Tuesday, July 31st, 2012
Central Park East - 6:45am

Good morning!  Another wonderful day with my sister.  Had lunch together at BareBurger - eggs w/ Havarti and tomato on 7 grain or brioche (I bet you can't guess who got Brioche). 

I unfortunately have a nasty time-pointy experiment (I don't mind late hours - just would rather avoid them when Sarah's here) going on this week.  I had to immunize mice at 9pm last night and will take time points at 9 am this morning (12hr p.i.), 9pm tonight (24hr p.i.), and 9am tomorrow morning (36hr p.i.).  Last night Brian made Sarah and I salmon with lemony broccoli and morroccan couscous.  We got a huge, beautiful bunch of basil with our CSA veggies this week, meaning I think pesto is screaming to be made for tonight.  I'm sure they'll be able to entertain each other while I'm off sacking mice :(

Have a great day everyone!

 

Monday, July 30th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  It was a fantastic weekend and getting up this morning was no small feat.  Sarah and Wolt are here - currently still sleeping in the same room I'm working right now.  Well....technically Wolt is snuggling Bear - not sleeping.  Friday night Wolt arrived.  We watched the Olympic opening ceremonies and caught up.  Drank beer - ate pizza - perfect Friday night.  Saturday morning Sarah arrived.  She immediately fell asleep, awoke for breakfast (Brian made blueberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon), then slept for the rest of the day.  We went to Pies 'n Thighs in Williamsburg, Bk for dinner and ate ungodly amounts of bad-for-you food that may or may not have included Fried catfish, fried chicken, mac and cheese, spicy black eyed peas, cornbread, biscuits, and pickles.  Then for dessert we split up a Smore's pie, Key lime pie, and a homemade pecan - honey donut (still warm in the middle).  We went to Full Circle Bar afterwards and played skeeball.  Then we headed back to the upper east and finished the night at Banshee bar.  Sarah got to cross one to-do off her list - stay out til 4am.  We went to bed and then woke up the next morning by like 8 - which was pretty surprising.  Brian and I took the doggies to the dogpark, then we all had egg-sammies made generously by Brian.  I've forgotten to mention, a lot of this weekend included copious olympics - watching. We then hung out for awhileeee, rooted for Team USA, went running, and went to the Yanks game.  We got back to the apt. last night at like 12:30 - went to bed at 1:30 and I was up at 6.  I'm just waiting to crash - until then - I will stave it off with coffee. 

Until tomorrow,

Have a great day!

Friday, July 27th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:10am

Good morning!  No time for lots of chatting today - I'm getting my run out the way this morning so I have lots of time to spend with our friend Wolt when he arrives this evening!!  So excited for the weekend!  Sarah, Wolt, Yankees, Brooklyn - it's going to be fantastic. 

Hope you all have a great day!

Thursday, July 26th 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  We saw many of our friends on our walk today.  We saw Aaron, the full-time dog walker of 15 years with Griffin - the massive German Shepherd.  We saw Amy with her mutt, the Norwegian guy with his daughter and Gordon Setter (seriously a big copy of Sofie and Bear), the guy with headphones and the miniature Shnauzer named Nino, Todd, the semi awkward guy with the Labradoodle.  And of course the coffeestand man on Madison Ave and all the doormen.  As I chatted with everyone along the way I noticed 2 things:  first, that my walks are becoming longer due to all of the chatting/greeting, and second, that I feel really a part of the little community in the Park.  I never felt this way when I lived in Manayunk.  I would see people often in the Pretzel Park dog park - and out on walks, but it wasn't quite the same as the social scene in Central Park.  It makes me happy.

In other news, remember when Sofie fell into the duck pond when she was a puppy?  It was that fated day when she chased the guy going off to work, jumped on him with her nasty wet little body, and he swore and yelled at me to get my dog?  Well, today Bear caught site of the pond for the first time.  What is it with Cavaliers and water?  He darted off towards the rocks and I knew what was going to happen.  I could see it from a mile away.  When he got to the rocks, he immediately realized how sheer they were, put on the brakes, and toppled in head first.  What came next was a lot of thrashing around and clawing at the rocks.  I let him sort it out for a minute while I walked over - after all - falling into a pond is nothing to get all worked up about if you're a good swimmer ;)  Sofie stood there on the rocks watching him (she's no stranger to the lesson of the sheer rocks by the duck pond).  Then when I got to him I yanked him out.  He was invigorated - darting here and there - rolling in the grass - happy as a dog in mud...wait. 

Is falling into a pond a puppy right of passage?

Have a great day!

Wednesday (already?), July 25th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:15am

Good morning!  I don't think I've ever featured this tree on my blog before, which is quite silly since I admire it every day.  Maybe I have - I don't remember.  I love this tree.  I make a point to walk under it every day because I like to look out from underneath the branches.

This morning it was particularly stunning.  We lost some of the humidity from yesterday and were graced with a wonderful morning.  Cool-ish, breezy, sunny, blue-skied.

The tree was just standing there waving it's branches in the breeze - leaves sounding deliciously fall-like.  We stopped for a moment to sit on the roots and search for bits of food, acorns (what is it about my dogs and acorn-eating?), birds, squirrels, and to roll in the grass (well...I didn't do that, but you know who did).  The feeling of the sun on my face, cool breeze, happy dogs, and rustling leaves just left me completely euphoric.  These moments remind me of my childhood.  For a minute I feel like I don't have anywhere to be.  Those moments of being a kid in front of my house laying in the grass looking up at that big tree in the yard, remarking even then about how the contrast of a crisp blue sky is very nice against the green of the leaves, running around catching fireflies on summer evenings.  Those moments left me euphoric as a kid, but for different reasons - more animal reasons - it just felt good to run around barefoot with the damp grass & dirt under my feet.  Now it feels good and it reminds me of happy times. 

It's also something that makes me feel connected to my dogs.  We kind of share the energy - we know what each of us are thinking - that it feels good. 

No matter what you feel like you need in life, you just can't buy this type of happiness. 

Have a wonderful day!

Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:10am

Good morning!  Well we hadn't seen a mouse since the last one we caught.  Not so anymore.  Last night after dinner we found a mouse in the BOWL that was clean and drying in the dish rack.  Brian quickly clamped another bowl down on top, but the mouse was still able to wiggle out.  SO GROSS - it was on the DISHES!! :((   Mouse traps....and lots of them.
Have a great one!

Monday, July 23rd, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  Happy Monday - welcome back - and as you can see I've fixed my camera.  This morning I've captured the ducks watching the sunrise over Kerb's Boathouse.  It was a fantastic weekend here in NYC.  Beautiful weather meaning we were basically outside most of the time.  Lots of running, lots of frisbee (which actually made my arm SORE), lots of dog walks, trips to the dog park, codfish tacos, huevos rancheros, blueberry shortbread crumble, vanilla ice cream, spinach lasagne, and the movie Chocolat. 

I also learned that my little sister, Sarah will be coming to visit us next weekend!  This was a somewhat unexpected surprise but I couldn't be happier and am counting down the days until she gets here.  Next weekend our other friend Wolt will also be visiting so that we can see the Yankees-Red Sox game on Saturday. 

Some of the things I have planned for my sister's visit:
Pies 'n Thighs Brooklyn  http://piesnthighs.com/index.html
Two Little Red Hens Bakery http://www.twolittleredhens.com/
MoMa http://www.moma.org/
J Bird Lounge for cocktails http://www.jbirdny.com/
Skee Ball + Beer http://fullcirclebar.com/
The Whitney http://whitney.org/
Fire Island http://www.fireisland.com/

*This is not going to be good for my bank account :)

Have a great day!

Good morning! 

I have bad news - my camera broke so I don't have any pictures for today :(  I also have good news - it's not "broken" per se, but the battery compartment lid popped out and it won't turn on with the battery compartment open.  I have to pop the lid back on so hopefully I can do that this weekend.  In the meanwhile, I apologize for the lack of pictures. 

We caught another mouse yesterday...yay!  But right after we caught it, Brian saw another one run behind the fridge :(  We're working on it. 

Aside from that, it was a stunning morning in the Park.  Around 65 degrees and overcast.  It started raining while I was out, but I didn't mind b/c it was so lovely and cool and non-humid.  It started making me remember fall weather and how excited I am for my favorite season to roll around!  Best time of the year here on the East coast. 

Have a wonderful day!

Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:35am

Good morning!  I have 2 pieces of news today. 

First, we caught a mouse last night!  Both Brian and I were a little bit sad, but mostly happy because it caught the mouse right on it's neck so it didn't have to be in any pain.  It was a very small one - probably between 4 and 8 weeks old.  What that tells me is that there is most certainly a nest with more babies & mama. 

Second, I witnessed an alluring and mysterious fight in the Park this morning.  I was walking through the trees/mulch to get to the Great Lawn and up near the Lawn I noticed two Dad-like looking guys - one with a doodle and the other with an Italian greyhound.  They were gesturing angrily towards one another, shouting, and generally storming around.  I got a little excited, in a Schadenfreude sort of way and walked faster.  I was very curious to see what these seemingly normal-looking guys could possibly be arguing so angrily about.  As I got closer, guy with the doodle said something and turned to walk away.  Guy with Italian greyhound shouts at the top of his lungs "Go get fu**ing jerked off you fu**ing a**hole." 

WOAH!!

I was intrigued before but even more so now.  What could have possibly warranted such a ridiculously sweary outburst - in public - with your wimpy prancy little Italian Greyhound obviously providing no backup??  It reminded me of Lewis C.K.'s skit about cutting a guy off in traffic prompting the cuttee to screamed at him "Hey a**hole, go suck a bag of d*cks!"  Phrases like that are so outrageous that you just have to stop for a moment and bask in the hilarity of it. 

So what was the fight about?????

The world may never know.  At that moment another unrelated guy walked up and said "hey hey hey break it up now fellas."  And the two parted ways.  Woah woah woah woah.  Let them fight it out!  I for one am very curious to know what it was all about! 

I'll have to just imagine which, to be honest, is probably more fun than the actual reason.  The actual reason is probably something really boring like the Italian greyhound played too rough with the doodle, or vice-versa.  

Have a great day, everyone!

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:20ish

Good morning!  I've got happy, hot dogs here - hope you guys are well. 

Last night we lured the mice to the traps with goat cheese, dog food, and some other sundry items.  We placed crumbles of the goat cheese in places of the trap that we felt surely would be impossible to reach without tripping it.....we were wrong.  Instead we fed the mice a delicious meal - free of charge.  I don't want to do it....but I'll get sticky pads, Mice.  Don't test me.  You don't even want to know the things I've done to others of your kind.  Maybe you'd like to come into the lab with me?  No?  That's what I thought. 

*Disclaimer: In actuality I like mice - I find them to be adorable, feisty, and ingenious.  If they didn't carry diseases that could make me or my doggies sick, then I wouldn't mind the few we have around.  Each mouse I have to use for research gets a little silent thank you and moment of appreciation while I make everything I have to do as quick and painless as possible. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Good morning!  We were back to our usual selves today and so ventured to the Park.  The New York Philharmonic just recently had a concert at the Great Lawn, and so they had taken down all of the fencing to make room for everyone.  Today they were putting the fencing back up and taking the massive stage down, and it was wonderful because the doggies got to romp on the Great Lawn.  They were in heaven. 

This weekend Bear got his first BATH.  I absolutely love the top photo because it looks like he is in jail.  Peering out over the top of the tub - dreading what is surely to come.  Sorry little man, but you smelled like piss - and it had to happen sooner or later. 

I have another thing to ask you folks about.  What the hell do you do with zucchini.  I've made it every way you can make it because I get 2 pounds a week as part of my summer share from the CSA.  They seem to be rolling in summer squash so they just keep sending us more.  As of late I've:
Grilled it
Roasted it
Made it into 2 batches of Zucchini bread
Roasted it and then tossed it into garlic/butter/lemon/cream sauce with pasta (actually Brian did that)
Made it into fritters with egg, flour, red onion, leeks, and parmesan (freakin' fantastic)
What ELSE can I DO with this vegetable???

Wow - this is shaping up to be a thrilling post - baths and zucchini. 

Sorry to be so dull.  In other news, we have a mouse. 

He/She is very clever.  Last night he/she ate all of the dog food pellets from around the traps, licked the peanut butter off and did not trip any of them.  I've spotted it several times and so has Brian.  Sofie and Bear are clearly no deterrent.  I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, when Sofie had the chance to kill a stinkbug she instead batted it around and nosed at it.  She has no killer instinct.  In FACT...Brian thinks that the mouse is actively feasting on Bear.  Bear has a tiny bald patch on his tail - which I believe to be caused by Sofie (rough-housing) - Brian, on the other hand, believes that the mouse sneaks into the bedroom at night and eats the hair off of Bear's tail.  To think - I leave out premium dog food and peanut butter for that ungrateful son-of-a-bitch mouse and he/she comes into my bedroom to eat my dog's tail-hair. 

Maybe I should get/rent/borrow a cat to protect them?

{Have a great day}

Good morning - due to last night being a rough night - I won't elaborating circumstances - we shan't be traveling to the Park this morning.  Neither Brian nor I got much sleep at all and Sofie seems to be having some type of digestive distress.  I'll leave it at that.

Have a fantastic Monday, friends.  I'll see you tomorrow.

Top: Thursday, July 13th, 2012 - 6:15pm
Bottom: Friday, July 14th, 2012 - 7:00am

Good morning!  The top shows what happens to Brian every day when he gets home from work.  Doggie love fest.  The bottom shows one happy little man that got to be not just on a dropped leash but completely off his leash today.  He's very trustworthy.  He comes when I call him and honestly doesn't stray very far from me - only to chase Sofie.  It's been so wonderful to see them play in the Park.  Today was an extra great walk because they had ALL of the fences down over by the great lawn because they were setting up for a concert there by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  This means that the doggies got to romp about on the Great Lawn - that massive tract of land you always see pictures of when I take sunrise pics. 

Yesterday something very rare in science (even for so-called simple experiments) happened.  Every cloning transformation worked for my high school kids.  Every. last. one.  I literally could not believe my eyes.  When I say they all worked, what I mean is that all of the controls looked like we would predict and when we plated our bacteria on the selecting antibiotic (selects for only bacteria that got our plasmid - b/c the plasmid also confers resistance to antibiotics), and our regulating sugar arabinose (turns on the expression of our gene GFP), all of the bacteria glowed green under a UV light.  I was very impressed.  We then went through some tricky math for hs kids - I taught them how to calculate the transformation efficiency.  Transformation efficiency is just a quantitative measure for how effectively the DNA was taken up by the bacteria.  The units are in "transformants" per microgram of DNA you initially introduced to them.  We reviewed with some tougher genetics based questions and their answers revealed to me that they had a good grasp of what was going on.  It was really fun.

Now I'm back to real life today - back to a full lab day - and I can't say I'm upset about it!  I'm completely excited to get going with my project and do some more reading/planning/chatting w/ my PI.  I don't think I've ever before said I was excited to chat w/ my PI - but I am today b/c it means that I'm actually making progress on this thing and it feels like my baby.  I'm excited to start getting my hands dirty and see how things look.  

Thursday, July 12th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  Today was the first morning I took Bear and Sofie alone to the Park.  I've been working on walking with them both because up until now (and frankly, including now), it's a bit of a challenge.  Keeping Bear on my left and Sofie on my right and both on short leashes seems to work best.  When we got into the Park, I didn't let Bear off the leash, but I dropped the leash.  And....I kept the leash dropped for the entire walk.  He was so good - he never really ran very far away from me.  He met lots of new dogs and he and Sofie played chase constantly.  It was wonderful to watch - the reason I got two dogs.  They looked so happy I'm pretty sure I had a constant smile on my face. 

Best part of all?  Well, now they're both lying on the floor next to where I'm writing this - completely sacked out. 

This morning we get to find out the results of our cloning experiment yesterday.  I always get a few butterflies when I'm about to find out the results of my own experiments, but today they're intensified.  It's a very simple experiment and should work, but it's still exciting and makes me a little nervous.  I'll keep you posted as to how it went.  Aside from that it's my last day teaching.  I would like to keep going throughout a few more weeks - but I'm also really ready to start devoting my 9 hours daily to Grégoire's lab and get down to business with this workin'. 

Have a great day!!

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  I found this little gem turned over on it's back this morning in the park.  Sofie was warily sniffing at it's churning legs.  It was over an inch long, for sure and was pinching like crazy with it's pinchers.  It creeped me out. 

This morning I'll be teaching the summer molecular biology class on CLONING!  It's going to be very fun - we are first going to take them over to a lab that works on Zebrafish - so that will be cool (I've never actually been in a lab that works with Zebrafish).  Then we'll be inserting a gene into E. coli that *hopefully* will make them glow bright green under a UV light tomorrow when the colonies have grown big enough to see.  It was a lot of prep for me yesterday, but I think they're really going to like the lab so it will be worth it. 

Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Good morning!  Another beautiful Park day today.  Today will be my second day teaching in the molecular biology summer school for high-school kids.  Yesterday was the first day and it went great.  I really had a wonderful time.  Being a high school teacher wouldn't be so bad if the kids were nice, well-behaved, and interested in science. 

Anyway - I'm busy busy this morning because I have to be in around 8:30, so this post will be kept short.  I'll finish by saying Brian and I finished the most delicious cake I have ever made (ok, I haven't made that many cakes in my life).  Let me tell you - this was one fantastic cake.  I'll post the link to the recipe.  It's from one of my favorite blogs. 

http://smittenkitchen.com/2012/06/triple-berry-summer-buttermilk-bundt/

Have a great day, everyone!

Monday, July 9th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:15am

Good morning!  We had a very wonderful week last week.  There happened to be a weekend in the middle of the week.  Brian got out of work early on Tuesday and so we could relax and take the doggies out to Chatham for a few days.  We got out to Chatham by about 6:30pm, met Maggie and James, chatted for awhile, and scrounged around through the fridge (which contained a half a grapefruit, frozen chicken breasts, and an avocado - I'm not kidding you - I don't know what they live on!).  Then Maggie & James drove us out to Cougar field so we could let both doggies run around off their leashes - it was SO wonderful to get out of the city and have some quiet - let me tell you.  We had some friends over after that and hung around in the backyard having some beers and eating pizza - a fantastic evening.

The next morning, we went and got the best breakfast in the world I think - Whole wheat everything bagels from Noah's with eggs, american cheese, salt, pepper, and ketchup - this is usually our default breakfast for every morning we spend in Chatham.  Then we took the dogs for a walk with Brian's mom over in Loantaka - it was really hot but a nice time because it's mainly wooded over there - nice and shady.  Finally it was time for party & BBQ time.  We went over to Brian's friend Jeff's house (actually it's his parent's house), and got in the pool from about 2:30-7.  There were TONS of dogs there.  2 American bulldogs, 1 pitt bull, 2 cavaliers (obvi), and 1 boxer.  These were some HAPPY dogs.  They all swam in the water and it was Bear's first try (he was very brave and very good), but Sofie was the queen water bee of them all.  She ran around the pool barking incessantly for the entire 5 or so hours we were there.  She would not stop swimming.  We kept thinking she would wear herself out - but no dice.  She is a water rat through and through.  She was dunked a few times by Kojak - the boxer, but all she did was pop back up and paddle around - no harm done.  She tusseled in the water with Zeus - the pitt bull for his water toy.  Zeus spent the entire day knocking his ball into the water and then jumping in after it and taking it back out.  We had THAT dog.  THAT dog that never wears out and never stops barking out of pure, unadulterated joy and excitement.  She could not be tied up, she could not be held, she could not be tired out, she could not be removed from the pool.  I was a little embarassed because she was so insane, but what the hell, she's a dog - and it was kind of charming.  

We had a great time and BBQ'ed pork chops from Jeff's brother's farm (his brother works at a farm in Vermont), had hot dogs, grilled, marinated veggies, salad, cake, ice-cream, lots of beer, pasta salad, and potato salad.  Best of all we had a great time hanging out w/ one another and all of our dogs.  All of the folks there live in Brooklyn now so I think we were all feeling equally high on being out of the city.  It was a capital day.  Yes, I just said capital. 

The next morning Brian decided to take a PTO day so we could sleep in and go to Noah's again and be in no rush to get back to the city.  We repeated many of the earlier activities including letting the doggies romp around leash-less in the highschool field.  We left to go home around 2 so we could have some time at home getting our act together before Friday.  That's the most beautiful part about all of this - we got back home just in time for Friday.  A FRIDAY!  That meant it was time for the weekend yet again! 

It was beautiful - and now it's Monday - but I don't mind because I feel rejuvenated. 

Have a great one!

Good morning!  Little dog(s)-Big Park is having a very busy morning so check back tomorrow for an update of our recent adventures :)

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Central Park East -7:35am

Good morning!  As you can see, Sofie met a turtle today.  She was very unsure about it because she had never seen such a strange thing.  She's crouched ready to make off if he/she tries to viciously attack her.   Each time she pulled away, it poked it's head out and each time she sniffed closer, it pulled it's head back in.  She found it to be a very confusing thing. 

It had somehow gotten out through some fencing and was stuck away from where the pond was so I put him/her back on a rock close to the water.  You're welcome, turt. 

In other news, today Brian gets off work at 2pm!  Yay!  We are going to leave early to go to Chatham for the 4th and come back on Thursday.  Sorry if you are reading this Edna - yes - we are coming out today and no - we hadn't told you yet ;)  We will have two small friendly, fuzzy, black pups that are excited to say hello with us. 

Hope you all have a great day!!

Monday, July 2nd, 2012
Central Park East - 7:15am

Good morning!  It's JULY!  I can't believe it's already July.  This is going to be a good week.  It's my last week working in the Nathan lab.  If all goes according to plans I should be done before the 4th and have a little break (sort of) until next week.  Next week I'm teaching Mon-Thurs in the Molecular Biology Summer Institute we have.  It's for high school students - going to be very fun to work with some of my fellow first-years help these kids, ironically, learn how to clone.  I say it's ironic because I've been cloning all during these last 10 weeks in the Nathan lab and haven't gotten it to work successfully yet.  (My genes of interest are harder to clone than green fluorescent protein).  We'll be working on introducing the GFP (green fluorescent protein) gene obtained from a jellyfish into E. coli.  If it's successful, the bacteria will glow green under light waves of a certain wavelenth (420 nanometers) - you'll be able to see them glow using a fluorescent microscope. 

Also this week is the 4th of July - always fun.  I think we may go out to Chatham NJ for this party at Brian's friend's house. 

In other news, we made a startling discovery this weekend.  While sitting in the living room, Brian said, "Do you smell that?  It smells weird in here."  I replied "No - I don't smell anything."  Brian asked a few more times until Bear emerged from under the white sofa with a....in the exact words of Brian...."wet wiener."  When we pulled back the sofa to check if Bear had peed under it, there was poo EVERYWHERE.  Grosssss!!!!!  He had been using the space under the couch as his personal toilet.  Thanks, Bear.  We're on to you now, little man.  To boot, he also woke us up last night in the middle of the night to go out.  I guess we can't be too mad about that - it was his first time doing that and he is really little.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day and week leading up to the 4th.