5K finished

Waking up at 5:45 in the morning on vacation is unusual enough. Doing it so that I can run a 5K is downright weird.

Regardless, 'Team Venture' managed to run our 5Ks today just fine. I brought up the rear at 41:23, which is a pretty slow pace for a 5k, but I did beat...8 people in the race out of 177. Shannon was a few minutes ahead of me, and Jess was about ten minutes faster, which makes her *really fast*. Quite a change from the girl that used to stay beind me while I went running for TKD. No doubt I would do a lot better if I ran with any regularity, but unfortunately Texas summer heat procludes me from getting outside and running until the sun goes down.

Still though, the most important opponent when running is yourself, and I made my personal goal of running the entire time, despite being completely soaked through by the end of the run. The one upside of having to wake up early for a 7:30 run is that the sun wasn't fully up and toasty for the entire time. Humid, though. I would however, like to point out that I also was faster than everyone who did not go running today, and that's several million people, at the very least. So that certainly makes me feel better.

Tomorrow we're heading down to Miami to depart on our CRUISE which is very exciting. Communication will be somewhat limited, but cell phones will work if there's some sort of emergency. We do get charged international roaming rates, so use this power wisely. E-mail will be better. For some reason the ship has free wi-fi. Odd, that.

-N

Vacation Time

Tomorrow Jess and I head out to travel the world, or at least small, warm, beautiful parts of it. We'll start out by hanging out in Fort Lauderdale and running a 5K with Jessie's sister. You know, relaxing stuff.

Jess and her sister got all excited about doing more running together and running a 5K the same weekend after they got faster together. Well that weekend is this weekend, and since, as luck would have it, we'll both be in the same city, we're all going to run together. Well, 'together', I guess. Jess and, I'm sure, Shannon, are both a lot faster than I am, being as I can't go running with any regularity in Texas summer heat. Still, we are signed up as a team, so yay for us! Being as Jess and I just finished a 5K run around the neighborhood, I feel confident that I can, at the very least, finish the run. It's all about setting achievable goals.

On monday, we go Cruising! Very exciting. We've signed up for some shore excursions, though a great deal of them involve water, so it's hard to know what, if any, pictures will be drawn from our experience. I'll definitely write about it, though. Having a journal to look back on is very nice.

We get back from the cruise on, I think, Saturday, spend a little more time in FLA, and then fly back on Sunday. So wish us luck, though it looks like we're already pretty lucky. Hurricane bill looks like it will miss us. :)

-N

I'm on PubChem!

This is not as cool as a real publication, BUT, since I doubt many of our readers care about impact factor, I wanted to share with you the early fruits of my labor. The large scale screen we did with the group in Alabama is done, and by decree of the NIH, the results have been deposited online. And you can ALL read them! Look here!

I don't really recommend you do this, but if you feel compelled, scroll down to the middle where it says Large T Antigen Purification. I WROTE THAT. I tried to write it in a way that did not convey the blood, sweat, and tears and HOURS and HOURS that went into the protocol. Just the facts, ma'am.

This is both awesome and scary. Obviously this is a sign that we've made a lot of headway. Scary because now this information is publicly accessible, and it puts pressure on us to do something with it before anyone else does. Awesome because the results are cool, scary because I am not really sure what to do with them. Pubchem makes everything seem so streamlined and professional, it is hard to beleive that this is MY work (although this is partly because I had little to do with getting this data to this point). I hope Dr. Boss gets as giddy about this as I am, and maybe he'll be compelled to try publishing this stuff really quick.

I was going to write a story about how I was tired of being pushed around, went to stand up for myself and it worked out great for me- instead, I am going to try and get the bioassay to biocompare the parameters of bioinforming.... I really need to learn to use this site.

Matt's Not That Old, Really

As many of our readers know, Matt is turning 30 this year. What many of you may not know, is that he may not actually make it that far. Not normally one for personal drama, I am beginning to suspect Matt may turn 29 for the rest of his life. And it is so much more than not owning up to how long ago Sept 14, 1979 was- this goes much deeper. It started out with some expected whimpering about not being ready to be old, but has become steeped itself in pity long enough to become a whole new beast. To deal with the emotional cavern that this birthday brings, he splits his time on both sides by acting in a binary fashion between 40 ("we ought to save this money for a down payment on a house") and 20 ("I am gonna celebrate with a Month of Beer Challenge"). Well, trinary- there is also complete denial.

My current challenge, is to plan an appropriate celebration for a guy who is wavering between not having a birthday, having a birthday where he is incredibly old, and one where he will never grow up. Imagine a sort of Mad Hatter's Party for Methuselah in Neverland theme- and if you can, be explicit in details, I am at a loss. In recent years, we have had several friends turn 30, generally there was cake, good friends and an absence of dentures, AARP members or Reader's Digest toasts. I would have thought that seeing this happen gracefully on so many occasions would help Matt transition, but I underestimated how tense he is about this whole birthday thing. It is surprising, really. Matt at his core hasn't changed since I met him, and I have a hard time imagining him being anyone but the laid back, logical, quiet fun loving geek I know today. Maybe he knows something I don't.

For those who are interested, I am assembling a birthday list I can send your way. If it isn't in your inbox tonight, and you want it, just say so.

Summer and Football have arrived

We had been blessed with very mild weather this summer, really wet actually. I was starting to think I was getting acclimated, that I could get used to living in this part of the world. And then it was August, and the thermometer spike well above 90 with every intention of staying there. And no, I am not getting acclimated. Instead, I am pulling out the blues, and iced tea and not moving much. Which reminds me, can anyone recommend any good blues for me? It just seems like the best way to beat the heat.

The other notable change in climate here is it's football season! And while the entire city of Pittsburgh is saying "Finally," our readership is saying "What?" In a city that takes it's football so seriously, the season really begins with training camp. Several co-workers have taken time to go to the camp and watch the new recruits. But the city donned their black and gold uniforms for the first game of the pre-season on Thursday. This certainly isn't our usual opening game fervor, but it was significant enough that I noticed to color co-ordination. The city clamors for more football in the few month between seasons. Here we go again...

My Camera has been busy, even if I haven't

Hello,

Here we present a selection of pictures from the last few months. With captions.

From New Pictures 8/09

Jesta Menace donning her All Scar Army duds for the tournament a few months ago. You'll take special note of the 'Mathematical Equation Armbands' provided by yours truly. I think one of them was the integral equation for the area of a sphere. The other one was gibberish.

From New Pictures 8/09

Two cars in my two car garage! Victory is mine!

From New Pictures 8/09

Here is our new car, a Mazda 3, in much the same style as Sandlin and Matt's new car, but without the crazy turbo power. We really like it. Having an Aux Audio input so we can listen to the ipod in the car is really fun.

From New Pictures 8/09

My breadmaking binge continues. This is my most photogenic loaf to date, I think. I've been making whole wheat loaves, too, getting the kinks out in my technique. Definitely better for us, but not as devastatingly delicious as the white loaves.

From New Pictures 8/09

Jess and Myself at a wedding in Florida. Not ours. Jess got to be a bridesmaid. SHE IS SO PRETTY LOOK AT HER IN HER DRESS AND ALL DONE UP AND EVERYTHING I HAVE SUCH A GREAT WIFE! Whew! Just had to get that out of my system.

From New Pictures 8/09

Here are the birds from Nana's awning. They may still look like dependant little babies here, but just a few days later they were out and around and hopping around the yard, looking all adolescent and everything. They do grow up so fast!

We've had to scrap the idea of going to China. We might have both lost our jobs over it. It would have been, admittedly, an unlikely scenario, but the decisions would have been completely out of our hands. We'll make ourselves feel better by taking a Caribbean cruise. Seriously, that's our new plan. We've found some that fit in our schedule before the end of the year. We are also, therefore, pegging Australia and/or New Zealand for next year.

Other Micro News:
-Jess continues to both hem *and* haw about derby next year. I've decided to stop paying attention until she makes a decision.
-I got 6th rank in Wing Tsun. Hooray for me!
-It is officially too hot to go out running on Saturdays. Jess can go if it's under 101 degrees or so, but any hotter than 95 and I just have no energy to exercise outdoors. Texas, baby.
-I've received much lovely feedback about my second draft. Thanks to all that have read it.

Much love to one and all,

-N

Harry Potter movie

This weekend Jane celebrated her **th birtday with a dinner party at our house with a select group of women friends. Because I'd spent the day helping with preparations, but was not expected to hang around, I head off to see the Harry Potter movie at our neighborhood theater. (Jane's not a huge fan.)

I can report that the movie was great, possibly the best since the first one captured the whole world of Hogwarts on film for the first time. I am amazed at how well the actors have grown into their roles. It may be that I now think of those characters as the people in the movie, but I don't think that's quite true. Hermione is a lot nerdier (in my mind) than Emma Watson for example, but I forgive Emma because she is so charming. Ron and Harry seem spot on, and Ginny is exactly who she needs to be to be the warrior I expect her to be in the next movie.

Speaking of which . . . there's one book left, but I'm told the cast is busy making the last *two* movies? Is that right? Or am I reading out-of-date People magazines at the dentist again. (I heard Michael Jackson's health is really bad).

Anyway, I'm now re-reading the only HP I have only read once . . the last one, to get ready for the next movie.