Week 28 - Heart

As a graduate student, nothing irks me quite like a professor who brags on themselves in class and wastes my time. All of us know about your accomplishments (that's probably why you have our attention) and if we don't, was your accomplishment really as great as you thought it was? Lately, the class has been improving, but I would be remiss if I did not devote a paragraph to the most disappointing class I've taken since I came here (even worse than Stats 528). I had pretty high expectations for this class, which claimed to be about teaching students how to write a winning grant. But after a few weeks of listening to a bunch of self-obsessed, near-retirement (or newbie) profs and admins talk about all of the great things they've gotten done, I'm still left scratching my head about how to write a grant. Representatives from offices of research showed different ways to find a grant search engine to find grant funding, but then we never spoke more about it except when the instructor said it never worked that well for him. We've talked about how to cater to your audience and sell your idea but then about how you won't get the funding for the project you want and your grant is really just a fairy tale to get the money to keep your lab running and fund half of your proposed research.

So it would seem after all that there is really no science to how your grant looks besides the suggestions from the reviewing organization. Instead, it is a "practice makes perfect" type of world, yet we aren't practicing. We sit in our chairs and repeatedly hear about what kind of people are on the panels, or what a terrible time it is to make a budget. Couldn't we spend time making a budget, estimating costs in groups, or writing up specific aims that are direct and achievable? And not just once, why isn't this the focus of every week. If practice truly makes perfect, why aren't we practicing instead of listening about who is perfect? For once, I will most certainly be expressing myself freely in the course evaluation. We are reaching Spring Break and I have learned nothing.

Lamb heart, uncooked.

Most unique thing I did this past week takes the title for the week. Last fall, my wife assisted with a state team skillathon practice. At the end of it, we took home some frozen meat products, one of which was a lamb heart. Having never eaten heart in my life, I made it a goal to cook it and try it, leaving the rest with the dog. With little guidance, I operated under the assumption that this should cook similarly to a roast. I let it thaw in the fridge for a day, preheated the oven to 350*F,  salted to Lawry's, pepper lightly, tented some aluminum foil over a deep glass dish and cooked it for about 90 minutes.

Final product

What emerged did not smell nearly as well as I had hoped. Heart tissue needs softening, but has fat around the outside. Lamb fat normally has a strong smell, but this heart fat was a new realm and beyond my comfort zone. Luckily, my pregnant wife did not lose her lunch but it was a close one. I cut it up into pieces for the dog, and even the dog (though originally intrigued) had trouble justifying this free protein and grease. The verdict is that while the heart is edible, and can be seasoned, it has a strong off-taste combined with lamb taste and chewiness which is not complementary. I am not living on the frontier and have no reason to put myself through that process. In the future, I will not be utilizing this organ for dinner.

Betsy has been quite the playful one lately.

Biggest news of the past week is on the home front. FINALLY, I can feel the baby when it moves and kicks inside my wife. Words cannot express my joy and the anticipation continues to mount. That first moment where I could look at my wife and tell her I really could feel our baby alive and happy inside her, that was a precious time and it made my heart skip a beat. Our little family is so wonderful.