Things of note from the week

1) I gave a stellar lab meeting on Wednesday. You can't handle all my data. Actually starting to see this story come to a conclusion, gotta get busy writing and schedule a committee meeting soon.

2) Puppy class is going very well. I am amazed at how much he has learned in such a short time. He is going to be the roll over champ (we had to pick a trick to teach our pup and due to a cute trick turned addiction with Miss Pen, we steered away from fetching). He's gotten a lot better about not pulling and is still a very sweet, snuggly, fella. I just can't believe how big he has gotten!

3) I currently am mentoring two undergraduate boys. It keeps me on my toes. They are both nice guys, but I definitely am starting to have a favorite. One is super sharp, super excited about research, and very careful. The other is incredibly enthusiastic, but I spend a lot of time trying to decipher his experiments to I can explain them to him... not cool. But trying to not get too biased.

4) Favorite undergrad also is introducing me to lots of cool music. So far my favorites are the Black Keys and Lissie. I'm cool again. Almost.

5) I've been making lots of changes to my diet (mostly all vegetarian, tons of fruits and veggies and crazy grains, hooray for chia seeds and quinoa). I feel I've reached a new peak when I am seriously considering nutritional yeast as a yummy alternative to Parmesan cheese. Maybe time for an intervention...

6) We went and saw the Bowerbirds at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Wednesday. Elizabeth arranged and we brought yummy sandwiches from Fosters Market and cold white wine. It was incredibly hot and sweaty, but I haven't been that happy in a while.

7) Having an Argentinian male in the lab makes this whole World Cup stuff much more exciting.

8) One lab member (crazy Canadian) left yesterday to start her postdoc at Harvard. I can't say I will really miss her, but it definitely is different around here. New postdoc arrives in July so very very soon.

9) I'm loving: weights and treadmills, only way to work out in this heat. Eating entire watermelons for dinner and being totally satisfied by it. Reading Russian literature (Dead Souls by Gogol), a habit of mine since I was determined to finish "War and Peace" one summer. My crazy long hair, it has a Farrah Fawcett thing going on today (hooray for showering at the gym in the morning) but I am kinda digging it.

10) Super stoked for Trent who is getting sent to Portugal for a few days to watch the cork harvest!! His blog Re-nest.com is sending him because he does all the eco-home stuff. So jealous, but very happy for him. He flies directly from Portugal to Indianapolis for a conference on scholarships... not as glamorous. Lucky fella.

Fun weekend ahead. Pool party tonight with some recent crew boys who are just now realizing they are not in college any more. Trail running with Amanda in the morning, bike shop, soccer games, then Deirdre's world famous Wimbleton Whites tennis party. Biking with the girls Sunday morning and then hopefully a whole lot of relaxing. Happy weekend to you all!