Day One of the holiday break
Dang, I haven't blogged anything serious in the last few days. I'll have to hold my bitching about car stuff until the end, let's start back at Tuesday/Wednesday:
Well, I'm getting to tired of shopping at Walmart. Between the guy selling puppies in the parking lot a few days ago, the Salvation Army people adding a tuba to their bell ringing & christian slogan chanting, and the bratty kids...I'm not too far from considering some expolsives. j/k Seriously, I may just let my husband do the grocery shopping from now on. The kid yesterday was just horrible! Brat was standing next to mom & a whole cart full of toys and screaming at the top of her lungs that she didn't get some stuffed toy. I couldn't even make out much of the tantrum. The mother was just beside herself and promising the kid anything to shut her up (big mistake!). I swear people don't know how to parent these days.
Wednesday night we had a small get together/dinner party with some of the other grad students. I brought wine & cheesecake. Since not many people came, I left with most of the cheesecake...hehehe. ~evil grin~ Cheesecake! It was fun to hang out with people & bitch about various department issues. We also talked alot about pets.
Yesterday, I only went in for the morning. I ran a PCR and did the gel using some primers I designed. They were a pain to design and it doesn't look like any of them had the results I was hoping for. They worked (cut DNA), but just not looking like they cut what I wanted them to cut. By the time that was done, I was pretty hungry & couldn't find the PI, so I'll have to go over those with him after the break. I still have to finalize my decision for the third & fourth rotations. Fun, fun, fun. I just hope someone has funding. The lab I was thinking of rotating in for the third slot was waiting on a grant and it looks like all the grants are being delayed. But, I have enough back-ups, so I should be cool.
After lab work yesterday, I did some errands. This included getting the oil changed at Midas. After they changed the oil, they tell me that one of my brake pads is basically shot and some other brake parts need work. The guy was giving me a weird vibe, so I decided to shop around. I called several places to see who would have time today to look at it. Firestone says they can look at it and probably beat their price (the Midas guy didn't completely answer my question as to what needed to be done, so I couldn't give a detailed list of the work.) So, I go in to Firestone today and had to wait awhile to get my car seen (I got to read a book & watch part of XXX while I was there, though). Guess what Firstone said...? There was nothing wrong with my brakes. I tell the guy what Midas had said and he does a eye-widen "Really?". He had another guy take a look at the brakes. I watched while this guy looked at everything and shook his head at the first guy with sorta a confused look on his face. Final verdict was nothing was wrong with the brakes. So, I called Midas' 800 number and complained. I just can't believe those jerks--trying to con me out of over $300 for an imaginary brake job. I may not know alot about cars, but I'm a penny pincher and sure as hell wasn't going to drop three G's on the word of one sleezy mechanic that couldn't tell me what exactly was wrong. Rule #1: shop around.
Other than that...today I read over half of a Dean Koontz book...that I think I'll donate to a book exchange or a thrift shop because I don't think I liked it much the first time I read it and it isn't sitting any better. Today was the last day of drinking pop (I'm trying to give up caffeine for my back) & I tried some of the iced tea I had bought awhile back...I don't think I'm a tea person. We got two Netflix dvd's for the holiday weekend (we may get another tomorrow): Thundercats disk #2 & House of Yes. The third dvd we may be getting is the first disk in the Angelic Layer anime series. I'm overdue for an infusion of anime. We refreshed my computer--backing things up, formating drives, and re-installing software. My computer is running better already. I ordered some software I've been wanting to be able to set up some dog databases more easily. I'm hoping to be able to do some major searches on progeny and extended relatives once this thing is done. I've been doing alot of the work in single batches and on less-effective software, but it should go much faster with the new software.
*watching Thundercats now* I'm a sucker for 80's cartoons.
Well, the other bit of fun lately is that Dar has continued to try to dig his way into the neighbor's yard to play with their dogs. We've basically exhausted most of the advice people have given me or I've found on websites. I mean, this dog even likes hot stuff and smelly stuff! Every deterant we've tried hasn't slowed him much--not even cement & putting his waste in the holes. So, we're looking at getting an invisible fence & shocker collar combo. That may help with him not coming inside or listening to my husband while I'm not home, too. It's going to be a bit expensive though. The fence only ones run about $100 and the same for the correction collar only ones. The combo ones are in the $150-200 range. I'll be shopping around for a few more days before I decide what to get. I've tried out shocker collars before (on myself). They aren't too bad, but I wasn't keen on them then...it's a more humane choice than letting him get loose. I've also taken him to a friend's who had a system for her dog and tried it out on Dar; he seemed to respond to the normal settings okay. So, it shouldn't be a big deal to do and will just be a backyard thing most likely.
Well, time for Thundercats! Thunder-thunder-tundercats Hoooo! *nerd*
Well, I'm getting to tired of shopping at Walmart. Between the guy selling puppies in the parking lot a few days ago, the Salvation Army people adding a tuba to their bell ringing & christian slogan chanting, and the bratty kids...I'm not too far from considering some expolsives. j/k Seriously, I may just let my husband do the grocery shopping from now on. The kid yesterday was just horrible! Brat was standing next to mom & a whole cart full of toys and screaming at the top of her lungs that she didn't get some stuffed toy. I couldn't even make out much of the tantrum. The mother was just beside herself and promising the kid anything to shut her up (big mistake!). I swear people don't know how to parent these days.
Wednesday night we had a small get together/dinner party with some of the other grad students. I brought wine & cheesecake. Since not many people came, I left with most of the cheesecake...hehehe. ~evil grin~ Cheesecake! It was fun to hang out with people & bitch about various department issues. We also talked alot about pets.
Yesterday, I only went in for the morning. I ran a PCR and did the gel using some primers I designed. They were a pain to design and it doesn't look like any of them had the results I was hoping for. They worked (cut DNA), but just not looking like they cut what I wanted them to cut. By the time that was done, I was pretty hungry & couldn't find the PI, so I'll have to go over those with him after the break. I still have to finalize my decision for the third & fourth rotations. Fun, fun, fun. I just hope someone has funding. The lab I was thinking of rotating in for the third slot was waiting on a grant and it looks like all the grants are being delayed. But, I have enough back-ups, so I should be cool.
After lab work yesterday, I did some errands. This included getting the oil changed at Midas. After they changed the oil, they tell me that one of my brake pads is basically shot and some other brake parts need work. The guy was giving me a weird vibe, so I decided to shop around. I called several places to see who would have time today to look at it. Firestone says they can look at it and probably beat their price (the Midas guy didn't completely answer my question as to what needed to be done, so I couldn't give a detailed list of the work.) So, I go in to Firestone today and had to wait awhile to get my car seen (I got to read a book & watch part of XXX while I was there, though). Guess what Firstone said...? There was nothing wrong with my brakes. I tell the guy what Midas had said and he does a eye-widen "Really?". He had another guy take a look at the brakes. I watched while this guy looked at everything and shook his head at the first guy with sorta a confused look on his face. Final verdict was nothing was wrong with the brakes. So, I called Midas' 800 number and complained. I just can't believe those jerks--trying to con me out of over $300 for an imaginary brake job. I may not know alot about cars, but I'm a penny pincher and sure as hell wasn't going to drop three G's on the word of one sleezy mechanic that couldn't tell me what exactly was wrong. Rule #1: shop around.
Other than that...today I read over half of a Dean Koontz book...that I think I'll donate to a book exchange or a thrift shop because I don't think I liked it much the first time I read it and it isn't sitting any better. Today was the last day of drinking pop (I'm trying to give up caffeine for my back) & I tried some of the iced tea I had bought awhile back...I don't think I'm a tea person. We got two Netflix dvd's for the holiday weekend (we may get another tomorrow): Thundercats disk #2 & House of Yes. The third dvd we may be getting is the first disk in the Angelic Layer anime series. I'm overdue for an infusion of anime. We refreshed my computer--backing things up, formating drives, and re-installing software. My computer is running better already. I ordered some software I've been wanting to be able to set up some dog databases more easily. I'm hoping to be able to do some major searches on progeny and extended relatives once this thing is done. I've been doing alot of the work in single batches and on less-effective software, but it should go much faster with the new software.
*watching Thundercats now* I'm a sucker for 80's cartoons.
Well, the other bit of fun lately is that Dar has continued to try to dig his way into the neighbor's yard to play with their dogs. We've basically exhausted most of the advice people have given me or I've found on websites. I mean, this dog even likes hot stuff and smelly stuff! Every deterant we've tried hasn't slowed him much--not even cement & putting his waste in the holes. So, we're looking at getting an invisible fence & shocker collar combo. That may help with him not coming inside or listening to my husband while I'm not home, too. It's going to be a bit expensive though. The fence only ones run about $100 and the same for the correction collar only ones. The combo ones are in the $150-200 range. I'll be shopping around for a few more days before I decide what to get. I've tried out shocker collars before (on myself). They aren't too bad, but I wasn't keen on them then...it's a more humane choice than letting him get loose. I've also taken him to a friend's who had a system for her dog and tried it out on Dar; he seemed to respond to the normal settings okay. So, it shouldn't be a big deal to do and will just be a backyard thing most likely.
Well, time for Thundercats! Thunder-thunder-tundercats Hoooo! *nerd*