Three Cheers for July 30th

While I try to live my life so that every day is special, today is a very special day for me, for three reasons. And since today is extra special I've decided to take the time to share why with all of you =)

Reason 1: It is Daddy's birthday! About a million or so years ago my father was born. He was raised on a farm in Indiana, and a member of the 4H club. Lucky for me Grandma gave me some old pictures of him growing up, isn't he adorable with his baby cow?:


Fast forward somewhere around 50 years and you have the picture Niecey took of him after snatching my camera (I may have given her permission to play with it) over Christmas:


Happy birthday Daddy, you have always been there for me and are a wonderful father to my siblings and myself as well as Niecey. You are the best daddy a girl could ask for and I love you very much!

Reason 2: It is Niecey's birthday! Six years ago today I had a very very very sore arm from being Middle Sis's leg holder. It was highly traumatic seeing my sister give birth, I NEVER want to view a baby being born again, including my potential future offspring! Even though I am scarred for life over seeing my sister shoving an 8lb 2oz baby out of her nether regions it was all worth it. I was blessed with the most adorable little niece after enduring all that and watching that tiny little baby grow into this little girl has been amazing:


And who doesn't like morning snuggles? Whenever I visit and Niecey wakes up before me she will quietly play by the room I sleep in and check periodically until she sees my eyes open. Often she will try to get me to get up and play with her but usually she'll humor me and give me some morning snuggles before "making" me get out of bed, one of the great perks of visiting the homeland!


Happy birthday Niecey! I hate that I've spent the last 4 years of your life so far away but know that I am doing it in part to be able to give you a better future and even though there are 350 miles between us I am always here for you. Thank you for making me an Auntie, I love you with all of my heart and am so very proud of you!

Reason 3: One year ago today I decided to stop being just an observer of the blogging community but to join it. I started this humble little blog for several reasons but one of the main ones was that I followed so many wonderful people and felt close to them even though they had no idea I even existed for the most part. I wanted to see if perhaps some of these great people would find me amusing and let me join the fun. In that year I have made friends with so many amazing people and am so proud to be a part of such an awesome community. We laugh together, we cry together, and when someone needs help people in the blogging community step up and do what they can to support whomever is down, whether it be with a sweet comment or by donating money/supplies or in my case a fellow blogger opened up his home and let me stay the night when I got stuck in traffic and was going to have to try and find a hotel in a city I had never been to (I have not forgotten you and your wife's kindness and what a great time we all had Kevin, thanks again and I will get around to writing a post about it one of these days!). I think the world would be a much better place if real society followed the example of the bloggers. Thank you all for reading my blog, for the great comments you leave and for befriending a nerdy grad student, I love you guys!

So two birthdays and a blogoversary all in one day, definitely reason to celebrate! What better way to celebrate than with a yummy chocolate cake:

The 6 yellow candles are for Niecey's birthday (yellow is her favorite), the green one is for Daddy and the blue one is for my blog.

The Adventures of Flat WeaselMomma and Niecey

Let's rewind things a bit and go back to November for a bit shall we. A reminder I had the plague, though was declared to be noncontagious by my doctor extraordinaire and sent off to go spend Thanksgiving with my family. I was hogging hosting Flat WeaselMomma at the time before giving her up so she could go visit NukeDad who still hasn't written a post about their adventures, neither has BusyDad... I of course was excited to see my family, last time I had visited was July and Niecey and Pa visited me in August but I had not seen any of them since. I of course had to take a picture of two of my favorite blog subjects:

Niecey fell in love with Flat WeaselMomma, which awesomely translated into my normally a bit shy Niecey being totally comfortable with the not flat version of WeaselMomma when we visited her later that week. We of course had to bring her on our road trip to Michigan, she helped Pa drive:


Then she went and hung out with Niecey to keep her company for a bit:

She then decided to check on Cheryl to make sure she was still alive after taking cold meds and Dramamine and not sleeping (poor kid gets car sick easy and having a cold on top of it was not pretty). Baby Sibling was quite stoned and out of it and didn't really remember this but was gracious enough to let me post it (she is likely going to use this to barter putting a horrible pic of me on her blog but who could resist posting this hilarious pic?!):

This is the picture I got of the political cesspool city of Chicago, Dad wouldn't stop on the expressway so I could get a better shot and probably didn't appreciate my unsuccessful attempts to get FWM in the picture so this is the best I got:

We made pretty good time and made it into Indiana, notice how the sign is back lit, the sun appears to be in the eastern sky. Who knew that the sun could be over on that side of the sky? Normally when I see the sun it is in the western sky, strange! Whatever this horrible voodoo magic is it is not good for trying to get a picture of the sign:


Daddy was driving a bit fast and my sleep deprived reflexes made me basically miss this one (can you tell the trip was boring and uneventful, especially for the sickly passenger who can't sleep in cars and her niece and sibling both decided to nap):

Since Oldsie is not the only car that has a no bodily fluids policy we stopped at a rest stop after crossing the border, I showed Niecey where we were on the map, she though this was pretty cool and decided we should share it with you:

They had a fake lighthouse by a pond, I had to cross the parking lot to be able to get the whole thing in the shot, makes Niecey and FWM look quite tiny:

We finally got to our aunt's house and after eating a nice big meal, beating up all her big cousins, and playing with her little cousin Niecey, Big Bear, Auntie Cheryl's Sock Monkey, and FWM decided to call it a night (not leaving much room for me!):

Since Michigan borders the North Pole we had a white Thanksgiving, Niecey enjoyed this greatly and FWM got to show off her winter clothes in action, sweet!:


We all had a great time and were sad to say goodbye, too bad we only get to go once a year! It was definitely a busy week full of family and friends, all of whom gave us much to be thankful for.

Summing Up 2008

I stole this from Tammie who stole this from Cindy. By doing this I might just open the floodgates to meme tags but oh well, usually that is a sign one's blog has "made it" I guess. And of course if it gets too bad I can always sign on to my neglected myspace page and turn "bulletins" into "memes" and tag the excessive taggers until they are also drowning in them...

2008 - Questions and Answers

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
I started a blog.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't do new year's resolutions and lately whenever I set goals all hell breaks loose that prevents them from happening, and they were insanely reasonable goals too!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Deb did, to a beautiful baby girl she needs to post more pictures of so it won't slip my mind next time (she says she was conned into the second which would imply there won't be a third but her kids are so cute...)! My sister's BFF did but I barely know her, she birthed twin girls and lovingly chose a couple who will take very good care of them in an open adoption. Oh and VegasDad's lovely wife recently had a baby boy, a carbon copy of the first so they have a spare, sweet! And thankfully Abby's wife Sharon did not give birth, she is due in February (Hallie was extremely premature and her beautiful twin didn't make it so there was concern about her little sister coming early as well). Liz had a boychild, definitely a cutie. And Jayden made his appearance in April of 2008 making the MommyDaddy blog's title appropriate (they registered the URL before she got pregnant and without immediate plans for her to become so, lol). I think that covers all the 2008 babies for the people who I read and who read me back. Nate and Tricia's baby girl was born last January on the 8th, but he has way too many readers to read me, their story is amazing though so if you have time click on over there and join the thousands enamored by them of which I have been for almost a year (I started reading shortly after Gwyn was born).

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, though a member of my church back home passed away unexpectedly, I didn't know him too well except that he was a nice guy and sold me Oldsie.

5. What countries did you visit?
Michigan (lol).

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
The ability to digest whatever I feel like ingesting. A wrist I don't have to worry about messing up doing every stupid little thing (like cleaning fricking test tubes, I was going to work this weekend but nooooo). Note: I am a little cranky at the moment, it is not that bad.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
9/24 = Miracle Dodge Day. That was the date of my last GI related appointment with Doc and I managed to wiggle out of being referred to the doc with too many cameras. It also marks the day when someone actually had data proving I was full of shit instead of making an unsubstantiated accusation to that effect.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I didn't die. I made some progress on my project, not nearly as much as I had planned (original plan was for it to be finished AND written up by now, not even close, sigh).

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not taking care of myself that well and not getting my project done.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
That is an understatement. There are others way worse off than I am though so I try not to complain too much (this post would not be evidence of that).

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I bought a counter top dishwasher, that has helped me out a bit. My camera is another good purchase, my old one was great but dying and it rarely worked when I needed it so it was time, nieces are only little once and this might end up my only one so I have to get pictures of her.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Mine, I didn't hit my idiot coworker with a rolled up newspaper like I wanted to but my boss told me not to and I grudgingly listened to her (I was semi-joking when I asked her).

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Said coworker and the visiting professor.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Right back to the university in rent and fees and such, the rest tends to get spent at the new super walmart (say what you want against them, having a 24 hr one stop shopping option has been great for me).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting to see not only my beloved family members for Thanksgiving but also being able to make it over to meet the Weasels.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I don't know that any will.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? About the same.
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner.
c) richer or poorer? Richer since I have been saving my money.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Research.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being sick.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Packing the car up and driving to Chicago, missing dinner sadly.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Not in a romantic sense no. I did make new friends so in that sense yes.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't watch TV, my internet addiction takes up my free time.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Not really.

24. What was the best book you read?
I read a few, don't know what the best was, most were pretty good.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Ian.

26. What did you want and get?
Time with my loved ones, though not nearly enough.

27. What did you want and not get?
My mommy was supposed to come visit me but wasn't able to, that rather sucked.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Wall-E, it was cute and Niecey's love for it definitely raises its value in my world.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 25 and I worked, talked to various family and friends on the phone, opened the presents from my mom while on the phone with her, other than that it was just like any other day. Pretty much how every birthday has been since I moved, I don't really fuss much about my birthday anyway.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If there were approximately 300 less miles between here and Chicago.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Not cold: If it is clean, fits, and vaguely matches it works.
Cold: If it is warm it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it doesn't smell it is fine!

32. What kept you sane?
Who said anything about my being sane? The computer keeps me "sane", it is how I communicate with the outside world for the most part.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Do bloggers count as celebrities? I don't keep up with the celebrity stuff and being from Chicago, IL I have basically no faith in politicians, ESPECIALLY ones from Chicago, IL (either party). I suppose I fancy the prosecutor that indicted the governor, I hope he doesn't think his job with my home state is done, it is very far from it, there are much bigger fish to go after than stupid blago.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I hated everything about the 2008 election from start to finish, I am unaware of a single good thing that came of it other than I discovered that I could talk to certain people who had different beliefs than my own without it turning into an ugly fight that resulted in loss of friendships. I kindly ask those who feel differently about the outcome of this election to not bring it up with me, I don't want my blog to turn into a cesspool, politics sicken me in general and there is way more than enough stress working against me and my stomach lining...

35. Who did you miss?
Considering the vast majority of my family and friends live 350 miles or more away I'll go with everyone for most of the year.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
The Weasels, finally a happy question!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Kids are the most important aspect of ones life, for me it is currently Niecey and Buggy (godson).

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
If you're going through hell (grad school, lol) keep on going!

Shopping With Niecey

Back in August my mom had foot surgery to remove a weird growth, she found out shortly before she was going to come visit me that she needed the surgery. The vacation time was already submitted and she basically had no choice but to cancel her plans to come see me and use that time instead to have and recover from the surgery (she is still recovering but definitely on the mend at this point). During the time that was supposed to be spent with me fell her birthday, I had planned to take her out to eat as her present, the last minute change in plans left me without a present for her nor time to get one so I told her that we would celebrate her birthday next time I visited her, this came over the Thanksgiving holiday. She was working insane hours at work and did not get a whole lot of time to see me so there was no time to go out to eat so I decided to do the next best thing, make her dinner at home. I picked Niecey up from kindergarten that afternoon and told her we were going to make Grah a birthday dinner, she definitely liked this idea. I took her by Grah's work to say hi and inform her that dinner would be awaiting her when she got home, then we went over to a local and cheap grocery store. I did not know ahead of time that they had these incredibly adorable kid-sized carts, Niecey informed me as we walked in, I thought to myself, "Score, I can make Niecey do all the work, she'll have a blast, and I will get an awesome blog post out of it!" And so our shopping adventure began!


1. We got some fresh bread, salad, broccoli and squash for Pa (his favorite, Mom loves it too though). Oh and some of my favorite vegetable in the white fanny may box (mmmm mint meltaways, chocolate being from a bean and mint being a leaf it counts double as a veggie!).

2. Off to the meat department, Niecey decided we should eat cow, I helped her pick a reasonably priced cut (aka cheap), I can't remember what it was only that it is technically used in roasts or something, I cooked it like a steak as I do most cuts of beef. As long as it tastes good I do not mind having to chew my food, good exercise, hehe. I got tired of carrying her coat and discovered the second use of the cart's flag. (Faces blanked out to preserve innocent bystanders' privacy.)

3. Cutting through the frozen stuff section.

4. Niecey was ready for her closeup! We got the fixings for cupcakes since it was a birthday celebration and Auntie Kee is an awesome cupcake maker but a not so good cake maker (unless she buys it from the bakery).

5. We also picked up some fruit and milk. And of course mushrooms for Auntie Kee's signature mushroom gravy (which damn near killed her last night when Grah helped her make it, note: make sure Grah is not going to add greasy "drippings" to gravy after it already has olive oil and a touch of butter in it, GI nightmare!).

6. Niecey had to load the groceries on the conveyor belt. The clerk warned me not to let the managers see me taking pictures, she was really nice, I told her I would throw a fit and write a really mean blog post about the store if they tried to stop me from taking pics of my adorable cart slave! Guess they made a no cameras policy after some idiot teenagers had recently gone in the store with one in a gorilla suit videoing him rampaging through the store and scaring the crap out of young kiddies, jerks!

7. Another cute pic of her loading the groceries on the belt.

8. Of course she had to bag them too, I did help, didn't want everything all squished!

9. I was too busy cooking and keeping my assistant cook busy and safe to take pics while cooking and then we all descended on it like rabid dogs when I was done so the only food pic is of the cupcakes. We got 50 candles and had them all stuck in the cupcakes and lit, I wanted a pic but the heat of all those cheap and small candles had them last maybe 30 seconds after they were all lit! I had no idea how much light and heat would be put off by that many candles, it was really neat! I took this pathetic pic of them after we pulled the candles out, imagine them looking like they are all on fire and you've got what it looked like, hehe.

All in all it was a lot of fun shopping and cooking with Niecey. She can be a pain in the butt to get to eat but I have noticed that the more she helps make the meal the more she is willing to eat it. Too bad that small helpers can make the job take a lot longer than it normally would! When I am not in a hurry though it is definitely amusing to let the kiddo help out, she is soooo proud of herself when she does and it is nice to encourage her to develop new skills and it is generally good quality time spent together.

Niecey's Thanksgiving Thankfulness Two

Niecey has decided that she wants to write another Thanksgiving post, I tried to get her to label it as a Christmas post but she would have none of that craziness so Thanksgiving it is!

Each of the following is proceeded by "I am thankful for..."

1. Auntie Cheryl (who I stole for like three weeks)
2. Auntie Kee (Because I am insanely indulgent)
3. Big Bear (best $9.99 I ever spent)
4. Monkey Weasel
5. Tiniest Weasel (aka Smallest Weasel)
6. Turkey
7. Pa
8. Her Computer (Yes she has her own, it is an old junker from our uncle)
9. Trees
10. Her house
11. Momma Weasel
12. Pa's computer (which I am using now)
13. Boy Weasel
14. Middle Weasel
15. Cheese because it's yellow (Yellow is her favorite color if you didn't guess)
16. Time (she got a watch for Christmas)
17. Bunnies (Auntie Cheryl has two of them)
18. Frogs (because they hop apparently)
19. Random crap on the desk (she is listing everything on the desk trying to think of more, she is so a blogger in training!)
20. Herself (so am I, best niecey ever!)
21. Auntie Cheryl's sock monkeys (oh how she covets them!)
22. coolwhip(she wrote that herself copying the cool whip "bowl", aka the fancy dishes in my mom's collection)
23. crown(sweet, she is writing this post now, I just have to add the parenthetical comments for her amusement)hehehohoho
24. Big Weasel (aka Eldest Weasel)
25. Music (Ian will like this one)

And there you have it, things Niecey is thankful for, hope you enjoyed it!

Niecey has decided to end this with "hehehoho"

Merry Christmas everyone!

An Update, A Message for Doc, and An Answered Question

So I have not posted since I was in Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday, what a neglectful blogger I have been! Rumors of my death are somewhat exaggerated, my new wife/babysitter is taking very good care of my workoholic self. Though her looking up what a GI doc would likely do to me if I ever let Doc talk me into seeing one has led me to conclude that I think I would rather die than take that referral. Good thing my issues are not life threatening, Doc said he has yet to lose a patient and I would hate to be the one to ruin his record!

My Shadow and I rocking the bun look Grah dislikes

I have not forgotten this blog and all of my bloggy friends, in fact in my spare time I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading, remember I was a blogoholic before I was a blogger. I will be posting more about my trip over thanksgiving and such but it will have to wait until I have a few more brain cells working. Since coming back I have been working every day and I think I am averaging about 10 hours a day, though not all of that is working 10 solid hours and I have been going to water aerobics (Thursday was the last day before finals and break sadly). I still have some residual plague symptoms but it is not that bad and does not interfere with my working so I plan to ignore it and hope the immune system eventually works it out.

Niecey and Smallest Weasel (so cute!)

Despite all the driving, 5.5 hours to Chicago followed by about 5 to Michigan after sleeping an hour between, it was worth it to get to see my beloved family and it was such a treat getting to meet the real WeaselMomma and her delightful family. My little shadow definitely felt it was worth the time and gas for me to come visit her and go meet our new weasel friends. I was not planning to make the trip since I was still sickly but Doc assured me that I was not contagious anymore and told me to go see the family. Niecey definitely appreciated the fact that I followed his advice and wanted to tell him. Here you go Doc, a video on my blog just for you, thank you so much for all you do to try and keep me functioning despite my orneriness:

And I have decided to answer a question (and probably go off on several tangents) I received from Abby here since my computer ate my reply to her on her blog and also I have a tendency to write way too much for a comment (if you aren't cool with this Abby let me know and I'll delete this part or edit it). She and her wife have an adorable daughter who has GI issues, some of her symptoms are quite similar to mine but the poor kid is way worse than I am and we have different causes for our issues. I find it interesting that so many GI issues have very similar symptoms and treatments, I learn so much reading about what they are going through with Hallie (though of course I prefer the posts that tell how cute and smart she is with pictoral evidence). In my experience and based on what I know and have read, people with GI issues have to find the right balance of drugs and foods to either control or lessen the symptoms. The current treatment Hallie is on or is about to be on involves a course of antibiotics to try and knock back a potential overgrowth of bacteria in her intestines (most likely kinds that are not the healthiest to have) . Someone suggested that they put her on probiotics (she is actually already on them), which are health benefiting microorganisms (generally bacteria), to hopefully prevent some of the more unpleasant aspects of going on the antibiotic* (diarrhea mainly I am guessing but they can cause more than just that).

Being a microbiologist with similar issues and who happens to work with probiotic organisms (specifically Bifidobacteria) I commented that I felt this was good advice. Use the antibiotic to knock out the bad and then take probiotics during and after in hopes of colonizing her gut with healthy bacteria. She asked me what I use and somewhat ashamedly I must confess that I do not really practice what I preach and currently am not taking any probiotics. I was trying to get into the habit of eating Dannon Activa but I do not like yogurt and especially after coming down with the plague I had even less desire to eat the stuff. I am definitely considering trying probiotics in pill form but have not gotten around to looking at what my options for that are. In Hallie's case I would recommend taking a supplement that contains at least one strain of Bifidobacteria (for her colon) and potentially a Lactobacillus species or two (or more, they tend to colonize the upper intestines) because the goal is to help her get through the antibiotic and establish a healthy flora. Given that the science is behind on substantiating claims made about certain possibly probiotic organisms (human studies are complex and expensive) and currently probiotics are not regulated it is hard to say if the claims made by these products are valid or not**, but it does not hurt to try.

I really hope that the antibiotic, mixed with probiotics, helps balance out Hallie's system. It is hard enough as an adult dealing with GI issues and knowing the reason behind them and the treatments (some of the treatments can be unpleasant), I cannot fathom being a child and only knowing the pain and discomfort these issues bring. But it is not all bad, Hallie has parents who fight for her and will do anything to help her as well as a nanny who adores her and does what she can to help as well. Also she is developing an instinct for what foods make her sick, something I am starting to get as well and it is very useful. No matter what she is an amazing little girl who is going to be a big sister in about two months (8 weeks).

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Anyone can have GI issues during and after antibiotic therapy, the intestinal flora in humans is very important and antibiotics tend to wreck at least some havoc with it, one of several reasons not to go on antibiotics unless it is necessary. I am not against the proper use of antibiotics, improper use of them and the resistance that is resulting from that is a huge public health concern. They can cause more harm than good in someone who is sick with "just a virus" and I am glad that doctors are more and more standing up to their patients who insist on having a script even when it is clearly a viral infection and it is explained to them that an antibiotic will not help. I say those people should be put on placebomycin and told it should work within 2 weeks and they should drink plenty of fluids and rest...
**Please do not interpret my skepticism as my not thinking probiotics give benefits, as a scientist my job is to be skeptical.

Thankful Thursday

Niecey is helping me write this post while we are in Michigan with our family. Here is what she is thankful for not necessarily in order.

1. Turkey
2. Auntie Cheryl
3. Auntie Kee
4. Pa
5. Her family
6. Momma
7. Graw
8. Big Bear
9. Big Bear's old ribbon
10. Her monkey
11. Bed
12. House
13. Monkey comforter
14. Auntie Marilyn
15. The kitchen
16. Her cousins
17. Auntie Carol
18. Zippy*
19. Bananas
20. TV
21. Lily
22. William
23. Freddy
24. Telephone
25. Months of the year
26. Herself
27. Her pig shirt
28. Plants
29. Flat WeaselMomma

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you all have plenty to be grateful for =).

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Zippy is Auntie Marilyn's dog (Auntie Kee and Zippy are not friends).

A Five Year Old's Perspective on Virology

When Niecey came to visit me back in August she of course spent time in every room in my apartment, this of course included the home office/plant room (and thankfully the bathroom, she was a late potty user and almost didn't get to come because I said she had to be potty using in accordance to the state law to be allowed to visit). In said home office/plant room there is a wall that has dark wood paneling. This nasty paneling is actually featured through much of the apartment. I have seen worse but either way I am not a fan of it. To make it more livable for me I decided to cover/decorate it with my GIANTmicrobes collection and some family pictures. Now I actually like the wall, and so did Niecey. There was one microbe in particular that caught her eye, it is the plush for E. coli.


Every year there is this huge student-run/organized (somewhat mostly, the university seems to have a huge hand in it) campus-wide celebration that lasts a week but the main bash is on the weekend. This occurs in April, usually the weather is starting to get better and the frozen tundra begins to thaw so the fact that the buses are totally rerouted that weekend isn't quite as upsetting to me (I am usually stupid enough to try to work that weekend). Every year I try and make a point to visit the undergrad micro club's display and will often buy a shirt from them (they also sell giantmicrobes and sometimes other stuff). Last year they had made little replicas of bacteriophage (aka phage) out of a styrofoam ball, a wood peg and pipe cleaner and were giving them to whomever bought something from them. I was going to buy something anyway but really really wanted the phage. Phage are viruses that infect bacteria. Well I decided to put this little phage on the E. coli plush and thus my tangent now connects with the original logic train.Niecey can be a very curious child, as are most children her age, and so she wanted to know what that thing was doing on that microbe. I gave her a watered down version of phage:bacteria interactions and how viruses work. I am not 100% how well she understands virology at this point, but she does have some conception of it and this is her rather good interpretation of how it works:


This picture is one of my absolute favorites and I will keep it forever! I plan to eventually frame it, she was so happy that I put it on my fridge that I have left it there for now. I love how easy it is to make a child's face light up and their little chest swell up with pride! That is why I always try to pay attention when there are little kids around instead of ignoring them. A kind word from an adult can totally make their day and not much else makes my day better than making someone else's, adult or child but children are usually easier, lol.

~~~~~
Picture 1: Picture Niecey took when she found my camera, this features some of the microbes wall and some of the plants.
Picture 2: Another Niecey pic, this one features the E. coli plush (football shaped with string coming down) and the phage (round thing on top of plush).
Picture 3: Niecey's depiction of a bent rod shaped bacterium being attacked by two phage, the one on the left appears to be injecting its genetic material into the cell while the one on the right appears to be in the attachment phase.

Hilarious or Evil? You Decide!

Myself*, Cheryl, and Niecey July 2006

Baby Sibling has decided that she wants to share some of her favorite interactions with Nieceypoo. She interrupted my blog reading and insisted I post them on the bloggity (yes I call my blog "the bloggity" or "the bloggity blog"). Here is the proof:
"The" Cheryl says: blog bout that one looool
"The" Cheryl says: tell em bout the dog plant too
"The" Cheryl says: go on
"The" Cheryl says: do eeet
"The" Cheryl says: and the mailing her moma in that tiny box
"The" Cheryl says: and the baboon zoo

And here is my deal with her:
Karen says: If my readers are all, "Awww poor Niecey being traumatized by her evil Auntie Cheryl" I am so publishing the "Auntie Cheryl is the meanest auntie ever!" comments!

Story 1: Whelpling** and the Big Scary Bug
"The" Cheryl says: hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk
"The" Cheryl says: Whelpling
"The" Cheryl says: lol
"The" Cheryl says: ha ha ha ha
"The" Cheryl says: So There's a male mosquito down here
"The" Cheryl says: and Whelpling's scared o it yeah
"The" Cheryl says: lolls
"The" Cheryl says: and so and so She grabs a block and gives me one yeah
"The" Cheryl says: LOOOOL
"The" Cheryl says: and and
Karen says: They are big and creepy looking
"The" Cheryl says: she's trying to find it and when she does She's all freaked out
"The" Cheryl says: *laughs more*
"The" Cheryl says: So I smash it with a block
"The" Cheryl says: and then have her smash the block with her block
"The" Cheryl says: and I tells her
"The" Cheryl says: I tells her
"The" Cheryl says: LOL
"The" Cheryl says: "Hold the two blocks otherwise it might get up and it'll be mad"
"The" Cheryl says: looool lol lol
"The" Cheryl says: She's stuck holdin the blocks now
"The" Cheryl says: and then
"The" Cheryl says: the kicker
Karen says: You do realize that you are evil right?
"The" Cheryl says: after she spent a good minute grinding the two blocks
"The" Cheryl says: the bug's obviously dead
"The" Cheryl says: ha haa haaaaa
"The" Cheryl says: and then
"The" Cheryl says: and then
"The" Cheryl says: she accidentally drops the blocks
"The" Cheryl says: and SCREAMS bloody murder
"The" Cheryl says: running away crying
"The" Cheryl says: (rofl)
"The" Cheryl says: as if it lived an shit
Karen says: You deserve any damage to your ears from the screaming...
"The" Cheryl says: none whatsoever
"The" Cheryl says: twas so worth it with the set up
Karen says: My poor traumatized little niecey
"The" Cheryl says: I er twas harmless
"The" Cheryl says: only eats plant stuff
"The" Cheryl says: nooooo, she didn't listen ta me
Karen says: They are huge and scary looking and she has our mother as a great example of being a bugphobe...

Story 2: Whelpling and the Baboon Zoo
"The" Cheryl says: Well long ago Whelpling like to misbehave, like every kid that age I know. So one day I gather up a good rippin' yarn. I tell Whelpling, who was in the middle of being a darn good pest, if she wanted to behave like a monkey I was gunna send her straight to the monkey zoo.
"The" Cheryl says: of course I had to pick the freakiest lookin monkey she disliked the most and inevitably it evolved into the Baboon Zoo
"The" Cheryl says: and so, I tells her she'll have a baboon mama and she cries, that she has a moma and doesn't want a baboon one
"The" Cheryl says: and I tells her she'll have a baboon pa, and she cries she doesn't want a baboon pa she has a pa
"The" Cheryl says: and so on so forth until the whole~ family is covered as baboons, something she didn't want.
"The" Cheryl says: I'm holding back laughing my butt off and over time the baboon threat weakened and naturally as all small whelps, she started not believing me
"The" Cheryl says: she got cocky
"The" Cheryl says: really really cocky about this
"The" Cheryl says: until I grabbed a box
"The" Cheryl says: a really small box
"The" Cheryl says: I told her to get in, that she was being shipped to the baboon zoo. Hoo boy did she pitch a fit
"The" Cheryl says: up until she figured out she couldn't possibly fit in the box and I was laughing too hard ta be serious

Story 3: Whelpling can buy It on E-bay
"The" Cheryl says: THEN came another day of Whelpling shinanigans, she wouldn't stop being obnoxious
"The" Cheryl says: I told her if she didn't stop bugging her Mama I was going to sell Mama on ebay
"The" Cheryl says: and she yet again didn't believe me so whilst she was busy in the kitchen being an ultra pesty pest [Middle Sister] hid and I grabbed a small box.
"The" Cheryl says: I told Whelpling that I sold Mama for five bucks and she was being mailed out now. She looks at the small box in horror and starts yelling at me to let Mama out of the box
"The" Cheryl says: Naturally I put it out on the front step, kid followin behind me, yowling. Never mind the box was way too small to hold even the skinest of Mamas
"The" Cheryl says: meanwhile, her Mama is sneakin up silently behind Whelpling and right as I put the box down [Middle Sister] yells "BOO!" and Whelpling squeaks turning around and yelling happily "Mama! You're not in the box!" and yet again, I get to laugh my butt off

Story 4: Whelpling and the Dog Plant

My aunt's dog, not the dog in the story.

"The" Cheryl says: We were playing outside and of course the neighbors' dog comes on over for Whelpling pets
"The" Cheryl says: The dog is shedding and we both end up covered in fur
"The" Cheryl says: I pluck up a few and tell Whelpling that if she plants the fur, a dog plant will grow. She naturally believes me and grabs the fur and digs a little hole, puts the fur in, covers it and pats it gently down. It was so precious. She even watered it!
"The" Cheryl says: now this year a columbine grew in that spot***. Whelpling was so happy
"The" Cheryl says: "Look Auntie Cheryl! My dog plant grew!"

"The" Cheryl says: it was just so very cute

Picture of a columbine.

-----Copy LiteralDan Section-----
* Yes I used to "rock" the bangs, this was when I had started to grow them out.
** Cheryl calls Niecey such names as Whelp, Whelpling, Pest, Brat, Wee One, Bratling. She insisted that I call her Whelpling. Hijacks my blog and then insists I rename Nieceypoo...
*** Here is Loren's footnote, thanks for the comment and bringing to my attention a hole in Auntie Cheryl's narrative, bratty sibling neglecting the facts! She had Niecey plant the fur in one of the garden plots, the one I had heavily seeded with columbine seeds. Though she may not have known I had seeded that bed, I do remember her discovering she had pulled some columbines out of it thinking they were weeds until she saw the others coming up...

Introducing my new lab assistant

Today Niecey raided my closet and found some old balloons I had bought on clearance years ago (I am a bit of a pack rat/impulse buyer who forgets she bought something). I blew up a bunch for her and we played with them for hours, $1.00 well spent! Pa showed her how you can rub them on the couch and then stick them to the ceiling. I told her that it was making electricity and that is what held them up and showed her that she could also make it by rubbing her hands on the balloon and then it would stick to her hand. She was quite impressed!

Niecey has been wanting to see where I work and see my microbes from even before she got here. Everyday she has asked me when we will go to the lab to see my bacteria and I told her they were sleeping (they were incubating, the plates were boarder line not ready when I took them out). So after informing her of the "Don't touch anything unless I hand it to you" rule several times I brought her to work with me. I sanitized everything and let her count the plates that I didn't need. Counting plates is a tedious job that is made easier by a "colony counter", which is just a hand held device that you push the button and it clicks to the next number, this of course was a great toy for my little click monkey. Dad coined the phrase "click monkey" to describe someone who keeps pushing buttons when they don't need to, like clicking an icon or link 5 times because it is not loading fast enough (Niecey and my mom are both chronic click monkeys).

Counting plates is what I do to get the data for my experiments, basically I want to know how many bacteria I have in my sample and so I dilute it out until there are between 20-200 bacteria per milliliter and spread it across petri dishes containing agar where each cell (theoretically) will land and then grow into a visible spot (colony), which I count and then multiply by how many times I diluted it, typically my bacteria grow to about a billion or two cells per ml. Plates that have less than 20 colonies are considered statistically insignificant, but make for great counting practice for a kid about to enter kindergarten. I was also testing one of my cultures for contamination and so was making a slide to view under the microscope. So Niecey, and Dad, got to see bacteria in two different ways (I could have shown them bacteria grown in broth tubes but that is somewhat boring), on plates you are seeing a colony that has millions or more cells together forming a spot and with the scope you see what the cells look like by themselves.

All in all a good day with Niecey and Daddy. Perhaps I have inoculated Niecey's mind with the idea that science is fun and cool and it will grow into a love of the subject. And you have to admit, she looks adorable in a lab coat!


Safety First!