#50 Boston - Paper with a Pulse - May 29 2008

The Tiniest Closet of Them All

Greetings from Chicago, the windy city, where yours truly landed today after a fairly uneventful, slightly bumpy flight. I am comfortably settled in the Hotel Allegro (http://www.allegrochicago.com/) , very cool place, newly renovated. The rooms are chic, but tiny, and I swear I could not find the closet at first ,it is that small!!! Astronauts have bigger accommodations and I actually think one of my pantry closets may outsize this one. The bathroom is also very small, but spotless and features a really cool design. Everything else about the hotel is fantatastic, the staff is the coolest, there is free wireless, and you get free daypasses to a gym nearby (http://www.fitnessformulaclubs.com/) - I just came back from a nice swim - and they even give you a rollaway bed for free. My colleague Eunice was called last minute to a couple of meetings at the conference and will be crashing in the tiny room for a couple of days with me, and the staff could not have been nicer. Finding a room on such short notice with 40,000 oncologists in town is pretty much impossible and Eunice and I have frequently roomed together.

Tomorrow the conference starts, so I have the night off and my friend Peter from Belgium and I will go to the prime seafood place in the neighborhood, Nick's Fishmarket (http://www.nicksfishmarketchicago.com/) for some tasty treats. After swallowing all that pool water, I have worked up an appetite.

No Trouble with Bouncers This Time

Last Monday I had to return to the site of my previous altercation with a bouncer, the Paradise Lounge in Boston to see one of my favorite bands, Augustana( http://www.augustanamusic.com/) alongside with two opening acts - David Ford( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybt26QmzZ6U) and Wild Sweet Orange (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv3DlQzDCz0&feature=related). This time no melee with the staff, plus we got seats, which suited my sore heel very nicely. We were able to see the bands mostly, except for one ditzy dame who definitely made a better door than a window and whose rear view is forever etched in my memory. Augustana were just fabulous and proved why they were the headliners. Go see them when they perform in your town - you may know there songs "Boston" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnqvjD7Kxs4) - my favorite - or "Stars and Boulevards" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDLAmUj9P2k&feature=related).

Paper with a Pulse

After looking at my laundry pile which was reaching the critical point and some work tasks that needed attention, I decided to not go to the Cape this weekend, but hang around Boston. After putting in some time at work, I headed to the Wimberly Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts for an ushering gig, which was so worth it and one of the most outrageous performances I have ever witnessed. Ennio! - aka Ennio Marchetta (http://www.enniomarchetto.com/) appears on stage dressed in an all-black suit and then dons adult-size origami costumes and effortlessly switches from one character into the next. Watch the movies on his website - one second he is Eminem and with two flicks of his wrists, he is Donna Summer. A jewish rabbi turned into Britney Spears, Frankenstein morphed into Frank Sinatra and then Nancy Sinatra, and of my favorites was the transformation of a wine bottle into Amy Winehouse. The Hollywood Reported called his performance "Paper with a Pulse" and the audience including myself lept to their feet for a standing ovation - anyone who can play 100 characters in 60 minutes deserves a response like this.

Now I am Never Gonna get my Ego back!

After getting the laundry crisis averted and making some progress on the work front, I decided on Monday to have some fun and head out with the bike and join my friends Holly and Carol on a ride on the Minuteman Bikeway. We were joined by Carol's 7-year old Boston terrier Dunkin who was just the sweetest thing ever, and had sort of a side-car thing going in form of a milk crate that is bolted down on the back of Carol's bike. He is quite comfy in there, enjoys the breeze during the ride and receives plenty of attention from fellow bike riders and joggers along the route. According to Carol he learned his lesson (meaning stay in the crate) when he once tried to hop out and chase after a squirrel, but then the leash held him back and dangling from a bike was not too much to his liking. Well it was a beautiful day and everyone was out and about, kids hat lemonade stands, including one group who was quite noisy in their quest to get us to stop and drink some of their artificial juice-like stuff, whatever it was. When we gracefully declined, one of the kids yelled after us and what I heard was "Now I am never gonna get my Ego back" and I thought, wow, he is taking this serious - turns out it was my bad hearing again, and he actually called "Now I am never going to get my Eagle Batch". I am cleaning my ears out with bleach, I swear.

Tidbits

*I got a new lap top from work, and boy am I happy. There are still a few kinks with the remote access of my network folders, but it is nice not thave to lean the computer against a cast-iron cook book or a Jim Beam bottle, and all the keys are there and work.

*My new favorite You Tube Video (I love Weezer!!): Pork and Beans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

*Falling under the heading of bad names for products should be "Mommy's Bliss Nipple Cream" who not only has an unfortunate name but also was just pulled off the shelves by the FDA because it containes ingredients harmful to infants.

The Next Big Step

I received my note for my US citizenship interview and July 14th is the big day. Monday morning, 8:30 AM. My friend Ram already is finished with his process and proudly has his US passport (Congrats!), and my friends Georges and Mike are in line before me. This is going to be one big citizenship party/shindig. Some time this summer, stay tuned! (If all works out well, I will be able to vote!)


The Coolest Guy Ever

I am ending on a very sad note - our Uncle Coop passed away this last week, and the extended family is immersed in deep sadness about losing him. He was kindness in person and will be missed so much. My first memory of him was when I came to the US as a 15-year old girl from a small town in Germany and was staying with my great uncle Albert in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We were sitting out on the porch on a hot and muggy summer day on Edgeware Road and Coop came strolling down the street. I thought he was the coolest guy I had ever seen, and once you met him you knew that was true. He was an avid jogger and two years ago during a visit to him and his wife Louise, he and I and a jogging buddy of his went for a five-mile run on a crisp November morning, and it was just beautiful. I will keep both of these picture memories in my heart and count myself lucky to have met him.

Until soon.

pet:)

#49 Boston - The Knob Behind the Potato - May 21 2008

The Knob Behind the Potato

My friend Rick and I have slightly strange ways of describing a beautiful view in the White Mountains and at one point after our hike up Table Mountain we stopped along Bear Notch Road at a "vista" and were trying to identify the range of mountains we were looking at.
Rick: "I think that round thing is the mountain we hiked" (referring to Table Mountain)
Petra:" You think?"
Rick: "I wonder what the knob is back there?
Petra: "What knob - the one that looks like a potato?"
Rick: "No, the one behind the potato!"

Sooooo out of shape!

I am officially out of shape. It was a sad picture, hiking up the Attitash Trail up to Table Mountain. It was a beautiful day in the White Mountains, and if you are not a big time hiker or a slacker like me, this may be up your alley. It starts out easy, but then gets a little steeper as you go on. The weather was fantastic this weekend up in the White Mountains, and Mother Nature did something really swell - it was sunny and warm during daytime and only rained a wee bit in the evening (we made it off the patio in time after dinner, before the rain drops started falling. Table Mountain afforded spectacular views (all the way to Squam Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee), even though it was unclear as to where the actual summit was. We went as far as we could and stopped at the point where Rick had to crawl underneath a tree and still could not find the trail.

A Bear, Three Snakes and Two Rabbit Legs

It was an interesting day for wildlife, good for some - the snakes were out sunning themselves along the hiking trails, which delighted Phoebe to no end; Rick and I spotted a bear on Cannon Mountain (don't worry, we were on I-93 far away) - bad for others, as we saw two rabbit legs and a whole lot of fur along the trail. Some predator had a poor little bunny for lunch, but apparently did not appreciate the whole treat.

Knuckelitis

On account of the Plantar Fasciitis, I am now wearing my inserts in my hiking boots which makes them a wee bit tight (time for new boots, I say!). Since our hikes were steep this weekend, several of my toes now have knuckelitis, which is so much fun. Next time, I'll get taped up, I swear. I am a wreck.

BoocerBall and Tiny Table Tennis

Among the many diversions in Franconia are Boccerball (http://www.boccerball.com/) and a table tennis set that is clearly designed for children. Denise and Rick were unbelievable at Boccerball, which is fast and fun, and I demonstrated my skill for knocking the ping pong ball anywhere but on the table, so Will spend a lot of time hunting for lost ping pong balls under couches, behind the treadmill etc.

Stupid is As Stupid Does

Said Forrest Gump, and please, sign me up to that list! On our hike up Georgiana Falls in New Hampshire, Petra got it in her silly little head that going up boulders in the middle of a raging river might be a good idea. They looked big and sturdy, and for some reason, neither Rick, Denise or Will stopped me from doing it. Come to think of it I don't think I would have listened to their objections anyway. Maybe I had something to prove, after the huffing-and-puffing episode the day before up Table Mountain, but I should know that it is never a good idea to give in to the notion that you feel like superwoman. (Reminds me of one of those joke E-mails - you may be a redneck if you can respond with a number to the question "How many relatives of yours have died right after saying "Hey, watch this!" ?). So, here I was, in the middle of the river, thinking I could walk on water, gingerly balancing over slippery rocks and realizing quite quickly that this was one of the stupider ideas I had in recent months, and believe me, there were others.
I did fall into the water once (thank goodness for quick drying pants) and would not be surprised if a certain part of my anatomy (the one you sit on) would have a nice bruise on it. The highlight was when I was really stuck in the middle of the river, in front of a 7-foot boulder with no good plan on how to climb on top of it (which I needed to in order to escape the dilemma I was in). So I hoisted the back-pack, my hiking poles and the camera up on top and then in a performance that resembled one of those snake-woman acts in a circus, weaseled my way up the rock. There was no room for the slightest mistake and it took me quite some time to calm down afterward and stop my legs from shaking. Rick came back to rescue me at some point, when I had made it out of the water and we re-joined Denise and Will, who had already made their way up to the top of Georgiana Falls. The trail going up at some point is unrelentingly steep and not marked well at all, so you have to bushwhack it quite a bit (I think I fell two more times - maybe this is why my right knee hurts), but once you make it up there it is phenomenal (http://public.fotki.com/12101995/hiking-pix/2007/georgiana-falld-nh-71207/georgianafalls71207004.html - this is a web site I found with some great photos - mine will follow in due time). Worth the effort.

The Week in Review

Week-work-work-work-nice-walk-with-Hillary-along-the-Charles-River-on-Wednesday-etc-etc-etc-Friday-leaving-for-Franconia. Buying new running shoes, darn Plantar Fascitis acting up again. C'est ca.

The Nearsighted Cyrillic Computer

Well, the laptop computer is now officially dead. While it operated in limited fashion (leaning against a cast-iron pot (or in the case of Franconia against a Jim Beam bottle), keys missing (Page Up, A, CTRL, some others, broken in half), you can now no longer read anything on the screen, unless it is in 100-point bold type font. Trying to read any document or application name is as if you are extremely near-sighted without contacts or glasses and you are trying to read Cyrillic letters. The new computer is being shipped and better times are ahead.

Talk to you soon.

pet:)

#48 Boston - Bless the Feet - May 11, 2008

Another incident related to my reduced capacity to hear people in noisy restaurants – Friday night at my friend Christian’s birthday party (Happy B-Day Chris!) at STIX (http://www.stixboston.com/) , a posh little place in the heart of the city (not for from Copley for those of you in the know), a group of us were discussing road races and my friend Sriram started mentioning a specific race where there is “the blessing of the fleet”, but being the running-focused person that I am (and not as sailing-inclined as he is) I thought he said “The blessing of the feet” which for a road race made total sense. Actually in 2004 about 55 runners of the then-108th Boston Marathon went to Our Lady of Victories in Boston’s Bay Village to have both their feet and running shoes blessed. Made sense to me, and once I start running again (I got the go-ahead for some light jogging in July) I may resort to some kind of ritual to keep the footsies happy.

STIX is a wonderful place BTW, dipped in warm and Friday-evening appropriate colors and aptly named after their “kebabs”, which feature chicken, beef or shrimp skewered on flat, broad sticks. The food was delish (try the chicken stix when you go, they are superb!!!) and the wonderful bartender whipped up a non-alcoholic cocktail for me, a pomegranate Cosmo, which was so delightful, I had two of them. Don’t worry, I took a cab home.



Believe it or not, I worked on Saturday for a few hours (but not before laying on the couch earlier on for two hours straight to finish my book group book (Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand, excellent read), and then headed over to start help with the setup for Community Running’s 10th anniversary party/ shindig http://communityrunning.org/) that took part at Crossroads, an Irish pub on Beacon Street on the edge of the Back Bay (http://crossroadspubboston.com/ ). As this is one of our favorite post-run hang-outs, we decided it was a great place to celebrate at, and we convinced the managers to give us the entire upstairs. Aside from a couple of old ladies looking for margaritas and a group of frat guys looking for their letters on the wall no one bothered us up there, and it was an enjoyable evening, with speeches, raffles, and a trivia quiz that was just evil. Did you know that Steve Prefontaine’s middle name was Roland, and that the fastest time one mile has been run backwards is 6 Minutes and 9 seconds? Well neither did I and so it came as no surprise that I did not win, not even close. 7 out of 10 of my answers were “no idea”, and for some of them I just made something up. Since I have not been running with the group since last July on account of my injury and only see people for our volunteer work (I am the coordinator of these efforts), it felt really good to see lots of familiar faces. However, it was pretty hot up there, and I left reasonably early; I was tired and completely knackered, as they say in the UK>

Speaking of the UK, today I watched a couple of movies – both play in the UK - (“Hot Fuzz” – a Must Watch and “Children of Men” – very gripping), made use of the couch and in the late afternoon went for a 22-mile bike ride on the Minuteman Bikeway (http://www.minutemanbikeway.org/Pages/intro.html). Contrary to the weather forecast we had a decent weekend, and today, just in time for Mother’s Day, the sun came out and provided me with no excuse to stick around the house. I had done a couple of 11-mile rides this week in the evenings, but the Minuteman is much less populated than the Charles River Esplanade and if you want to catch up (as my friend John and I wanted to do) and ride next to each other, this is the place. It was a nice ride, and only an episode with some troublesome youths who I believe attempted to grab my purse put a bit of a damper on the day. Thankfully there were some riders right behind us who also stepped in, and we escaped unharmed and my purse and all its contents is still with me.

The week pretty much went by quickly, work was all-consuming – Tuesday Lab Day, Wednesday I hosted a company all day, and Friday I was so absorbed in a project that only at about 2:30 PM when an email came out that there was food leftover from a luncheon, I ran screaming out of my office “Lunch, where is the lunch? I have not eaten - everyone out of my way!!” At that point I was ready to tackle anyone for a slice of cheese or a spoonful of pasta salad. Some rewards this week came in form of two long bike rides along the Esplanade, a massage at MGH and a nice luncheon with my friend Chris at Ma Soba (http://masobaboston.com/).

Next weekend will find us again up in Franconia, New Hampshire for a couple of days of hiking and a little celebration, but more on that once it has happened. I am still horrendously overdue with sending you photographs, but promise to do so soon. I am halfway through the San Diego pictures, and hoping that I may be able to finish them some time this week.

Today was Mother’s Day, so Happy M Day to all of you moms, moms-to-be-, those of you who have moms, and those of you whose moms have passed on and who you miss so much. I know you think of them often, and there are days when time does not seem to soften the blow and you miss them even more. I certainly do. I have to send a quick thank-you-for-your-kindness shout-out you to my local branch of Citizens Bank, whose staff are not only all really nice people but also gave me a flower just for being a “mom” of a 12-year old gnarly budgie named Oscar.


Hope this email finds you and your families well –

Pet:)

#47 Boston - The Purple Passion of Love - May 5 2008

You gotta love Chinese restaurants and their menus. Turns out it was actually “The Purple Tour of Romance”, but Renee and I later on just could not remember what the name of the fancy sounding drink was at Wisteria, the new Chinese place in my neighborhood. Their menu is full of surprises, but I think I asked too much of the waitress with my questions about various items. Well, the purple thingy disappointingly turned out to be just a couple of juices mixed, among them grape (hence the purple attribute), and when I inquired as to what would be in the mango smoothie, she guessingly looked at me and said “You know smoothie”? “Yes, I know smoothie” I said, “but what is in there in addition to mango”, as generally in most smoothies there is more than one fruit. Turns out it really was just mango crushed up with ice, not sweetened, which I actually did like, but after asking some more questions concerning their dinner entrees, I did not even want to venture finding what the “Sea of Magic” was. Other interesting items on the menu were “Lion’s Head”, “Sun, Moon, Stars”, and “Pipa Tofu”. And then of course there were those dishes where you clearly knew what they were, but there was no chance in hell that you would ever order never mind eat it – Pork Blood Tofu and Intestine and the Pig’s Ear appetizer, just to name a couple of the tasty bits.

Additional entertainment was provided by a couple sitting next to us, who clearly had different ideas on how to spend their Sunday morning. “I don’t wanna go to church”, exclaimed one of them, and his partner shook his head in disbelief on how he ever ended up with an atheistic boyfriend, who was clearly going to hell some day. The latter informed both us and his significant other that he rather visit the Church of Bloody Marys and Mimosas, and I don’t think there was much headway made on solving the issue.

Renee and I had been in need of some nourishment prior to our drive down to Foxboro to Gillette Stadium (http://www.gillettestadium.com/), the arena where both the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution play. Renee had won us some tickets in an MGH lottery to attend a soccer game between our home team, lovingly called “The Revs” by their fans, and let me tell you, the tickets were not too shabby. We had club access, so could either sit in our seats or sit in the clubhouse and watch the whole game in a cozy warm area, where you could buy bear for 10 dollars and a hot dog for 8. This was my first game to attend with the Revolution, and let’s just say their motto “Pride and Passion” was nowhere to be seen (http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/). The Chicago Fire, the opposing team, clearly ran the show and sacked the Revs with a score of 3:0. As much fun as it was to sit in the cushiony seats and stroll around the fancy club house, the real action was in “The Fort”, the north stands of the stadium which is where the hardcore Rev fans were sitting. They are called “The Midnight Riders” and “The Rev Army” and I think in order to sit there you must bring a drum with you - the noise coming from section was deafening, but I am sure those guys had fun.



As usual, my hearing which is going down the tubes (it may have been the noise in the place too), lead to some funny moments – as Renee and I were nosy-ing our way through the club house, we saw that there was an event going on behind a curtain, so walked up to the bouncer and asked him what the illustrious group was, and why we were not invited. What he said was that is was some sort of Youth Soccer Association, but his Massachusetts accent was so thick, that I swore he said “nude soccer association”. Now there’s a reason to quickly walk away.

In another deafness-related incident, when Renee said she was going to get something to eat and was looking for the pretzel-cooker, I thought she said that she was looking for the “pretzel hooker”. I thought, wow, these tickets are definitely worth it. Pretzel hookers and preferred parking, hot dogs at exorbitant prices, what more can you ask for?

Meanwhile last weekend, as mentioned, my friend Frank (who happens to live in my hometown in Germany) was in the hub for a conference, and for some entertainment, we decided to head up to beautiful Newburyport (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Newburyport&gbv=2) and Plum Island (http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Plum+Island). It was a lovely day and despite the fact that some of the beaches were closed on account of bird nesting season, we had a lovely stroll along Sandy Point beach and also did the dune loop portion of the Hellcat Trail. We waltzed around Newburyport for a while, but it is a touristy town and surprisingly none of the restaurants on the main drag (tourist traps, all of them!!) was a true fish restaurant. This is a seaport town for God’s Sake. We want fish!! Fortunately, we asked a woman who worked in the local book store, and she pointed us to a wonderful place called “Michael’s Harborside”, located in a small marina right next to Route 1, which served spectacular seafood. And apparently the word was out on the street, because the place was packed (http://www.michaelsharborside.com/) and deservedly so. Some of the best seafood I have had in a long time.

Sunday I lazied around watching bad movies, and after a Mexican dinner at “Fajitas and Ritas” (http://www.fajitasandritas.com/) headed to the Orpheum Theater, a beautiful old theater built in 1852 and which was the original site for the New England Conservatory (http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Orpheum+Theater+Boston). We went to see a concert with Colbie Caillat (http://www.colbiecaillatmusic.com/) – you may know her song “Bubbly” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWfB4lurT4). The concert was nice, not spectacular, not one of those “wow, what a night” experiences. Part of the “not-so-good” bit was that there was a 40-minute break between the opening act, Jason Reeves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rG1Rp2Jh-c) and the main act (Colbie). Loved his performance, he is a great singer/songwriter, except for when he talks - he sounds like he is about 12 years old and completely stoned, but hey…

Monday night, the 4S Wine Group (Holly, Hannah, Christos and I) accompanied by new Bostonian Caroline Grace attended a dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts to commemorate the “Art in Bloom” annual exhibit. We had tons of fun, welcomed back Christos, who is a CPA and tends to disappear during tax season, and our waiter Nathaniel thought we were the most fun table in the room. We were probably also the noisiest – which is why the flower fairy (a woman dressed up as a peony or gerbera who ran around blessing everyone with flower love or something similar) spent only a limited time with us. I think we may have scared her.

Other events this week – our boss Bruce took Renee and myself out to lunch on Wednesday at the new Italian restaurant in the Liberty Hotel, “Scampo” - http://libertyhotel.com/dining.html - very tasty food, however they just opened and the staff was not quite “in tune” shall we say? Wednesday night was the Lab-rat Dinner Group, this time at Susan’s place in the North End. We had picked Mexican as the theme, and had a feast – Georgiana made a killer guacamole, I made a Mexican Jicama salad (with beets, carrots, oranges), Susan provided all the trimmings for burritos, her sister Anne made a fabulous corn bread, and Hannah served up a flan to die for (accompanied by some cookies that we dipped in Dulce de Lece). We were so full that at some point Susan stated she was unable to lean forward or even sit up straight. Leaning back was the only option. (I agree with that since all I wanted to do was to lick out the bowl with the dulce de lece, but was unable to do so).

Thursday evening was the book group, and apparently it was not a good date for most of the members - it ended up being just Renee and me, so we made an executive decision and went out for dinner in Arlington, at a wonderful Indian restaurant called Punjab (http://www.punjabarlington.com/). We discussed the book (Christopher Moore’s “Dirty Job”) and stuffed ourselves silly with delectable Indian cuisine.

Friday night, I headed to the airport to return Frank’s suitcases to him (they stayed with me for a wee bit while he headed off to Philadelphia) and we ended his visit with a dinner at Legal Seafood at Logan Airport. Did you know that you can check in a live lobster? Frank bought one, the poor little creature gets put on ice, with a little seaweed, packed up and checked in along with the rest of the luggage. Who woulda thunk?

Some good news - my photographs, the ones I just recently showed at the MGH Cancer Center, are going to be in a small exhibit at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library on Cambridge Street (nor far from MGH). I will be out of town for the reception, but will let the Boston contingent know when it is (June 3rd I believe).

This week has been a taxing one at work, no matter how hard I pushed, I did not seem to get anywhere, there was just too much to do. Monday was probably the worst day of the week (Isn’t it always?) and I want to describe an incident (hang in there with me, I know this is a long write-up) otherwise known as “Gels gone awry”.

Now for those of you who are not of the scientific persuasion, I will explain just a wee bit (yeeee, science lesson!). Gel electrophoresis is a process where you separate DNA – an electric current is applied to a gel matrix and the molecules will move through the matrix at different rates depending on their size. Usually you make the gel with Agarose (1 g in 100 ml of a specific water) and nuke it in the microwave, 4 min at 40% and then add ethidium bromide (very bad stuff), pour it, stick in the comb that creates the wells for the DNA, it sits 20 minutes and then you can add the DNA, apply the current and 35 minutes later you look at the result and take a nice picture. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis)

Here is how it went on Monday:

Gel Attempt #1: We are using a 2% gel (2 g in 100 ml) – which apparently boils over after about 2 ½ minutes. Do over.
Gel Attempt #2: Same thing again. Petra did not learn from the first one that it may be a good idea to hang around the microwave and watch the damn thing.
Gel Attempt #3: Figured out that I need to watch this closely, and get the gel to not boil over. Pour gel and let it sit to solidify (takes usually 20 minutes). After 15 minutes realize I forgot to put the comb in the gel.
Gel Attempt #4: Everything seems to go according to plan (except for my nerves which are a bit strained already at this point), gel comes out beautiful, comb was in; I have wells. When attempting to put DNA and loading dye in wells realize that I used wrong comb, wells too big, can’t see which wells have been filled. When adding more loading dye to each of the samples, instead of doing it gracefully, release huge blob of dye from the pipette.
Leave lab to hyperventilate and have minor nervous breakdown in the rest room.
Compose myself, finish loading wells.
Notice that the comb made only 20 wells (I needed 26).
Gel Attempt #5: Make additional gel for the remaining samples. Everything works out well. No more major disasters.

Not one of my best moments I have to say, but as they say “an opportunity to excel”. In moments like these, one has to remember my favorite quote from Albert Einstein “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research”. Or as one of colleagues emphasizes “It’s called RE-search”.

On that note, may all your experiments, scientific or not, go well. I am heading to my couch and will continue to watch “Anna Karenina” and let me just say typing this update was a major challenge, since my laptop is falling apart as we speak. Yesterday I lost the “a” and the “CTRL” key, several others are missing already, and the hinges that connect the screen to the base are broken, so the whole thing is leaning against a cast-iron cook pot. Never a dull moment!


Toodles,



Pet:)