President's Day Weekend
I left my midterm (last Wednesday) feeling extremely good, yay! The questions were very straight-forward and very similar to past exams. Hopefully I did as well as I felt, but I know the curve will be outrageously high.
I started in the Curran lab last Monday. I LOVE IT HERE! The projects are so relevant to life, and I love how passionate Sean is about getting this research into applications in medicine. Worms are actually harder to work with than I initially thought, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. My project consists of mapping a mutation to a gene. Basically, Sean has a lot of mutant worms that express a longevity phenotype that he brought from his work at Harvard. I'm taking two of those mutants and finding which gene the mutation is in, hoping that this information will let us know more about what is making this worm longer-lived. Awesome, right?
I attended a talk and dinner last Thursday. The speaker was T. Colin Campbell, someone I've heard floating around the vegan community, so I thought it would be interesting. The vegan dinner was very good; the German chocolate cake was decadent. However, the talk was very very very disappointing. For someone they advertised as a biochemist, he presented very little (if any) scientific data on why the vegan lifestyle prevents or cures age-related diseases. As Sean put it, it was like he was brainwashing us more than anything. I still can't believe how bad that talk was!
Mu flew in Friday morning, and we had lunch at Armando's taco truck. After I finished up work, we had dinner at Ford's Filling Station in Culver City near Trader Joe's. Between the two of us, we split a flatbread, brussel sprouts with bacon, and mac n' cheese. It was pretty good. It was my first time having brussel sprouts, and I enjoyed them.
On Saturday, we drove over to Westwood to explore the area. We had lunch at Fresh Corn Grill, where I got the grilled salmon with caribbean sauce and roasted corn on the side. It was good, but I don't know if I would return. Then we drove to UCLA looking for Diddy Riese. We split an cookies n' cream ice cream sandwiched between a peanut butter cookie and a snickerdoodle. Love the cookies! After Westwood, we decided to head over to Santa Monica to search for Cool Haus, the ice cream sandwich truck. We found it near 3rd Street Promenade, but it started raining! As we approached the truck, which was near the beach, it started storming and thundering! Insane! But we got our sandwiches: dirty mint chip with sea salt double chocolate cookies and Guinness with snickerdoodles. We took our cookies and ducked into Starbucks to eat them with some hot coffee. The ice cream was pretty tasty! The rain cleared up a little, so we shopped along 3rd Street, which was really nice. I can see myself loving this place when the sun comes out. I will definitely have to go back for another visit! Afterwards, we drove back to downtown LA and stopped at Johnny Rocket's for dinner (Groupon!). It was a tiny diner, and at one point, we were the last ones left. With the rain pouring outside, it definitely felt like we were in a zombie movie, hahah. Before heading home, we also stopped by a bakery next door to pick out some mochi to take back (another Groupon!).
The rain stopped for Sunday, hooray! We saw that there was a food truck gathering in Redondo Beach and decided it would be a great place for lunch. I had to spent the morning picking worms (seriously, that's my job), but drove out when I finished. I was excited that the Mighty Boba Truck was there (my absolute favorite), but was happy to try out Ragin' Cajun on Wheels and Shrimp Pimp, where we got the gumbolaya and a shrimp and smoked salmon sandwich (respectively). Both were really good. We ended the meal with boba and popcorn chicken and sweet potater tots. Yum! After lunch, we decided to walk along the pier. It was chilly like SF, but the sun was shining so brightly, so it was really pretty. I saw some pretty interesting looking birds along the place where people were fishing. Then we headed to two different shopping centers to return some purchases, one in Torrance and one in Manhattan Beach. The one in Manhattan Beach was closing when we got there, but I was still able to get in to make my return. We had dinner in the area at the Tin Roof Bistro, where we split the woodfire roasted chicken and a side of broccolini. They split the entree for us, and I thought we had each gotten our own. I can't believe how big the original entree is. It was definitely my favorite meal this weekend - so good. The chicken came with a stuffing which had kale in it. It was divine.
On Monday we decided to go to Disneyland for a few hours before Mu's flight. It seemed like everyone had the same idea. It was crowded, but we managed to get on a few rides. Unfortunately, Space Mountain closed down when we went, and the line for Toy Story Mania was too long for my patience. Those are my two favorite rides! But I got my birthday pin, which I will wear again when we go this Sunday. :) Before leaving, we stopped by the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney to get beignets! Mmmmmm I love fried pieces of dough covered in powdered sugar!
And now, I'm back at work. Life is good except for the very few downpoints. I'm excited to see Mu again when he comes down this Friday for my birthday. We're planning on driving down to San Diego to go see some pandas (!!!) and stop by Disneyland again on our drive back up. Soooo excited!!
I started in the Curran lab last Monday. I LOVE IT HERE! The projects are so relevant to life, and I love how passionate Sean is about getting this research into applications in medicine. Worms are actually harder to work with than I initially thought, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. My project consists of mapping a mutation to a gene. Basically, Sean has a lot of mutant worms that express a longevity phenotype that he brought from his work at Harvard. I'm taking two of those mutants and finding which gene the mutation is in, hoping that this information will let us know more about what is making this worm longer-lived. Awesome, right?
I attended a talk and dinner last Thursday. The speaker was T. Colin Campbell, someone I've heard floating around the vegan community, so I thought it would be interesting. The vegan dinner was very good; the German chocolate cake was decadent. However, the talk was very very very disappointing. For someone they advertised as a biochemist, he presented very little (if any) scientific data on why the vegan lifestyle prevents or cures age-related diseases. As Sean put it, it was like he was brainwashing us more than anything. I still can't believe how bad that talk was!
Mu flew in Friday morning, and we had lunch at Armando's taco truck. After I finished up work, we had dinner at Ford's Filling Station in Culver City near Trader Joe's. Between the two of us, we split a flatbread, brussel sprouts with bacon, and mac n' cheese. It was pretty good. It was my first time having brussel sprouts, and I enjoyed them.
On Saturday, we drove over to Westwood to explore the area. We had lunch at Fresh Corn Grill, where I got the grilled salmon with caribbean sauce and roasted corn on the side. It was good, but I don't know if I would return. Then we drove to UCLA looking for Diddy Riese. We split an cookies n' cream ice cream sandwiched between a peanut butter cookie and a snickerdoodle. Love the cookies! After Westwood, we decided to head over to Santa Monica to search for Cool Haus, the ice cream sandwich truck. We found it near 3rd Street Promenade, but it started raining! As we approached the truck, which was near the beach, it started storming and thundering! Insane! But we got our sandwiches: dirty mint chip with sea salt double chocolate cookies and Guinness with snickerdoodles. We took our cookies and ducked into Starbucks to eat them with some hot coffee. The ice cream was pretty tasty! The rain cleared up a little, so we shopped along 3rd Street, which was really nice. I can see myself loving this place when the sun comes out. I will definitely have to go back for another visit! Afterwards, we drove back to downtown LA and stopped at Johnny Rocket's for dinner (Groupon!). It was a tiny diner, and at one point, we were the last ones left. With the rain pouring outside, it definitely felt like we were in a zombie movie, hahah. Before heading home, we also stopped by a bakery next door to pick out some mochi to take back (another Groupon!).
The rain stopped for Sunday, hooray! We saw that there was a food truck gathering in Redondo Beach and decided it would be a great place for lunch. I had to spent the morning picking worms (seriously, that's my job), but drove out when I finished. I was excited that the Mighty Boba Truck was there (my absolute favorite), but was happy to try out Ragin' Cajun on Wheels and Shrimp Pimp, where we got the gumbolaya and a shrimp and smoked salmon sandwich (respectively). Both were really good. We ended the meal with boba and popcorn chicken and sweet potater tots. Yum! After lunch, we decided to walk along the pier. It was chilly like SF, but the sun was shining so brightly, so it was really pretty. I saw some pretty interesting looking birds along the place where people were fishing. Then we headed to two different shopping centers to return some purchases, one in Torrance and one in Manhattan Beach. The one in Manhattan Beach was closing when we got there, but I was still able to get in to make my return. We had dinner in the area at the Tin Roof Bistro, where we split the woodfire roasted chicken and a side of broccolini. They split the entree for us, and I thought we had each gotten our own. I can't believe how big the original entree is. It was definitely my favorite meal this weekend - so good. The chicken came with a stuffing which had kale in it. It was divine.
On Monday we decided to go to Disneyland for a few hours before Mu's flight. It seemed like everyone had the same idea. It was crowded, but we managed to get on a few rides. Unfortunately, Space Mountain closed down when we went, and the line for Toy Story Mania was too long for my patience. Those are my two favorite rides! But I got my birthday pin, which I will wear again when we go this Sunday. :) Before leaving, we stopped by the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney to get beignets! Mmmmmm I love fried pieces of dough covered in powdered sugar!
And now, I'm back at work. Life is good except for the very few downpoints. I'm excited to see Mu again when he comes down this Friday for my birthday. We're planning on driving down to San Diego to go see some pandas (!!!) and stop by Disneyland again on our drive back up. Soooo excited!!