Got a team? Will play DI ball.

This is a pretty interesting piece about small colleges making the jump to DI basketball. Belmont University is just down the road from Vanderbilt.

Hansbrough

Did you ever wonder what does Tyler look like doing a 360 dunk? Check this out.

News from the Hill

Despite a dismal showing by all accounts, the Tar Heel men's basketball team improved to 10-0 by beating Nicholls State last night. The game was not televised but when Roy says that "his goal for practice Thursday would be "to see how many guys I can make throw up," you have to imagine he was not thrilled about the effort by the team.

On an unrelated note, there is this story about three male football players at UNC that were sexually assaulted. The story is bazaar, and considering that nobody was hurt, somewhat entertaining from a ridiculous point of view. I guess I am glad I never hung out with that crowd.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Toilet Seats Up!

At work there are two toilet rooms, both unixex, consisting of a toilet and sink. There are about 25 men and women that use the toilets. As a general rule I have been good about putting the seat down after I am done going #1. Today it dawned on me, while using the bathroom upstairs where a sign was posted asking guys to put the seat down, that this policy is a bunch of crap. It takes as much effort for us to put the seat up as it does to women to put the seat down. Besides, I am no more willing to touch a seat that was used by someone before me to smear the toilet seat with a bunch of diarrhea. So, from now on, I am going to follow through on my belief that men and women are created equal and start leaving the seat up.

This rant was brought to you by Title IX.

The Beatles

While driving into work this morning, Nat and I heard this story on NPR. My first thought was whether the mothers had participated in fertility treatments since these tend to increase the chances of having multi-child births. My second thought was about having to care for quadruplets, and I must say that it was four times as intimidating as the thought of having a single kid, especially one that is born with a tuft of hair and a mustache. I guess with the both of us getting older and with some of our close friends starting to have kids, it is only natural to start thinking about having children.

If that paragraph is scaring you all, I want to get to why I am writing this entry. Soon after the story on NPR was done I told Natalie that if we ever had quadruplet boys we should name them after the Beatles. Interestingly enough, she agreed. So, if we ever happen to have four kids at once we will be welcoming into the world John, Paul, George, and Ringo Mainou.

Raising Carolina

In case you missed it, and I am sure most of you did, Carolina's basketball team started their 6 game road trip this weekend in Las Vegas where they won the Las Vegas Invitational by taking down Old Dominion followed by BYU in back-to-back nights. I missed the Old Dominion game on behalf of the game being broadcast on ESPN-U but I stayed up last night to watch the BYU game. Unfortunately for every pet and female in our house, I had forgotten how involved I get when watching games, especially when things aren't going well. Nonetheless, here are my top 3 and bottom three observations on the game last night:

Top 3
1. Alex Stepheson. In 16 minutes, Stepheson played great D, collected a team high 9 boards, 3 points, a pair of dimes, and a blocked shot. Not too shabby for a guy coming off the bench and a guy that most people probably haven't heard of.

2. Danny Green. He can be unnerving at times with his recklessness, especially shooting the ball awfully quick, but Danny is always busting his butt on the court and more often than not comes up with solid numbers (14 points, 3 steals, 2 boards, a block, and a dime in 21 minutes).

3. Ellington. Natalie loves the guys good lucks, Vitale loves his form, and I love that he keeps on coming through in the clutch with great outside shooting. Maybe missing that shot against G-town last year will end up being a blessing in that it has helped the maturation process of Wayne as basketball player. 15 points to go along his 6 boards is solid.

Bottom 3
1. Deon Thompson. Replacing Wright wasn't going to be easy, but in the two games I have watched Deon has not been good. He started the game well with a steal and some solid D, but it was all downhill from there. He ended up with 7 points, zero boards, 4 personal fouls in 20 minutes and was overpowered on D and looked lost at times. Maybe losing all that weight is leading to Deon getting pushed around. I just hope his sweet turnaround shot comes back and his D shapes up before the new years wraps around.

2. PG play. I'm probably nitpicking but Bobby played 29 minutes and ended up with 1 dime and Q, who I thought played well, ended up with no dimes in 11 minutes. Now, part of this was that BYU prevented the team from running for most of the game, but Roy seemed frustrated with the guards inability to drive for a good chunk of the game. Lawson is the main guy here, but it sure would be nice to get some depth here to give him a breather during tough games.

3. D is for no defense. Some more nitpicking, but it sure felt that when the team came out of the locker rooms in the 2nd half the defensive intensity was just not there. The BYU big man Plaisted ended up with 24 points and a ridiculous 17 boards and overpowered the Heels inside for a good chunk of the game. It is a good thing the team ran out of gas in the end or this could have been ugly.

In the end, I am thrilled the team pulled out a win against a solid team even though Lawson sat just about the entire game. I would also expect the Heels to have strong 2nd halves for most of the year. We saw this last year with teams that lack the depth to keep up with a very deep Heels team. However, to make a solid run in March Deon, Bobby, and Q are going to have to pitch in a little more and the D is going to have to maintain their intensity throughout the games. That said the season is young and the improved outside shooting, especially from Ellington, on top of the ability of the team to win close games is a great sign for things to come.

Next up: at Ohio St. (3-1) Wednesday November 28th at 9:00 Eastern.

Iona dunk on you

At least that is part of what UNC and the gang did to Iona last night. If you want to see two examples check this Youtube clip. The only downside is that it looks like Tyler got away with a walk, but hey, you can't be too picky right? In the end this is the way you want to win these early season games, that is, getting everyone in the area biscuits (100+ points) and getting everyone on offense involved, including the crowd.

I was not lucky enough to watch the game as we don't have ESPNU and I was a little too caught up watching the Redskins-Cowboys game. Even so, following the score online and watching the highlights it looked like a nice early season game.

Next up: South Carolina State on Tuesday Nov. 20th at 7:30 pm at Chapell on the Hill.

And we are off...

In case you missed it, my Carolina Tar Heels started the 2007-2008 season with a somewhat shaky win against unranked Davidson College. While most people will be surprised to hear that the #1 ranked team in the country struggled against Davidson, it turns out that Davidson actually has a very solid team. They won 29 games last season, a team that lost to Maryland in the first round of the NCAAs, and returned all of their starters.

Needless to say, the Tar Heels didn't look particularly sharp in the season opener. Three good things and three not so good things about the game from my inexperienced point of view:

The Good
1. Wayne Ellington, Nat's favorite player and now sporting a new number (2 last season, 22 this season), looked sharp shooting from the outside and could be the clutch outside shooter that will prevent teams from collapsing on Tyler.

2. Tyler had a double-double (12 points, 12 boards) by the first half.

3. Hit shots in the clutch. Last season the team struggled to win close games. It was blowout or naught.

The Bad
1. Deon Thompson looked overmatched in replacing Brandan Wright. Wright was drafter in the first round of the NBA draft after a solid Freshman season and now Deon gets the starting spot next to Tyler. Unfortunately, Deon looked a little shaky and nothing like the guy with the sweet turnaround shot. Expect him to rebound from this though.

2. Ty Lawson looked nothing like his old self until the end of the game. Lawson had no assists, which is bad coming from your PG, and didn't start using his explosive speed to drive to the basket until late in the game. Bobby Frasor replaced Lawson in the 1st half and did a wonderful job.

3. FG shooting in the 2nd half. The Heels shot 9-26 (34.6%) in the 2nd half and 4 of 13 from behind the arc. Tyler had 2 points in the 2nd half due in part to Davidson collapsing on him and in part due to him not getting the ball enough. This translated in shots further away from the basket that were just not falling.

Either way, the win was against a solid team and you have to just learn from your mistakes and move on.

Next up: Iona (0-2) Sunday November 18th at 6:00 pm Eastern in Chapel Hill.

Fall Colors

This one is a series of shots starting last weekend and up to this morning of a tree that is right off our yard.

Remember the Titans?

If you are David Carr, the answer is likely no. This past Sunday Nat and I enjoyed a beautiful fall Sunday by going to downtown Nashville to watch the Tennessee Titans play the Carolina Panthers at LP field. We were there thanks to Nat getting me the pair of tickets as our first anniversary gift. The sunny and cool Sunday afternoon was perfect for football watching even if we were seating in row JJ of the upper deck. One advantage of our seats was that we were among the closest to these guys before the game started:

The highlight of the game had to be the level of stink with which the Panthers played, in particular their QB David Carr. Carr was the first overall pick by the Houston Texans (love that Canadian site ref by the way) not to long ago and all the sacking he took there clearly has created a mush of a brain that prevents him from throwing the ball before getting clocked by the opposing defense. Just in case you missed it, we took a picture of Carr getting sacked. I can only hope one of you had the Titans defense in your fantasy team.

Yearning for simpler times

My dad's 3 week visit expired today. He came out here on my suggestion that it would do him good to get out of his apartment and spend some time out here in good ol' Nashville. I had warned him that on weekdays Nat and I would be busy at work during the day, but I figured we would be able to do enough stuff in the evenings and weekend for him not to be bored. In the end, I think he ended up being more on the bored side than anything.

I am sure that it was refreshing for him to get out of his apartment and visit our new house, but after a few days being landlocked here that feeling must have faded. On top of that, our first weekday after he landed Phoebe decided to be an escape artist and was running, with Stella, out in the neighborhood without dad noticing. If that wasn't bad enough, our psychotic neighbor called Nat, who was at a meeting at the time, twice and left voice messages saying that our dogs had been running wild for 2 hours. As we have no home phone line, I drove home preoccupied about our dogs getting hit by a car or getting lost. When I got home the girls were back inside with my dad, who was incredibly calm. Me being me, I vented that I had driven home worried sick and asked him how could he let such a thing happen? No better way to welcome dad to our house than to reprimand him on his third day here.

Fortunately the rest of the stay was very much low key, maybe too low. With him not being a big fan of the outdoors, partly due to him not being the quickest on his feet anymore, our weekend activities were somewhat limited to watching football on weekends, which was fun but nonetheless involved staying in the house, or venturing out to go grab something to eat or to run to the grocery store. On top of that we had a solid week of rain that limited the daily activities. In sum, his 3 week visit included a lot of the same activities that he has at home with the exception that he had us and the girls to spend time with.

Now that he is gone I am able to reflect, as often happens, on how I could have done things better. While the trip to the Korean restaurant was fun, the drastic change in his diet definitely did not do him much good. The Hibachi visit to a local restaurant would have been better if the place hadn't sucked so bad (stay away from Toyama in Nashville). He seemed to enjoy making a paella for the three of us last Wednesday and oddly enough one of my favorite times of the visit was this morning. While I was attempting to balance our checkbook we spent a solid 30 minutes talking about a multitude of things. Now that I think about it, my favorite part of the whole trip was the frequent chit-chats we had.

One huge downside to growing old is that your parents also do so. Sometimes they age and show signs of aging before you are emotionally and financially ready for that change to happen. I still feel that I did the most growing up when he had his stroke during graduate school and my sisters and I had to scramble to get him into a hospital, take care of him, and pay some of his medical bills. Thankfully my sisters werein a better spot to do so. The stroke debacle also brought to front and center the fact that my dad is not the perfect being I looked up to when I was little. The notion of your parents being all knowing and perfect evaporates with the passing
of time.

Nonetheless, as I waited for my dad to make it past security at the airport I couldn't help but feel nostalgia for those times when all it would take to make me happy was nothing more than a little chit chat with him about something as simple as the weather. Even if those times were early that morning.

Politiks

Here's a quick questionnaire to help you find your way through the early maze of candidates out there and get you warmed up for Indecision 2008. I also played at the end with the "sliders" that allow you to weigh the issues you value most.

Although I can't vote my top 3 were:
Biden
Hilary
Obama

If you haven't had enough election stuff, take a peak at Colbert's column in yesterday's edition of the NY Times.

Question of the month

Here's a clue for a special person:

"It's not my anus."

My guess is that he'll know the answer.

The smell of basketball

One of my favorite things about the fall, amongst the turning and falling of the leaves and the arrival of cooler weather, is the start of college basketball season. One thing that is almost inevitable after spending any meaningful amount of time in Chapel Hill is that you become completely aware of when basketball starts. If you hate basketball, you dread this time of the year because everyone around you is constantly talking about the local teams. If you love basketball, you love it because you are constantly talking about your local team.

Even now, from several hundred miles away, I can't help but feel excited for the start of a new basketball season. A basketball post can only be finished by saying:

Go Heels!

No forgiveness

One aspect of science that is sometimes hard to swallow is that it can be very unforgiving. At least that is what I tell myself when I either screw up an experiment or when experiments don't work out my way. The way I see it, if the experiment is well set up and executed you will get something out of it. Now, more often than not you end get a result that is either negative or does not fit your model and as such you don't know what to interpret it. The downside to research is that no matter how hard you try, and no matter how hard you wish things to work in your favor, if your experimental setup is flawed odds are against you.

Thankfully there are occasions when we get lucky and get a surprising results out of flawed experiments, or experiments that where the scientist made a mistake, that point us in the right direction. I actually think that this element of science is not recognized enough by us scientists. You have to be smart enough to see lightning strike and learn what to do with it, but in the end the initial discovery was pure chance.

On the other hand, there are days like today where the scientists just screws up the experiment beyond recognition. In the armed forces this is called F.U.B.A.R.

Alobar

I like to think that I am not alone in my lack of understanding of death. I have some feelings about it (e.g. I don't believe in the afterlife) but I am nowhere close to coming to terms with death. When I was reading that Jason Ray piece on ESPN I especially took notice of this entry in Jason's journal:

"1.) people acknowledge death and live toward it.
2.) people choose to ignore death and distance themselves away from it."

I found this passage interesting because I have always felt that I gravitate towards both. That is, while I acknowledge the finality of life I try to distance myself from it. A good example of this is our dogs. Every now and again I catch myself petting Stella or Phoebe and knowing that I am likely to outlive them and that I will have to deal with the hardships that are associated with the death of a loved one. When I think about my girls not being around it really pains me, even if I understand that it is just how life goes.

One downside to not believing in the afterlife is the realization that this is all I get. There is no getting together with my loved ones or hanging out with the big man or being born again as a plant or whatever. To put it in geeky terms, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). This creates a bit of a paradox in that you want to live life to the fullest (carpe diem) but you want to do that while being a responsible human being and hopefully while creating something that, even if it is in the smallest of ways, contributes something to the human race.

While all of this sounds very deep, I am also one to be more than happy to sit around watching TV. Part of it is that after long days at work I find it rewarding to just sit back and relax and watch TV with Natalie by my side. We can chat about whatever we are watching while also being able to shut down the brain a little.

I know this means that I am a confused individual, which I am, but in the end you can't think about the big picture stuff every breathing minute of your life or you'll drive yourself crazy. So, while it is possible that one day I will regret all the time I spent watch my favorite teams eke out a win, today I am more than happy to do so with Natalie, Phoebe, and Stella by my side while Emmitt sleeps away on the red chair.

PS- Alobar is a character in Jitterbug Perfume, one of my favorite books by Tom Robbins. In the book Alobar tries to cheat death.

Jason Ray

Pretty good story by ESPN on Jason Ray. Jason played Ramses for UNC before getting hit during the NCAA tournament by a car.

Late [afternoon] with Roy

Today signifies the start of college basketball season. For the past 5 years this meant something to look forward too, especially with my maligned Cowboys not being all that good for the past...oh 10 years or so.

I have nothing much else to report after spending my day at the Vascular Biology Training Program retreat. I just wanted to wish the boys in blue, Carolina Blue, the best of luck in the upcoming season.

Go Heels!

Some Mexicans...

Sometimes when you see one of your fellow countrymen do something absolutely, positively dumb you just shake your head and say: "Why couldn't you be Nicaraguan." This guy thought taking a shortcut in a fairly popular marathon was a good idea. I mean, did someone forget to tell him that the little box attached to his shoe was an electronic tracking device that would figure out if he took a short-cut during the race? I also hope that the picture in the story is not the clothing he wore during the race.

Oddly enough his last name-Madrazo-is vulgar slang for taking a hard hit, as I am sure this guy and his family is about to take.

Oh and my favorite all time Mexican screwup is this guy.

Radio Lab

I have become somewhat obsessed with a podcast that Natalie found called Radio Lab. The show does storied on scientific phenomena or scientific questions through their interviewing people that are experts, or at least work on these questions. In a lot of ways Radio Lab reminds me of another of our favorite NPR (technically PRI) shows This American Life.

There is a show on the concept of "emergence" that is great. This is what Wikipedia has to say on this and a cool site from MIT. The most interesting part of that show for me was about how individual brain cells interact with each other to function. In other words, how is it that when you look at, say, a steaming coffee mug your brain processes the information so that it knows that it is a coffee mug, the shape of the coffee mug, the color of the coffee, etc. (visual senses) on top of knowing it has coffee in it (olfactory senses). I guess I just never sat back and thought much about how it is that the brain incorporates a bunch of sensory signals, whether they be light, chemical, or other and turn them into consciousness. Just crazy stuff and all in public radio.

Radio Lab also has some interesting pieces on language and music, where part of the show talks about some languages being more musical (Mandarin) than others (English) and some of the interesting effects of growing up in one language or another. There are also a couple of shows on time, one of which looks that "choice" from a particle physics point of view (let's just say that choice and math don't go hand in hand) and a piece on archaeologists finding a huge pile of trash in Egypt dating back thousands of years that contains some interesting pieces of writing (guess the Egyptians didn't have shredders then).

Give the show a chance if you have some time. It is not the best radio show for sitting at work because it can be so interesting that it distracts from actual work but it sure is fun to listen to while stuck in traffic or diving somewhere.

Belugas

Recently we drove down to Atlanta to the wedding of one of our friends from graduate school (for more details read Nat's blog). Sunday morning after the wedding Nat and I walked to the Georgia Aquarium to check it out as we had heard great things about it. While somewhat pricey, $24 per adult, the place is set up incredibly well. The first exhibit we went to was a massive tank that had an underwater tunnel where you could look up and see the giant whale sharks swimming alongside a constellation of other fishes including this guy, a sawfish, this guy, a giant grouper, as well as rays and others.

We also got an interesting show from the beluga whale exhibit. According to the staff at the aquarium we were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the beluga whale mating season. The one male beluga whale, in a true display of showmanship, did a mating dance, including nipping at the female whale and an attempt at intercourse, with one of the three female whales in full display of all the visitors. I guess it is not every day you get to watch beluga's getting it on at 930 in the morning.

The final highlight of the aquarium trip had to be the sea otters. The guide at the aquarium told us that sometimes, like the day we were there, the otters are fed a clam/shellfish mixture that they put inside these bottle cozy-like containers. The goal is to make the otters work for their food. The fun part is that the otters have figured out that the best way to get the clams/shellfish out is to take the cozys and smash them against the rocks in the exhibit. By doing so, the clams/shellfish break and the otters can shake the cozy and get the part they want out of their meal. So, as you are watching the otter exhibit you get to see them lift the cozys and hear a loud *whack, whack, whack* sound as they smash them up. Fun stuff.

One more note, if you ever decide to check out the aquarium, we strongly recommend going first thing in the morning. It was great being able to walk through the exhibits while the crowds were at a minimum.

Happy Anniversary!

Today a year ago Natalie and I were married. I think everyone that reads this blog was at the wedding and I think we all had a pretty good time. Celebrating our first anniversary, we [Nat] got off to a fast start when Stella and Phoebe woke us [her] up to get breakfast around 6:00 am. After a quick period of inactivity, the girls had enough by 7:15 and actively worked on getting us out of bed. Needing a good excuse to go get my wife flowers we agreed on me driving over to Panera [I needed gas] where I grabbed a dozen bagels, got gas, and some flowers.

The rest of the morning we have entertained ourselves in the romantic pursuit of gardening and weeding. The highlight of the morning had to be the 15 foot long branch that I cut off the maple tree that sits on our front lawn.

The rest of the day will have some fun activities. I am currently watching my Cowboys struggle against the lowly St. Louis Rams (0-3) while Nat goes out for a quick run. To finish up our day we will head out to a romantic dinner to The Mad Platter.

I want to finish this entry by saying thanks to all of you that were at the wedding last year. It was you all that made the wedding lots of fun.

Deadlines

A career doing bench science has a lot of benefits; somewhat flexible hours, casual atmosphere, intellectual stimulation, relatively stress free, etc. I also feel that us academic scientists live in a funny middle ground between being in college and being out there in the "real world", greatly due to the fact that we do our everyday work at universities where we get flooded by the collegiate enthusiasm that can only be fully experienced by being in campus. Another aspect that is very different from most jobs is the concept of deadlines.

We do have deadlines in science, especially when it comes to the dates when our grants -basically a written work explaining why our work is important, why it should be funded- need to be submitted to the specific agencies (e.g. NIH). Unfortunately scientific research can have no sense of time and predicting when an experiment will work, never mind if it will work at all, can be anything but trivial. It is indeed when these two world converge, the grant deadline with the scientific experiment needed for said grant, that trouble arises.

I bring this up because our group is submitting a grant to the NIH this November. My boss would like for me to provide one piece of data for the part of the grant by the deadline. While I have been trying to get this piece of data for about 3 weeks , I have not been able to obtain the result that we expect given our previous evidence. This leaves me in a place where it is possible that no matter how hard I work I will be left, in the end, with no data to provide my boss four our grant submission.

The interesting thing about this is that this is the norm rather than the exception in bench science. While a rough time line can be developed, it is usually the case that things don't turn out as planned and the time line is scrapped from early on in the project. This is relevant for many reasons. An important one is in vaccine development. We all frequently hear news bits about vaccines, notably HIV vaccines, that fail clinical trials. Predicting when a vaccine will be available to the public is almost impossible. Even in the writing of scientific grants, one is expected to write a possible time line for the proposed scientific experiments, yet this timeline is likely to not hold up as one never knows of the holdups in the process. We have also heard, and some of us experienced, the varying levels of time it takes to finish graduate school. This variability has a lot to do with the time it takes for experiments turning out a positive outcome.

In the end, the one thing that always holds true is that science knows now deadlines.

Sorry I have gone missing, but...

But I have been busy with my modeling career as a taco costume model. As you may imagine, with "Dia de los Muertos" coming up business is crazy right now. To top things off it has been somewhat busy at work, partly due to my inability to use silencing RNAs to knockdown expression of a gene of interest. Of course it just dawned on me that silencing technology and me must be the biggest scientific oxymoron in history. After all my middle name is Chatter Box.

On a semi-serious note, I do want give big kudos to a middle-aged lady that we see every morning on our way to work in a nearby road. Every morning we see her on her jogging attire power-walking with a grocery store bag where she puts an assortment of trash that litters the roads she walks on. Needless to say, she does this without a thank you from anyone and does a great service to the neighborhood. While I am sure she will never read this I want to send an electronic Thank You to you for your unselfish behavior and may you get many years of good karma.

Farming

Some time ago Nate recommended that I read Collapse by Jared Diamond. I started the book while we were in Pittsburgh and I must say that I am impressed, and overwhelmed, so far. The first chapter of the book, covering the environmental, social, and economic difficulties of the state of Montana is incredibly interesting.

One part I thought was incredibly interesting was the complications associated with farming. Now, I have heard about pesticides and fertilizer run-offs polluting the water supply but Diamond also talks about weeds, salt content, crop types, and other factors that can greatly influence the fertility of the soil as well as the surrounding water supply and environment. I guess what I am trying to say is that I never thought about how complicated farming can be. Farming is not only about growing your crops and making sure the area you farm is well taken care of, but also involves minimizing the effects of farming on the surrounding environment.

I bring this up because Nat and I like to grow vegetables and spices in a small plot in our yard and I have been thinking about starting such a plot in our new house. When planning out what it would take to set up the plot my main concern was about what I could add to the clay-rich soil we have in our backyard to foment the growth of our crops. My thought process never took into account that tilling the soil, or planting certain crops, or even introducing certain crops could result into irreversible or damaging effects to our surrounding environment.

Furthermore, it made me realize that while I always thought that the study of the environment was complicated, I greatly underestimated how complicated environmental interactions really are. Forget global warming, how about we try to figure out how to not exterminate everything in our sights as we continue to build suburbs everywhere we can.

The Price of Health

As many of you know, Nat and I flew up north to visit her folks and brother in Pittsburgh. Nat's dad has been going through the rigors of chemotherapy after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Thankfully, although he has lost a ton of weight due in part to the chemo and in part to a strong dose of antibiotics to treat an infection he looked in great spirits. It is pretty crazy to think that the body can handle the abuse of chemo and still function somewhat ok. After all, the treatment targets actively dividing cells and there are lots of those in the body.

One aspect of the treatment that cannot be underscored enough is the incredible cost. Medical bills for the hospital stays, surgeries, treatments, drugs, and apparatus that are needed for all of this to work pile up incredibly fast. If I recall correctly, the cost of each treatment of chemo, of which there is going to be between 8 and 12, costs upwards of $10,000 (I think the actual figure is 12-16K). Since all of this started the medical bills have been upwards of $160,000!!! Thankfully, my in-laws have medical insurance in the form of Medicare as well as Medi-gap. What this means is that bills that would have otherwise bankrupted them are manageable and allow them to focus on the task of getting healthy again rather than worrying about the bills.

On the other hand, there are lots of people out there that do not have the luxury of medical insurance and are left with bills that will basically ruin their financial future. Where I understand that people worry that having nationwide health insurance may lead to abuse of the system, I find it hard to understand how people can so easily place a dollar value on someone's health. Yes, nationwide health insurance will undoubtedly lead to some people abusing the system, but the cost of such cases will be spread over such a large number of people (taxpayers) that the hit will be minute.

For those arguing that the quality of health care will be affected, I would like to point to several European countries that have excellent health care while still having nationwide coverage for their citizens. Furthermore, the rich can still pay for private health care if they choose so. And if this is too much of a stretch, how about at least guaranteeing that every child is at least covered? Is there any reason why a kid should not receive health care?

I just hope that when people hit the ballot boxes they vote based on principles rather than blindly based on party lines. There are as many good and bad Democrats as Republicans as Independents out there.

I have a dream

Continuing with the baby theme that seems to be running amongst the readers and writers of blogs, I had a dream last night about a baby, a human one this time, being in our midst. While I don't recall the entire dream, I remember the best part. That is, I was pushing a stroller and suddenly I paused and peeked inside it. In the strolled there was a baby, which in the dream I knew was mine. The baby looked fairly normal except that it had quite a bit of thick hair and a pair of thick sideburns. When I say sideburns, I mean Elvis, the 70s, Jemaine (see below and please see The Flight of the Conchords on HBO or You Tube).

All I need is Aaron to dig up his dream book and translate this dream for me. Mexican baby with a lot of hair and chops. I am sure this means that my kid is going to be musical.

Burn baby, burn!

What happens if you grab a bottle of very hot agar with a paper towel and you stupidly swirl it to make sure that it has all melted?

Even better than the huge blister was getting a phone call from our neighbor to let me know that the old owner of the house, the racist ones that live down the street, are complaining about the look of our new fence. Apparently the lattice atop the old fence does not qualify as visually pleasing to her so she is thinking about sending an "anonymous" complaint to the home owner's association. I have not seen the by laws but I sure hope that they can tell me exactly what a pretty fence is supposed to look like.

Who do you root for?

With college football starting up this weekend, college fanatics are running around the country proudly displaying their school colors. This morning, for example, I came to work with my UNC hat, coffee mug, and T-shirt, clearly leaving no question as to my affiliation with the program. For those of us that have done more schooling after our undergrad experience, affiliation with one sports program over another can be tough. In my case, even though I went to a big DI school, Arizona State, and I had a fairly good time there, I was not enveloped by the sports programs there.

For one, I never felt like the campus fully backed their sports teams, which doesn't help an undergrad that didn't grow up watching their sports teams become part of the fan base. Also, with the Arizona Cardinals playing in the same stadium as the Sun Devils, and me having strong feelings against that franchise, it created more of a distance between me and the team. I also lived off campus thus keeping me from some of the in-campus activities that foster team spirit. Lastly, ASU didn't really have an alternative sports program that was promoted enough for fans to attend to. The basketball team stunk something else and while the baseball team has been fantastic for quite some time, I never felt like it was promoted enough and I just missed out on it. In the end, I just made it through 4 years of undergrad basically having attended 1 sports event I can remember, a University of Arizona-ASU basketball game that ASU miraculosly won. Oddly enough, I have found myself following ASU athletics more since I left ASU.

This brings me to UNC. When it comes to college spirit and making you feel part of the family, UNC is completely opposite to ASU. I am sure having one of the classiest DI basketball programs helps, but when I started graduate school in 2002 the pride and joy of the town was the soccer program. Even so, from day one I was enveloped in what it is to be a Tar Heel. The wonderful college atmosphere of the Chapel Hill campus is at polar opposites of the metropolitan ASU campus, and even Vanderbilt campus where I work now. Living in Chapel Hill means being and breathing Tar Heel blue. It is ubiquitous, from the stadium seats, to the subsidized public transportation, to the wonderful Carolina Blue fire engines. That said, while a college campus helps foment crazed fans, it is not an absolute requirement. I had the pleasure of interviewing at the University of Texas-Austin when I was looking at graduate programs. While UT is in Austin, a decently sized metro area, it still breathes UT athletics.

While I think a very important factor in creating a good collegiate atmosphere is winning, there are plenty of programs out there with deranged fans that do not win on a frequent basis, especially in the big 3-football, basketball, baseball (think Ivy League, for example). Another factor is the close to religious experience that it can be to attend a sporting event.

My first year at UNC, coming off an 8-20 season, I attended a fall 2002 game between UNC and a low end DI program. Our seats were on the last row of the Dean Dome and for someone that didn't grow up watching UNC-basketball this should have been nothing more than attending a basketball game between a big DI program and a small one. Yet, I clearly remember getting goose bumps when I reached my seat and turned around to see the beautiful hardwood court of the Dean Dome. Then, I was baptized a Tar Heel when the team hit the hardwood minutes before the start of the game and the crowd started chanting:

I'm a Tar Heel born
I'm a Tar Heel bred
And when I die
I'm a Tar Heel dead.
So it's Rah, Rah, Car'lina-lina
Rah, Rah, Car'lina-lina
Rah, Rah, Car'lina-lina
Rah! Rah! Rah!

Where have you gone?

Well, if I haven't lost all you faithful readers by now it is a small miracle. I have been awful about posting just about anything on this site. I guess things have been just a little too hectic as of late and the blog has just dropped in the priority list. Also, work on the house, short of cleaning, has come to a grinding halt. Grinding halt until this weekend when Natalie and I decided, early Sunday morning, to extend our Phoebe-containment device (a.k.a. backyard fence).

Prior to Sunday afternoon, said containment device consisted of 4 foot tall vertical wooden slats around the perimeter of our backyard. After the incident where Phoebe had enough of the tiny barking dog next door and jumped the fence, the neighbors added 7 foot tall privacy fence between our yards, but the rest of the fence remained too jumpable. So, instead of spending money we don't have on a decent privacy fence, we did the next logical thing, bough a bunch of 4-by-8 wooden lattice at the Home Depot and nailed it to the top of the pre-existing fence. The result is a fairly awkward looking, yet useful and not incredibly ugly containment device that stands about 6 feet tall (to attach it you actually lose a foot, thus not ending up with a 8 foot tall fence.

Finally, I want to close with a few words of encouragement about my work. Due mainly to the rotund phase of the moon I am sure, I have started to feel more at ease at work. This is a welcoming feeling because life is a lot sweeter when life at work is comfortable.

No news is good news

Well, for a change I have not much to report, which is good news. The most exciting news out of the week was the landing of 3 of Natalie's friends to spend the weekend. It was great to see some familiar faces from home as well as putting the new house to the test. Having so many women running around the house reminded me of growing up with my mom and two sisters. Just an estrogen-palooza that yet again I survived!

A week of silence

After a week of silence to pay my respects to the death, and rebirth, of our site I have decided to post something new and to remove the stupid privacy setting to my blog. If someone wants to hop on this thing and digitally graffiti this sucker, be my guest. As an omen to the rebirth of the site- yes, that makes me a born again blogger, but then again this is popular nowadays. With the addition of a Wolf Pack member to our blog circle I guess things should get that much more interesting.

This past week featured the incredibly exciting and piss-offish fact that our deck has seen better days. In the last 10 days I managed to break a board on the deck by simply talking on the phone while standing on our deck. If that was not bad enough, part of the railing on the one side has come loose, so it is not able to support anyone leaning against it. While we new that the deck was not new and that certain things in the house were going to break, we were not expecting this to happen within a couple of months of us moving into the house. Furthermore, we are aghast as to how the inspector managed to certify that the deck was in "good condition," when it is painfully obvious that there are areas of the deck that need fixing. So, to update our Top 3 list of home improvements:

1. Privacy Fence
2. Deck
3. Kitchen Counters

Please notice that none of these are on the cheap side of life.

On the happier side of life, Natalie and I received a present from my mother this week. While we both love charcoal grilling, the ability to quickly grill something after a hectic day at work that propane provides was hard to pass. It is also nice being able to grill something outside in the summer and keep the heat out of the house. We are also looking forward to being able to use the side burner to cook smelly foods, like fish, that can stink up the joint.

Finally, we have joined our local YMCA. Nate has been incredibly kind to provide us with running programs that we had been trying to stick to, Natalie a lot more so than myself. Part of the problem, on my end, has been that I am no fan of going out for a run when it is in the 100s. To solve the problem, and to allow me to play racquetball with one of Natalie's coworkers, we joined the Y that is about 4 miles from here. I hit the treadmill yesterday, only my third soire into running since I got here, and I must say that I was hurting but I did get a decent 2.5 miles in. The worst part about it all is dealing with post-traumatic treadmill disorder (PTTD). Anyone that has used a treadmill knows that upon stopping, you get the feeling that everything around is still going. I equate it to having had some amount of alcohol, thus not a pleasant feeling. Even so, I rather deal with PTTD than sit on my ass until I hit 200 lbs.

TTFN.

From Tech Support

"The restore will be completed within 20 minutes. IF you had any kind of scripts that were made by another person (like a guestbook, CMS, form mail, etc.) that could have been how he got in (if there was a known bug int hem). Otherwise he could have cracked your password, but that would typically be done with a \"brute-force\" attack and those are hard to do on our systems. Once I am done restoring the account I suggest you change all your passwords."

I am thinking this dude/dudette got in through my blog simply because he has a Blogger handle that automatically redirects to another site. On this site he has a bunch of text in Bahasa Indonesia. I also read somewhere that this is the new way for bored cyber kids on the web to do graffiti.

fu** this sh**!

**Warning! This post may contain some foul language!**

Late last night or early this morning our site, friendsofbernardo.net was hacked. Yes, you read that right. Our site, which has about 5 visitors a month was hacked. It looks like the site is gone for good which may mean that we have to put up all the pictures and recipes up a new and I just don't know that I want to do this after this.

While the hacker did not seem to be malicious about his deed as it looks like he was just having some fun with it, I am interested in figuring out how the duck the motherucker (thanks Flight of the Conchords) got into our site. I am left with an ever growing list of possibilities amongst which are:

1. I picked up a virus that allowed him to get my passwords, at least the passwords stored in my browser.

2. He found the site by hitting our blog through the random button usage in blogger. If this is the case he found our link to our site through our blog entry talking about the house and somehow gained access to it.

Ok, this is all I have figured out for now. The result of this is that I may switch this blog to private view only. So, if you have been reading this and do not have a blogger account you better get one if you want to keep on reading this. If you know of anyone that is incredibly bored and likes to read this let me know so that I can add them to the list. Also, I will stop linking stuff off my blog. I should have known better.

Either way we start the new week with yet another fucked up story. I know it can always get worse, but I would take a no news is good news kind of week for a change.

Where is your heart?

The answer to that question is very simple right, your heart is to the left of your sternum. I think from a young age we figure out where the heart is in part because it holds such strong symbolism in our cultures. For example, while singing the national anthem to many countries people place their hands over the heart. I always took that to mean that your singing the national anthem is heart-felt and that you love your country with all your heart.

Where I am trying to go with this is that I am not sure where my heart is right now. I do know where the organ that helps circulate my blood is, but I am not sure where my heart is regarding my professional life. While I have only been in my current workplace for a month I have felt at times unsure about whether I made the right decision. The environment where I work is very good; the people I work with are great, my new boss is great, the university is pretty nice. The project I have started on is not all that bad. It is hard to predict where things will go, especially when I have barely moved ahead with the project in the month that I have been working in lab.

One larger worry, although I know I shouldn't delve too much in this as I have just started, is how people in my current lab are struggling to find jobs beyond their postdocs. Most of you that read this blog know about our good friend David and how he did not have the easiest of times finding a job. In my current workplace, there are 2 senior postdocs that have been looking for work, one of them more actively than the other, with no luck so far. It scares me to think that two very good scientists are struggling to find a job, especially as I start. It is hard not to think about whether part of their handicap in finding a job is the model system in which they are working.

One of my favorite movie/book quotes ever is from The Right Stuff and it goes like this: "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." In science, especially in the current financial climate, having funding, is absolutely necessary, and a key part, to get your Buck Rogers, or project, off the ground. Even more so, being able to secure some bucks before you hit the job market for a faculty position makes the job hunting a lot easier. In a way, it is easier to sell tickets to see the Buck Rogers show when you already have the money to hire Buck and all you need is a place for him to show his skills. The catch in securing the monies is that it is very competitive nowadays and I feel like you need something to distance yourself from the other people gunning for the money. One way to do so is to work in an area that is "hot" (e.g. bioterrorism, SARS, miRNA, etc.). Another way is to work on something that is of pressing interest or that will yield something to the taxpayer, the people that after all is said and done pay our salaries through their taxes (e.g. Alzheimer's, cancer, infectious diseases, etc.).

Unfortunately my current work strikes out on both counts and I have known this from the time I interviewed. My current work falls strictly under the umbrella of basic research. My bug of interest causes disease, but VERY rarely does it do anything to humans and is not a problem in the agricultural industry. As such, understanding the mechanisms of how our virus causes disease in its model organism, the mouse, will likely yield unforeseen perspectives in our field that are bound to be exiting and novel. On the other hand, in the face of a financial crunch where funding needs to be allotted as best as possible, it is understandable that monies are going towards those pathogens that are currently causing more morbidity and mortality to the world's populous.

The argument for basic research has always been that basic research is what fuels the key discoveries that drive the drugs and cures of tomorrow. This has held true for many systems, including the coronavirus researchers that for years had studied a bug that did not seem to be all that important until SARS hit. When this happened our response to this new pathogen was greatly improved by what had been accomplished before through basic research.

I just hope in my heart doesn't fail me and that I made the right decision for my professional life. I just hope that I can someday find enough bucks so that good ol' Buck has a place for his show.

Homemade not for home goods

I would like to add an addendum to my previous post dealing with the built in microwave that malfunctioned at home earlier in the week.

The repair guy, a nice guy that said he grew up in California, which I believe as he had no accent in his speech, showed up around 10:00 of the a.m. He promptly asked me what happened and did a quick inspection of the unit followed by looking on the overhead pantry where the microwave is plugged into an outlet. As soon as he reached in there I knew there was something off. First off, the outlet had been clearly installed after the house was built as the outlet and the outlet box were taped to the side of the cabinet. Secondly, as he reached in there with his electric reader we both noticed that there was no juice going into the box and almost immediately noticed a nickel-sized burn/plastic melt mark on the side of the box. Upon seeing this, he asked me to shut down the power to the house after which he removed the box and noticed that one of the screws on the side of the outlet was singed/burned to hell and sticking out a solid inch off the place where it should've been screwed on tightly.

The repair guy quickly pointed out that the problem had been that whomever installed the outlet did a poor job by leaving the screw so far out, thus leading to a short that caused all the burning and melting. Luckily the outlet box contained the problem and there was no fire as a result from this. Yes, we are very lucky that the thing didn't short out and burn the cook books that we have in the pantry and start a house fire. Lucky yet scary. The repair guy easily replaced the outlet for the correct outlet, non GPCI one, and bolted down the outlet box to the wall/cabinet so that it is actually installed properly. After I paid him the $100 fee, which is standard as we have a 1 year home warranty on many items in the house, the dude took off and I went off to work.

From all of this I concluded the following:

1. The person that installed the microwave is/was a moron. Not only was the outlet installed improperly, but the "built-in" microwave is about 6 inches too close to the stove according to the repair guy. This means that the underside of the microwave can get very hot if you use the stove, especially the back burners. Luckily the microwave is still high enough where it should be ok were it sits.

2. The inspector that looked at our house is also a moron. The repair guy immediately pointed out that the inspector should have noticed both the outlet and the proximity of the microwave to the stove. Unfortunately Tennessee has very weak and ever changing building codes and the inspectors don't even have to be licensed. This should be the equivalent of allowing anyone that has played with Legos to build highways and buildings.

3. We were very lucky that our house didn't burn down. I talked about this earlier, but this was a solid reminder that shitty work can lead to seriously bad results in the house, in particular to electric work.

4. While the jury is still out on the home warranty service, I have talked to another postdoc at work and he mentioned that they have renewed their and have been glad they did so as they have replaced the oven/stove, central air, water heater, refrigerator in the 1.5 years that they have been here. Although I am not sure if the $100 deductible was more than we would have paid someone to look at the microwave and fix it, I can't imagine it would have been that much cheaper. I would guess that if something like the water heater or something bigger goes it will be worth the money.

What happens when the very small wave machine breaks?

It was just a matter of time before something in our new house stopped working. Last night, as Nat was thawing some chicken in the built-in microwave the thing stopped working. By stopped working I mean that every sign of electric power going into the machine and yielding an output, be it a microwave, number on the LCD screen, or light were nowhere to be found.

Two things resulted from this, with the most immediate being that instead of chicken and broccoli stir fry we picked up a sun-dried tomato and spinach pizza. The second thing that happened is that I got to test out how are home warranty works. When we bought the house, we requested that the sellers buy a home warranty for a year. The warranty covers the breakage of several items in the house for up to a year from when we closed on the house. Luckily for us the built-in microwave is covered. The downside is that for every item that we want to have fixed there is an automatic $100 fee. The repair guy is due up tomorrow morning and I am just hoping that he can fix the thing without us having to shell out more than $100.

Stay tuned...

Home Improvement 101

As we approach the 1 month mark at our new house, it feels like every weekend has been filled with home projects. With the bulk of the initial projects being finished at least we are able to enjoy the house. I think the turning point were the floors. That said, this weekend we were again busy with house chores (lawn mowing, dog baths, grocery store run, etc.) and more home improvement (painting the last room-guest bed, fixing some backyard fence issues, replacing the door handle in the storm door to the main entrance-after what seems like the 12th try the thing works now).

I hope we are done with the big projects for some time so that at least we are able to enjoy our surroundings a little more. We really haven't been out and about the area. Then again, I am sure that the parks around here will be that much nicer to visit once the weather cools down some.

One fun non-house project story from the weekend was a corked wine that Natalie uncorked last night as we were getting ready for dinner. The first sign of trouble was the appearance of the top of the cork when the foil was removed, it had a green, almost fungus-looking tinge to it. We decided to open the bottle to pour the wine out and the result was a fetid smell that was strong enough to cover the entire kitchen and living room. It is amazing the power that a rotten wine can have.

With that I leave you. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

Nathan Bedford Forrest on I-65

One of the fun things about moving to a new place is getting to know the quirks, moles, rips on the fabric of the new town. In Chapel Hill, for example, we got to experience a high per capita of Subaru's, a religious belief in college basketball, and so on.

I recently noticed on our commute to work up I-65 a statue of a bronze-colored horse with a silver-looking rider surrounded by confederate flags right off the interstate. While it is not unusual to see "interesting" objects/billboards off the side of interstates this one caught my eye because it stands out in an area of the interstate that does not really have much else.

I asked around work and did some web surfing and I found out that the statue is that of Nathan Bedford Forrest. If you are a Civil War buff or civil rights advocate you may know the name. You may also know the name from Forrest Gump, as Forrest gets his name from this guy. For a detailed description of the guy and the statue click on the above link. Nonetheless, Forrest was a general in the confederate army, and by all accounts a very good one. After the war, he became a leader of the KKK.

So far, two interesting aspects of Nashville that we have picked up on are the high number of vehicles that go up in flames (4 so far or 1 per week) and a statue of a KKK leader next to a busy interstate. I guess you know you are in Nashville when a car is on fire and there is a fiberglass statue of a Klan leader on the interstate.

On a side note, we have highly enjoyed our stay in Nashville and have found that the eateries here are superb. We hit La Hacienda today and had fantastic chicken and carnitas. We also visited the local farmer's market and bought some heirloom tomatoes, corn, and peaches. Oh, and the weather is wonderful.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Floors are in!

Yesterday the biggest project to date at our house was completed. The floor guys started Monday morning and by Tuesday around 1:00 pm thew beautiful Quickstep light maple laminate floor was fully installed. I will try to add before and after pictures when I get a chance but the place looks so different that I almost feel like we just got a new living room and kitchen. One nice side effect that I had not considered is that since the floors are continuous in the entry hallway, kitchen and living room the space feels even larger as it doesn't feel like separate rooms.

The girls have not seemed to join in our enthusiasm right away, especially Phoebe who keeps on hanging out in our bedroom or laying down in as big a section of the living room rug as possible. She has also not fully adjusted to the fact that she can't turn on a dime on the floors, so she spins her paws whenever she is trying to sprint anywhere. Meanwhile Stella is athletic and light enough that she seems to have no issue whatsoever. Oh, and she also seems to enjoy the clickity-clackity noise her paws make when walking on it.

I promise to post some pix soon!

Missing Carolina?

I had been thinking about saving this post for later in the week, but since I am actually waiting for some work stuff to finish up (first non-reading activity at the new lab!) I figured I would try to put something out.

Saturday night Natalie and I went out for dinner to a nice Asian restaurant (Basil Asian Bistro) after our painting party. While we were waiting for our entrees we were talking about the move from Carolina. Specifically we were talking about whether we were home sick at all. We both came to the quick conclusion that even though we miss our friends from home, and certain aspects from living in Carolina (Maple View Ice Cream, the country side, life sans traffic, soon to be basketball, etc.) for the most part we have felt at home in Nashville.

One aspect of that has helped the transition to our new digs has been how busy we have been. From the get-go we have been flooded with house projects and really have not had time to sit down and think about Carolina. Also, having each other, the girls and Emmitt has helped immensely in that you always have someone to talk to or scream at when they are eating the left-over pancakes off the counter (I plead the 5th!). Finally, there has been work. While it has been slow for both of us science-wise as expected, we have both been able to get out of the house and interact with our new labs.

Nevertheless, if any of you are planning on making a trip out this way, we'd love to see you. Oh, and don't forget to bring with you some Allen and Son's BBQ and some Maple View Ice-cream.

More movin'

Another weekend bites the dust, which means that I need to update the list of home projects. Saturday Natalie and I painted our bathroom and the room that serves as our office (a.k.a. Whatifsports central). I am very happy to report that both projects were completed and the once hot pink office is now a nice bluish-green.

My toughest home project so far has been changing/installing a door catch/hinge for the screen door on our main door. Our main door has a very useful extra outside door that has a replaceable screen/glass panel so that when the weather is nice (not now), you can prop your main door open and leave the screen door closed to allow air flow while keeping our 3 Musketeers (Emmitt, Stella, and Phoebe). The problem with the door is that when we moved in the door did not catch, thus allowing the pets to simply push it open with their snouts. I have since removed the old catch, moved it on the frame, removed it, lost it, bought a new one, bought spacers, installed all of the above, and failed miserably at getting the door to catch. So, by my count this has been the most tedious home project to date and I see no easy fix besides replacing the latch on the door. I guess you just never know what project is going to stomp you.

In honor of Aron

I love reading Aron's blog for many reasons, two of which are; he keeps it real and he can run faster than I ever will while taking it "easy." I must say that I am not much of a runner. I have never mastered the art of "loving to run." That is to say, the actual running part of running does not feel good. I don't actually enjoy pushing myself as hard as I can even though I do it because I am competitive enough that I can't do it any other way. The point being, I am not a good runner. The only time I ran as a kid was while I was playing soccer, football, baseball, tennis, etc.

As I have gotten older (aka-the last year) and stopped doing as many team sports as I would like, running is a way for me to burn away the calories of frustration. Natalie talked me into signing up for a 15K last February, which we ran on May 20th. With the great help of Nate I got a training plan that I followed somewhat religiously to get myself in running shape to do the race. The result of the race was me running it in about 8:55 pace, which I wasn't too thrilled about as I had been running the distance around 8:35 pace. Nonetheless, during the training period I enjoyed the best aerobic fitness I have had since high school. The best was playing Saturday morning basketball with some buddies and feeling in great shape the entire time, even as people were tiring out. The second best thing was waking up the following morning not feeling sore whatsoever.

In part because I was a little frustrated that I did not do as well in the race;in part because since May 20th we have been incredibly busy moving our operation to Nashville; in part because the oppressive heat doesn't work well with me (even if I am from Little Mexico), I had not hit the streets for a run since then. All of that changed today. Right after our floor installer guy told us that he was not coming to lay the floors down until Monday (they were supposed to start today and finish tomorrow at the latest), Natalie mentioned that it was nice outside and mentioned that I should try to go out for a run. With that, I changed and put on my new New Balance 767's and hit the road for an "incredibly strenuous" 3.5 mile run.

I started ok and I sucked wind for the most part, but I would just like to thank aron for letting me know that my crappy splits have a place in life, and that place is the end of this entry (sorry, I don't have the mile splits because I forgot to look at my watch):

First 1.75 miles (Thank you Google Pedometer): 16:13.78
Second 1.75 miles: 16:52.88

Of Pots and Pans

With a new weekend coming to an end it is time for another edition of "Name that House Project." This week we had some help and painted the living room and living room entrance a nice Gobi Dessert Brown (see # 710C-3). The tiny hallway that separates the guest bedroom and office is also going the same color but will have to wait a little longer. Also, I ventured into the world of electricity and changed two regular kitchen wall outlets for GFCI outlets that have a breaker. The outlet work was not too bad once I figured out what I was supposed to do, which oddly enough happened just as Nate and Steph's parents arrived at our door as they drive to NC. But I will get to the purpose of their visit in a minute.

One other positive note was my mowing of the lawn for the first time using my new lawn mower. Using a Consumer Reports we found this Cub Cadet mower that was fantastic. You can easily alternate between side discharge by putting a plug in the machine, bag the grass by replacing the plug with a nifty sack that attached rather easily, or mulching. I used the side discharge for the back yard and the sack for the front as to not send my cut grass all over the neighborhood. Another two very nifty aspects about the mower are the curved handlebars (allows you to push the mower with your hands perpendicular to the ground instead of parallel) and a choke switch to start the mower (which prevents the blade from spinning when you start the machine, which can make starting the machine a lot simpler). Anyhow, if you are looking for a mower this is your machine!

Finally, our kitchen has been in dire need of a pot rack due to a severe shortage in storage space that has resulted in our beautiful pots and pans (wonderful gift from the Thornburgs) living in a box. Just a bad scenario all around as it is hard to get to them and the box is sitting on our butcher block which further complicates the storage situation.

We had received a great Rogar pot rack as a wedding gift, but unfortunately it did not fit in our kitchen as it was a little too long. Now, I hope Betsy doesn't kill me for saying this but we did not want the rack to go to waste, as it it is gorgeous, and upon hearing that Nate and Steph could also use a rack in their kitchen, we shipped it their way via their parents who were driving through Nashville on their way to NC from the midwest.

Replacing the Rogar we got an Enclume rack at Williams-Sonoma using a gift card Natalie had gotten. We have been waiting to put up the rack until we had the kitchen painted and with some time on our hands and with the kitchen painted we started the task of bolting the sucker to the roof of our kitchen. The rack has to be anchored to the kitchen on studs as to prevent it from falling on your noggin. Ceiling studs are found in houses in two formats: 16" or 24" apart. Our rack requires the 16" format, whereas our ceiling come in the 24" format. In other words, our rack is VHS and our ceiling is Beta. This will result in us taking the rack back to the store tomorrow. We will lose the $25 for shipping but should otherwise get the rest of our money back. The bigger loss is the mental hit that Nat and I took from realizing that our pots and pans will have to sit in a stupid box on our butcher block for at least another week.

With that we conclude another weekend of successful and unsuccessful home projects. Tomorrow I head back to work where I hope I will start making strides towards a project as it has been somewhat slow the first week. I also hope that Vanderbilt can figure out why I cannot get a damn electronic ID so that they can create my email.

TTFN,

B Mexican

PS- Nate, tell your dad I will do anything if he helps me do recessed lighting in our kitchen.

Everly's in town

To celebrate the 4th of July Natalie and I got together with the Everly's. David, Anita, Grant, Zach, Nate, and Ripi were in town for the night as they are on their way to Chicago, where David accepted a faculty position at Rosalind Franklin University. We went out to eat at a BBQ place about 2 minutes from their hotel that was very good. The BBQ is not Carolina style, but their pork and Texas-style beef brisket, with a choice of Tennessee, Texas, or Kansas City style BBQ sauce, was fantastic. So, if you are in town make sure to check them out.

After dinner we went back to their hotel where the kids hit the pool, while we just talked about stuff. David and I talked some about the challenges of him growing professionally now as a PI and me doing so as a postdoc. He talked about trying to broaden his research to make sure that he can get funded and I talked about the frustration of coming to a new place where you know nothing. It is a different feeling when you go from being the senior graduate student that knows a lot about your field to the junior postdoc that knows next to nothing about the new field. This lack of knowledge, 3 days into the job, I have found to be the toughest thing so far in the postdoc. Nevertheless, I am glad to get a chance to learn something new.

One good thing about the hotel was that the pool gave us a pretty good view of the downtown Nashville fireworks. As we said our goodbyes to the Everly's I felt somewhat sad in knowing that the Carolina-graduate school part in my life is over. On the other hand, it has been fun getting to interact with a new lab and having the challenge of learning and adding new knowledge to a new field.

Pulling the Tape

As we finished painting the kitchen last night, it dawned on me that one of the things I dread the most after painting is pulling off the tape. Forget all the time it takes to tape up the ceiling, cabinets, baseboards, etc. By the time you are done painting your wonderful room and the pain is dry, the last thing you want to see is a piece of tape bring with it a chunk of paint that leaves your newly painted wall with a gash that although realistically is only dime-seized, to your critical eye it looks as big as the Grand Canyon.

The wonderful thing is that the Grand Canyon of paint is only a magical touch-up away!

Break Time

While I take a quick break from the de-wallpaperizing, here is a quick before and after of the master bedroom. Natalie deserves full credit for the stylistic decisions including the awesome green color. I know she wanted to wait until the room was 100% finished (pictures on wall, etc), but I figured that this would be a fun reminder that we have gotten some work done in the house the past week. That, and Natalie is currently finishing up the kitchen while I slack off on the computer.

Truly yours,

Jesus Agua a.k.a. Little Mexico

I...hate...wallpaper!

So, yesterday Natalie and I continued tackling home projects. The good news is that our bedroom looks great. The green walls, in conjunction with the white baseboards and the light wood of the bed frame looks great. The bad news is the kitchen.

The previous owners had decided to wallpaper the entire kitchen with a yellow plaid wallpaper (see pic). We took off the outer layer of the wallpaper no problem on Monday but yesterday we decided to tackle the bulk of the wallpaper removal, which constitutes in removing the papery layer of the wallpaper that is glued onto the wall. Needless to say, this kind of project can suck the life out of anyone. We spent the entire day spraying the walls with either a chemical product called Dif (which the bottle says contains a known carcinogen in the state of California-I guess being in TN we are cool) or a diluted vinegar mixture. After about 8 hours of plowing through the removal we had about half the kitchen done, with the catch that some of the walls still have a good amount of glue residue that needs to be removed.

So, the weekend for Natalie and I will hopefully yield a wallpaperless, glueless, and hopefully freshly painted kitchen. In the meantime, if you see anyone thinking about putting up wallpaper, please be kind enough to hit them on the head ever so gently with a scraper.

Depot Trips

While I am in a posting mood, here is an update on house projects and their up-to-date Home Depot/Lowe's trips to finish the project:

Replacing blinds throughout house: 3 (should have been 2 if I had measured the trouble blind)
New Locks: 2
Paint and such: 2 and counting

Wait, we have been here for almost a week and have done 3 projects? I better figure out what else I have been doing with my time.

Little Mexico

Well, this is one for the ages. I must say that the move has been going fairly smoothly, with the added benefit of having a full week off of work to unpack, organize, and paint. Today we finished painting the master bedroom (now dubbed the Green Monster by me) so we are starting to make some serious progress...or so I think. The neighbors have been incredibly friendly. Just about everyone has come over to say hello even when they recently lost some digits in a carpentry accident.

But the story of the move so far has to be last night. The past owners of the house came to visit with their 3 young kids. The kids were very excited (a little too hyper maybe) to be back in their old place and their parents were nice enough to bring cookies, some old manuals, and some house keys. During our conversation the topic came up about whether we had been out and about Nashville as of late. Natalie and I mentioned that not much but that we had been Sunday afternoon to grab lunch at a very cool Mexican restaurant (via Nashville city search). The catch being that it is in a not so nice part of town. This part of town is about 10 minutes from here, and is composed of ethnic restaurants, mostly Mexican restaurants, and although not Beverly Hills I feel like it is perfectly fine eating there or shopping there during the day. At night, maybe not so much.

Upon us bringing up this, the guy said that we should stay away from that part of town because it is just shady. If he had stopped there it would have been fine, but he proceeded to say that this part of town was a "Little Mexico." Yes, you read that right, the run down part of Nashville is called "Little Mexico."

Natalie and I did not say much, but his wife, fully aware that I am Mexican, stepped right away to clarify that it was because of the "gangs" not the Mexicans that we should avoid that part of town. Nevertheless, I thought it was an interesting way to refer to town but being courteous we said nothing and continued talking for a few more minutes.

10 minutes after they had left our house, the husband came back to the house because his wife had told him to come over here and apologize for the "Little Mexico" comment. Furthermore, he said that the gangs were not Mexicans but rather Salvadorians and that he was not a bigot. After Natalie rejected the offer to attend their church and giving us an old pair of hedge clippers he took off.

So, I can gather some things from this:

1. Although this guy is clearly a nice person, there are some serious stereotype/racial issues going on in his head that are not good.

2. Whenever you don't look/speak like a "typical" Mexican, people can run their mouths and really show their colors about certain racial issues.

3. Salvadorians are a lot badder than Mexicans in this part of town.

4. Even though I did not feel personally discriminated against, I can see why people in this country are so touchy about racial issues.

5. I will know something is really wrong when our neighbors start selling because the Little Mexicans moved next door.

Away from Carolina

Pretty amazing how fast 5 years in Chapel Hill went by. Graduate school is not an endeavor that tends to race past you, but I really feel like the last five years went by incredibly fast. I mean, in the last five years I:

• Got a driver's license (no small feat for a Mexican)
• Met Natalie, convinced her to go out with me, married her
• Bought a house
• Got a PhD
• Got a little more facial hair

OK, maybe I didn't do a whole ton of growing up but I feel like I grew up a ton the last 5 years, some of that sped up by my dad having a stroke.

Anyhow, what I am trying to say is that I loved Chapel Hill and NC. Not just the fantastic basketball and sports, but the academic culture at UNC, the friends, the people of NC, Carolina BBQ, the mountains and OBX, Franklin street, and living in that heavenly place where city and countryside meet.

For those still in Chapel Hill I can only advise to you live up every day and enjoy what you have.

I know I'm gone to Carolina in my mind.

Times O'Change

Summer is here, which means it is time to move to a new house. In 27 and a half years this is going to be the tin/aluminum/diamond move. Yep, this is my 10th move encompassing 6 cities and 4 different countries. By now I would say I have the moving routine down. The sadness of leaving the friends and places that you love; the excitement of starting a new life in a new town with new people and places; and of course the mundane and somewhat tedious task of packing your place, changing mailing addresses, and starting/stopping utilities.

The two big differences in this move as opposed to my last 9 moves is that this is my first move since getting married and this time we are moving to a house that we can call our own. This blog will serve as my punching bag to talk about the joys, pains, and tribulations that come with moving to a new house in a new state. Stay tuned.