Blue Sushi is Better

This week, I've been doing things with CELLS! For most of the past couple of days, I've been doing a lot of taking notes on what to do with the MG-63 cells once we have enough of them. These notes include taking a successful live/dead assay of the cells by dying them with fluorescent stains and observing them with a fluorescent microscope. As of Monday, we have enough cells to start determining which concentration of dye would make the cells properly visible under the microscope. I stayed super late on Tuesday finally trying out all the protocols for subculturing the cells and for staining a few of them. I had a good laugh at how much smaller the hemocytometer is than I expected. It's so mini!!

Last week Mel and I wanted to go to sushi. So we told Matt and he came out with a whole bunch of recommendations--too many to process. It boiled down to two sushi places: "Blue sushi" and "Blue Reef sushi." Blue reef sushi is closer and Matt has never been there, but he has a vehement "vendetta" against it involving him saving the restaurant from an electrical fire and the owner lacking the appropriate grateful attitude and not giving Matt free food for his good deed. So we ultimately went to Blue Sushi. The waitress was super nice and we got a complimentary crab dish from the manager! It was a good day.

Then we went to ice cream in the most hipster part of Kentucky that I've ever seen. I need to go back so I can order the raspberry sorbet.

The only damper on this fun-filled week is the news that we have to do laundry in a dorm called Blazer for the rest of the summer because the laundry machines in Jewell have all mysteriously disappeared. It is nice, however, that the laundry rooms in Blazer have walls with an affectionate shade of green.

Week 2!

This week has been a little more hands-on in terms of research. I spent three hours drawing and fixing a microscope dish holder on Autodesk Inventor. The upside of this story is that I made friends with Floyd the machinist and I will be a total pro with Inventor by the time I take my CAD drawing class this coming fall. While I am learning how to propagate bone cells and use lasers, I think the highlight of my week was going to Surplus. Going in, I felt a mixture of apprehension and the kind of excitement one gets when they walk into IKEA. Our purpose was to find usable microscope objectives for our inverted microscope (also salvaged from Surplus), but I also found some incredible "antiquated scientifica" from what looks like the beginning of the 20th century. My favorite bit was this lil rusty key that went to the box of an old optical piece.

Aside from my Surplus adventures, I have also made some trips to Pharmacy where I have picked up on some interesting gossip about a guy named Jack who is apparently very dedicated to exercise.

I recently had my first trivia night experience as well. After a close battle with "John Penicillin" the whole time, we took a gamble that we ultimately lost because we didn't know the year Amy Winehouse died. We were so close though!!!! We still got a prize though because apparently "Saucy Breadsticks" was the best group name of the night.

First Post

So far, Kentucky has been as I've expected with a few nice surprises: there are lots of horses, lots of green hills, and--one of the surprises--some abrupt and violent thunderstorms. I'm definitely enjoying myself! On Saturday, I went hiking at Daniel Boone State Park with Melisa, Katie, Michelle, and Alina. The most exciting parts included driving through a one-lane tunnel through the side of the mountain and getting lost on the trails so that we ended up hiking about eight miles instead of four!

I recently finished reading my last Jane Austen novel so I've been hunting for cute bookstores in Lexington and the two I like best are "Black Swan Books" and "Glover's Bookery." Both of these shops advertise books of "military history," "equestrian history and literature," and some bizarre genre called "Kentuckiana." This probably means I'll be branching out from Jane Austen.

I am also very excited about the Trader Joe's in town! According to Melisa, we've already gone three times. My one regret about the store is that they do not sell coffee mugs, which means I've been drinking tea out of my little green plastic cup for the past week. I hope the plastic is BPA free.

In terms of research, I've been doing quite a lot of reading based off the the papers that Dr. Grady has recommended. I'm also partially successful in my first use of Autodesk Inventor to design a petri dish holder for Dr. Grady's new florescent microscope. The good news about me not knowing entirely what I'm doing is that I've made friends with Floyd the machinist as of this morning. Thankfully, he has given me some helpful tips.