Yesterday, I read an article about how with the sun going down earlier, the lure of the couch is stronger than the excitement of going out to exercise. I know I've felt that the past week, and that was before this whole time change thing, which means that the sun is going down even earlier. Thus, I've decided to start exercising at the gym. I've got my bag of clothes and my shoes all packed for this evening. I just hope that the juice in my iPod lasts until I go exercise. I've never tried unplugging it so far in advance from when I want to use it. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, how did you do last week?

Posted by danielle at 09:00 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I wish I were a bear.

If I were a bear,
everyone would expect me to have hairy legs,
excess body fat,
and wake up growling.

=============

That sentiment is from a sign in a magazine that my mom saw and she told me about.

Thanks, Mom!

Posted by danielle at 04:43 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

We had a visitor the other weekend during our Sunday morning breakfast! A wild rabbit jumped its way up onto our top deck and sat and stared into our dining room!

You can see in this zoomed out photo how close the rabbit was to the window. And you can also see how Girlie-girl is ignoring all of it. I don't think she ever turned and looked to see the rabbit during its brief visit.

The other thing you'll notice is that I didn't take the photos. HB did. I was concerned that if I got up, the rabbit would jump away. Whereas he sits on the other side of the table and was just far enough away that the rabbit didn't leave when he got up to get the camera.

All in all it is quite strange that the rabbit came up onto our deck like that. It is a second story deck, so it had to jump all of the way up the steps and around the corner to come up there. I kinda wondered if it was attracted to the fallen bird seed or perhaps the zinnias and other flowers that were growing in the pots (note that the zinnia pot is dumped over by the wind in that photo and not by the rabbit).

The rabbit didn't stay long. After HB got close enough to the window that he was about even with my chair, the rabbit took a bounding leap off of the deck.

We got a little worried about it jumping from such a height and went outside to check on it, but we didn't see any injured rabbit, so we assumed that it was fine.

We haven't seen the rabbit up on the deck anymore since that time, but it was nice to have it as a brief visitor. :-)

Posted by danielle at 08:48 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

How did you do this week?

Posted by danielle at 09:20 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I now know that our smoke detector is SO INCREDIBLY LOUD that it will wake me up from a sound sleep in a heartbeat.

No worries, we didn't have any fire - I think dust or a spider or something got into the sensor. Of course when it is 3 am and you can't fall back asleep because your heart is still racing from jumping out of bed in fear of a fire, you don't think of spiders and dust.

But isn't it good that I now know that it works so well?

surrrrrrrrrrrrre it is.

;-)

Posted by danielle at 09:27 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

This morning, while I was driving into work, I started thinking about how I wanted to try to blog about some of the positive things that are going on in my life right now. Isn't it always nice to try to think about the positive? This is one of my favorite techniques for dealing with bad dreams (i.e. nightmares), pain, and other difficult aspects of life. You know the song right? The one from the Sound of Music? My favorite things. Well, it is kind of like that. I go through images of good things to help combat the bad ones.

The positive thing that jumped into my life yesterday was in the form of a new co-worker. She has actually been in the lab for a week, and ever since she interviewed, we have kind of clicked. But it was some reassurance and offers of help that she gave to me yesterday that made such a big impression on me. She has a good spirit, and I'm really glad that she joined our lab.

She also insisted on doing something to mark Boss's Day - even though she is so new to the lab. She got a card for all of us to sign and bought a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake (the only 'bakery' nearby) so that we could give it to our boss (the principal investigator, or PI for short) and all enjoy a nice break. It was pretty good. And she put up Halloween decorations around the lab, which make me smile when I see them. Her energy and joy are infectious and create really bright spots in my day.

Posted by danielle at 08:49 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

How did you do this week?

Posted by danielle at 05:55 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

I've always had pretty bad, acne-prone skin. Most of my the years of my teens and twenties were spent hoping that I wouldn't have a severe break-out right before Christmas or my birthday, so that I wouldn't look bad in perpetuity in photographs. I've gotten various treatments from doctors and dermatologists in the past that have helped to an extent, but while I was finishing my thesis, everything sort of slid and going to the dermatologist just got pushed aside like so many other things.

Lately, I've had a severe flare-up on my face. I try not to be overly worried about what other people may think of my appearance. But it is hard when you are meeting new people for the first time, to know that this is the first impresssion that they will have of you. I've been glad for the days in the lab where I can hide (more or less) on the scope (confocal microscope) and take pictures in the dark. Then analyze my images with my back facing the lab, due to the set-up of the computer. When I realized that I was looking forward to hiding from people, I was finally prompted to find and go to a new dermatologist here in MN.

Fortunately, when I was calling and trying to schedule an appointment, the receptionist who was helping me was willing to look through the schedules of multiple doctors to see if any of them could get me in before March. And one doctor had a cancellation for two weeks from when I callled.

Well, I have just spent my first week on the treatment program and it has been rather strange. I've turned bright red (one of the side effects), had a lot of pealing (evidently, one of the intended effects - but disconcerting to say the least), an increase in headaches (side effect) and a lot of stomach upset (side effect).

The good news is though that I think it is working. Slowly but surely. And I think that some of the side effects may get better as I adjust to the drugs - or at least that is what Wikipedia is telling me about some of them. I also have to figure out how often to apply one of the drugs (every other day or every third day) to avoid the redness and severe dryness.

I don't know that you really wanted to hear about this.... but well, it has been so strange this week, I felt like it was worth talking about. Or at least that I needed to talk about it.

Posted by danielle at 02:14 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

I'm feeling migraine-y. I'm going into work (late) anyway, but I'm not quite up to doing my Friday post during breakfast. So, I'll put it up later.

Hope you are all having a great Friday!

Posted by danielle at 09:59 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

How did your exercising go this week? Did you meet your goals?

Posted by danielle at 08:51 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

I have a few flower pictures left from Como Park. And while none of them is so outstanding to warrant its own post, I thought that posting them together might be a nice way to end this series.

These remind me of begonias, but I'm not really sure if that is what they are or not. Mainly, I liked the two-toned petals.

I have a feeling I will always see purple and white flowers and think of them as being my school colors (college).

And finally, the gerbera daisies. I had taken quiet a few photos of these in hopes that one would come out well, but it appears that the light was too harsh for most of them. Also, they were farther away than I prefer, and the photos don't have the punch that a close-up would have. But, they are still rather pretty in this collection of flowers.

I hope you have enjoyed this walk through the Como Park Conservatory. Next up, orchids from the state fair.

Posted by danielle at 07:32 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

How did you do this week?

Posted by danielle at 07:45 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack