Done.

It's over, sadly, gladly- I'm not really sure even what to think- mainly because I can't think at all. Above are pictures from each of my rotations, an overlay of single polymerizing actin filaments, a cluster of cells grown in a 3D matrix immunostained for a polarity marker and montage of a timeseries: a cell undergoing release from monastrol treatment and subsequently processing through mitosis (cell divsion).

While the research was important, and the resources were fantastic- it's really the people that made it great for me here- above is most of the people i ran with and i'll certainly miss them.

Free Car

There is a car here that has plates that read "taxless". it's a BMW that has seen better days, but then maybe not since it's the free car. Yes. Free Car. When you find it, you are welcome to hop in, the keys are in the ignition- grab a tape from the trunk full of random things (soccer balls etc.) and off you go. with a little effort as the clutch is shit. but then you can't have it all...

we found it the other night. and after being convinced that it wasn't stealing, i was off with a few of my friends here ( Susana, Susana, Kari, Reza and Nika). It was a lovely night.

Three point five

weeks. I've been here at Woods Hole and it feels like much longer and yet not that long. The days are forever long and short, time stretches and shrinks- i have good moods and bad ones. But so far I have met some great people, as is evidenced above. Susana is my roommate (see glam trash lab party picture in scope room photo), and while I don't share her habits, both working and personal we share the same attitude on pretty much everything else and she is always good for a laugh.

About the other pictures: the panorama was not taken by me but is an awesome image taken by one of the TAs here. it's the beach associated with the MBL.

A few of the others were taken during the 4th of july parade- our course's theme was Ron Vale versus the squid. I'd explain but really, it's dorky, Ron Vale has a moustache-hence the picture.

Woods Hole

I have arrived. After a little car trouble that was easily resolved I rolled into town around 6:30- unpacked and headed around town to orient myself- stopped at the captain kidd for a beer and lobster roll for dinner. Came back to find I have a roommate from portugal, Suzanna- and a suitemate (Nuno)from Georgia, the country- not state. It is beautiful here and I might have to live by the sea for at least some portion of my life.... in that house.

Animals, Oh My!

It seems that we've had quite a lot of animal run-ins in the past few weeks. There was the beautiful male cardinal that sat in the tree outside my office and sang his little heart out for two days straight, until his lady came a callin'. They built a nest, she sat on it for two days... and then was gone. We've seen both him and her 'round the yard, but they sadly never laid any eggs.

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in the house on a rainy day when I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye... And for once, I acted on what I thought I saw. Which was a very good thing indeed, because the thing that I thought I saw turned out not only to be real, but to be a furry orange cat that Steph has taken to calling Ferdinand, who snuck in the window to get out of the rain. Luckily, I managed to get him out of the house before Lucy saw him and disaster struck. We weren't quite so lucky the next week, when I mistakenly left the window open before leaving the house for a lovely dinner out with the science kids and Doug, and returned home to Lucy food & water scattered all over the floor and Ferdinand and Lucy having a standoff in the kitchen window. The poor cat was terrified, but Lucy was too, and I managed to get Ferdinand out the window while Steph comforted Lucy in the living room, who afterwards stalked around the house, as if to say, "Where is he? Let me at him!" It was all quite funny and no one was harmed.

And then this week, there was a bit of a mishap with the mockingbird who had nested right outside our door. They fell out of the nest, and Lucy decided that she was so scared she just had to do something about it. Two days later I found Henrietta, Henry or H for short, though we thought they were all goners. Poor H wouldn't let me pick him up, and after researching baby bird care and watching how his mother, Stanley (named in a case of mistaken identity) fed him every 10 minutes, I thought he might be okay. But alas, Steph found him the next day when she was mowing the lawn, not a bit moving. But I did enjoy having my baby bird H for the day, even though it ended sadly. Oh, mother nature...

And to round it out, this morning we saw lots of wildlife on our early morning bike ride including a deer not even 2 feet a away, a stray cat, three large turkey buzzards and another large sort of bird. No pictures of those, but do you recognize these animals?!

Better than a weekend

Riley has been in town this week and we had a lovely evening last thursday over a good deal of beer on the weaver lawn. It is always good to see him and we both certainly enjoy the company and talk that revolves more around perspective, life issues and good art rather than science. We had offered to help him redo a shot that felt like 'the one that got away" from an engagement photo client from his last visit, the result is here. It is a great pleasure to watch an artist work and and even greater pleasure when it's a good friend, and even more so after 2 gallons of beer :)

Joy and Pain of No Plans Weekends

Both last weekend and this weekend found us relatively plan-less, which was rather nice, except for fighting off this spring cold i managed to get.... Spring feels a little bit like summer here, and all the flowers in the yard have been in various stages of bloom. Of particular note is the yarrow in the front that has gone from no buds to bloom in less than 2 weeks. Above are some of the blooms from last weekend.

Last weekend we had the delightful idea of making our own tonic water since everything you buy at a store has high fructose corn syrup in it these days, that-and we like to make projects of things. So there we were, thinking it was going to be a one day thing which was naive since the recipe we had called for a full ounce of cinchona bark ( the quinine component), which no one locally had- so we had to order it online. It arrived this saturday, much to my delight, and so this evening I had a lovely gin and tonic. The base recipe has allspice berries, zested and juiced lime, lemon and orange, citric acid, salt, and lemongrass- we traded half of the allspice berries for juniper berries to keep it from tasting too yuletide-y. Images above are from the making.

Despite the cold, it has been two rather lovely weekends as we've both spent some time away from work, which was needed, and so now- noses back to the grindstone...

but with a the prospect of a little gardening and a damn good gin and tonic on some evenings.