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:)
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