He's Sooo Cool

I should be doing a Mother's Day post- Yeah for Moms! I'll promise to keep blogging!- but let's just say it was this, or the other thing I've been thinking about, and I suspect none of you care about the transforming ability of viral nucleic acids. (But if you do, I hear there is going to be a rockin' seminar in June you should totally check out).

Instead, I am going to write about all the reasons I haven't been evicted, starved or otherwise wasted away as a result of the writing process. Well, just one reason- Matt. Thank goodness we are married, I can't imagine why he would want to put up with me since I am so perpetually grumpy these days, and constantly blathering about things that normal people should have to suffer through (I mean- percent identity! Why does Dr. Boss care how many significant figures I use on a pairwise alignment- the point is that the clades align at all. The coloration only highlights the point- these cutoffs are arbitrary on purpose!). But he keeps doing it, and acting like this is what he signed up for. Actually, me being locked up in my "office" means he has has a lot of free time, which is partly filled by my share of all the household duties (even the few I pretended to manage over the winter), and the rest he filled with cycling. I am sure I have mentioned to anyone who has asked what Matt is up to, he is mostly riding his bike a lot. Perhaps I haven't been clear on how much.

A lot.

Matt bought a road bike this spring, which opened up a world of social cycling to him (there aren't many Mt Bikers around here). He's been on a couple of longer rides (45 miles seems really far to me), and tried going to the Races at the Circle Track. The races are a fairly informal, but sanctioned, weekly event. The circle track is a half mile, with banked corners and a grade over the start line. They can get going really quick, and it is the kind of race where the lead rider gets worn down quickly, so strategizing your place in line is important. He went once, said he tired himself out and hadn't really figured out the whole "riding in the group" thing, but obviously felt it was fun enough that he asked me to come and watch him this week. I've never had a chance to really watch Matt ride (Mom and Nana and I saw him finish a Mt bike race, like, the last 50 yards ...), and this is a unique location.

Matt introduced me to some of his cycling friends before the race (he has cycling friends?), and then I immediately lost him in the crowd. Surprising, since he was the only one not wearing spandex, or sporting leg hair. But he was wearing a red jersey, much like the CMU cycling team, and 40 guys spinning along at 26 mph was quite a sight. When I could pick him out, he seemed to be moving up the pack. They did 30 laps- and he conspicuously was leading a couple. The bell rang for the final lap, and everyone started sprinting, and trying to edge up on eachother- it was really hard to follow. When the dust settled, Matt came in 6th! Which means he got half his entry fee back! One of his buddies won the race, so everyone was in high spirits, and we went to a grown up bar for a drink and BREAD (cyclists get hungry). The 'buddies' are actually on a cycling team together, and they invited Matt to join- my impression is this means matching jerseys and a standing invitation for after-race drinks, not so much training commitment. I'm really happy for him, and I know he is looking forward to going back and showing those hairless dweebs how little difference their spandex makes.

Yesterday was fun, but today my high spirits were crushed by the overwhelming ugliness of these awful (Awful!) images I needed to compile for a figure. This shouldn't have turned into the melodrama that it was, but I spent all afternoon juggling files, and by 5:30 finally got something I could open. Ack. By 6:30 Matt was calling to check on me, and I made no effort to hide my panic and frustration. He came to work with a sub and some know how, and even though I tried to brush off his attempts to help, my juggling 3 programs method was labor intensive. Eventually, he sat down and compiled my image in photoshop, making every step a million times more efficient. Clearly his work as a drafter has given him a better sense for layout and improved mousing dexterity, which means the figure came together with steely precision, even though he freehanded everything. It was awesome, and probably saved me 100 grey hairs.

Yeah, he's awesome and I'm married to him.