asimplechord

\o/ Proofs for the migration/invasion paper came back. I'm not really happy with the figures - we had them the size we wanted, and the publisher shrank them about 25%. I'd've used more of the white space if I'd known they'd do that. But still. Paper #2 for 2013. One more (a mini-review) is under editorial review, there's another for which I'm doing experiments to respond to reviewers' comments, and there should be at least one more submitted from this lab in the year with my name in the byline, because I started the project even if I'm not going to be the first author.

~ A real estate agent from Aaron's future employer came and assessed the house. Their estimate is about $30K higher than the last tax assessment, but we'll list it there and see what happens. She had three things she wants us to do (all stuff we've talked about but procrastinated on actually doing), but there's nothing major. Paint a couple of things, powerwash, re-tile the master bath's floor. Aaron's going to take care of most of that, because he is FINISHED work. He's being paid for the vacation time he had accrued, but Wednesday was his last day of work for Dow.

? There's a fic meme somewhere for hockey fandom that's all about the stupidly hilarious things that hockey commentators say, right? If not THERE SHOULD BE. Like, no, really, how many times can someone talk about Malkin's penetration or someone getting wood on it without earning a smirk and a laugh?

? I want to see Star Trek: Into Darkness some time this week. WHO WANTS TO GO SEE IT WITH ME?

OK. Rafa's playing in Rome on TTC, I've got to finish reading The Good Earth before the Blackhawks/Wings game, and there's choc chip banana bread to be baked for Carmen's crawfish boil, so I should get moving.

I told my boss, and my family knows, so I guess it's OK to say it in public now: Aaron has a job offer in Chicago, so we're moving there ~July-ish.

I've been waiting for my credit card company to call me all day. In the last two days, I bought A's birthday gift, most of the groceries and decorations for his birthday party, and four tickets for Fall Out Boy's fall arena tour, on top of the Soundgarden tickets and Buzzfest tickets already purchased. Even if the bank doesn't call to check on the activity, I think my wallet is whimpering in pain.

While I'm thinking about the birthday part... what do people do when couples get divorced and other couples are still friends with both parties? ( cut while I ramble about background details )

What do people DO when their friends get divorced? Pick sides? Try to stay friends with both?

I guess I'm lucky that this is the first time it's really happened in my close social circle.

Today's random:

- Does anyone else find it odd that ESPN broadcasts zero NHL games, but they've put out two ads featuring Henrik Lundqvist in the last couple of months? (The Swedish chef one was AWESOME.)

- Signs for the departmental seminar have been posted. I keep look at this and wondering how the dad from American Pie had time to be an actor and a scientist/professor.

If you read Russian Machine Never Breaks or watched last night's Caps/Bolts game, you've already seen this, but...

( what's going on with Ovechkin's hair? )



Ugh. Back to reading all the background ever on histone acetylation and gene regulation so I can converse intelligently about the new project for the grant proposal. I love how as soon as I get competent at a new technique and caught up on all the background literature for that topic, my boss decides that we need to move into yet another new direction, so there's a new learning curve to be scaled. :|

What was that last night, Wild? Jonas Brodin is doing an amazing job as a small-ish, young defenseman, and Charlie Coyle had a decent night for his home debut, but. What. Seriously. OTOH... DEVILS. :)

Morning random:

a) Writing "I suck at summaries" anywhere in your summary pretty much guarantees that I am never going to click the link to your fic. Even more so if it's a work in progress.

b) BBC News reported this morning on a prisoner who concealed his mobile phone in his rectum. Guards became suspicious when a ring tone was heard during a search of his cell. Ow.

c) It is Friday. Paper is submitted. Book club (ie, wine drinking with book discussion as an excuse) tonight. HAPPY WEEKEND!

a) Clybourne Park. The Alley is producing it this season, and we saw it on Sunday. I really enjoyed parts of it, and think Norris does an interesting job of weaving race and perception as related to urban renewal with things like unpopular war and PTSD. Parts of the second act felt like they were written specifically for a talk-back with a sociology or history class, though. Best thing: the use of popular music through the decades to transition between 1959 and 2009. Some of the dialogue was that sort of train-wreck where you KNOW someone is going to say something utterly, completely offensive because they've boxed themselves in in conversation, and I spent a good portion of the second act cringing. David Rainey, you (or your character, whichever) are an A+ troll.

b) Canadian boys and stereotypical speech patterns. Go listen to the PONDcast for the the preview to the other day's Wild/Blues game. How many times can Marco Scandella work "for sure" into a response? Pretty much EVERY TIME he answers a question. (Less said about the results of that game, the better. Not impressed with his interfering with Oshie like that so close to the end of the game. D:)

c) Watching last night's Edmonton/Avs game, A turned to me and said, "It's much easier to appreciate how talented Eberle is when he's not scoring against our team." YES. YES, IT IS.

d) So tired of my boss right now. He asked me to change EVERY GRAPH in the manuscript so that the bars were bounded by 0.5pt lines. When they've been in the format they're in (1pt) since I first made them. Nine months ago. And NOW, while I'm trying to finish the last little bits of that paper and do a slew of experiments for the new grant, he wants to me to change them? No. That'll involve deleting the current graphs, going back to GraphPad and changing them, then re-importing, re-sizing, and re-labeling them all in the graphics software he favors (which I haaaaaate like burning). For all 15 graphs. I have enough to do. If he really doesn't like that line weight, he can change them all. And then after THAT discussion, he decided that I should re-analyze some of my data. Again. Because the results don't fit his hypothesis. THAT'S NOT HOW SCIENCE WORKS.

e) URGH. The LCD display on our PCR machine is dying. If not, I could just stick these first strand synthesis reactions in it and leave, and it'd do the temperature changes for me. But no. I'm hanging out for the 42degC bit, then moving them to the 70degC block for 15 minutes, and THEN I'm done for the day.



Cranky day. Because in between today's grant/paper shenanigans, Post-Doc Who Thawed All Our Cells, kept coming to ask me questions that wouldn't need my attention if she just LOOKED IN THE INVENTORY that I conveniently posted to the lab server, and which I update every time we get a new antibody. Ugh. I believe tonight is not going to be a gym night. I believe it is going to be time for ALL THE WINE and ALL THE HOCKEY. And Dante and A cuddles.

( hockey related news: )

Totally earwormed myself with Cake's Going The Distance, so I'm going to go listen to that. And ponder the joy that is a day without my boss coming to check on me every couple of hours. (He's out of town for the next couple of days.)


ETA: Who gave Matt Dumba #55? SERIOUSLY? HIS NAME/# COMBO IS DUMBA55.

Ugh, back to work. It's not even that I dislike my work - I don't - it's just such a drag getting back into a work routine.

Random query: why do couples/families label joint property or invitations as "The Smith's". Seriously, do people not learn about apostrophes and possessives any more? The Smiths' or The Smiths, depending on context. I've gotten four different Evite invitations (don't get me started on Evite and my hate for it) with that misuse. And they were all from people who are college graduates, at a minimum.

Last night was the first Aeros game of the New Year, and was yet another matchup against the OKC Barons. Given the progress that I hope is happening with the NHL/NHLPA, it might've been the last time I see Hall, Eberle, and Schultz up close for a long while. There's another couple of home games this weekend, so hopefully that was NOT the last I'll see of Granlund, Coyle, and Zucker. Brodin's apparently back in Houston again, but not playing. The IR is massive again, too: Scandella, Bulmer, Palmer, Brodin, Kampfer, Broda, Foucault, and Fontaine were all scratches, and they signed Derek Couture to a PTO on NYE. He dressed and played a significant number of shifts (and committed the most boneheaded, obvious penalty, boarding Justin Schultz, and leading to Eberle's only goal; man, Hackett looked pissed - someone's stick broke and flew into the net, distracting him, and that's when Eberle's shot went in). NGL, I was a bit worried that the team'd be flat, given the OT loss on the 29th. Plus, whenever they score, they do this slow-down that usually leads to an immediate opposing goal. Which the Barons take advantage of by always putting Eberle, Arcobello, & Hall out, post-goal. Sign I'm overinvested in the Aeros: it makes me super twitchy and nervous when Hall and Eberle are on the ice together, skating into the Aeros' zone with the puck. But seriously, some of the prettiest drop and blind passes between them. I can appreciate them. I just prefer they not happen against my team. Also pretty? Jason Zucker's three points. (Not so much his hooking penalty, which led to Hall's goal in the 1st - Hall's goal is at :43 here, and the scrum of Barons hugging was literally right in front of us. I was not amused. I am sad that they didn't include Hackett's celebration over the ENG in the highlights.) And Johan Larsson's empty netter. I don't remember seeing Petersen play before - was he injured early in the season, or is he a call-up? Lines are kinda scrambled again, with all the injured forwards. But a win's a win, right? Especially when it leap-frogs the team to being one point behind the Checkers in the division.

After the game we came home and watched the Rose Bowl. Eh. I don't understand why Alvarez didn't start Stave. Or play him more than that single pass. Three Rose Bowl losses in a row. :( At least they got there? Even if it was by default. (Thanks to OSU, PSU, and the NCAA for that.)


Finally, thanks to Bob McKenzie, for giving me the most ridiculous mental image. I'm reading his book, Hockey Dad, right now, and he says at one point Backcheck like your hair is on fire. Imagining a peewee player with a helmet on fire, streaking down the ice. It's worse and more hilarious than the stupid flaming puck that ESPN/NBC/Fox/whoever tried for one season.

+ In news that should surprise no one, after listening to Tre on repeat for a day (I like it much more than Dos, but not as much as Uno), I am back to listening to a playlist that is basically nothing but Rise Against and Gaslight Anthem. (Yes, it is called "Tim McIlrath is always the answer. Unless it's Brian Fallon". WHAT?)

+ How smiley is PK Subban that Malcolm Subban made the WJC team? As excited as he is that the charity game he and Stamkos are hosting is almost sold out? I'd guess.

+ Started reading James Duthie's The Day I (Almost) Killed Two Gretzkys. I don't read his column regularly, so it's entertaining even if it's a retread.

( this weekend's to-do list )