pigeon poop

at the cancer house they are having a little issue with pigeons and pigeon fecal matter on the driveway and steps. So I made some little tack strips with nails sticking up and nailed them to the roof. As of this morning, no poop on the stairs but still a little poopoo on the driveway. They are crafty little pigeons and their true hangout has so far eluded me, but I'll find it and the next time they try to squat, there will be a little nail tickling their little anal orifice.

6/30

I'm seriously contemplating stepping in front of a bus right now. It's 7pm and I'm halfway through a lecture given by the TAs in my physiology class. Matt linton is out of town for this week. 20 year old TAs are so annoying becauae in their mind they know everything, but too often say the wrong thing. students listen to that and get the wrong ideas about stuff. Plus they are so uninteresting. I want to pull off my ears so I don't have to listen anymore. Plus I have a headache which is not helping. On a brighter note, I made fish babies this week and found my own drug to use in the study and got dilutions all worked up. It's so nice to feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this reseach. I did torture one embryo to see what I would have to do to make it blow up. It was pretty resilient, but the centrifuge finally did it in. I know that sounds bad, but it's literally the size of a piece of sand, so get over it. Also I have a mole that went from flat to puffy in two days. Should I be concerned?

sleep disorder

I saw on the news this morning that research shows that people who get less than 6 hours of sleep show inability to perform some normal functions. As someone who averages about 5-1/2...duh. It's actually been more like 4 hours and 45 minutes lately. I feel like death in the morning, but somehow I manage to do alright. It's just such an adjustment from going from spending all day every day with your family to getting no time with them. I feel like I just need to soak up every moment I can. And with brooke that usually means we don't go to bed until around 11:30. This makes 5:10 roll around way too quickly, but it's worth it. I love that woman. She's super juicy.

karate kid

so my brother hooked us up yesterday for my nephews birthday and for his kids going away party since their mom is moving them to colorado. they will still be back hopefully every couple weeks but it's going to be sad to see them go. so we had a fun day for the kids yesterday. we went to "jump on it" where they spent a couple hours jumping on the trampolines. they got their backflips down really well, and parker and cam were even doing backflips straight into front flips. rowan got her front flips down too. it was seriously so fun. then we went to chucky cheese which is always a fantasy land full of large people and the smell of feet overpowers. but the kids love it and we got to watch a grown woman stand next to the wheel of fortune game like she was in vegas at the nickel slots. when she would run out of tokens she would stand there until someone brought her some more. afterwards we went to see the karate kid. it was so good, and of course all the kids come out and want to beat each other up. especially cam, who found out that he could fold his legs together and lift himself up (see video) like the samurai guy at the top of the mountain in the movie. but it was seriously so good. then back to mike's house for fight night and cake. we spent most of the night outside watching the kids ride bikes and throwing frisbees around. just a great night all around.

gi joe

let me paint a picture for you: greasy, slicked back mullet, black shirt, tucked into black pants, tucked into black combat boots. i felt like i was risking my life taking this picture. notice how far back i was standing. i was sure he was going to turn around and have some flashback from nam. lucky matt's got some sweet camouflage skills. by the way it took me like 14 tries to spell camouflage right.

6/19

stupid zebrafish. no babies and i think i killed 2 of them. i'm the worst dad ever.

1st round summer tests

the tests are in and i'm pretty happy about how things went. i got an A on my physiology test, although i'm so bugged with myself because there was a really easy question on NADH and ATP output from the krebs cycle from beta oxidation products, and i started doing it, and started second guessing myself and decided i would just come back to it later and then completely FORGOT! it was seven easy points down the drain. its just so annoying because normally i could rattle that question off in my sleep, but you know how you get a brain cramp about something every once in a while...lame. so i got an A but it wasn't the A i wanted. i'm trying to impress my professor so i can TA for him, but that is not the way to do it. maybe i could impress him with my body hair growing talents, or how i can drum along to songs using only my teeth, or how i can grab my uvula, or maybe sing him an 80's song... the possibilities are endless. so maybe i don't need to stress out. that class is seriously 2 and a half hours long, at night, with a one hour discussion before it. sometimes its so tempting to have nappy time, but it's actually pretty interesting and i somehow stay awake, but my poor butt with no meat on it is often numb and lifeless and requires a great deal of rubbing and massaging before it comes back to life (thanks to the old ladies at the front desk for helping me with that). things went a lot better in o chem. i got a 99 on that test, which is with that same instructor from last semester where i got two 100s and 2 99s on his tests. so he's trying to keep me from getting a 100, and i'm trying to not let him keep me from getting a 100, so we're locked in an eternal struggle. sometimes we stare each other down, or make intimidating gestures with our bodies, trying to assert our own dominance over the other. but every once in a while we give a wink and a thumbs up, or a gentle shoulder rub out of respect. anyway, so far so good. now i gots to go harvest some zebrafish embryos. hopefully daddy made some good babies last night. i kept the lights low and put on a little mood music. hopefully those girl zebrafish gave it up. the boy zebrafish looked good and i gave them some good tips on how to keep the ladies happy. hopefully a little tickle and some spooning, and i'll have some cute little babies to subject to drugs and fin clips, and eventually euthanize and cut off their heads and look at their tails glowing with fluorescent markers under a microscope. a detailed rundown of my research process will soon follow. hopefully all 3 people who read this blog can sleep despite all their anticipation.

run forrest

so I haven't posted in a while and might just forget about the stuff I,ve been saving and just pick up from right now. I started running a few times a week again to try and get my heart out of immediate danger and hopefully get in shape enough to not die over the fall and winter semesters when I won't have any time to exercise. But today I ran over to the cancer house, which I love, because it's running down streets with lots of trees and old homes. Anyway, I was mowing the lawn like I do every thursday, and I saw a girl run by. Like me she was a little chubby and trying to lose a few, I'm sure. The funny thing is to see the tricks that us chubby people use when we're running. I do the same thing. As she's running by me, she's got a big stride going, she's breathing mostly through her nose, etc... Everything looks like she's got it all under control. She runs down the sidewalk, past where I can see her, and I'm sure she thinks she's out of sight. However I got done mowing the lawn on that part right then and came down the stairs and saw her down the sidewalk, not running anymore, hands on her knees, totally winded. Why do we do that crap, so funny. And then when she saw me, she straightens up really quick and checks her watch, like, "how many miles was that?" again, I've totally done that. I'm going to be typing a lot from my phone now, so I can type stuff as I think it, so forgive the errors in spelling and punctuation. I don't care enough to correct them. Well back to my landscaping duties.