Random Ramblings

My absence can be explained by the fact that if I can't say anything nice, I'm not going to say anything at all.... or, the more modernized version... if you don't particularly go out of your way to hide your identity, it is probably a wise idea to refrain from bitching / moaning / complaining / freely speaking your opinions in a public forum which may be discovered by the individuals superior to you about whom you are doing the bitching / moaning / complaining / freely speaking. That said, you can probably gather some idea of how my time in the lab has been lately. However, things seem to be (temporarily) improving and maybe, when I hear back from collaborators and finish running a few preliminary cell studies, there is an actual concrete thesis project looming in the future...

In the meantime, today I completed two milestones.

1) I (finally) finished an afghan I have been working on for the past 21-ish months. It's not that I'm the world's slowest crocheter, it's just, as you can imagine, there is not a lot of free time in my life to sit around and crochet. The pro: it's always nice to finish up a big project. The con: now I have no excuse to not focus on crocheting the kippot/yarmulkes for the wedding. Don't even ask how I had this horrendous task dumped upon me for my own wedding, but now I have to make 90 of these suckers before the wedding and I am not happy about it.

sneak peek of now-completed afghan

2) I (finally) used my (not-so-new) KitchenAid stand mixer! I was super excited to receive it as an engagement gift back in June, but despite cooking dinner every night and baking regularly, never actually got around to using it. Generally, I mix by hand if I can (fewer dishes to wash) and if a mixer is called for, I just pull out the hand mixer (easier to pull out, plus I can use it in any size bowl). We're going to a potluck dinner tonight, and I'm trying my hand at two new recipes -- a mint chocolate cake and spanakopita. With all the spinach, the spanakopita was looking a little thick for my hand mixer, so I gave the stand mixer a whirl. I especially love that I can walk away for a moment and it keeps right on mixing! I promised that I would bring in chocolate chip pudding pumpkin bread (another new recipe I am itching to try) to our lab meeting on Monday morning, so maybe the stand mixer will make another appearance this weekend....

Considering that none of my projects in the lab ever wrap up nicely, it's nice to have something in my life which gives me the satisfaction of a job well done...