Good news and bad news

Bad news: Because of the ice storm, I don't finish Biochemistry until Thursday.
Good news: Because of the ice storm, I don't have to take my Biochemistry final until Thursday!!!!!!

Good news: I finished my grandmother's Swallowtail Shawl, and it's simply lovely (although not yet blocked).
Bad news: My camera's batteries are dead and there isn't a single AA in the house. (Pitiful, ain't it?)

Good news: Our campus is closed tomorrow, so I get a snow day to knit and bake cookies and wrap Christmas presents and do fun stuff! (oh, and study my behind off)
Bad news: Um...thinking...nope.

And this week's Blogstalker - excuse me, last week's Blogstalker topic - is/was Your Favorite Invention of the 20th Century. Here's one of mine that came to mind this past week.

Clarification: DNA was not invented in the 20th century, I know. But its structure was elucidated in 1953 through the combined efforts of James Watson, Frances Crick, and Rosalind Franklin (and probably a bunch of research techs like me!). Not only is it the source of my job, it's just so elegant - four "letters" combine to make a girl, giraffe, or goat. How cool is that?!

Thoughts of the day

(Yes, I'm updating at work. What else am I going to do at almost 7:00 PM during a 10-minute centrifugation?)

1. Any experiment that involves:
a) nuclear protein extraction
b) rat liver
c) dry ice
d) a mortar & pestle that must be kept at -80 degrees Celsius (and used at -80 degrees Celsius)

is likely to be neither fast nor easy, no matter what the protocol booklet says.

2. The more you like your T-shirt, the more likely you'll get gunk on it, even if you're wearing a lab coat.

3. When they say "cold room," they're not kidding.

4. No matter where you stand and how much covering you're wearing, when you load a centrifuge in the cold room, you'll end up with a vent blowing directly down the back of your neck.

5. For some reason hitherto unknown, when you get bleach or even water on a lab countertop, the black countertop will get all over your clothes and WILL NOT WASH OUT (hence the lab coat).

6. When you see scientists on TV, movies, or advertisements, if their lab coats are white, they're faking it.

7. If you try to put two gloves on the same hand, it's time to go home.

8. If you feel naked when you take off your nitrile gloves, you're probably a molecular biology geek.

9. The more you want to go home, the longer it'll take to thaw the vial of standard that was in the -80 freezer.