Bird/Brain

It has been an adventursome week so far, and it's only Thursday!

First, at yoga class Tuesday night, some of the girls found a baby bird under a tree.  Of course, they come knocking on my door asking what to do with it.  So ultimately we got out the ladder, and I climbed up and put the cute little guy back in its nest.  

Fast-forward to Wednesday.  I work until about 8 p.m., catching up and organizing things in the lab.  I get home around 8:10, looking forward to relaxing and my "no-workout" day this week, and hear this "PPPPEEEEEP!"  The bird from Tuesday was in my yard!  So I call my boss Rosy.  She says if it's the same bird, but the nest is broken, maybe I can take it to Oak Mountain Wildlife Center in the morning.  So I look up, and even though the nest is teetering and looking a little unsteady, I decide to try and replace the bird.  On the ladder, in the dark, in a dress and NOT decent underpants.   So I get up on the ladder, bird in hand, and hear "PPPPEEEEPPP! PEEEEEEPPPP!".  It was NOT the bird in my hand!  I look down, and there is a sibling in the bushes nearby.  They can only waddle, only have down feathers and pin feathers, and are too weak to perch or be fledgelings.  Of course I was so worried that Ida, my neighbor's cat, was going to eat them.

So I put them in a tupperware container and go to Amy's house.  We go to Petsmart and buy baby bird formula and I keep them in a makeshift nest in my entertainment center for the night, after they've been fed and calmed.  

Then I fed them again at around 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.  (I learned, by the way, that the rescue centers don't want you to feed them, but I did anyways.) I'm proud to announce they have been taken in by the Alabama Wildlife Center!  Photos below!

Baby Birds--down for the count 

Hungry this morning!

Yes, this is me with my eyes closed!  I got up very early to feed them and was afraid all night they would die.  I think I'll sleep very well tonight!

NOW On to more exciting adventures than ever previously thought!!  Not really, but still cool.

Stop reading here if you are easily grossed out or not a fan of blood.

So I've been learning to dissect the postmortem human brains that come into our lab.  I did my first assistance on Monday of this week.  Today I was having lunch with some friends and got a call that we had a brain and Rosy wanted me to dissect.  So, stomach full of chicken masaman from Thai House, I go running down the road to dissect my first human brain all on my own!

But once the brain came out of the box, it was clear something was wrong.  It was super bloody, even more than normal.  And the whole back half was squishy, and I could barely hold it in my hands.  A normal brain will more or less hold together when you pick it up.  Not so with this one.  I was grossed out, but my labmates couldn't see what I could see, so they just thought I was being a pansy.  

Then Lesley says, "Ooh, look the inside is on the outside!".  I had noticed this but was up to my elbows in blood, so the fact that I could see the lateral ventricles hadn't really crossed my mind yet.  Anyway, it was gross and we ended up rejecting it.  On the up side, I got a great lab photo of Rosy, Joy, and I looking at disgusting brain goo.

The life I lead is so exciting, I'm sure everyone wants to be me.

Happy....

....Birthday to my momma!  She is a gorgeous, amazing, 48 years young today :)

Much Love!

Inhale and Reeeeaaaaccchhhh!

I think most people know by now that I host a power yoga class in my living room once a week.  We work hard, but have a good time visiting too. Starting in September, we will go to twice a week!  I lead the class through a series of challenging poses which focus on muscle strength and endurance.  Then we'll immediately stretch out the muscle we just worked, but we don't focus on relaxation or flexibility, just getting stronger.  It's about an hour to 75 minutes, and I love doing it.  It means I have people that want to come do yoga with me/be tortured by me!  At yesterday's class we had Abby take some pictures, since she has a sprained wrist and can't do a lot of the poses right now.  We also had a special guest, Amy's daughter Lilly.  We tried to keep conversation clean for her little ears, which meant we were uncharacteristically silent during yoga class this week. Anyway, photos below!

Amy and her daughter Lilly demonstrate downward-facing dog:

Downward dog is a great shoulder strengthener! We can now hold it up to 4 minutes, and typically do this or variations at least 3 times per class!  Look at Edie's strong arms :)

The movie room group watches as I demonstrate the new ab move for the day.

One of two leg strengtheners we did yesterday.  This one also requires lots of balance and flexibility.

Child's pose is hard, but I think we are getting the hang of it!

Christine, Edie, Johanna and Abby work on balance.  Mostly Abby is propping her leg up on the couch I think...

Thanks again to all my pupils (Johanna, Amy, Edie, Christine, Rosy, Abby, Lindsey); pretty soon you will be able to teach your own classes!  Happy Wednesday!

Their gardens put my garden to shame.

As promised I'm going to write about my weekend, even though it is Tuesday, and the word "weekend" evokes both blurry memories and desperate longings.

Anyway, last Friday, Amy and I were supposed to work out.  We were even going to do a wuss workout, which involves running up and down hills in 90 degree heat.  But INSANITY (with Shawn-T) is worse.  Anyway, we both bailed on working out Friday.  Instead, she invited us over to dinner at their house with Stephen's dad Gerald and brother Brian.  We brought brownies, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream.  For dinner we had kabobs, brats, and salad.  YUM.  But before we could eat dinner (which was supposed to be around 6:30ish), there was a guy outside that needed a jump for his truck.  Rob and Stephen and Brian and Gerald spent about 2 hours trying to jump this guy's truck.  Then he locked the keys inside.  Then it was discovered that he was only out of gas.  WHAT.  Anyway, we ate around 8:45 then played some games with them. I got to draw glasses and a mustache on Amy's face with brown eyeshadow.  Fun times :)

Saturday morning, Abby, Amy, her baby Karis, and I went to the yuppie farmer's market, Pepper Place.  We bought all kinds of produce (see photos!), and met Edie there for coffee at the Red Cat coffee house.  We stayed until about noon, and had a lovely time. Then Amy and I did some shopping at Target and Old Navy.  I got some SUPER SEXY yoga shorts (thanks Edie for the recommendation).  I miss just randomly doing things like that, so I've made a note to myself to shirk housecleaning more often and spend time with my closest buds.

So then I had to clean the house a little and run to the lab.  Saturday night we had my labmate Matt over for dinner, and he was impressed by our skillz in the kitchen.  Then Sunday morning Amy and I got up for a quick run around the neighborhood, I finished a book, laid out, went to lab to coverslip human striatum (the life I lead), folded and put away laundry, then we went to the dollar theater at 10 Sunday night to see Robin Hood.  Needless to say, after a weekend like that, I dozed through most of the 2nd hour.

Anyway, it was jam-packed and lovely.  Below are some pictures of my booty from the farmer's market!  I want to go EVERY WEEK!  And just might, if I can talk my friends into joining me.

I got peppers, heirloom tomatoes, peaches, cucumbers, local honey, and local goat cheese!  And Amy gave me this great market bag to tote all my stuff in (she made it!)!  As I have mentioned many times before, she is a delight.  The tomatoes, goat cheese, and cucumbers were combined with some spinach for a lovely heirloom and cherry tomato salad for Matt's dinner visit!

Happy Tuesday everyone, and visit your local farmer's market!  The produce they have is often cheaper and always is better than that at your grocery store :)

thwarted by my stupid self!

i had a fantastical and busy weekend!  i have pictures of my wonderful produce i got from the farmer's market!
i will write about it when i can get my pics off my camera's memory card...see, what had happened was i took the memory card out of the camera BAG and not the camera, then brought the wrong memory card to the lab to import photos.  at any rate, i will be back in action again soon.

happy monday (hrmph)

a post dedicated to my dear friend abby...

...who is interviewing for a postdoc position in Providence, RI right now!

Good luck Abby! Everyone here in Birmingham knows you'll do just great!  And now, a photo that made me think of you and your dedication to scholastic greatness:

An important life decision:

I am leaving facebook!
On Friday of this week, I will no longer be a member.  This link had no effect whatsoever on my decision, but is interesting nonetheless. There are many reasons why.

The first is that, although I enjoy keeping up with folks, its not as much fun now that EVERYONE, including my former boss and many MANY coworkers, are on facebook.  Plus aunts, uncles, cousins, inlaws, etc etc. I LOVE my family, but I really enjoyed facebook when it was more for students.  Of course, you can't really blame them for expanding and getting more members.  I just feel like I waste a lot of time on FB everyday/week, and also I usually end up annoyed at someone's recent post every time I log on.  I have tried hiding people and even unfriending (gasp!), but to no avail. 

As an aside, WTF is up with people posting on FB when they're in the delivery room or on their way down the aisle to get married?  Some things shouldn't be shared with the 978 people in your "friends" list, in my opinion. Share them with your spouse, your children, the people you're most intimately involved with.

Also, now that it's become such a giant, you can't randomly say quirky bitchy things about your job without putting yourself at risk.  And potential employers are looking at them all the time. Plus I'll start teaching in the fall and don't want to risk any students finding me on fb. I'll still be careful of what I say on here, but it's not nearly as catching if it's buried in a blog somewhere, something people have to actually read.

There are so many people on my facebook that I don't care to keep up with, but feel guilty for un-friending.  It's complicating my life.

So I'm tired of it.  

Friday I will be deleting my account and keeping up with everyone I want to keep up with the old-fashioned way.  Email and text message!

I hope to hear from some.  And hope to God I NEVER hear from others.

Crazy People with Lopsided Wigs

If you are easily offended or have delicate sensibilities, then please stop reading!

What I learned yesterday in the Publix parking lot from a crazy lady wearing a lopsided wig:

1.  A mouth is no place for a penis.  (Rob=sadface when this news was relayed.)

2.  Pornography will affect you, maybe not today or tomorrow, but it will affect you.  It's Satan's work. 

3.  If you are home by yourself and have sexual feelings, you should stop and pray because Satan is trying to get you.

4.  Men are here to entertain women and we should just lay still and wait for them to do so.

5.  I should wear my hair down in my face to protect my face from the sun.

6.  Said face is a mess, and I should wear sunscreen everyday and avoid milk and bread.

7.  I should exercise much more than I do and my stomach will be flatter.

8. I am aging prematurely.  (For the record, she thought I was 21, not almost 29.)

NEAT!

  

Senatobia High School Class of 2000 ("What TIME is it?")

This past weekend was my class reunion.  I didn't graduate with this class, but only spent about 1 year at the high school I graduated from, so I still view SHS as my home.

Rob and I made the trek to Senatobia, MS, and stayed with my best friend (Alaina) from elementary and high school and her two kids.  She lives in her childhood home, a house I spent at least 50% of my time at.  So it was cool to go back and spend the weekend now that we are in totally different phases of life.

There weren't a LOT of people I cared about seeing at the reunion, which is good because not a lot of our classmates chose to participate.  I hear that's the norm for class reunions.  Mine and Alaina's friend Cathy was there, so the three of us quickly settled at a table to reminisce, and mostly to laugh at everyone else.  Just like old times!

Of course there are some people that are just as big a pain the ass as they always were.  And there are plenty that have kids.  And there are a surprising lot of them that have been married at least twice.  That's a lot of life to live before the age of 28. And, of course, there were those that spent WAY more time talking to me at the reunion than they ever talked to me in high school.  And there are those that I was waiting to un-friend on facebook until after the reunion.  The unfriending began early this morning.

We left the reunion about two hours after arriving, and went next door to hear some great live music and have some more drinks.  Following that was a trip to the patio.  All of this = the latest night out I've had in months.

The next day I went to church with Alaina's family (sister Amy, her husband Jeremy, their two kids Jacob and Aubry, Alaina, her two kids Karis and Brooklynn, her mom Gail, and her boyfriend Perk).  Our pew was filled, but Rob was absent.  Which led to some hushed embarrassing explanations about why he was absent.  But hey, we are YOUNG, and sometimes you just gotta have a hangover.  I have to admit, while I felt fine, I would have much rather been sleeping.  Anyway, after church Rob met all of us at Amy's house for a homemade lasagna lunch (DELISH), and we headed home.

A great weekend!  We also took Bells with us, and she is becoming a great travel companion!

Photos below:

Alaina and "Perk", her new man.  Let's just say the husband was a dud, and now she's on to smoother waters and nicer men.

Rob and I, dressed up and ready for a fun night out with my old friends.  He made some new ones, and continued his old friendship with Bacardi.  

Alaina and I, mischievous as always.

A LARGE amount of giggling erupted pretty much the moment Cathy walked in the door.

An attempt at a class photo.  

The class of 2000, grown-up, but not mature.

Warrior Spirit!

The next day,we head home with our tired little doggy in the backseat!  She had as much fun as we did-spending a weekend in the country playing with other pups. She's becoming quite the traveler.

That is all!  Happy Monday!

Darling Precious Nephew.

My sister, Rikki has an 8-month old named Tye.  He is presh.  Even when he pooped on me, he was still cute.  Stinky but cute.  AND it was my favorite dress.

You shouldn't get me wrong.  I LOVE Jeff and Lori's 2-year old Cooper.  But I grew to love him as I was around him more.  He is super cute, so smart and has the cutest little grin and a great personality.  Kids become more fun when they're not little babies anymore.

Rikki and Tye are supposed to come visit this summer, and I'm so excited.  You really don't understand, I think, how much I just really don't like babies in general.  But he is just darling, and has been since birth, really. And let's face it, newborns are really not cute, so I can't really explain this attraction.  There was a study done at some point, I think, which found that people are always drawn to the kids in their family instead of in-law family or non-related chil'ren because they look similar to them.  Perhaps that's what it is. We'll go with that, because I keep music turned up real loud to avoid hearing the inevitable ticking of the biological clock! I don't think it's started yet, but I'm sure it's imminent.

Pics Below!

Baby Tye looks somewhat perplexed by the camera.  Those blue eyes!

Tye's momma takes very good care of him--I will have to take lessons from her on getting the patience to deal with an infant!

Not the best photo of Aunt Keri ever, but you can't beat Tye's toothless grin :)

That is all..

This weekend I will be heading to my 10 year class reunion!  I think so far I've counted four girls from the class of 150 that does not have kids yet.  

Will be sure to post about that one.  Sure to be an interesting time!

Adventures in Summer Student Mentorship.

1. Chronic Lateness, despite multiple corrections.

2. Disrespect (i.e.  Using "Come Here" instead of "Do you have a minute?")

3.  Refusing to read because it is boring.

4.  Refusing to work on project poster because it is boring.

5. Enjoys hands-on science.

6.  Rearranged my entire lab bench - cites boredom.

7.  Poster due tomorrow.  Did not make any changes suggested.  Mentor (that is me) will be working for a while.

8.  Mentor has learned a lot about biting tongue and correcting things before they become a problem.  (i.e.  "I'm your boss and not your mom.  I don't care if you are bored")

9.  Formal evaluation of student this week.  Eek.

This is the last week!  Til next summer.  Definitely an educational experience, and that's why I signed up.

Grown men prancing around in underpants!

This weekend, as I'm sure most of you know, I went to see my dad Lee compete in the River City Classic BodyBuilding Competition.  As cheesy/creepy as is sounds, I had a great time!  The dedication that it takes to get ready for one of these competitions is amazing, and the competitors need tons of support from family and friends.
So, how did he do?  Lee competed in two divisions, and got 2nd place in each.  In one, he even beat his archnemesis, Caesar!  (Yes, his name is Caesar.)

I've posted some photos below:

The stage full of first-time competitors, Lee's not in this one, but these guys were just lovely. 2nd one from the left was the winner. 

I don't know the name, but this guy beat Lee out in one division...

...And here's Caesar, the man to beat!

Lee on stage doing his thing:

The next few photos will be of Lee trying to teach me to pose.  Yeah, we do somewhat odd things as a family when we get together.  But we have a lot of fun!

(here is my attempt at a front bicep...and my "choke a bitch" face)

Neat.  I think Lee could learn a few things from me...

It's a MUST to have a good trainer and a mirror to check your body positioning...

 

I do believe I'm getting the hang of it...

AND...now for the trophy shots!!

with Rikki:

with my Momma, his biggest fan and personal chef...

...and full-frontal trophies :)

Congrats on a job well done!

A foray into video editing

I'm sitting here waiting of for the beginning of the River City Body Building Championship and to pass the time my godfather Tommy and I have managed to make a video of Lee's posing routine and post it on facebook.  We spent a considerable amount of time finding the perfect setting and getting the mood and music just right so my dad could pose outside in his underpants to the "300" music.
Then there was video editing, a lot of muttering and cussing under my breath, and a facebook upload.  See below for my first video project!

I should also mention that I'm super proud of dad and can't wait for the show tonight!  In it to win it!!

An email from my boss...

Let me preface this by saying I think my boss is awesome.  She's direct, encouraging, patient, and extremely successful without being anywhere close to a frigid bitch.  She's a freakishly good anatomist but will admit she knows nothing about cell signaling. She comes to my power yoga class and joins in whatever crude conversation we are having that day while we hang out in downward-facing dog for 4-6 minutes.  (Recently it was anal bleaching that caught our attention for whatever reason.) She believes in weekends wholeheartedly and loves animals more than pretty much anything.  Even tadpoles.  She has seven cats (one is so old that she hand feeds it baby food), and two dogs.

She sent me one email all week, and this was it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=pkPNa4DBFHI

That's right.  Dogs on the beach, set to "Walking on Sunshine".

Anniversary! Like a Million Years Later.

Rob and I had our one year wedding anniversary on April 25, 2010.  To celebrate, we did something a little out of the ordinary.  We went to visit his grandparents.  But they are the people we know who have been married the longest (presh!), and they rent a river house, and we needed to visit anyway.  It was lovely.  They really made our fist anniversary special-we fished the first day.  Okay, mostly I read a book, but being outside on the water was lovely.  The day of our anniversary we woke up to breakfast complete with mimosas and they helped us eat our cake topper.  Really I think it was the best way for us to celebrate and reflect on our first year of marriage, and to hear some really great stories of their marital adventures and mishaps.

On the way there, we passed a giant cow on a truck.  Drink milk and eat more chicken, it seemed to say.

First, we stopped by to see Rob's parents in Gainesville.  Our nephew Cooper was there (new haircut that made his mommy cry), and now that he's more interactive, is a super cool kid.  He's growing so fast!

Then we got there!  And watched Granny feed the daily visitors.  We also drank a lot.  A lot a lot.  And when we got back I felt pickled and ashamed to be outdrank by the old people.

Rob did what he does best.  We enjoyed beautiful weather!

We fished.  The highlight of the day really was when the fishing pole was snatched out while I was peeing in a bucket.  But later on we were able to catch up to it and retrieve the pole.  Below is some detail of the line-untangling extravaganza that followed. 

We went out to dinner, complete with HUGE margaritas at a place whose name I can't remember.  Anyway, it was great, because they let us take our margaritas to go!  New Orleans style!

So that was our first anniversary, and I look forward to many many more.  (Get ready for mush...) Because I'm very lucky.  *Of course, Rob's very lucky too.*

How does your garden grow?

This was a while ago, but check out the first squash from our little garden! My husband, who is a VERY intelligent person most of the time, didn't realize that the squash would keep growing if you just left it on the plant.  And I was out of town and unaware any of this was happening. Therefore, our first squash was huge, and the skin was so tough we had to remove it to even consider eating the squash part.  But hey, we've had success growing stuff from seeds!
Next year we will try cherry tomatoes, because we're going broke buying them from Publix.

Oh, Lindsanity

Lindsey Lohan is going to jail.  I have got absolutely no fucking clue why I care.  I guess because she USED to be a good actress who showed up to work and made pretty good movies (Mean Girls was awesome).  And because she USED to be pretty.

Now she looks like a meth addict.  Might be a meth addict.

But also I feel like celebs get away with a lot of crap.  I mean, she was wreckless driving at least twice and both times tried to blame someone else.  Then the cops found coke in her pants and she said they weren't her pants.  Then her SCRAM bracelet said she was drinking and she said it was just her spray tan. Then she faked a lost passport to get out of a court hearing.  If all of these things actually happened she would be worlds unluckiest person.

Now she has been sentenced to jail and I feel happy about it.  I mean, I hope she gets the help she needs at her court ordered rehab/vacation spot, blah blah blah.  But mostly I feel happy that she finally got into real trouble, because she has deserved it for a while.

Maybe she will do something productive?

Lame post.  Will do better next time.

Missing spring

Missing spring, when my yard was in full bloom, and not whining to be watered 400 times per day.

See below.  It was beautiful.

But we still have the marigolds, and at least those keep mosquitos away.


That is all.  Happy Friday!

Scientific Perks

I'll grant you, there aren't many.  But making conferences into vacations is one of them. I've really mastered the art this summer and thought I'd post a few photos:

Me and the hubs at Fenway (This was a trip for the annual IRACDA conference and poor Rob was dragged along...)

Then it was off to Scottsdale, AZ for a stay at the lovely Camelback Resort for the Mitochondrial Medicine 2010 Conference...

And yes, I did "science", but turns out "science" isn't very exciting in photographs.

Me? An athlete?

So I have a blog.  I suppose I can blog about anything, but I feel like I should have a theme. But let's face it.  I can't commit to a blog, so how can I commit to a theme for my blog?  So today I'm going to talk about being an athlete.

My neighbor Amy has become my workout partner.  This only sort of happened because

1. She is a delight

2.  I am a delight (we have a lot in common already)

3.  I now have to PAY if I want a gym membership, and I'm being uncharacteristically cheap about it.

So we work out together.  We do INSANITY (yes, with Sean-T), and I'm working on burning the P90X DVD's.  (I fail, by the way, at converting .iso files to a dvd, so suggestions are welcome.)

So she used to run cross country, now has three daughters (aged 3, 21 mos, and 4 mos, I know, but that's a post for another day), and I suggested we do a half marathon.  She then 1-upped me about 3 weeks later and suggested we bite the bullet and do a full one.  This will involve roughly 468 miles of training runs starting in early October, and a brutal 18 miler the day after Christmas.  I mean, I imagine I'll need a break from Christmas anyway, but still.. 

Since I've done 3 half marathons (see photo from the 2nd) and a few -K's of variable distances, I consider myself pretty well seasoned on the shorter, manageable distances. So we shall see how it goes.  My husband is not a fan.  He is pretty sure I'll need knee replacements after this.  But, you know, I've ALWAYS wanted to do it.  Just once.  To join that elite group.

Plus, I really think that since I'm in that magical place where I don't have kids and I'm out of grad school, now really is the time to give it a shot.