This week, in Pittsburgh

Since I came back from Toronto this week, it has hardly been business as usual around here. Of course there are the networking-y follow-up emails to people, and we are going give the lab an update at the end of the week (tomorrow??).

But life itself moves on. The apartment has become infested with fruit flies- a side affect of the way I was dealing with the worm bin humidity. We've scrubbed every wall in the kitchen and installed fly paper, now we wait for them to die. Work seems suddenly pressed up against the holidays. I am trying to cram in every inch of experiments possible before we leave. Also, I am teaching another 3 discussion sections for the HHMI fellows. Tomorrow is vivisection, in two more weeks, personal genomic. This week, I am ready for, next one, not at all.

And we are being audited by the bankrupt city. Why? We didn't completely pay a city tax for schools- which we wouldn't. If we completely loose this battle, we could afford to cover the cost, but I am protesting on principle. Was it really worth tracking us down for a couple bucks (most of which they've already received the rest of which we likely won't be liable for)?

Matt, bless his soul, has been the voice of reason and sanity in all of the. "We'll just move the worm bin outside on the porch." "Those policy people will be glad to hear from you." "I'll call the tax people." My role in all of this is gratitude. It's going to make a fantastic chapter in my memoirs.