So cute it makes my uterus hurt

Okay, so that saying is not mine. A friend in college would say that when she saw a cute baby or kid, and boy did I see a cute baby tonight. I finally met my friend's daughter who is about 2 months old. She has a cute little button nose and fell asleep on me for a little while and cried a bunch. Her Mommy kept trying to get her to stop merely because she did not want me to think the baby cries all the time. I pretty much have it figured out that babies just do that.

When I was going through my sewing kick a little while ago, I also made some baby clothes. This is what I brought the family tonight.I particularly like it because it is green and has sea animals all over it - my friend loves the Cape and the ocean and is not a girly-girl.

We also went out for ice cream. The daddy is a big fan of ice cream. I had coffee heath bar crunch YUM.

Thanks for the comments yesterday about the sciencey stuff. No need to try to understand it! I still have not figured it out quite yet, but Danielle mentioned my dilemma to her friend SeaQueen with whom I worked as a tech before SeaQueen went to grad school and she gave me some ideas today. We'll see how it goes...

A PCR Primer (pun intended)

I apologize in advance for the science. If you are not in science, read this, and sorta think you get what I am talking about, let me know!! Or let me if there is one big confusing thing and maybe I can teach you something. :-) [I am going to assume you all know what a "gene" essentially is if you were to read that word in a newspaper. If not, you do not have to keep reading. If so, my hope is you can figure out why I am frustrated at least.]

I am trying to get some real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction experiments going on my project.

Anyone still with me?

That's qRT-PCR.

Essentially, I am just trying to figure out if I expose tadpoles to a chemical, which genes may change their level of expression. qRT-PCR lets me do that by magnifying any changes in gene expression after I dump the chemical on.

I have very convincing data that at least one gene in a certain class of genes is very significantly upregulated. That was using "old-fashioned" and less sensitive PCR methods that do not involve special methods. Now, because everyone wants to be so fancy, I have to use special methods. Plus, I was just accepted to the conference I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to. I would love new data, but also recognize that people there have not seen the other unpublished preliminary data I have, so worse comes to worse, I can ask advice at the conference.

Anyone still reading?

Here is your PCR Primer (in the teaching sense).

PCR involves changing temperatures cyclically to exponentially magnify the expression of a gene using a (c)DNA template. DNA has specific sequences of four chemical bases, and these specific sequences can be used to magnify the expression of only one gene from a pool of countless genes. You have to design "primers" (in the PCR sense) that will match the specific sequence of the gene or genes you are interested in and no other gene. The PCR primers I am using are in a scientific publication. When I checked the sequences, they do identify only the gene they are supposed to identify. (Sometimes there are typos in the published primer sequences, so you have to double check them.) The other supplies I am using are common to the machine I use that does the cycling temperatures. The different temperatures are all established, as these PCR primers are in a scientific publication.

I can not get the experiment to work.

I emailed the author of the scientific publication from which I got the PCR primer sequences and he gave me the information I requested. I have tried different PCR cycles and done all the double and triple checking I (and other grad students who use this PCR technique) can think of. I added what is called an "extension time" to the protocol that is not always used in this fancy shmancy technique. Even more curious, is that if I use these PCR primers in an old-fashioned PCR, they work BEAUTIFULLY. It is only when I try to get all fancy and stuff that they do not. I have a couple more options (increasing the amount of PCR primers, decreasing one of the temperatures in the PCR protocol) that I can try. qRT-PCR is EXPENSIVE to perform and my advisor has no grant money so I try to be conscientious.

Right now, I just need data though.

K. Sorry for the science. Have a good night.

Grrr...I hate it when I post and then am like, CRAP I forgot my main point.

MAIN POINT ------> When I was a research tech, a lot of stuff did not work and a lot of stuff got screwed up (by others, of course). Some of it was very fortuitous; other stuff was just crappy. When I started grad school, everything went pretty well. I thought maybe I had put in my time as a technician, as far as science frustration goes, for at least my tenure in grad school.

Apparently I was wrong.

SCORE!

I just found my new favorite shoe store. I may be a bit biased because the woman said they just got a new shipment in. They had lots of navy dress sandals -- just what I needed for my friends' wedding!

So, I bought my first pair of shoes that comes with its own storage bag. They were only $60 retail, then the reduced price of the store. I feel all fancy though. I keep looking for a photo online, but to no avail. I could take a picture, but I am feeling lazy. You will have to trust me that they are great.

I also scored at Tar-jay. My brother sent me a gift card from the other coast for my birthday. I had been wanting a glass iced tea dispenser thing in which I could make sun tea and then use the little spigot in the fridge to pour. Tar-jay only has plastic ones. SO, I bought this AMAZING container for transporting cookies and brownies and stuff.Amazing, huh? I also got a cute new umbrella. My old one has been to Australia and China with me but has a big bleach spot and doesn't open all the way on its own. My new one is a little smaller and black with small different colored polka dots.

I also bought a sweater shaver, something I have wanted for a while.

In other scoring news, not too long ago, Spark gave me this:I kept not posting about it and not posting about it until I NEEDED something to post about. But, if you do not realize already, I am full of "it" and always manage to write something. So thanks, Spark! Hope you did not think I missed it. My Mom always told me to say thanks. :-)

I am still on my shopping high. Lots of deals; lots of stuff I had been wanting. Here are some other great things from the weekend.

My friend and I at our friend's wedding.Contra dancing in the room where the ceremony had been earlier.
That is the groom in the white tunic untucked and dark jeans. Did I mention it was a fairly casual wedding? People had changed into their jeans at this point, but it was still pretty low-key. I hesitate to put a bunch of people-pictures up, so this is what you will get. :-)

See, I can not stop smiling!!!

UPDATE (in case you managed to read the post in the 20 minutes before I updated it). SCORE! number three. I love this new post over at Sarcastic Mom. This is not a SCORE! in an exciting, I-just-found-a-deal kind of way. It is more of a this-is-so-poetic-and-beautiful kind of way.

AHHHH!!!!

I have had about 40 or 50 "returned" emails today. The message contents are about cheap drugs and stuff like that.

Someone somehow is using my college alumni email address to spam people.

It has my full name, first and last?!

I just had it removed from the alumni directory.

I think I will also remove all my applications on Facebook.

I can not think of another place I use the email address!

Anyone ever have this happen to them?????

I take it as a challenge

I had the privilege of spending about 10 hours celebrating a friend's marriage today. She and I started grad school the same time. There was a good contingency from our department and it was a lot of fun.

The challenge I mention in the title has nothing to do with graduate school.

The challenge will be having a wedding that so perfectly represents my and my future partner's relationship as the one I went to today represented my friend and her now husband (twice over...they have already been married in Africa, but today was the wedding that will be recognized world-wide and next year a reception in Germany...).

There was a perfect introduction of the couple by the minister; there was a friend playing trumpet; there were two sisters as flower girls, one helping the other to empty her basket of flowers; there were daffodils the bride planted last fall to use at her wedding; there were tents set up for those who were staying overnight at the house they rented; there was contradancing.

There was this great path to the house. We will say it represents the journey they have just embarked on together.

Easy to forget

A lot of days, I get home "late" (which for me is 9:00 or 9:30 p.m.) and just want to have a drink (of water, wine or beer, depending on the day) and go to bed. Then I think about how I have "committed" to posting every day. In reality there are a lot of people, I think, who use Blog365 as motivation to just blog in general. Me, though, I do not like to "fail". So, sometimes, and frequently recently, I tend to be like "so this was my day and this was why it was great or this why why it sucked." Yes, I just wrote the word "like". Plus, I apologize that more frequently than not I write as though my life sucks more than it is great.

This is for two reasons. One, grad school sucks, generally speaking. Two, blogging is a way to vent.

K. That is my randomness for the day. My funny/interesting encounters for the day?

We had our grad school awards tonight. I did not receive one. This sucks. I am about to make myself more eminently more googleable, but I do not care. As president of the grad student council, FOR TWO TERMS, you would think I would get the award for Graduate Student Leadership, but no. Grrr...

I think I mentioned this a while back, but can not locate the post to link to. Aside from my ex being a complete and utter ass, there is only one other guy up with whom I was matched on eHarmony (although I do not think I have named it before, maybe at a later date I will post about why that was a bad decision for online dating services for me) who I knew. We had taken an ethics non-credit course together. He was at the awards ceremony tonight. Wicked cool. He talked to his friends; I talked to my friends and administrators who I know. I realized I had just presented awards in front of him; we pretended not to know each other. Grad school is really just like high school only you are 28 (or 29 in my case) instead of 18. Good times.

Speaking of good times, after the awards, there were appetizers and alcohol. Two glasses of wine later, most people had left except for two of my male grad student friends. One of them I recently dreamed about, the other may also have/had a crush on me. [I can not find the exchange I posted about on that second one. Apparently I am really bad at indexing this stuff!!!] The one about whom I dreamed and I frequently flirt. This time for example, and today he was looking for my lab mate. I told him she was not in...but I was there. To which he responded, "Yes. And you are looking radiant today." The three of us hung out for a couple of more hours. They are good people. I would make out with either of them. ;-) Especially because I had had a couple of glasses of wine and then the three of us had another drink.

Also because I wonder if it is truly possible to be friends with someone of the sex to whom you are attracted and never have a moment in which you want to kiss them. If you are close enough to feel like friends, is it such a stretch to want to kiss? If you are married or in a committed relationship, it is likely easier to pretend the thought never crossed you mind. As a single woman hanging out with two single guys, it makes sense.

Off to bed...and then a wedding tomorrow...the first in my year of 5 weddings.