Fun with Reverse Stalker

I've noticed on google analytics that my post about the benefits of having an art major sibling is one of my most popular posts but since all the people who find it are lurkers who likely only look once I don't get my curiosity satisfied as to what they were searching for when they stumbled on my blog and more specifically that post. I think the majority come from doing image searches on google but that does not answer the what they were looking for part. So I am getting ready for bed and my Reverse Stalker (right side bar) caught my eye:

Islamabad arrived from images.google.com.pk on "My Microscopic Life: Why having an art major sibling rocks."

Islamabad left "My Microscopic Life: Why having an art major sibling rocks." via theunmarriedhouse wife.blogspot.com

I edited the post to include a plea for a comment not too long ago, so far no one has, until then I'll have to keep an eye on the reverse stalker. Enjoy the stalker from Islamabad Sibling, and thanks for the awesome artsy stuff!

In other google analytics news the epic battle between North Carolina and Tennessee for forth place, until now only known to me, is currently nearly tied up with Tennessee ahead by only one visit (TN: 101, NC 100). I'm guessing that NukeDad (NC) and Nonna (TN) are the representatives of their states, based on the % New NukeDad is the main one representing his while Nonna might have some help (she says she is highly competitive so she might start recruiting people now so she can thoroughly trounce NC/NukeDad). The battle for second place isn't much of a battle anymore, at one point it went back and forth between California and Illinois but the home state (with the indicted and impeached governor, yeah!) has pulled ahead (IL: 185 CA: 143) and likely will remain that way since I have befriended several bloggers (WeaselMomma and LiteralDan) from the homeland and Sibling is there and also when I visit it counts all my clicks when I post and use my blog roll to catch up on my blog addiction while on vacation.

There won't be a battle for first until I move out of the frozen tundra, I click my own blog way too much and google doesn't distinguish between me and everyone else unfortunately, though I do have more than just me clicking here, Loren stops by regularly (or as regularly as someone with 4 kids, three of them 4 year olds, can) and Kev (has the baby been born yet?!) has been known to come for a bit, though he did not approve of my and my coworkers' immaturity involving the crazy visiting professor (it was not in the best taste and definitely not one of my finer moments, months of build up anger...), don't worry Kev I plan to make a "lab drama" post much more to what you had in mind, just have to get around to it, lol.

Time (ok past time) for bed, good night blogosphere.

Edited to add: Look, while writing this post another one came:

Munich, Bayern arrived from google.de on "My Microscopic Life: Why having an art major sibling rocks."

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.

Introducing the Greatest Musical Team Ever!

So I have mentioned my good friend Ian before a time or two, and there will be more mentions of him if I ever get around to editing and posting another spotlight on nutrition video I took awhile ago (there are several of those along with other vids rotting away on my hard drive). He is a music major and I have to admit that at first I was kinda skeptical about the whole music major thing since the arts tend to be glutted. Then I heard him sing, holy crap that boy is crazy talented! He doesn't just sing either, he writes music too. I LOVE this composition he wrote for class, it has its own tab on my firefox browser so I can play it whenever I want, and usually listen to it on a daily basis because it puts out happy vibes that make me smile:



Now for my credentials, I am a bored grad student who sometimes has a spark of creativity and can't sing. Ask Uncle Richard if you don't believe me, he is my concert buddy and so has actually heard the train wreck that is my singing. Or better yet ask Niecey, she tells me to stop when I sing along with the radio when taking her out and about (I admit I ham it up just to harass her). Most of my musical talent lies in my ability to play the radio. I am also able to play CDs and get the songs from them onto my computer and from there to my mp3 thingy (thanks to Pasha, knower of all things tech and saver of this non-techie's butt in tech situations over my head).

Today I have to work. Last night I was up literally all night long feeling miserable (GI issues, I am so not eating dinner tonight and having a third night in a row like this, if you read this Doc* I have a few tricks to try before calling you to discuss my terms of GI referral surrender, I am not going down without a fight! And one meal won't kill me, I have chocolate and ensure!), I decided to go in and inoculate for tomorrow's run earlier than normal and then come home and sleep a bit and then go back and finish my work. I was eating whatever that meal is that you eat when you go to bed for a few hours in the afternoon and wake up and eat cereal because you are from the north and the thought of eating anything heavier when you wake up makes you feel ill (not GI and GI issue related), and then heard the rain and sleet start to get really bad. I'd already seen the radar earlier and knew that this band was going to be nasty and last forever and go from freezing rain into snow. Can't remember if they were saying 1-2 inches of snow in the afternoon and another 1-2 tonight or if it was 1-2 total, either way it sucks. The only good thing about the snow part is that sometimes it combines with the ice in such a way to provide traction (until the university brushes it off the sidewalks leaving the extremely slick ice behind, you think they'd learn in 150 years!). So I see the horridness that is the weather in this region this time of year as I know since I have lived in the midwest all my life but still I am pissed, I HATE winter!

Then something triggers in my disoriented brain and I decide to rewrite "Deck the Halls" into a song describing the tip of the iceberg of my feelings about the weather, I don't think it is possible to adequately describe how loathsome and vile I find winter. I put it into a skype chat that is populated be my sister's friends that I have been adopted into and by and now consider the majority to be my friends as well. Ian saw this and ran with it, he changed it up a touch where I lacked in rhyming ability and I nearly fell off my chair at the ending I was laughing so hard. I've been harassing him to record my songs before, this one had the good fortune of him seeing it when he actually had everything set up and was recording another song. OK totally hilarious, literally as I typed that line he linked the song I was referring to which he had put on the uploading back burner to get our Deck the Halls collaboration up, it is amazing so check it out, especially if the song this post is about offends you, it will totally win you back over it is that good!

Disclaimer: The F-word is featured VERY heavily in this song, if you are offended by this do not listen (nor click the F-word link, which is one of my favorites), if you have children present or are at work you may want to consider waiting. Or you can use Auntie Cheryl's rule and tell them, "Never repeat the horrible things Auntie Cheryl (or Auntie Kee and Ian in this case) says!" so you can listen to what I am quite proud of (non-profane lyrics below):



Here are the lyrics minus the swearing:
Deck the trees with freezing rain.
'Tis the season to be lame.
Don we now our not gay like Ian's winter apparel**.
Troll the sidewalks for not slick patches.
See the blazing snow come after.
Strike the sidewalk and break our [butts]***.
Follow me in dreary weather.
While I say it's bad as ever.
Fast away the driveability passes.
[Heck] this sucks ye lads and lasses.****

And now, those of you who have not been driven away by my vulgarity (all of which is mine, Ian did not add any), I have to get ready to brave this storm so I can try to get to bed early so I can somehow get my butt to work at 10am (instead of 11am, ew!). Too bad the secret motivation blog members would probably kill me if I joined them since I am struggling to keep on and at times gain weight, seriously how could they not want to kill me when one of my goals would be "maintain/gain weight without resorting to eating own weight in chocolate" (and two of them have my address!). At risk of hate comments/mail I envy those who want to lose weight, I've actually been there and looking back it was so much better, much less painful.




~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section*****~~~~~
*My doctor knows about my blog and has the URL but most likely does not have time to actually read it, seriously he has to read doctor stuff to stay ahead of my broken self as well as take care of his other, probably much less ornery, patients many of which are athletes and he has to go to their stuff and make sure natural selection doesn't select against the more valuable ones (hasn't lost one yet, go Doc!). My little disclaimers are there in part because it amuses me to pretend he reads and in case he does because he does care and I don't want to worry him too much and in this one give him a heads up that most likely I will be seeing him in the next couple weeks. Him being awesome earned him that at great expense to myself since he is way sharper and quicker witted than I, even with me prepped and him not for what I am going to throw at him, so really I am giving him even more of an advantage. Though I do have a good one up my sleeve...
**The use of the word gay is not meant to be offensive in any way except to Uggs, Ian wears the same ones as his mommy (she totally is copying him). Ian and I both love gay people and I love making fun of his Uggs.
***The real lyrics use the more vulgar word for the posterior...
****Yeah, little stronger than heck and I suppose I'm borderline on sucks, when I was a kid it was considered a swear but I think that society has excepted that as being a bit rude but not an actual profanity.
*****I seem to have started something here, Nonna and Sibling have both started copying me copying LiteralDan. I get minion points for having underminions right Dan? Either way it totally cracks me up!

Navigationally Challenged

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; strengths to help you get through life and weaknesses to keep you humble. One of my weaknesses is the fact that I am navigationally challenged. Once I have been a place enough times I am pretty good at getting around but until I am used to it I can get turned around and lost quite easily. I was discussing this with WeaselMomma on one of her recent posts, I was telling her that if I ever went to Philly (her home town) that I would probably end up calling her hopelessly lost and she'd have to figure out where I was and get me unlost, or that I would have to kidnap her and use her as a prophylactic but in this case as a guide so I didn't get lost and not in terms of antibiotics* nor birth control.** I then revealed to her that I was navigationally challenged to the point of getting lost in my hometown and she said she wanted to hear this one so I am indulging her and the rest of you with one of my slightly less finer moments, enjoy.

It was the fall of 2001, I had graduated high school, gotten my driver's license, became a deli clerk, and got my first car, a 1988 Mercury Topaz that was my grandma's but she had stopped driving and it was just sitting in her driveway collecting wasp nests, a fact that scared the shit out of my mother (Hi Mom, I saw you save my blog address so you don't have to hide if you are reading this, I was getting ready to link you anyway). I started college that August at Benedictine University, a small private university in Lisle, IL. It was an interesting transition for me, not only was I new to the whole college thing but I had my K-12 in public school (a good system) and it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out that Benedictine is a catholic school given the being named after a saint thing.

At Benedictine Christian values are something they strive to instill in their students no matter what religion they are, this was rather apparent in their humanities classes, especially the first one that all students are required to take. In that course I was given an assignment, I was to do 10 hours of community service and write a report about the experience. This assignment proved very difficult for me, not only did I now have a full time course load but I was also a deli clerk and up until that summer I had been in a coed youth program through the Boy Scouts of America called Venturing Crew. My crew dissolved before I started college. While in crew I did many hours of community service, without crew I had no outlet and had to find my own place to volunteer, and most I thought of and contacted didn't have anything or I needed to have background checks or other nonsense that prevented me from doing it. Finally I found a nursing home that was happy to have some free labor, and it happen to be in my hometown, score!

A little bit about my hometown. It is a rather small suburb of Chicago. According to the sign last time I saw it there are 24,600 people in my town, obviously this is a somewhat rough estimate but close enough. Almost no one has heard of this little town, it isn't uncommon for people from neighboring burbs to have not heard of it. I was about a year and a half old when my family moved to this town and lived there until I finished my undergraduate work and moved here for grad school. So one would assume that I know this town quite well right? Well you assumers are wrong, I know parts of this town very well, the nursing home in question was NOT in my area, which was still very small since I had only recently started driving. My mom told me she knows where this place is, it is past 63rd street she tells me. And so confident in my abilities I got in my trusty Mercury and hit the road.

I get on the street the place is on and am driving along and get to 63rd street and start looking for a nursing home, I didn't see one. I kept going a ways until I decided I must have missed it and so turn off the main road onto a side street so I can turn around legally (too much traffic to do one of the U-turn using all 4 lanes my daddy taught me and I have made my own). Unfortunately for me this stupid side street had some odd twists (I was going around the block instead of finding a driveway to use figuring it would be easier, hah!) and instead of ending back on the main road I was on I got on another road that I thought was the main road but wasn't. At this time I had this really bad instinct to keep driving, I used to always do that when lost, just keep driving in hopes I would eventually get somewhere I recognized. In my defense I had not diagnosed myself as navigationally challenged yet and used to be dumb enough to think this method might work.

I drove until the road I was on either ended or forked and kept going and going. Eventually I saw a Jewel, which is a grocery store chain, and decided enough was enough and stopped to find out where the heck I was and call for help. I walk into the Jewel and find an associate and asked them what town I was in, the answer was Countryside, which is several towns over and around 6 miles from my hometown, though I took the insanely "scenic" route. I found out the street names and got on my cell phone (which only had 75min/month so I never used it) and called Grandpa and told him where I was and asked how to get home. He gave me specific enough instructions and so I went on my merry way.

The funny/ironic part was as I got back on the street I was on and drove further I drove into LaGrange, the town I was born in, where my clinic/hospital was and oh yeah, where I went to church for quite a few years. I was not far along at all when I started recognizing the landmarks, the road I was on was the road we took to get to church, except we turned before Countryside since it was in LaGrange, once I was in LaGrange I knew exactly where I was and how to get back. So my strategy funnily enough would have worked had I stuck with it about a block or two more, which is probably why I later used it when trying to navigate elsewhere with generally bad results. Instead of going home I decided that since I had been driving for like an hour or so I should at least try to make it to the nursing home, which Grandpa told me was BEFORE 63rd street. I found it and worked for a few hours, the next day I went back for a few more and then was too busy to get the full 10 so wrote it up as was and turned it in for a not so good grade.

And that dear readers is how I got lost in my hometown. Since then I have actually improved in my abilities to turn around and am a little better at navigating. It helps that I generally refuse to go anywhere without mapquest directions. Oh and my getting a little mixed up on my way to the Weasel's house was totally the weather's fault. I went during a bit of a snow storm that consisted of somewhat sticky blowing snow that coated the street signs and reduced visibility. That said if I ever do go to Philly I will likely get myself GPS chipped and steal WeaselMomma along the way!

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Use of antibiotics in a patient without a bacterial infection that has a risk of contracting one is the application of the word prophylactic that I encounter and use the most.
**Referring to various birth control methods as prophylactics was the application I actually forgot about when commenting on WeaselMomma's blog, proving once again that I am a nerd and my blog title is quite appropriate in more than just the figurative sense.

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!

Christmas 2, Microblogologist 0

First off, merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate Christmas, to those of you that do not disregard the merriment if you so choose, you can definitely be merry if you want, whatever works for you and happy Hanukkah to my Jewish reader(s) and to Doc (if you read this Doc my present to you is I gained about 2 pounds in mostly healthy ways). That said Christmas is kicking my ass. Last Christmas I spent inside my car, outside my apartment, in the freezing cold weather we in the midwest all know and love *cough despise cough* before going to work for a few hours and then having company over in the form of a police officer and three firefighters. This Christmas so far does not seem like it is going to turn out much better. What you want me to go into excruciating detail? OK, for you my dear readers I will.

Round One: Christmas 2007 v Microblogologist

Last Christmas I was supposed to go see my family only they were sick. I was dating a guy who lived at home with his parents and his dad (who is awesome) has cancer and is immunocompromised. My goal in life at the time was to get to see boyfriend and not kill his father (who I adore). I also did not like the sounds of the diseased masses that was my family at the time, seriously ew. The year before I went to their place for thanksgiving and they decided to give me more than thanks, they gave me influenza, thanks family! After that I tended to avoid going home if they had some form of pestilence but especially with the immunocompromised in my life (besides bf's dad there was also my diabetic friend and her former premie son, aka my godson Buggy).

So I decided to wait it out and go home for new years instead. I was not thrilled with this, missed everyone and had worked my butt off to get my experiment done in time so I could have gone and all but I was trying to make the best of it. I had found a duck at the store for a good price and decided to make it for my meal, might as well celebrate with a nice meal. I baked the duck and I think made mashed potatoes and beans to go with it, some of my favorites. Right when my dinner was done the carbon monoxide detector decided that to inform me that I was going to die.

I opened the kitchen window (it was probably in the 20°F range, thanks Pasha for teaching me that alt 248 = °), turned on the stove vent thing, and muted the CO detector and sat down to eat. Unfortunately the stupid detector only stays muted for a short time before telling you that you are going to die some more in its own special ear splitting way. I think death may in fact be preferable to the horrid pain the alarm inflicts on my poor ears! I kept muting it for a bit but eventually got frustrated and moved me and my meal out into my car so I could at least eat it instead of having to get up every 30 seconds to hit the alarm. I called my BFF Pasha from the car because I knew it would make his Christmas to hear I was eating Christmas dinner in Oldsie, it did, Merry Christmas you bastard! (I swear we really are friends!)

I finished eating and the damn alarm was still going off so I decided to let the apartment air out some more and go get some work done, not like I had anything better to do. I went back in to get some stuff and open more windows and then abandoned ship. I went to work and enjoyed having the lab to myself and made up a bunch of dilution blanks, which I use to see how many bacteria are in a sample. I got back home around 1am and the damn alarm was STILL GOING OFF! The neighbor was outside smoking and told me that it was ok since he could sleep through it, I was soooo glad. What really ticked me off was the fact that the neighbors knew the alarm was going off but none of them checked on me, this is not the first time alarms have gone off in the building and they have ignored them. I check when I hear one, if it were in their apartment I would knock and see if they were ok if it went off for more than a few minutes, maybe it is a cultural thing... So I decide it is time to call the after hours number listed and get the ISUPD and they dispatched a cop and called the fire dept. They did not find any CO in my apartment and pulled the battery from the alarm. My guess is that there may have been CO produced by my oven that triggered it and then it got stuck on, could have been defective just as easily, wouldn't be the first time for either scenario in this neighborhood. Definitely a Christmas FAIL.

Christmas 1, Microblogologist 0

Round 2: Christmas 2008 v Microblogologist

As my regular readers know I contracted a plague (respiratory virus not bubonic) at the end of October when a professor decided to visit my lab and share the viral love. I quarantined myself for over 3 weeks and almost didn't go visit my family for thanksgiving but Doc checked me out and told me that I had a secondary infection and was no longer contagious and to get my butt out of here and go see my family. He didn't send me off without drugs of course, he is my drug lord after all. He sent me over to the drug dealers and they hooked me up with an antibiotic (highly debated) and these cool little cough suppressant pills. He tried to put me on two antibiotics but I protested and got it down to one, having a wacky GI tract to begin with I didn't want to beat the crap out of it with antibiotics. My Bubbie (grandma) basically called me an idiot for not listening to him and taking both, the woman who pretty much tells her friends I am a genius and going to cure cancer or something (highly unlikely), Mom also thinks I should have taken both. I currently think that I should have had both but perhaps staggered them, my GIT has been acting up a bit since I had the first round so who knows how bad it could be if I had two at the same time unbalancing the system. Remember, I do approve of antibiotic usage when it is needed.

So I took my meds and went for thanksgiving and had a blast. The antibiotics seemed to help but they did not knock it out completely, I am still sick. Thankfully I became a functional not contagious sick person so I was able to get back to work and worked my butt off since the day I got back so I could be done with the current experiment before Christmas. I did in fact finish it, not counting the ones I have to redo and we were supposed to leave the 23rd for Chicago (we as in Baby Sibling aka my babysitter aka The Unmarried Housewife), but I lost track of time and we weren't ready to go at a reasonable hour and I was starting to feel my sinuses building up pressure. The plan was to leave early today but I was feeling progressively sicker and my sinuses want me dead so that didn't happen. I am hoping that tomorrow I will feel better and be able to make the trip but either way I believe this round goes to Christmas.

Christmas 1, Microblogologist 0

Final Score: Christmas 2, Microblogologist 0

Community

When I talk about my blog to people, whether it be fellow bloggers or people who are unaware of the blog world I will often cite reasons for starting this whole blogging thing. I lurked the blogosphere blogless for over a year I think, I enjoy reading and being a grad student I often don't have enough time to really get into a good book and so rarely bother trying to read one. Blogs were different, they are like a long series told in many short segments and it was easier for me to read a post or two or 100 in my spare time (aka time I should be doing lit review, bleck). Another thing about blogs I found was that if I really liked something brought up in a post I could comment about it and therefore interact with the author, how cool is that?!

As is often the case reading one blog led to reading another and another and another... The blogs I read in the beginning were premie blogs but eventually that led to blogs written by non-premie parents. After awhile I noticed that there were these social clicks/rings between some of the blogs I read, this intrigued me. Not too long after this I was reading one of my newest favorites and came across this post. I got a good laugh out of it and commented, we had a comment and e-mail exchange in which we discussed the idea of my having a blog:

NukeDad: I know that a lot of people who read it [his blog] are bloggers themselves, are you a blogger?

Blogless Microblogologist: I am not a blogger myself, life as a grad student who doesn't get out much does not make for much amusing blog material*.
NukeDad: Keep in touch, cuz when you start your blog I want to be one of the first subscribers.

This exchange happened about two weeks before I started this blog. I had actually entertained the idea of starting one before but had concluded I would be the most boring blogger ever, him expressing interest in a blog by little ole' me made me think about it more seriously. After this conversation I talked to Baby Sibling about hypothetically starting a blog and we threw around some ideas of what I would call it and write about and she came up with "Microblogology" and I instantly fell in love and HAD to start the blog immediately.

Back to the concept of community, the topic of this post, I even named it that. Seeing how the different bloggers interacted and formed friendships definitely attracted me to joining the blogosphere and becoming one of them and not just be a lurker on the outside looking in. Life can be a little isolated when you live 350 miles from most of your family and friends and don't make friends that quickly/easily in general but especially in the college setting**. So I started the blog and it did not take that long for me to make a few friend in the blogosphere. Not too long ago (ok fine, forever ago), I was recognized for this in what I consider to be one of the best awards I have seen by WeaselMomma, this is so sweet of her (thanks WeaselMomma!) here it is: “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

How sweet is that?! Only problem I have is that I have to choose 8 people, there are WAY more than just 8 people in my blog roll who totally deserve this award, but here goes:

1. NukeDad
   
2. Nonna
3. LiteralDan
4. Sweetened Taters
5. Missives from Suburbia
6. Waltz in Exile
7. Former Goat Nanny Diaries
8. 7 Acres of Heaven
   

I see this as a sign that I have made it into the blogging community, a community that I am very proud to be a part of. I have witnessed several occasions that highlight how awesome the blog community is but the most recent example I have come across I think is a shining testament to just how great our community is. It all started here, on WeaselMomma's blog, her husband had lost his job and she jokingly suggested that her readers should help them out by clicking her google ad links***. What started as a joke ended up earning her almost $200 since all of us WeaselLovers started clicking her ads, she was amazed and so grateful that people took the time to actually click. It was exciting and fun since she would update us as to how much money was earned at the bottom of her posts. Then out of the blue it was over, google got rid of the ads program and never sent out the $200. And then, just like a pheonix rising from the ashes (a second time in a way), the blogging community rallied. They would NOT be beat by this, they WOULD help the Weasels! And thus the Save the Weasels' Christmas was born, run by Big Bad Daddy Rant and pimped by others, like NukeDad.

Unfortunately I got behind on my reading because I had to work and did not find out about this until now, too late to donate nor pimp it, left only to document the fact that not only did they manage to replace the $200 they managed to earn up $250! In the end it is not about the money, of course it helps, but this $250 means so much more than its face value. This money represents how people can come together in times of hardship to help someone out just because it is the nice thing to do. The moral of this story is that there is still good in this world, sometimes it seems hard to find but it is there. I don't know about you but this definitely helps restore some of my faith in humanity! And this act of unselfish love couldn't have been directed at a nicer family, I had the great honor of meeting them with my little Niecey over thanksgiving break and they are truely wonderful people.




~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*I must say I stand corrected, apparently a few people do find my world amusing.
**In my experience as both an undergrad and a grad student one tends to form a "buddyship" with someone that ends when the shared class ends. To me a real friendship is one that continues on, even if you don't talk much when you eventually do it is like nothing has changed, the majority of my friends that fit into this category are ones I have known since K-12.
***Google ad links was a blogger feature that allowed you to host some ads and if people clicked them the blogger would earn money from it, like 0.001 cents a click so it took a LOT of clicks for this feature to make a blogger much money.

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.