a little bit of this....a little bit of that

First of all.   Here's a dose of squabbit-y cuteness:

As it turns out, they were having a pooping contest.  Stolie won.  Not so cute...being that is my lap they are sitting on....being they can produce approximately 50 pellets a piece in under 20 minutes, if they put their furry little minds to it.   The boy-who-would-rather-not-be-mentioned constantly reminds me how adorable they would be if only they could learn to control their bowels.   I work with crap pretty much on a daily basis, so it doesn't effect me as much.  It is unfortunate that I can not study their crap.  It takes me weeks to collect the amount of mouse crap they provide in a hour.

In other non-feces related news...

I booked a birthday trip to Atlanta.... and it was free!   Apparently, I was sitting on a pile of United Miles that were about to expire.   I had actually assumed I had already lost them.  Thankfully, United left me a voice mail letting me know that I had a month to use them.    The boy-who-would-rather-not-be-mentioned is in Atlanta currently for work, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him and also visiting me Emory friends and EATING.   Mainly, eating.  I have a list of restaurants I must go to.  Way more then a normal person would go to in 4 days.   I have a super human stomach.  I can handle it.   The trip is a month a way and I'm already planning my entire trip around meals, snacks and adult beverages.    

In the PhD hell arena:   the  abstract that I have been putting off writing, that was due on Tuesday, that has been giving me panic attacks around 3am for the last 4 nights...is not due until March 15th.  woot!    Now, if I had checked the website I would have had this information days ago.   Sigh.  I am still presenting at lab meeting on Tuesday and all I have done so far is about 3 slides featuring the always stunning, Belle and Stolie.   My goal, is to convince them I've gone crazy, so they are scared to question or criticize. My original approach was tears and an occasional irrational hissy fit..   Tears which are usually my best defensive and offensive tool were surprisingly ineffective.  The boss actually mentioned he misses the hissy fits...he has taken their absence to mean I have lost interest in my projects.     

EDIT:  Lab Meeting Cancelled!   Happy week!  Now only if the exam tomorrow and the experiments on Wed. and Friday would also magically disappear.

AND the most exciting news I have for today... my week long plague has finally lifted.  I am once again almost healthy!  Yay immune system... thanks for finally waking up and coming to work.  Slacker.

Hot dogs and babies

This week's Iron Craft Challenge Theme was "hometown".   I asked the boy-who-would-rather-not-be mentioned (but is irritated when I don't), what first comes to his mind when I say "Chicago".   He said "hot dog". Fair enough.   My brother (or his wifey rather) is about to pop out my first nephew any day now and I've been meaning to do something with this white onesie I picked up at a baby consignment sale awhile ago... so Chicago hot dog oensie it was.

First, I looked up what exactly a Chicago hot dog contained...

Then I sketched this design while I should have been paying attention to the finer points of the regulation of CHO metabolism (I really should have been paying better attention... I barely got a B on that stupid test.  a B!)

Next I busted out my blue chalk, embroidery kit and  stitched away.  I attempted to make a stitch sampler of sorts, but I really don't embroider and know like 3 stitches.   During my time on the couch laboring away (again, while I should have been studying or thesis-writing), the following conversation occurred (note it's paraphrased... I have a horrible memory):

boy-who-would-rather-not-be mentioned:  "are you sewing that by hand?"

me:  "Yes,  I'm embroidering.  Sort of."

boy-who-would-rather-not-be mentioned:  *sigh*   "that's just another reason I have to marry you"

me:  "why?  So I can embroider your name on your underpants?"

boy-who-would-rather-not-be mentioned: "No.  It's a valuable life skill."

Hrm.   Maybe if I was born at least 40 years earlier.  I think he forgot the fact that I'm 1) awesome and 2) A kick-ass scientist that is going to invent a cure all super drug and and support him (or a younger version of him) someday.

Anyway this is what I came up with:

I'm pleased overall... although I would have done the tomatoes differently... I was attempting some loopy knot stitch, that didn't quite work.

Read more about Iron Craft here: http://theironcraft.blogspot.com

See all the other awesome projects here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1525156@N25/

Meet the Squabbits!

Stolie and Belle...Mommy calls us a "bonded pair".  We think that means we are
best friends!  We do everything together and love to snuggle!

I'm Belle (Short for Belvedere)!   I'm tiny, have lots of energy and like to explore and destroy things!

I'm Stolie!   I'm a scaredy-chinichi.  My favorite things are eating , sleeping and pooping!

I am Riotkitte!

Who is Riotkitte?

Riotkitte is an amazingly awesome female in her early 30's who lives in a cornfield and pretends to do science in hopes of someday leaving said cornfield as Dr. Riotkitte.   In reality, she does not like science all that much, but that may be the result of last year PhD-itis.   She has lofty dreams of moving somewhere warm, where snow is non-existent, meeting her prince charming and developing a miracle drug that will both save people and make her and the previously mentioned prince millions.   She will then buy an island and adopt a lot of cats.  A whole lot of cats.  As in enough cats to earn her a spot on Animal Hoarders.

Until then, to pass the time and delay impending insanity, she has begrudgingly taken up running (ran her first 1/2 marathon in October and is training unenthusiastically for her 2nd in April),  is participating in an online craft challenge, Iron Craft, through which she is  producing a plethora of kindergarten grade products, and has adopted two little squabbit babies which are really squabbit ladies being that they are over 5 years old.   Despite their old age or maybe as a result of it, she spends the majority of her free time scooping up poop and hay which they fling out of their cage just to spite her.

Miss Riotkitte also has created a hand written 10 page document on a yellow legal pad in purple ink containing her life to do list.   One item was to run a 1/2 marathon (check!) and another is to blog about her progress in completing her list (check?).

Riotkitte intends to keep this fairly updated with bucket list success stories, tutorials for Iron Crafts and painful recounts of her PhD experience.

But Riotkitte intends to do a lot of things.