Singer Castle Wedding

Last week, Ryan and I flew to upstate NY to attend the wedding of my friends Christy and Todd. Christy was in all of my classes as an undergraduate at Syracuse, and oh, the stories I could tell. Anyway, we arrived in Rochester, NY and were picked up by my friend Kelly. After a long awaited dinner of Dinosaur BBQ, we went back to her home and spent an evening by a backyard fire with her and her husband Dana. Kelly, Christy and I were inseperable while students at Syracuse, and we were going to the wedding in Cape Vincent together. Cape Vincent is basically in the middle of nowhere. There isn't a single chain hotel or motel for miles. Finding a place to stay was complicated by the annual pirate festival in a neighboring town. Ryan and I found this fellow. Yar!



Here's a picture of Ryan and I before going to the rehersal dinner.



And here are Christy, Kelly, and I.


This one is at the rehersal dinner. Kelly, Dana, Ryan and I are seated at the table and Christy and Todd are standing behind us.



Here's Christy beign walked down the aisle by her father.

And Christy and Todd's first dance as a married couple.

F = (9/5)C + 32 = Frickin' Cold!

The environmental controls in my building are pretty screwed up. At some points this summer it has been so hot that we had to drape the bioreactor in wet towels and aim fans at it to keep it from overheating. That's the opposite of what's been going on the past few weeks. It's been exceptionally cold in my lab. Can't-feel-your-fingers-well-enough-to-type cold. The AC is running full blast, and there's a vent right above my desk. I keep a huge sweatshirt in my drawer and have to wear it anytime I'm in the lab. Dan has begun wearing a winter hat while working in here. He tried to make a clone library last week, and couldn't get anything to grow...too cold! The hallways are fine. The faculty offices are fine. The labs at the other end of the hall are fine. Ours seems to be the first room on the central AC duct work system, so we get cold blasted. We've been leaving a thermometer on the counter out of curiosity. I walked in this morning and took a reading. It's the coldest it's ever been in here...15 C. For those of you not accustomed to temperature in Celsius, here's a brief primer. Science folks run a lot of experiments at "room temperature" and report it exactly as such in papers etc. Saying "room temperature" makes it clear that temperature wasn't strictly controlled during the experiment, but if anyone were to ask what "room temperature" actually is, the common answer is 22 C, with a range from 20-25 C. For those who want to put Fahrenheit numbers to it, 22 C is equivalent to about 72 F, 20 C is 68 F. But right now, my lab is hovering well below "room temperature." 15 C amounts to a frigid 59 F! That's just plain ridiculous!

Reno Road Trip "They're from Oregon"

1300 miles later, Ryan and I are back from the Unity Celebration for a good friend of mine in Reno. It was wonderful. Surrounded by friends and family, my friends Lynell and Thomas celebrated their commitment to one another in a way uniquely their own. It was far more touching than any wedding I've ever attended. Unlike most weddings in which the guests are there to just wittiness, this celebration was participatory. Guests took an active roll through a toast-giving ceremony modeled after a Hopi tradition. It was reflective of how the couple live their lives and treasure the concept of community. It was truly a moving experience.

The weekend was full of good friends, good times, and good memories. We stayed with my friend Ilka, who was generous enough to let us stay with her despite her being super busy with work and thesis writing. We enjoyed an evening of good food, and live music with her and Henry. Together they entertained us with piano/guitar music while we sipped the last drops of the blackberry wine from last year.

Adventure and laughter was also abound. Ryan, Ilka and I were out on some errands and had to stop for gas (this is where it gets funny). Ryan was driving, and he pulled up to the pump. I attached the hose, started pumping, and then Ilka and I began to walk to the convenience store to get Mt. Dews. We barely made it half way to the door when Ilka began waving her arms frantically and pointing behind me. I turned around to see Ryan driving away from the gas pump...gas hose still attached to my car. It pulled the hose straight off the pump!

Both Ilka and I were stunned, and didn't know whether to duck for cover, or run away. Part of our brains were expecting a big KaBoom explosion. Fortunately, no such kaboom followed, and we watched Ryan park the car in a spot, and continue to sit in the car unaffected. Meanwhile, everyone else at the gas station appeared to have also been expecting a kaboom, and were sighing in relief that none happened. Stunned, I ran to the car, pounded on the window, and began asking frantically what he was doing. He opened the car door, apparently STILL not even having a clue what he had done, and began to get out of the car as I blurted out that the hose was still attached.

He had totally spaced it and had completely forgotten that we were pumping gas. We had not even put in an 8th of a tank when he drove off. I had no idea what to do. Ilka and I went into the store, ordered Ryan to remove the hose from my car, and tried asking the attendant what to do. She was completely useless. "What do you want to do?" she asked. !!!WTF?! At this point, I'm almost expecting the police to show up. Back outside, folks tell us the hoses have a quick disconnect and should just snap back on. Ryan manages to accomplish this, and we still need gas, so we begin again.

Ryan pulls up to the pump, and we try to fuel up. As the pump starts, we're all still half expecting a kaboom, but nothing...and I mean nothing....not even fuel coming out of the pump. Ilka and I head back into the store, (instruct Ryan not to drive away this time), and tell the attendant that the pump now won't fuel. She couldn't understand why. Apparently she had been the only person in the whole place that didn't know what had happened. That explained her previous reaction at least. She sent a guy out to prime the pump. A guy came out, gave us all that look, and began priming the pump. At that moment, in chimes Ilka: "They're from Oregon. They don't pump their own gas. They didn't know any better."

While the pump was being primed, we finished filling up at another pump, and drove off quite embarrassed and laughing nervously. My stomach hurt soooo much from laughter and nervousness. We finally managed to breathe again, finished our errands, and headed back to Ilka's. Of course, to get there, we had to drive right by the gas station. This was about an hour an a half after the "incident." As we drove by, sure enough, there's an "out of order" sign on the pump. Thankfully, it was gone the next day, but it didn't make for a good feeling when we saw it. All we could do was laugh about it. I haven't laughed that hard in a long long time. I had never seen anyone drive off like that before. It comes with a weird combination of fear, and hilarity, all wrapped up in a nervous ball. For one of the first times though, I can say I'm glad to be back in Oregon where you're not allowed to pump your own gas.

(Obviously, this isn't an actual picture. I was waaay to frantic to have the presence of mind to take a picture of my car, with Ryan behind the wheel, and gas hose still attached. But this is a pretty good rendition. I modified this pic to show a VW, not a BMW, Oregon plates, and Ryan waving and smiling obliviously. Priceless.)

"Look in your trunk"

While I was at work Tuesday, Ryan stopped by my lab around 4 to "say hi" on his way to Tuesday doubles. He was a bit sweatier than normal, but it was hot out. I figured he'd been working in the yard or something. He left for doubles at the same time I left for home. In my car there was a note: "Look in your trunk." When I did, I found a huge container full of blackberries that he had been picking behind my lab. He was sweaty because he'd been picking blackberries for me to make wine with, and it was close to 90 degrees out. So, wine we did make. With Ryan's new camera phone, we took some pics of the process.

Start out by figuring out how many pounds of blackberries we have. Here are the tools of the trade, a jumbo slurpee cup, and a 16 oz kitchen scale. We had 12 pounds of blackberries. Enough for about 3 gallons of wine.

Next, put the berries in a jelly bag, tie it off, and mush the heck out of it. Good job Ryan. I'm sure you're glad you had those gloves.

So what do yeast need to make alcohol? Sugar. 6.5 lbs of it to be precise. I dissolved a 5 lb bag into some hot water and added it to the bucket with a total of 9 liters of water. The remaining sugar can be added later. Too little is better than too much. I don't like sweet wine, and I don't want more sugar than the yeast can use. Alcohol kills 'em off at around 14-15% alcohol, so it's a tricky game of adding a little at a time from here on out and testing the alcohol content along the way.

After adding pectic enzyme to break down the blackberries, and campden to kill off the natural yeast, it's a waiting game. After 12-24 hours I'll add the yeast and the wine will be on its way!

You win some, you lose some

I picked up lunch at Wendy's on my way to work today. Value menu. Jr. bacon cheeseburger and a sour cream and chive baked potato. I was up until 4 am last night working on the second draft of my manuscript and didn't get on my way to the lab until 11:30. When I got there, I realized there was no bacon on my jr. bacon cheeseburger. It was just a jr. cheeseburger, which was wholly unappetizing to me. I threw it away. I then checked my email. Scanning the list of newcomers to my inbox...junk...junk...junk...OHSU ARCS Scholarship offer...junk...wait, what was that!? Must read further:

Dear Christina,
I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected as an ARCS Scholar. A formal offer letter with additional details about this scholarship is attached to this email.....

I won! This was the scholarship that the department nominated me for. The one I scampered around putting the application together for two weeks ago when notified that I was nominated. I can now afford to go back to Wendy's, and get a new jr. bacon cheeseburger, this time one with bacon. Aw, hell, with 15k, I'll even splurge and get a frosty!