Week 34 - Proud

Big day at the "Horse Bowl".

This weekend, my little brother won high individual at the state horse bowl competition, and his team won the contest as well. It feels as if it wasn't that long ago that we moved to Ohio and dipped our feet in the livestock world. My sister excelled within the sheep aspect, and my younger brother still found an opportunity to be unique and learn in a totally new area of animal science. His hard work has finally paid off and I could not be prouder of him for not just the success and awards, but the hard work and the rewards that came from it.

At work, I've been focused not only on getting some data for this delayed hydrogen storage project I've been working on, but also on reviewing grant proposals for student research supported by the OARDC. I must say that sitting on the review panel will be quite a learning experience, because I'm interested to see what others have to say about the proposals I've read. From what I've been told, the odds of having more than 1 fundable proposal in my set to review is slim based on funding percentages and this is right on par with what I've read. Basically, only one kid actually thought their project through enough beforehand to make me feel comfortable recommending it for funding. The rest are just a total crapshoot and it's not just the poor English. I can get through that and understand the point of the research. No, what I'm encountering is bad science. Poor statistical procedures, untestable or unlisted hypotheses, tacky bolding of the "primary objective" as if I wouldn't see it on my own, failure to budget properly (including for time) or to address pitfalls of the projects. Of course you want to sound optimistic, but we should also be realistic and prepared to avert disaster when things don't work out as planned. This was lacking pretty nearly across the board. However, my advisor was right - I certainly will learn more about grants and writing them from this review experience than I will from sitting in that class. I read 4 and they were quite diverse in skill level and scientific basis combined with lay writing.

Pipe is patched and the drywall is anchored to false boards.

The pipe repair is patched, even though the drywall hasn't been fixed yet. For those of you guys who might be patching a similar accident in your home in the future, I recommend a little more patience when scoring the drywall and removing it from wall. I got a bit sloppy and I am slowly realizing how much more difficult this will be when spackling the wall back up. As far as patching the pipe, that was pretty easy. It was a 4" pipe, so I bought a 4" coupler. Then, I cut the coupler in half along its diameter and the half down the length. With some sanding on the edges, it was ready to be glued with PVC glue and for extra precaution I used a metal band and tightened it down with a screwdriver. Let it cure overnight, and that issue was solved. Now just to repair that tacky wall job...

My wife painting baby's truffala trees.

Back at home, the baby room is coming along. My wife has been painting the hills from Dr. Seuss's "Oh, the places you'll go!" book on the walls and this theme has been perfect for us not knowing the gender of the baby. There are so many exciting colors, and animal creatures, and the books will be awesome to help our child learn to read. I have to admit that I haven't been as good about reading or playing piano to the baby, but I need to get back into it. It's hard to find the time for these things, but I'm going to have to learn how to make time for one more member of the family. Most importantly, I'm looking forward to how the baby will be an opportunity for my wife and I to spend more time together and working as a team, all the time sharing something very special. I'm so proud of our little family and I love them very much.

Finally uploaded our family Easter photo self-shoot.

Week 33 - Pissed

Just a fraction of the chalkboard ramblings.

Forgive the crassity, but you'll appreciate the humor in a minute. This week has been full of busy productivity as procedures moved forward in the lab and we developed/agreed on the plan from here. A bit of it felt like a meeting of the minds from the "Big Bang"; I've attached a picture to illustrate the scrawlings strewn acrost the board. I had to take them so I could remember later what I was trying to do. In other work related news, we pulled a balloon prank to fill the office of my advisor. After his reaction to this one, I'm glad we didn't pull out the big stops.

My advisor's office after 150 balloons. He was knee-deep in it, and we worried we were, too.

Cherry wheat in the secondary fermetation.

On the brewing front the cherry wheat is looking great and finally bottled. I spent far less time in secondary fermentation and lost about half a gallon in yield due to the cherries taking up volume and soaking water. All told, the wheat beer looks great, dark and smells sweet. Abv is nearly 5% and we made 40 odd bottles once the 3 lbs. of cherries were removed. I can't wait for the baby to be born so I can have some with my wife.

The main punch line is the best of this post. When I was down the basement in the utility sink, I heard the toilet flush and the sound of trickling water. Before I realized what was going on, there was water running on my head. My wife had flushed and hit me in the head! Quite literally pissed, I came to find out that when she hung our potrack it had drilled right through our sewer return pipe. It had taken over a year to manifest itself, but I was sure that we needed to fix this as soon as possible. Thus begins my first experience as a home owner responsible for my own repairs. I have cut the drywall out and found two holes, one where she had not wanted the potrack to hang permanently and a second where we had finally sunk it. It is moments like this, where we can laugh together, that I am most thankful for my wife and her companionship through life's adventures.

Our double-drilled sewer pipe (and my sloppy drywall removal).

Week 32 - Crushed

I'm even more so now that the first draft of this blog post was deleted by Windows automated updates. Have you ever noticed that just when you slip away for a minute to grab a lab protocol for someone, your computer decides to go into 10 minute countdowns on an update it never told you you have? Then you come back to find everything you've been working on is gone. Awesome.

Fermenter work here in the lab is looming in the near future as we move through some culture bottle testing. Right now I've moved into the process of rumen sampling from the university cows and it would seem that we might find enough to keep everyone busy. Two Brazilians are coming in soon, and will stay with us for a few weeks, and two summer interns are also starting with us soon. So as the campus dies down, the lab gets busier. Now we finally have time to address all the things we've been putting off in lieu of pressing deadlines.

Some of our 160 mL culture bottles with rumen fluid samples.

A friend's Easter adaptation of the deviled egg.

Holy Week as always was a flurry of activity and friendly faces. Old friends at churches we rarely visit (and no, we're not Chreasters), and family dinners that leave you fat and hating yourself until Memorial Day. My family is starting to older and slow down, while my wife's family is in the growing stage still with weddings and children's birthdays during this time of the year. We had the pleasure of a fellow graduate student spending some time with us since her family was so far away, and only a five eggs were lost in the hunt, only to be likely discovered by a mower or cat's nose later when they start to turn.

The real point of this post will be kept briefer now that I'm writing it for the second time. This past week started with the visit of one of my childhood idols, Jane Goodall. National Geographic made her famous, but her work spans decades of animal behavior, ape conservation and sub-standard African economic development work. She survived the German bombing of England and an adventure to the wilds of Africa in her 20's to emerge a successful and strong-willed woman. She was a great adventurer who braved the wild animals and brought new knowledge and discovery to the television for kids just like me. But during her talk, I realized she had changed or was always a little bit different from what I imagined. She dropped catchwords such as "factory farms" or "cruel battery cages" and I knew she had picked these terms up from the people that she brushed elbows with, people like the Sierra Club member who stank up the seat beside me (literally, he must not have showered in a week). Could it be true, was Goodall a sellout to this emotional animal rights nonsense? I always pictured her to be such a rational and practical person. I would have loved to ask her to elaborate on her position on this, or why she nonfactually stated that 70% of antibiotics go to animals, or that we can't use antibiotics anymore because animals have spread this resistance because farmers abuse the system, or why she said bird farms were cruel but had never visited one. My mind exploded with the urge to ask her about her preference for feeding the world and preserving the species which outcompete her precious apes, or sacrificing ape habitat for the crops which will be necessary to supply a starving African population, which she also finds so endearing. Coexistence is not impossible, but priorities or plans must be set in place, and surely someone who speaks so harshly of agriculture which strives to keep people alive must have their own plan for the human race?

Jane Goodall on the big screen.

I used to be a pretty active defender of animal agriculture, nearly vehement, but I'd like to think that I've softened and wisened over the years. And this is why I decided to stay in my seat. My wife knows as well as anyone that I only ask 2 types of questions - those that are either a factor of my intense and unsatisfied curiosity, or those that are meant to prove the ignorance and poor foundation of the opinions of my peers, lessors or contentious esteemed. And so I sat in my seat and listened to some girl whine about not being able to face the plants she killed in her desire to be strictly vegetarian (just starve yourself, save the plants and spare us the space already). And I listened to a pompous veterinary student, and laughed at my wife's failed camera phone attempts to capture Goodall when she had been sitting a couple rows in front of us. And I said nothing, because sometimes, nothing is what is best after all. I don't have it in my heart to attack this idol, even if this idol has betrayed my confidence and admiration. She is still a great woman and deserves to be afforded her own opinion without ridicule or challenge in such a public place.