And you want me to go OUT in this kind of weather?

ugh.

bad news courtesy of weather.com

Posted by danielle at 08:39 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Guess what I've been doing!

I've been taking photos with my extension tubes.

You know what that means, right?

tee-hee!

Posted by danielle at 01:11 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

This shot makes me smile, because the Girlie-girl doesn't get up on her perch in the window much anymore. I'm not sure why exactly, maybe it just isn't as comfy as the chairs that she normally hangs out in. But you'd think that the SUN! would make up for it. But then again maybe not.

If you look closely, you can also see the snow outside. It still hasn't melted from that snowfall. That picture was taken on the 16th, so that gives you some idea how long the snow lingers.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Posted by danielle at 06:40 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

HB and I went out for Ethiopian food on Saturday. Our trip was prompted by a couple people (one Indian, one Morrocan) about how much they both enjoyed Ethiopian food.

The goofy thing is that the image I have in my head when I hear the word Ethiopia are those starving children where you can see their ribs and their distended bellies and big pitiful eyes. So it IS a bit odd to go to a restaurant from that culture.

We picked out one (of 3 or so) in the Twin Cities that actually had a few reviews - all were very positive. They all mentioned getting a sampler plate so that you could try a little bit of a bunch of stuff.

When we arrived, the decor was light and African/Middle Eastern - it was all very clean and nicely decorated with iron scrollwork and baskets and pottery.

We each started with a cup of vegetarian lentil soup. It had such a good flavor that we knew we were in for a treat when it came to our platter of food.

So they bring out this circular 1.5" in diameter platter with the food arranged in a circle with a few things in the center. There were 4 kinds of stewed meat - chicken, 2 beef and lamb, 3 kinds of lentils, 1 chickpea and 1 cabbage. We ended up liking the meats the best, but enjoyed the vegetarian ones too.

The funny thing was how we had to eat it. They gave us each a basket of this floppy spongy bread and we were supposed to grab a bit of the dish with our bread and eat with our fingers. I tried to use it like a nacho first, and that was a disaster since the bread was too floppy. HB figured out that if you flip the bread on top of whatever you want to eat and then pinch down to the bottom you can create a mini inverted taco/fajita and flip it over quickly to eat. That ended up working out the best and we each acquired quite the knack for it. They gave us a rolled up steaming towel to wipe our fingers off as we went which was nice.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and we would definitely go back. We had a great time talking while we were there and the food was great and a fun, new experience.

Posted by danielle at 06:12 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

This happened on the same weekend day when the Girlie-girl was meowing at us to turn the heat on. I was sitting on the couch upstairs. She had been downstairs trying to sleep, but was too cold, evidently. She came upstairs and meowed at me several times. I was rather cold myself, so I asked her if she thought we should get out the electric blanket. She didn't answer, of course, but as soon as I got it plugged in and warmed up, I plopped her on top of it. Boy did she start purring. It didn't take long for her to tuck in and fall asleep.

She actually slept so soundly, that she didn't wake up when I got up to go to the bathroom. Since I have a lot of trouble photographing her asleep (because she always wakes up) I decided that this was definitely a photo opportunity.

Happy Friday everyone, and Thanks, Squirl for the suggestion to show photos of the Girlie on Fridays. :-)

Posted by danielle at 07:41 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Never having watched American Idol much before until they had gotten to the finals, I must say that the beginning is very disappointing. I had heard people talk about how they showcase a lot of bad singers who are usually oblivious to their, how shall we say, lack of singing talent, but I had no idea that a 2 hour show is about 1 hr and 15 min of bad singing &/or talking about the bad singing, 15 minutes of really good quality singing &/or talking about the good singing, and a half hour of commercials - which I skip.

We have friends who sing who mentioned that they don't watch it until it gets down to 12 people. I am starting to realize the wisdom of this policy. And I may take up that method for watching the show very shortly.

Posted by danielle at 09:31 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

I don't know if you recall, but I was recently lamenting that I couldn't watch American Idol because it interferes with NCIS.

WELL!

As I was whining to HB last night about it, he reminded me that NCIS is On Demand! This means that I can watch it whenever I want and have Tivo record American Idol instead! yay!

This has cheered me up today.

Posted by danielle at 03:04 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Well, this was the first full work-week that I've had since before Christmas. I found that I did okay. Didn't want to get out of bed most mornings, but that isn't really a new thing.

Some of the highlights/lowlights were that the week started out oddly, because over the break, a former graduate student came in to do some experiments. He used the confocal microscope (which I use for my experiments) and changed the settings and didn't put them back to normal when he was done. This meant that we spent the whole morning trying to figure out what was wrong with the software. And then, once we got one problem fixed, all of the images were dimmer than usual. My advisor was at a loss to figure out what was wrong and he thought I should try it the way it was, so I did my analysis with it those settings and it was all goofed up. The next day, he realized what was wrong - thank goodness - so I did it all over again (ugh). At least now, it will be normal for my future experiments.

I had a physical with a new doctor - new for me and evidently new to the practice, but very experienced. She spent an hour and a half with me! It was terrific. We covered every single health thing that I could think of and even some things that I hadn't thought of. This also means that I'm back to having a prescription for my really strong migraine medicine, which usually gets rid of a full-blown migraine really well. Hopefully this will mean no more vomitting/days of missed work - which aren't too frequent - but feel pretty awful when they are happening.
It is good to have a job where I feel like I can take the time to go to the doctor.
Now I just have to go to the dentist and the OB/Gyn and I'll be all caught up.

OH, the one really bad thing though is that my BMI is way worse than it was before. According to her scale - which I still need to verify - I'm on the high end of overweight and am headed for the obese catagory. The last time I calculated it, which was a few years ago, I was on the high end of the normal range, so this was quite a blow. We talked about portion size, since that is the main area where I have trouble and being committed to exercising. I guess this is added incentive for me to make it to the gym and to try to eat less. I may also try eating lean cuisines and fruit + yogurt at lunch, instead of sandwiches with cheese and fruit + yogurt/cottage cheese. We'll see. Mainly, I need to eat less at supper, which is hard, because the food tastes so good.

But my cholesterol was really great - so at least I'm doing something right, food wise. Must be the cheerios. ;-)

In other news, I'm excited because Texas Seestor started posting photos to Flickr. So I can keep a closer watch on my niece! Yay!

I've also finished 3 books in the Artemis Fowl series. They are books for pre-teens, so are a bit short and a bit elementary, but they are also entertaining. My friend at work recommended them. I liked the 3rd one the best, so far. It had a bit of a Mission Impossible feel to it with the need to break into a highly secured building where a nefarious guy was keeping some technology he'd stolen from the main character.

I ended up coming down with a throat/sinus thing at the end of the week and it is getting better, but is still a drag. I guess my defenses were down with the previous bug. I think this weekend will be mostly staying in. The weather has been in the single digits this week, but luckily my car is in our garage at home and I park in a garage at work where I can take a tunnel to my building. This means I don't really have to go out in the windy cold or scrape my car off each morning and evening.

I finally watched The Family Stone last night. I'd heard that it was pretty good. Well, I found it to be amusing, but not up to the hype. I was disappointed in the ending, which was pretty unbelievable - I'm trying not to give anything away, of course. I'd say that it is worth watching, but don't go into it thinking it is going to be some movie that really blows you away.

In other entertainment news, I'm bummed that American Idol once more conflicts with one of my favorite shows - NCIS. I'd like to watch both, but that just doesn't work with our Tivo/cable set-up.

The Girlie-girl has been keeping us amused lately. She is sitting on the heater vents again and meowing at us (to turn the heat on that moment, evidently). She is also really packing up against my legs to sleep at night. Cats can be so goofy.

I guess that is all for now. Probably way more than you ever wanted to know, but well, my blog - yada yada - skip it if it is too boring. ;-)

Hope all is well with you. :-D

Posted by danielle at 06:26 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I'm feeling much better now.

My headache was gone by the afternoon on Saturday and the queasiness passed too. I'm not sure if it is the work of my flu shot that everything got better so quickly, or not, but it might have been. I was tired Sunday, but am back to normal today. :-)

Posted by danielle at 08:35 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Just today, I was telling a fellow blogger over on Squirl's site about how I've scanned slides before in order to get decent images. In order to demonstrate the quality of the image, I found the link to my Introduction post. I looked at the date and remembered that as of the new year, I've now hit my 2-year blogoversary - which is like a 2 year anniversary, but different.

2 years doesn't sound like much. But considering the number of bloggers who either don't blog anymore or who post even less frequently than I do, I think it is an accomplishment of sorts.

I also think that I'm probably going to need to retire Flowers for Friday for the winter. Perhaps I will buy flowers at the grocery store every now and then this winter and make the time to photograph them, but we will just have to wait and see. I still have some orchid pictures left over from the State Fair, but I'm not overly fond of them. They are good enough to remind me of the beauty and uniqueness of the flowers, but they don't quite capture it.

I am also starting to think that I'll probably post more of the how-I'm-doing sort of posts.

For example, this week had its ups and downs. I was very sad to leave Texas, since I had such a good time while I was there. It was quite relaxing and I did go for some walks, like I'd hoped. I also really enjoyed being inspired to take photographs of my niece and family. Trying to get a good picture for a baby announcement was a little bit of pressure, but it was a nice goal. And it was very satisfying when I finally got that picture. It is buried within my Flickr pictures and I thought about posting it here. But I kind of want it to be a surprise to any family and friends who haven't seen it yet and I'll post it when Texas Seestor and Trainwreck send out their announcements.
I was kind of dreading going back to work too. I don't have a whole lot to do for a week and a half while I wait for my cells to get old enough. This means that I need to spend time catching up on journal articles. Sometimes I really enjoy doing that reading, but other times, I'd rather be DOing experiments - something physical and less intellectual. But once I got back, it wasn't so bad. In fact, I enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up on how everyone's Christmases and New Years celebrations were.

Another up side was that I was happy to be back home with HB. I'd missed being with him while I was in Texas.

And of course, it was fun to see the Girlie-girl again. HB told me about how she was missing me, was clingy and was waiting up for me at night. It is nice to be missed.

But now I appear to be sick. I don't think that it is the same illness as that of the girl across the aisle from me on the airplane. I have the symptoms of something from my friend at the lab and from HB. Combined. At the same time. Less than pleasant, I can tell you.

And on that note, I think it is time for me to take off my glasses and go back to laying down. Maybe breathing in some steam first.

Catch you later. :-)

Posted by danielle at 09:11 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

I have so many pictures of Baby Texas Bunny that I like that I almost don't know where to start with posting them.

For now, I will post another one or two that I like a lot.

That one looks like she is floating in space doesn't it? But I like it because she looks kind of active in it, and she stands out pretty well on the black.

Oh, and Happy New Year to all of you too! I'm back in MN now, so I hope to be coming by everyone's blogs and catching up.

Posted by danielle at 09:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack