Home for a Week: post #1

I've decided to use my blog as a photostream of sorts (not that I don't do that anyway, now that I think about it...) while I'm home for the week.  As usual, Cadee is my favorite subject, although I'll be sure to get some bachelorette and pre-wedding shots too!

we have lots of cucumbers here

Lab Chronicles 1

If you follow me on twitter (@alexwillie) you know I like to tweet about my work in the lab and the funny things that happen throughout the day.   I don't post about lab everyday, but #LabChronicles appears fairly regularly in my tweets.

I've been working on a large project involving profiling the gene expression in 32 tissue samples from mice.  It's a large-scale sequencing project that uses relatively new (2000s) techniques in a unbiased fashion to try and understand preterm cervical ripening (and subsequent preterm birth) in mice.  Anywho, the point is, it's a pretty involved protocol (recipe, basically) to 'prep' the 'libraries' or take a mouse cervix, isolate the RNA, and package it in such a way to maximize the data we get in the most economical manner (via sequencing).  I successfully prepped four libraries back in December and figured 8 libraries in June wouldn't be an issue.  Oh how wrong was I!  It's taken me 4+ weeks, and I finally made a small step in the right direction today-- I have library 'amplification' of a practice RNA  (see the glowing white smear on the gel below). I think the past failures were a matter of 'crap in, crap out,' meaning we have some sort of non-ideal starting material that's giving us next to nothing at the end (I saw just the white rectangle below the smear. This bottom white rectangle is adapter garbage that's leftover from connecting adapters to the RNA).

Oh science.  You are so frustrating but so rewarding! #LabChronicles

Goodbye June, Hello July :-)

I still can't believe that today is the 1st of July.  It was a very mild (just 90 degrees!) start to a possibly very hot month.  Beautiful, beautiful day :-)

Vinca and Cordyline Red Star

No, it's not dirt.  It's chocolate pudding with a crust haha

the kitchen with a few 4th O'July decorations (thanks Mom!)

We finally found a rug we like!

chicken enchiladas!  Thanks Christine :-)  

a bit more decor :-)

Oliver lookin' cuddly!  

The Blueberry Patch

A few friends and I went to "The Blueberry Bucket" this morning.  It's a blueberry farm about 90 minutes southeast of Dallas where the owners let you pick your own blueberries for $10 / 5qt bucket.  My boss has visited this same patch for the past 25 years and highly recommended it, so I just had to check it out.

What I learned:  there are reasons for leaving @ 6am for 'the patch'... these includes cooler temperatures, fewer pickers, and more picking time before the sun scorches you (that being said, we did not get sunburned). Picking blueberries is a tougher job that you'd think... let's just say I don't want to become a professional fruit picker.  Blueberries grow on tree/bush type plants.  They don't have prickers but sure do attract lots of (big) spiders, wasps, and other generally icky creatures (no we didn't get bitten or stung, thank goodness).  Sonics sell peanut butter bacon shakes (no we didn't try one).

 

Max and Oliver

Max is my roommate's parents' dog and Oliver is my roommate's cat.  I think they're pretty adorable.  Max isn't too good about staying put when I get out the camera, so I only got one acceptable picture of him.  Oliver's used to it by now haha!

Kitty paws are almost as cute as puppy dog paws :-)

Home in the SoDak

I came home this past Friday for the Memorial Day weekend and am having a fabulous time with my family and friends here in Yankton.  It's been exactly three years since I was home and Briana was not... she was in St. Louis in the summer of 2010 with her FSAP buddies while I spend a lot of time at home after going to Denmark for a few weeks at the beginning of the summer.

Mom picked me up at the Sioux Falls on Friday, we went to the casino in Larchwood, IA (no we weren't big winners, sadly), and finally had a quick but super yummy dinner at Chae's in Vermillion.  They were nice enough to serve us even at 8:50pm (ten minutes before they were set to close).

Yesterday (Saturday), Mom and I went to the Judi's Dance Studio recital.  I hadn't been to a recital since my senior year in 2008!  We had a great time just sitting in the balcony and watching :-) The dancers and tumblers did an absolutely wonderful job.  Congrats to Rob and Timera on an awesome first recital!  Mom and I then picked up Dad and headed to the Pancreatic Cancer (Pan Can) Pub Crawl that benefitted the Lori Groetken Foundation.  It was great to see so many people coming together to share stories (and a few tears too) for such a great cause very close to my family's hearts.  

lettuce

Mom was nice enough to save (and share) some of her Mother's Day present! Very yummy :-)

It is a tough job being the world's cutest dog 24/7

I promise-- they do love each other.

My First Solo Bundt

Too bad it wasn't a squeeze play (please look up 'squeeze play' for your own sports edification if you do not know what I'm talking about).

I think this is the first cake I've made in a bundt pan by myself.  I have no idea if it counts as a 'bundt cake' but I'll go with it.  I was in need of using up some baking supplies and greek yogurt before we move out in a month (!) so I googled banana recipes and found this one.  Side note: who knew you could buy ripe bananas at Kroger and for a reduced price, no less?!?  Ok, now I know and may take advantage of this in the future.

http://bakingbites.com/2013/04/ultra-moist-banana-bundt-cake-with-greek-yogurt/

Here's the link to the recipe.  Other than using 4 bananas instead of 3 and adding mini semi sweet baking chips, I followed the recipe to a 't,' which is an usual occurrence for me. Oh yeah, and it's the moistest banana cake I've ever eaten.  Must be that Greek yogurt!!