2010/2

How is it almost June, that's what I want to know. 2010 is almost half over! Well, it's 5/12 over anyway. The first 5 months of the year have gone by really quickly, but really slowly when you look at all the things that happened during those months. It's hard to describe the feeling...

Research is going pretty well so far and I'm enjoying getting my hands dirty, so to speak. We've also spent awhile cleaning out the lab, making room for the new students who are coming in this fall and also just sorting through all of the stuff. I feel like I know more about where stuff is in the lab and also that I'm more familiar with our resources.

Last weekend we had another girls' night, making the most of Triangle Restaurant week by going out to a restaurant called piedmont. During Restaurant week all these places sign up and offer 3 course meals for $25 (which is a good deal compared to their usual prices). I had the salad, goat cheese ravioli, and the lemon panna cotta, mmmm. Here are all the ladies who went out!




Then on Saturday was Emily and Kyle's wedding! I had such a good time and it was really nice to attend our first wedding as a married couple (almost one year after our own wedding). They were so happy and it was romantic just to be there to witness them getting married :-D





Finally on Sunday was the Raleigh Ringers concert at my old stomping grounds, NCSU. The concert was so cool! I wish I could have stuck around to see more about the bells and everything, but I'm glad I was able to at least go to the concert.

Essentially this week has been spent sending my final draft out, looking at my polymer stuff, and waging war against the lab (aka cleaning). The week sort of flew by and I'm not sure what happened!

Prior to our vacation the last week of June I'm hoping to:
-give the house another thorough cleaning
-successfully photograph my samples, looking at various parameters
-stake out my bench in the lab and get everything organized
-start work with my Master's student, trying to get her settled into another project that is tangentially related to mine
-submit final draft for publication in JBMR
-book flights for Austin for BMES
-pick up with my "new recipe per week" plan (starts with fettuccine alfredo tonight!)
-hit Barnes and Noble for a few new books I've been meaning to read (to continue with the "book for pleasure each month" thing