'new' ones. We have the DVDs for a week, so I guess we'll just keep watching them. I have a lot of things recorded on our DVR as well, so I may be sitting on my rear end quite a bit for the next few days. Maybe I'll do our taxes tonight while laundry is running and the tv is on...our taxes are really easy, and I told Jay I'd get them taken care of before the weekend - some financial discussions will be taking place this weekend. Isn't money a pain? Blech.

 

I'm running a massive experiment today, and frankly I'm dreading it. It'll get going in about an hour and will go all afternoon...ugh, ugh, ugh. Wish me luck...

 

I'm feeling better today after a good night's sleep - although we both still woke up earlier than normal. This doesn't normally happen...Anyway, I didn't so much get a lot of sleep (7 hours) as I got good sleep. Ahh...I had bought flannel sheets from JC Penney when I bought our counter stools, and we finally put them on the bed last night -  they were so cozy! I can't wait to go to bed again tonight...

 

Yesterday continued to be really useless because I was so exhausted. Jay said he had the same problem - he left work at 5:30 and was home when I got there! I left lab at 5:45 and went to the grocery store and then Trader Joe's. I got home a little after 7, unloaded the groceries, ate dinner, and then took a short nap before soccer. The game was late - at 9:00 - so it was cold, cold. It even snowed a bit; that was kind of fun. I stopped at the drug store on the way home to get a new hair dryer because mine died yesterday morning, so by the time I was home and settled in it was 11:15. It's a good thing I took that nap...

 

So now here I am, in lab, ready to work - hahaha. I have to finish up my progress report and then get ready for a big experiment I'm running tomorrow. I'll probably leave around 5:30 or 6 because Jay and I have a date to make dinner and watch The Sopranos tonight - we're going to re-watch the entire series over the next few weeks  in preparation for the new shows in March. What a nice Valentine's Day.

 

Oh, one more thing - Claire gave a nice fact-based account of our trip, and I'll contribute my own version later on. I haven't even looked at the photos I took, but I'm sure I have some to upload. Bug me if I don't get it taken care of before tomorrow morning...

Jay and I got back to Seattle late last night after a nice visit to Rochester. Today I am totally exhausted - I guess I just should have slept later, but I woke up pretty early because of the time zone change. So I'm here in lab, trying to finish up my progress report for my fellowship, and I'm just in a zombie like state. Ugh. I'm just so distracted...this is the problem with coming home from trips on Sunday. Work starts again the next day, but meanwhile in the back of your mind you're thinking about the unpacking, laundry, and grocery shopping that has to be done. Coming back on Saturday is so much nicer - you have that extra day to get back into your normal home life. Oh well - it doesn't generally make sense to cut a trip a day short, particularly when it's already a short one. 

 

 

I arrived in Rochester yesterday with no problems - we were 25 minutes early, and my baggage arrived just fine. My mom and I went out for dinner and then came back to her house and just talked and talked. It's simple things like face to face conversations that I miss so much out in Seattle...

 

We were up a little late and then I slept in this morning.  It's been snowing since I woke up a couple of hours ago, so I went out and shoveled the driveway after I had showered. It's really light snow so it was super easy. I can see that there will definitely be more shoveling to be done later on.

 

This is the life - I'm on the couch toasty warm, listening to Appalachian Spring (a Copeland classic), blogging, and watching the snow fall...I could get used to this.

 

 

Here I am, in Chicago. The flight out of Seattle, although early, was uneventful. I think the one great thing about the early flight is that I should have no problem changing timezones – I got up at 3:30am PST, so I’m sure to be just a wee bit tired by 10pm EST. I decided against knitting on the plane, and that was a good choice. I grabbed my latest issue of Real Simple this morning – what a great idea. I never have time (or use my time this way) to just sit and read it – it’s a great magazine but very dense. Anyway, I watched the movie (“An Unfinished Life” – I’d never heard of it but it was excellent) and read my magazine while I listened to my iPod…it was perfect. My knitting is safely packed in the suitcase I checked, so United had better not lose my bags! *lol*

 

Before Christmas I mentioned that my traveling ritual is to indulge in a Cinnabon in the airport. I didn’t do that on the trip in December because we left Seattle in the middle of the day, and it just seemed wrong to eat a cinnamon roll in the afternoon. Today, however, was a different story. Since I was at my gate at 5:15am, I figured I more than deserved a yummy roll. I got it to go and saved it until they came through with drinks on the plane (bfast is $5 on the plane). The woman sitting next to me kept commenting on how good it smelled (it did), and it was really yummy. It’s good to have traditions like this, I think.

 

It’s 12:15 here, but I’m not really feeling like it’s time to eat. I land in Rochester a few minutes after 4…maybe I can wait to eat until then. Actually, I think I’ll get some small snack to tide me over. OK, then, I’m off – 40 minutes to boarding…

There was a huge box waiting for me on the porch when I got home. I put on my dress and then proceeded through the shoes...pair number one: adorable, but not right for the dress (also the pair that doesn't work with my jewelry); pair number two: not very cute in the box and certainly not on my feet; pair number three: way cute, and looks great with the dress and jewelry. Two issues...one, the heel is quite high. Now, I was trained at an early age to walk in heels (thanks, Meim!), so I have no problem at all walking in them, but standing through the ceremony...I don't know. Two, the toe is pointy, and I've never really done the pointy thing. I tried on a rounded toe pair, though, and it's clear that the point really does elongate my leg and look better overall (Stacy and Clinton are always right!). So, I'm a little torn. My backup pair look pretty good as well, but I don't think sandals are really right for this dress...I think I'm going to pack both pairs and continue this debate in Rochester. Such decisions! The great thing is that both pairs look fab-o with my jewelry, so that's all set.

 

After the shoe trying on event I went through our mail and pulled out the pre-approved credit offers (that we get everyday) for shredding. For some reason I happened to glance at one of the letters, and there, right on the bottom, was printed a phone number to call to get off the lists of pre-approved consumers!!! So, I just called and removed Jay and I (very easy automated system). How cool is that?? Here's the number...1-888-567-8688 (just a forewarning, one wrong number - I'm not sure which one - and you'll connect to a porn line...)

 

OK, I'm off to finish up the packing/organizing/cleaning that I need to do before I leave in the morning...

In more ways than one! *lol* I'm in lab still but I think I'll head out pretty soon. I'm running one last gel, and then I'm going to skedaddle.

 

I'm all packed to leave in the morning, but my wedding outfit is still a little up in the air, so I want to make sure I have time to handle all of that. I ordered 3 pairs of shoes from Zappos (I just couldn't decide!), and they were delivered today (I just checked the tracking number). So I need to go home and try on shoes with my dress - I'm hoping that I like either of two of them best, because then I'll be all set. If the third is the best pair then I might rush out to see if I can find some jewelry. Cross your fingers for the first two pairs!

 

I'm debating whether to bring my knitting with me on the trip. I know that I'll be able to finish Samantha's blanket while I'm in NY, and I do love to knit on the plane. The problem is that it's getting big and awkward, and since I'm flying alone I can't impinge on Jay's personal space. Maybe I'll toss it in my suitcase and skip the plane knitting...the blanket is super cute, by the way - I'll take a picture when it's done.

 

OK, I'm going to wrap up my stuff here and head out.

It totally ruined my day! I was having a great one and then the Seahawks had to go and lose to a team that's worse than them - what a total bummer. The Hawks didn't play well, but they also had some unlucky breaks with regards to the officiating...so crummy. We were all really bummed, as you can imagine, and I think the whole city is going to be kind of sad this week. Really, how much can one town take? Near constant rain for weeks on end and now this? It makes me glad to be going back to Rochester on Tuesday, I'll say that much.

 

I was having a great day until the game. I got up this morning and was very productive. I got laundry going right away and then set to work cleaning the kitchen. Somehow it never fails to be just gross by the end of the week - it's kind of my dumping ground for stuff, and I don't have a whole lot of motivation to deal with these things during the week. Jay and I both generally approach Saturday as a day of rest and fun, so Sunday is my frantic cleaning day.  Anyway, I worked in the kitchen for about an hour and a half and then went for a relatively short run. It was sunny but chilly outside, but since we forfeited our soccer game today (it started at 4:15, right in the middle of the 2nd quarter of the game), and I'm not playing tomorrow, I figured it would be good to get at least a little bit of exercise in while I could. I came home, grabbed my purse and the grocery list, and headed out in my running clothes. Why would I do such a thing? Well, I wanted to wash my car and many experiences have told me that this is not a neat endeavor, so I figured, why bother showering and putting on 'real' clothes when I'm just going to get grimy and wet anyway? I went to the self car wash and did a spectacular job. My Mini was really disgusting, so I think I spent 12 minutes working on it - it was so worth all of those quarters because now it's the thing of beauty that I knew was hiding under all that grime. I got the things I needed from the grocery store and headed home. Jay had continued the laundry (it had to be done before we left for the party b/c I needed to pack tonight), so I showered and got dressed. I made a hot wing chip dip and we headed out the door around 1:45. So, you see, it was a great day because I got a lot done - you know how I love productivity!

 

We went to Greg and Diana's for the game, and you probably know how that went...

 

When we got home I brought the suitcases up from the basement and pretty much finished my packing. Can you believe that?! I never pack this early, but I have a very early flight on Tuesday and I'm afraid tomorrow might get a little crazy, so I wanted to be safe. Now that I'm packed I'm getting really excited to see my family again - I feel so lucky because we were all just together for Christmas.

 

OK, I have to go watch Grey's Anatomy. Tracey was gleaming when I signed on but I saw that her first sentence was about the show so I haven't read her post - I wouldn't want to read anything that'd spoil it for me!

I like my hair, when it comes down to it, but most days it drives me just slightly less than berserk. It has enough wave to be fun, but not enough structure to form the waves evenly or easily. I use quite a few products to tame it, and when it's first done it looks pretty good. Then I go outside, walk a bit, and by the time I get to lab it's all over the place - that is, it's really fuzzy. I've been told that if I don't dry it so thoroughly it won't be so fuzzy, but I just have issues not drying my hair completely. I've been thinking that perhaps a curling iron would be the way to go - dry it like normal and then essentially set it in place more smoothly. At the very least it seems like a curling iron could improve it for going out after a long fuzzy day. So, today I bought a curling iron. I just tried it, and I have to say that I'm quite happy with the difference pre and post curling. I don't know that I need to do it every morning, but it's nice to know that I can spruce it up. I got the 1" barrel because I don't want ringlets, but I think I might have to get a 1/2" to do the very front pieces because they're the straightest on my head and the 1" iron did nothing for them (except to smooth them). I've never used a curling iron on any kind of regular basis (well, that's not quite true but I used to use one for straightening purposes as weird as that sounds), so it'll take some practice, but I'm confident that I can have good hair for my dad's wedding on Friday.

 

OK, gotta go - we're off to dinner and a movie...

You know, weather is a conversational cliche, but here in Seattle weather is on everyone's mind. It has been dominating our lives now for weeks on end. A huge storm moved in last night that's caused a lot of problems. When I went to bed at 12:30 last night it was violent outside. Jay and I stood on the porch for a few minutes just watching the sheets of rain blowing nearly horizontally. This morning is slightly drier but no less windy. A number of trees have fallen down throughout the area because of the very very wet ground, and I think this weather system is supposed to stick around for a while. Yesterday the talk about the storm was funny because people were worried that downed power lines would be an issue for watching the SuperBowl tomorrow - it would stink if power is still an issue for anyone!

 

I'm in lab now and will be here for the next six hours or so. Jay and I are going out for dinner and then will see Brokeback Mountain at 10 - I'm really excited to see it, but I think Jay is apprehensive. He'll like it, I'm sure - I haven't heard a bad word about it yet.