Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:56am

Good morning!  Another overcast day here in the Big Apple.  I don't mind - it makes it much cooler & moderately less humid.  To be honest I'm not sure I'll ever be used to this East Coast humidity.  Did anyone watch that show Wild America last night?  Wait...I don't think that's the name - I think Wild America is the name of that show with Marty Stouffer back in the 80's that I remember watching as a kid.  Either way, it was on the National Geographic Channel and was about the America's.  It was on last night and tonight and it was really a great show.  Last night they showed something I have never seen before.  A jaguar in South America went into the river, fought an alligator, then dragged it out of the water and ate it.  They were struggling around in the water for awhile, which to be honest I thought would favor the gator, but then they showed the jaguar bite through the gator head into it's brain, which stopped it thrashing around.  She then dragged it out and ate it!  It was insane - that gator was as big as she was! 

Either way, we got our first round of food from the CSA last night (community shared agriculture).  We paid ahead of time for 24 weeks of seasonal produce from a small farm in NY.  They drop off their harvest each week at a church near our house and we just go pick everything up.  I'm especially psyched about it because we (Brian mainly) get to have fun making all sorts of new things with different kinds of vegetables.  i.e. Rhubarb...WTF do you do with rhubarb?  How does a vegetable that looks like red celery taste so tangy?  So weird. So this week's share was:
-2 heads red leaf lettuce
-1 head green leaf lettuce
-bok choy
-cherry radishes
-mustard greens
-mizuna greens
-rhubarb
-garlic scapes (the supposedly mild garlic green shoot that the farmer trims off early in the season so that the garlic plant devotes its energy to making a bigger bulb) 

So we made fresh pesto with the garlic scapes (NOT actually mild at all - quite spicy and bitey, which was a pleasant surprise).  2 cups basil, 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts, 1/2 cup parmesan, little over 1/2 cup olive oil, bit of salt & pepper, 6 garlic scapes then put in the food processor.  We had that with red leaf salad on the side.  So good!  I don't know if I can go back to store bought pesto (at least in the summer)!

Have a great day!!

Monday, June 11th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:01am

Good morning, folks.  Sorry about last Friday - I just plumb forgot to post anything.  I think I was wrapped up with the fact that I'm officially DONE with classes for the remainder of the summer.  Sure, I'll have to take one more class next year - quantitative biology - but for now...I'm free!  This weekend was eerie - I didn't have anything to feel guilty about not doing.  It was a great weekend.  I went out for dinner Friday night at a place called Hummus Kitchen with the other first years.  The food was quite good, actually.  Living with a man like Brian Yurachek, I'm often not terribly impressed with restaurant food - it takes a lot for me to think it was actually worth the money.  Brian is such a gourmet that he honestly cooks much better and healthier than most restaurants.  Here's an example - last night for dinner he made fresh mozzarella, basil, and tomato sandwiches on olive foccacia that he toasted with garlic and balsamic vinegar.  They were absolutely delicious.  Here's some examples of the things this man makes:

That's homemade salsa with black beans, jalapenos, corn, cilantro, red onion, garlic, & tomatoes along with what the salsa goes with, codfish tacos with red cabbage and cheddar.

 That is what I had last night.  (topped with a bit of parmesan)

 This is the man with his dog.

 This is salmon over a bed of sauteed spinach and garlic with angel hair pasta.

 This is homemade chocolate mousse layered with raspberries (you can't see the other raspberries in it)

 This is a biscuit (a rare but delightful treat) - I don't want to hear any of your Carb-hating Ralph Oyler. 



I digress - so Friday night.  For dinner at Hummus Kitchen we split - lamb and garlic hummus, spicy marinated Moroccan carrots, lentils, and roasted cauliflower with green tahini.  Then I had as an entree the falafel (I'm still thinking about it).  Fried mashed chick peas with onions, garlic, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and tahini.  After dinner we went to see the movie, Prometheus, which is supposed to be the prequel to Alien.  I was super-psyched, but was quite disappointed.  It was not a good movie.  The plot was incoherent.  The only entertaining thing that DID happen at Prometheus was that I got carded at the ticket register.  When she first asked how old I was, I laughed and said "15."  Then she looked at me and asked to see my ID.  Hilarious. 

Anyway, when I got home, Brian had gotten me a Friday treat.  (He always gets me and Sofie a treat on Fridays).  It was a chocolate covered pretzel (my favorite), with miniature Reese's pieces stuck on it.  Finally went to bed around midnight, then woke up at 7 to go run the 10k, which went fairly well (until the last 800 meters, which were uphill and made me want to barf).

All in all, a fantastic weekend - mainly b/c of my peace of mind.  We have one more thing to look forward to this coming weekend....we go to pick up Bear on Saturday!! 

Have a great day!

Thursday, June 7th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:20am

Good morning!  Today is the day - the Cell Bio final.  For 2 weeks I have studied.  For 4 days I have studied 8+ hours per day.  I have listened to classical music, drank 4 liters of water daily (such that my brain is well-hydrated), avoided more than 1 cup of coffee (to avoid panic attacks, anxiety, and the like), and have buckled down and really tried my hardest.  When I would notice my attention waning, I would get down and do pushups to try and refocus.  At this point - what will be will be, but I can say that I did my best. 

It's a beautiful day to be done with this god-forsaken class. 

Have a great one!

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:55am

Good morning!  Aaggghh this morning was ROUGH.  I woke up at 5:50, realized it was 5:50 and thought, "Oh dear lord it's only 10 minutes until I have to get up.  How can this be?  I'm so tired!"
I went back to sleep for the 10 mins, then when my alarm went off I picked up my phone and reset the alarm for 7am.  "I need another hour." 

Guilt.....

"Get up - you have studying to do!"

"But I'm sick, I can feel it coming on!"

"No matter - get up.  If you get up now, you can make yourself the special Kona weekend-only coffee that Mom and Dad brought from Hawaii instead of your regular Maxwell House"

"Fine."

I dragged myself out of bed with not one inch of me wanting to get up.  Not one inch!!  I put my oversized sweatshirt on and pulled the hood up.  "I don't want to talk to anyone." 

Right when I marched into the Park I met up with Yu, the owner of Niko, the little black & white Japanese Chin dog.  This lady is seriously chipper all the time.  "Great - I'll have to be pleasant."  She and I walked together the entire route chit-chatting with Sofie and Niko playing the whole time (they love each other).  It was so nice that I forgot I was tired, cranky, and on the verge of sick.  It was a beautiful morning again.  Just look at that picture!  Look at what I would have missed had I not gotten up! 

In other news, I did my Immuno final yesterday and it went great - it was a huge burden to have off my shoulders.  I'm officially done with that class!  Now I just have Cell Bio to finish off.  I have all day today and then at 1pm tomorrow I'll be done.  Last night I was dreaming about the archenteron (I'm not kidding).  The archenteron is the primitive gut - the first tube that's formed during embryogenesis that will eventually form the gut.  Study, study, study. 

Have a great day!

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:40 am

Good morning!  Today was an incredible morning - another one of those morning walks you just don't want to end.  I could have just kept doing laps with Sofie around the great lawn.  It's supposed to rain, which is surprising because it was sunny and sublime this morning.  Nice and cool, too - around 50 degrees :) We saw all of our usual friends.  Sofie bit the back of my leg this morning - pretty hard - while vigorously trying to get me to submit to her leg humping.  The spaying has not changed her one bit.  I smacked her off and it happened to be in front a homeless man sitting on one of the Park benches.  He very much enjoyed the whole event. 

In other news, today is the Immunology final.  I get a twinge of adrenaline every time I think about it.  Dread mixed with "yayyy! 1 down."  Mostly, I get a twinge of adrenaline because it means I'm one day closer to Cell Bio :(  Immunology is not my concern - cell bio is a whole 'nother ball game filled with things that seem like wizardry to me. 

Have a great one.

Monday, June 6th, 2012
Central Park East, 6:45am

Good morning!  I told you we're back.  I was up extra early today - not sure why.  Was up by 5:45am and left the house by 5 til 6.  It was nice and cool out this morning - quiet, too.  I think the forecast was for rain, so there were very few people out.  There were even times on the backside of the great lawn that all I could hear was the sound of the breeze in the trees.  The solitude, cool breeze, thoughts of fun things to come this June, and Sofie's rambunctiousness gave me little bursts of euphoria - enough to keep me going through the week.  This week I have finals - ugh.  I'm going to try my UTMOST hardest to keep from thinking about next week when they're done and live in the PRESENT.  I've realized that there is almost always something that you have to do, but that you don't want to do or are dreading doing.  If I constantly fantasize about the minute that the event in question is over, I'll avoid experiencing the right now.  Usually the events in question aren't ever as bad as I think they're going to be, either.

Aside from all of that, we found out that, contrary to what we had thought, we will be bringing home little Bear instead of Loon!  Bear is a male - the other "high energy" pup.  11 days and he'll be coming home with Brian and I to join the family :)  Aside from all of that fun, I've got my NYRR (New York Road Runners) Women's Mini 10k next Saturday.  My goal is go run it in less than 43:30 - which is a bit of a stretch of a goal -  but I suppose what are goals if they're not stretches of your abilities?  You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.  Or, in the words of Sofie, "you don't eat 100% of the pigeons you don't chase!"

Have a great day and a great week!

Friday, June 1st, 2012

Good morning!  We're back at it.  Sofie is back to her usual self.  Her belly is all healed up and she's been romping around in Central Park again.  It's been stunning weather the past 2 or so days - not so hot - just sublime.  We've also been seeing tons of friends every day because everyone's been out with their dogs in the morning.  I swear it's tacked on like half an hour to my usual walk.  You should see Sofe right now, she's shamelessly begging me for my toast.  IT'S TOAST!! You won't even like it!!

Above you'll see I've attached the most recent pictures of the pup I think will be ours.  We're pretty sure that we're getting the female, but we we won't know for sure until this weekend.  This week was great - the last week of classes.  Next week are finals and then I can start work in Grégoire's lab!  That's right, you've heard correctly, I joined a lab!  It's too early to get into all of the details (I don't know them yet), but I think broadly I'll be working on trying to mathematically model the dynamics of immune responses to commensal versus pathogenic bacteria in the gut.  If you want to learn more about him, I've linked to his website at MSKCC below. 

http://www.mskcc.org/research/lab/gregoire-altan-bonnet

Have a fantastic day!  We're happy to be back!