I'm famous now

So, remember that time I went to that conference in Toronto on Canadian Science Policy? And I was all thrilled because I met this woman who wanted me to write something for her newsletter? Remember how that storied ended? With the January Issue of the SCWIST Newsletter- bottom of page 9!! Oh, and an obligatory rockstar dance in lab, of course. I think the appropriate thing would be to write back to that lady and thank her for her advice and her leg up, since that's what they tell you do for networking. Yes?

Further follow-up to that whole affair is the realization that I would benefit from having a writing portfolio (which means I need to do more writing). I don't want to be a freelance writer, but how else to you demonstrate communication skills? That's hard though. In fact, just thinking about it for months has gotten me no where. A couple of my coworkers (including Karen who I went to Toronto with) decided to start a weekly Writing Study Hall - at a coffee shop, after work. We tried it this week, and although we had a slow start it was a lot more then I have done in these interceding months. I've got a few ideas (a pitch, or a lead- what am I doing??) for things to write and ideas for places to send them. Now I need to convince someone else that this is a good use of their printed space, and get around to writing it. Having the support and structure of a weekly meeting will help a lot.

Otherwise, the cold is clearing up, and I can taste again- but not smell yet. Matt's big project for the weekend is to build a cat scratching post out of lumber and remnant carpet. We took Raoul to the vet this week, and he is as healthy as hateful of vets offices. We've got friends coming over to make egg rolls tomorrow, and going to watch the Vikings game with the local MN fan Sunday. And I got good results in lab, to boot!

NOTICE: I've made some unilateral cosmetic changes to the blog- the template and cover picture. The picture I love, so I had to update the template to keep up with the cuteness of the pic. I think it looks better, but if someone with a better eye wanted to further update to 'best,' be my guest.