One Down..

My war with the mice is still ongoing - hopefully the warm weather will get some of them out, and then I can close things up a bit better next winter. It's been about 50f here the last few days. The snows melting. The lakes are starting to melt, but look awesome - I'll try to get a picture up tomorrow. I like to imagine that they are like a giant glass bottomed boat since the ice looks semi-transparent right now. I'm too scared to wander out on any of them at this point, although I did see a SledNeck race across Lower Saranac on his snowmobile yesterday. Here's some pictures of my latest "ops."


This was the scene that greeted me yesterday morning. But right next too it...

The little bastards had eaten the bait off one of the fancy traps without triggering it.

This mouse looks different from the first victim - maybe there's more than one species/morph/subspecies running around...Okay, enough grossness, here's some pics of children, Mom.


Every once in a while, they play real nice and quite like.

Sometimes Connor plays my bongos.

Ethan has the capability of sitting still, as he demonstrates for us here.

This was at the old apartment, Christmas time (when else...).

Ethan as a gingerbread boy, for the school musical.

Don't forget to leave lots and lots of comments - I need the contact while I'm sortin' away!

My Castle

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the exterior of the house. I had an 11:30 appointment with the doctor, so I had some daylight time. And it's not so testicle shattering cold outside anymore.

The third window to the left DOESN'T EXIST INSIDE OF THE HOUSE! I keep expecting to see Captain Howdy peeking through it when I'm outside at night.


Can you spot the trailer?

Our house obviously needs some TLC - a fresh coat of paint, some more insulation, maybe a new roof, we'll see. It will become clearer once the weather warms up. I think if we live here for very long at all, we'll eventually make an offer on the strip of property with the mobile home on it. What you can't see is that the trailer is actually two or three small mobile homes haphazardly run together. Did I mention that the current tenants like to scream obscene names at each other sometimes? Or that I can't figure out what the hell their familial relations to each other are? It's quite strange.


Here's part of the shop area. Yep.

And here's our big mud wallow - er, back yard!

Not pictured - crappy aluminum shed, crappy aluminum home next door.

I haven't seen the tax map, but I'm pretty sure that the yard goes all the way back to where the trees are denser.

Word.

Oh - the Pizza recipe. Make the pizza dough that's in The Joy of Cooking, only replace the water called for with beer. After dough has risen, remove enough to make a cheese pizza for a seven year old. Roll the rest out into a cast iron skillet, bake for 7 minutes ate 450, I think. The temp is in the cook book, man! Remove from oven, add delicious Alfredo sauce, mozzarella cheese, and strips of chicken that have been sauteed in a bit of olive oil, lots of garlic, and some assorted Italian herbs. Bake another 7-10 minutes. Pull that SOB out of the oven and top (heap) with diced tomatoes, diced onions, and some jalapenos, bake for another 5 minutes or so. You know, until the cheese looks like it's having a killer time.

Word again.

The house that we built...Or bought.

This is the treadmill that appeared after work on Friday outside of the house that we built...Or bought.

I know, we get more yuppie every day. But regular exercise with two young kids is hard enough when you can do it at home.

This is the pizza that I made, that necessitated the need for things like treadmills that appear outside of the garage at the house that we built...Or bought.

It was easily twice as good as it looks - Cindy makes delicious beer crust.

This is the wine, that I bought at the store, that went so well with our deep dish pizza that makes us want to buy treadmills that will show up outside on a Friday evening at the house that we built...Or bought.

This is the child, that slept through the pizza and wine, who is fascinated with the treadmill, that was delivered on Friday of last week, outside of the house that we built, or bought.


This is the wife, who drank the wine (yay), who gave birth to the sleeping child, and prepared to stab the delicious deep dish that I made, so I could have fuel to run on a treadmill, that came to the house that we built...Or bought.

Watch out!


Oh yeah, and here's a nice picture of Cindy and Ethan.



And the mice are still winning.

The mice are winning.

I'd like to be able to say I captured these bastards:

But alas, the traps have been empty - they can eat the bait off of them, and even spring them, but I've caught no more mice. The one I did catch was moved, post humously, by his cannibilizing family members. Gross. I want these disease carrying vermin gone!

I saw some deers on the way home from work yesterday, and contrary to what the guys in Twisp told me, I can now say that the deer in this area ARE bigger than the mice. Barely.

In honor of the weekend, here's some pictures of the kids involved in delinquent behavior!

The truth about this picture - it was Christmas time and Cindy was making rumballs.


The truth about this picture - A couple of days ago Cindy was having a cold one, and when she went to put it down, Connor attacked. I told her she shouldn't have drank so much while she was pregnant!

Thanks for stopping by!

TB Day

Here's pictures of Coffee Compat Dr Pete talkin' bout TB:


Sorry Peter, I know they're pretty lousy pictures...

I didn't want to get close and irritate the people that are more important than me, and the backlighting due to the snow field outside of the large windows in the library was horrendous.

We've had mice in the shop - I know this because they chewed into a few garbage bags we had out their, and I had a dead one in the trap this morning. But Cindy showed me an onion, from the pantry, that had been gnawed on. Now I must terminate with extreme prejudice...

Maybe tomorrow I'll have a greusome picture of my dead quarry to post.

I'll definitely get back to pictures of the kids tomorrow!

Luminex, Bane of my Existence

Hi, today is World TB day, so at work we had a "Tea and Brie" function. They had neither tea nor brie, but they did have coffee and a nice assortment of cheeses. My Coffee Compatriot, Dr. Peter Sayles, gave a talk. I, being a lowly lab-tech, couldn't stay to hear his entire presentation, but I did stay long enough to take a couple of pictures. I'll post them later - I've used up my (second) monthly Flickr allotment, and so will have to wait to post them until I get home and can use Picasa.

On a related boring (to you!) lab topic, here is another of the machines I use with some regularity:

When turned on, it has blue lights! Behind that piece of $#!* you can see two of our benchtop analyzers. Maybe I'll describe them at a later date. Boo.

This instrument - A Luminex 100 - does much the same thing as a flow cytometer - it excites a flourochrome with a laser and reports back to the user what it's seeing (in a nutshell...). Instead of cells, however, it looks at microspheres that are attached to individual molecules - usually cytokines. It basically does the same thing an ELISA does, if you know what that is. The machine itself is a cynch to use - an ape could use it. But someone dumped a new software package on my desk a while back that's supposed to streamline things and make this thing even easier to use. Problems with this:

-New software has NO FREAKING INSTRUCTION MANUAL!

-I can't print from this computer, so I can't, as yet, compare data gathered with new software to data gathered with old software.

-Somebody misplaced my Excel Macro that I improved (okay, okay - the twins helped me out more than a little bit) and have used for EASY data analysis in the past - so I had to hunt around on the server today to find my macro.

-The old software/analysis method worked just fine. If it ain't broke...

So that's my bitch for the day. Now, I know only maybe three or four of the people that read my blog will have any idea what I'm talking about. Peter may even be able to correct some of my misinformation...

I'll be back tomorrow with more...I have plenty of pictures downloaded that I haven't posted yet...I just get a little bored with posting pictures of the kids and not having any excitement or adventure to share along with them...because the lab *is* exciting, and adventurous...just not while I'm there...

Wednesday, 4 pm. Word

I sit here boredly sorting some tired cells from populations that don't exist. At least the sample hasn't clogged our nozzle again. Stupid lung samples. Here's the moo-chine in question:

That's a BD FACSVantage with FACSDiva option. Roar.

That's right, Diva is the name of the software. We even have a big sign on our door that says "Diva." So the joke I get to hear now and again is "Which one of you two is the Diva in here?" Nyuck nyuck nyuck. The two big blue tubes are a *patented* ventilation hood that keeps Simon and I from getting infected with a disease that would be very harmful to us. If we were of the muridae family, that is. Lately we've been doing some interesting stuff. Calcium flux experiments that utilize a UV laser and dyes that change color depending on the level of Ca++ being fluxed. Fluxin' Calcium! And retuning a laser. Normally our primary laser emits 488nm light - a nice azure color. But we had to retune it the other day to 515, a nice grassy color. This means we have to change optics - mirrors, filters, etc - too, which I find exciting, for some reason. Most of you probably don't know what I'm talking about...so I'll come back to the lab some other time. Maybe with pictures of Simon and I using the assorted equipment.

The weather has been warmer - ~40F - the last few days. So snow is looking kinda slushy. I can't freakin' wait for daylight savings to begin so I can have evenings again.

Here's some pictures of the "Tricycle Motor." (A name I indirectly learned from Keith)


When I left this morning, he was suckin' on a Capri Sun, happy as a clam!


Hello, is their anyone in here?

You can almost see his erupting little teeth...


To me it looks like he's getting ready to talk to the dinosaurs...

He just falls asleep sometimes. And then we do too.

I'll try to remember to bring the camera in to work every day so that I don't leave a cyberspace void in everyone's lives that my little corner of the blogosphere normally fills.

Snow Country

Well, the weather has been "warmer" here the last few days. A degree or two above freezing even, so the snow is slowly beginning to melt. We still have a good bit, though. Here's a picture of Ethan on our back deck that I took Thursday.


And that's with some meltage!

Not much exciting has been happening - I took Thursday off to go to the doctor and to watch the kids while Cindy went to a parent/teacher conference. And we've all been trying to get rid of this stupid cold. I think it keeps mutatuing and reinfecting everyone...

On another note, here's what I have to look forward too:


Mischief!

But sometimes he wears himself out, and just crashes. Cindy took this picture a week or so ago...


She said he'd played hard all morning, and then just laid down and went to sleep.

I wish I had more to talk about - maybe next time I'll tell you all how I became the first man to get a team of horses up bear mountain!

The Proof is Here

To return to form with pictures of the kids, here's two that will enlighten everyone.


Here's a pic of Scot..er, Ethan after stealing Cindy's glasses.

My kid is smarter than you.


Too bad Bradley Nowell died eight years before the kid was born...

As evidenced by the rock t-shirt, my kid is cooler than you.

So. On my lunch break, I went and bought my first power tools. Here. I know, I know - 18v cordless stuff isn't the most gung-ho stuff I could get. But it's not as if I'm compensating for anything either. And it was inexpensive. And it will make for fewer swear words during all the home improvement projects I have.

And finally, here's a picture that makes me smile/laugh. Smaff.


This is some old guy that lives down the block. No wait, it's Connor.

If I was better with computers, I would have gotten rid of the weird crop job that picture has given itself.

You stay classy, planet earth!

Train Across the Plains

Hard to believe, but almost a year ago we (Connor was still an intrahuman) hopped a train and headed out East. What a surreal experience that was - boarding a sleeping train in the middle of the night to leave everything we knew behind. Took a few days to sink in. The train system in this country, ahem, sucks. It was cramped, dirty and took too long - many of the Europeans I work with verify that the US is way behind when it comes to rail transit. But there were some nice things to see from the 'ol Amtrak. We saw rivers, mountains, antelope, turkeys, vultures, and more than one interesting small town. I even saw my first drive through liquor store right next to one of the train yards. Here's some pictures:


I believe I took this picture on one side or another of Whitefish, Montana.


Starting into the plains - I believe that's the Tetons in the background?

Once we were over the great divide and hit Eastern Montana, there wasn't much to see for a while...


This is Eastern Montana or maybe somewhere in the Dakotas. The view from the train, whilst in the plains, made me insane.

The train had a meal car - expensive, terrible food. The train had an observation car - crowded, smelled funny. The train had a lounge car - mostly empty. We spent a lot of time in the lounge car. Card games, books, and a little guitar pickin' were all we had for fun. Here's some more pictures!


My lovely wife, 7-8 mo's prego, with me in the background, on the train, not in Spain or in the rain.

Cindy's a brave woman, eh?


Ethan looks out the window onto Montana, after an expensive and crappy breakfast.

He's sure grown a lot in the last year...

So, we rode the train to Chicago. We had enough time, between our switch, to meet up with Cindy's cousins Carol and Georgia for a very delicious lunch, and a cab accident. Excitement! Adventure!

We rushed back on the train in Chicago - more crowded, smellier. I fell asleep in Toledo, with no one in the seat next to me. This is how I awoke the following morning, just outside of Rochester.



The, erm, "gentleman" you can almost see next to me there, had fallen asleep watching pirated DVD's. For shame. I must have seen "Hellboy" 13 times as he would fall asleep, wake up, restart, repeat. He finally came to about 7-ish, and proceeded to knock back cognac, frappucino's, Budweisers, and Popeye's chicken. Needless to say, we had an interesting conversation. We got off the train in Albany, had a small to-do with luggage, and then drove on up to the Adirondacks, phew!

What I did this weekend.

Went to Plattsburg this weekend - A town that's probably no bigger than Covington, but as it's the closest place that has a Sam's Club, K-Mart, Bed Bath and Beyond and other assorted capitalistic necessities, can get pretty busy during the weekend. We stocked up at Sam's club, and then went into TJ Maxx so Ethan could embarrass us half to tears, and to pick up some much needed clothes. And a picture frame which I broke shortly after returning home. The other thing of note with Plattsburg is that it's close enough to the border that some of the signs in town are written in English and French.

We also went to Lake Placid, but didn't get anything much done, as Ethan was again at top form. Oh well - I already knew what was their. There's a couple of cool book shops, and couple of nice wine stores, and thousands of yuppie tourists to get in the way.

We've also had a recent bout of some virus infecting everyone. Ethan brought it home late last week, but since he has the immune system of a demi-god was only a little sniffly for about a day. Then Connor got it and was pretty miserable for about 48 hours. Now Cindy and I have it, and I think we'll be sick for a couple more days at least. My sinuses might explode.

Sorry for the boring post, I'll post some pictures if I get home feeling alright. Don't forget to leave comments - Mom, I'm looking at you!

Woo Hoo

Cindy just called (I'm working late). Our tax return posted today - about a week after we filed it. E-file and direct deposit rock! I'm gonna go buy a fur coat!

The State I'm In

It seems I've used up all of my alloted monthly upload limit on Flickr, so it may be a few days before I post pictures again (after today, that is). Anybody know how much space Ofoto gives out per month?

Anywho, since just about nobody has had a chance to get back and visit us yet, I thought I'd include a few pictures of local scenery and small town fauna.

We have a deck on the third floor at work - in the spring and summer quite a few of us have our lunches/coffee breaks on it. I took a picture of the lake from it last summer:


Today, for contrast, I took this picture:


The ice on the lakes up here is 18 inches thick - or so I've been told. One of the local attractions a month ago was a massive ice palace, made from blocks of ice cut from Lake Flower. And the lakes froze quick, too. It wasn't at all like Eastern Washington where they slowly froze over - one day they were clear, and the next almost no open water (now there's none).

Among other things that excite me about living in a small town, are barn yard animals. No, not like that. A day or so after we got off the train back here, I pulled over on the way to Lake Placid and snapped a picture of these beauties.


I got some weird looks from other people who happened to be driving by at the time. I didn't expect them to last much longer than Thanksgiving, but here it is March, and they're still around. Although everytime we see them, they're huddled up in the cold with their heads tucked under their wings. I think my joke about the poor turkeys whose heads have fallen off has gotten a little old, too.

Well, I'll put some pictures up of the lab sometime, and pics from last year, including our train ride. For now, here's a picture of Connor to keep grandparents happy!

Eh?

Not much of an update - I just want to encourage anyone checking this out to leave a comment. I'm curious to know who's been checkin' it out. Word.

-B-

Got a Topic?

So, while this blog is mostly to showcase pictures of
my progeny and the goings on in our life, I need
interesting topics. I'd thought about posting a
rambling discourse on unusual pet products - but Cindy
wisely convinced me that it wasn't as witty as I
thought and was a bit long and overly informative.
That doesn't mean I won't post it in the future, but
for now you're all off the hook. Anywho...

A month and a half ago (Jan 22) was Ethan's seventh
birthday. We hosted the first and last kid party we
have experienced since Cindy and I were children.
The baby talked me into retreating to the bedroom and
sleeping through most of the thing. But I was present
when the food was around.
Here's a picture of the cake:


Thats no moon...Cindy did the baking, but I did the decoratin!

Obviously the theme for the day was Star Wars. There were foam lightsabers - which hurt much less than real lightsabers when one is struck in the gonads several times with them - and other Jedi related paraphenelia.

Here's the happy kids! HAPPY!

The two twins used to live downstairs from us. Their parents smoke. A lot. I don't know why I added that. I don't know any of the other kids, but I like how Ethan looks very SciFi/Fantasy novel coverish in that picture.

And finally, I will leave you with another picture of bathing children:

The baby looks happy, but Ethan is NOT AMUSED! Please disregard the baby's junk...

Okay, I think I've bored everyone enough for a day.

B-Wizz out.

Are You Regular?

Let's just see if I'm as good about posting regularly when spring comes, and I can get out of the house for a while. I like having a cold winter -it's so different from the Seattle area's constant drizzle. But this year we don't have any sporting equipment to get out and enjoy. There must be half a dozen ski and snowshoe trails between work and home too. But come spring, I'll most likely be out of the house more - but the pictures I do post will hopefully be more exciting too.

Speaking of winter here in the ADK's, on my lunch break the other day I drove into town to fill the car, eat, etc. On my way past the junior high, I noticed the kids out running laps - in snow shoes. And at Ethan's school, they put the kids into x-country skis as part of gym class. How cool is that? And I had to play speedaway and soak 'em when I was a kid

Anywho, to combat boredom, we attempt to clean the house - not the easiest thing to do with two wild animals roaming around - or we make things up. Yesterday Cindy came up with an unusual job for Ethan to do. It may have been for punishment. While she lay on the couch and read (okay, she did have a baby attached to her at the time also), she had Ethan give her a pedicure. Here's a pic...



So if anyone wants to come out to Upstate NY, and you feel like a pedicure, I've got a seven year old that will oblige you. Prices to be paid in LEGO's.

And as entertainment earlier, we let the baby beat me with a wooden spoon.



For some reason, the baby loves that big spoon. He whacks me with it, chews on it, and even plays the bongos that Keith and Natalia got for me a few years back with it! I wish I had toys that fascinating...

Happy, Er, Festivus?

Okay, so now that I've made a few people aware of my recent decision to become a web identity, time for some updatage for those of you I haven't talked to in a while. You know, the sort of thing responsible people do in Christmas cards each year.

We recently bought a house - many thanks to my father in law for playing the role of mortgage company - about 20 miles away from work. Things being what they are here in the north woods, 20 miles equates to about a 20 minute commute. So living a ways away is A-OK. We got an older, three bedroom home. Lots of square feet, and lots of home improvement projects. Any one care to come lend a hand? It's got a nice big backyard for the kids and other assorted wildlife, and perhaps a garden and pets of some variety. Right now, however, we've got about a foot of snow on the ground and the highest temp in the last few weeks - today - is 30f.

Work's been good. I'm doing/learning interesting things and 95% of the people I work with are pleasant to be around. I'll put some pics of life around the Institute up some time for all to see.

Well, that covers about all the excitement in recent memory. Here's some pics of Connor, and maybe next time I'll put up some pics of the house.



Does the fact that he's eating a book about a cat mean he'll grow up to like Chinese food?



So there I was, playing my git-tar, when the next thing I know I've been roped to some squirmin' varmint!