Shrimp Alfredo and Double Tomato Bruchetta

It took me almost a full week to realize that the wine on our counter was "Train" wine...Train, as in the band I saw in concert earlier in August.  "Soul Sister" is a track on their album "Save Me, San Francisco."  EDIT: Train actually founded the "Save Me, San Francisco" wine label!  Although their Pinot Noir was a bit sweeter than we expected (it didn't go too well with our meal), I'm excited to try their other wines.  http://www.savemesanfranciscowineco.com/wine.php

DOUBLE TOMATO BRUSCHETTA

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/double-tomato-bruschetta/

One of the yummiest appetizers I've ever eaten.  A huge "thank you" to our friend who made these beauts and brought them over!

SHRIMP ALFREDO (and a few more bruschettas)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/low-cal-fettuccine-alfredo-recipe/index.html

We added a small can of water chestnuts and peas, plus shrimp.  

August 2013

Newlyweds opening gifts... a beautiful, handmade plaque!

The front yard on a foggy morning

Cadee "cutie patootie" Jae

It's good to be back in Texas!  Christine made yummy tacos on Monday night.

Oliver-- the other cutie patootie!

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 :-)