Pictures of work

I thought I'd put up a couple of work pictures so you guys could see what I'm talking about.

There is the inside of that enclosure thing I was talking about.

Then there is the outside with Dr Al beside it. It isn't a clear pic of him but it's about the best we have.

And there's a picture of my crew. From left to right it's me, Jason, Ben and Jamie.

Somehow all of the pictures uploaded in reverse order, so you can read these captions backward.

Norm moved in last night, kind of. It was a pretty spur of the moment decision and she didn't bring any more than a backpack with her, but we got the beds set up for two and she has a key and she'll be here when she isn't keeping the kids. So I'd say she's my roommate again now.
Today at work was pretty fun. I had to help check data, which means reading off thousands of numbers at a pretty fast speed. This, for some reason, makes me laugh harder than almost anything in life, and it's not funny for any reason that I can figure out. I'll read numbers off for a while and then I have to start focusing on not laughing and then I totally lose control and laugh until I cry which makes everyone else laugh. It doesn't help the situation that once I get started laughing I can't stop very easily and once I finally get control, Jason thinks it is hilarious to do something to set me off again. Even though all the laughing is inconvenient, it makes for a fun afternoon. You can't be miserable when you're laughing like a fool!

Getting back together

For all of you who are not in Jackson, I have some good news. Norm and I are getting "undivorced." If all goes well, she will be completely moved into my apartment by the end of the month. It will be exciting to have Norm around again.
At work yesterday, we got to build a small greenhouse out of plastic inside our big greenhouse. I might have to take a picture of it to put on here because I am so proud of that thing! We already had a pipe frams so we covered it with sheeting to make it a little shady inside and ran misting pipes into it. The inside is supposed to be like a moist, cloudy summer day. The plants inside are part of one of my experiments that I am running now with the new job. I am so proud of that thing that I almost want to go by and check on it today and its a Saturday. I'm resisting the temptation though.

Thanksgiving

My family went to my mom's brother's house in Houston, TX for Thanksgiving this year. We haven't been down there since I was 6, so it's been a while. Since then, they've built a new house, gotten 2 dogs who are now pretty old, and gotten wealthy. I haven't seen my cousins in a couple of years either, so I finally got to see one since he started college and I hadn't seen another since she started driving. It was crazy!
Houston was pretty fun. My dad and I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It was a fun one. There were 7,000 people running this one- a far cry from my last one. I did much better- a 26:50. The amazing weather in the high 60s probably did a lot for my running. After the race, Dad and I lost the car completely. We went to the parking lot where we thought that we had parked and it wasn't there. We were at the point of thinking that it had been stolen when we remembered a couple details about the lot that weren't right, but we wandered around forever downtown trying to find the car. In the wandering around we saw some cool stuff- the best of which was a magenta PT cruiser modified to look like a hippo. It's front was a nose and the mirrors were shaped like ears and the trunk was a butt complete with a tail. It was crazy looking. And this was definately someone's personal car- not a commercial advertising vehicle or anything.
For most of the week, everyone sat around, played cards, took walks around the neighborhood- nothing too exciting but nice anyway. I was amazed by the weather. That made the whole trip worth it. It's a shock to get back to Jackson. I went from highs in the 70s to where it might snow tomorrow night.

5K

I ran the Awesome Autumn 5K this morning in Jackson. It was the smallest, least organized run I had ever been in. I give the weather partial credit for making it so small- the wind chill was in the upper 30s and it was sprinkling for part of the morning. The woman in charge had decided not to put up the arrows showing everyone where to run, so she handed out direction sheets that told you streets to turn on. We all had to run with our directions. Only 14 people had shown up to run or walk. Of the 14, 3 had planned on walking and decided not to before the run began; one quit about 15 feet past the starting line; and 2 quit halfway through the run when a car drove around to check on everyone. That left only 8 people finishing. At least with such a small group, I was able to finish top in my age group. I ran a 31:03, which is not very good, but considering the weather and how much I have been running lately (hardly at all), I guess that's better than I could have expected.

New Home

I moved into my very own apartment about a week and a half ago. I'm still getting settled in, but I'm liking it really well. Its in the Oaks (across from TJ Max and all that stuff). It was a little sad to leave the whole family in Medina and even sadder to leave Norm up there, but I think it was the best thing to do right now. I really haven't been bored at all since I moved in by myself, which is a little bit surprising. The apartment is really nice. It's a one bedroom loft and it happens to be right behind Jenny and Renno's apartment. It's nice still living so close to someone I know, that makes it a little less shocking to move away from Norm.

Another animal story

Man, all of my stories either have an animal or a kid! Well- this one has an animal. Several actually.

Because I work in a lab with soybeans, mice are always an issue. They love soybeans and once they start nibbling on our stuff, they can cause some major damage to the research. Last week, our problems started with one mouse, first thing Monday morning. My crew came in and noticed some eaten beans. That was bad news, but we cleaned up and hoped we had solved the probem. Tuesday morning, right after she got there, Valeria started yelling about something. She'd found a mouse in their lab that jumped out from a box she was moving. Jason, Ben and I went into the lab with some insect nets and chased the mouse around. Eventually, we had it cornered, but it escaped the nets. It made the mistake of trying to escape under Ben's foot. Ben happened to move his foot at the same time and the mouse was done for.

Later the same day, Valeria found another mouse in their lab (which is connected to ours by a door). We went in to catch it and chased it around with nets for a while, but he got away.

Even later the same day, we saw a mouse scurry across our lab. We grabbed some nets and tried to catch it, but the little guy was too fast for us. He escaped, but he led us right to where they were coming in. Mice had crawled up some pipes to our safety shower and knowed a hole in the drywall, so they could come up from under the building right into the lab.

The next day, I was moving a box on the lab counter and a mouse ran out right by my stomach. He went and hid under some junk on our counter. We kept scaring it out and eventually it ended up under a box that was partially propped up. We were trying to decide whether to just throw something heavy in the box and be done with the mouse or whether that was just too gross and inhumane when he made the choice for us and took a leap off the counter. Valeria and Ashley from the other lab came in and we chased the mouse around with nets for a while. I got my net on him once, but he jumped out straight toward Valeria. She jumped, which scared the mouse, who tried to run up the side of the metal counter. This sent the mouse flying through the air, which in turn, sent Valeria flying through the air to get away from him. It was pretty hilarious. Once the mouse was back on the ground, I got my net back on him and Ashley backed me up. We carried the mouse across a creek from the lab hoping that he would never find the way back.

Since that one, we put out some poison that seems to have taken care of the rodent problem. I kinda wish we wouldn't have because the mouse hunts were a nice break from the normal day.