Things that happened to me today

Story I came across today #4

2007-10-11T14:42:00.000-05:00

This is the first paragraph from this article:

"PHILADELPHIA - A home-schooled teenager who felt bullied amassed a cache of guns, knives and hand grenades and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack, authorities said Thursday."

I guess he was planning a Columbine style attack on his own home? I think the internet age has brought us instant publishing, which is nice, but killed the editor in the process.

This reminds me of another thing that bothers me about news articles nowadays. That damn line (in one form or another) that is always added after certain quotes by people that choose to remain anonymous that goes something like, "says anonymous who cannot reveal his name because he is not at liberty to discuss the situation". Is it me, or has that line in its various forms gotten longer and longer over the last few years? What happened to just, "Unidentified sources", or something else short and generic. Why and how did it morph into some gigantic explanation of why they are anonymous? Why the hell are they (the reporters) discussing the situation with those people in the first place if they are not at liberty to discuss it? Shouldn't the fact that they are discussing it anyway be a story unto itself? Come on reporters, just rat them out!

Thing that happened to me today #29

2007-10-04T12:28:00.000-05:00

About a week ago, I crossed paths with some girl that I have seen in the greenhouses where I work many times, and so I said the standard hello that you nicely say to people you see a lot but don't know. Her reply, "Good morning". Normally not a bad reply, however, it was four o'clock in the afternoon. I caught it, but it didn't faze me, that happens to people. I have done it myself before. Everyone has I'm sure. Maybe she was just stunned by the handsome fellow saying hi to her. I left it at that. Yesterday though, I saw her again, and my hello received the same reply. Good morning to me, this time at two o'clock in the afternoon. Now I don't know what to think. Maybe she is time-challenged. Or perhaps just completely oblivious to the world around her. Or socially inept. Or just that tongue-tied around strapping young men. Yep, that's the one it must be.

Thing that happened to me today #28

2007-10-04T12:23:00.000-05:00

Had lunch yesterday with the director of the Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (ICCI),which is located at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Not my choice, but we went to Chilis (actually the food was pretty good but have always shied away from corporate restaurants). Interesting speaking with her, learned about opportunities for people like me in Israel. Nice to get the opportunity to have a lunch with an influential person in my field, plus it was paid for by my department!

Story I came across today #3

2007-10-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

If I were to have an 80th wedding anniversary like these people did, I would be ecstatic. However, Sandy would have to live to 111, and myself 107. Even with advances in modern medicine, not likely to happen. Although Moses apparently lived to like 600 or something I think, I guess the health care system was that much better back then, either that or they couldn't keep track of time very well, but I digress. Love you sweety, may we have as many great years together as our health allows.

Story I came across today #2

2007-10-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

Apparantly this middle school in Illinois had such a love fest going on, they had to ban hugging. How silly is that? Will they ban hand shakes next? A simple nod of the head in recognition? Teaching evolution? Any of that would be just as stupid.

Story I came across today #1

2007-10-01T12:34:00.000-05:00

You have probably noticed a new title here for this blog entry. It's because writing only about what actually happens to me on a daily basis doesn't always make for interesting blogging. Sure there are some tings I'd like to share and will, but I can't seem to find enough to post about when life is mundane, another work week and the like. So I will add a few things I come across that may be interesting/amusing, especially since Gwydion may be taking a break from doing this sort of thing - I had been passing these tidbits on to him anyway, so why not blog them myself?). Hopefully this will help to increase the post flow and the visitors along with it. So here we go with #1:

The world of medical science has brought us many things, but where are we heading when you can give birth to your own grandchildren? Weird.

Thing that happened to me today #27

2007-09-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

When I took my GRE exams as part of the application process for graduate school, I did quite well on the analytical/math portions of the exam, but basically bombed the writing section (same with my SAT's). As a young scientist, now working on my PhD in plant pathology at the University of Minnesota, this still bothers me a bit, and actually reflects quite well my strengths thus far in my graduate career. I have done a decent job at bench work. Coming up with and carrying out experiments as part of my thesis research hasn't been a speed bump thus far. However, at the moment I am attempting to write my first research article and I am procrastinating like hell because it just does not come near as natural to me as does thinking about the problems at hand and answering the questions that need addressing. The best scientists do both equally well. It doesn't matter how creative your experiments are, if you can't write them up well, you get nothing. Likewise, if you are a good writer, you can make a crap experiment look like you just cloned a human. So here goes my first major writing faux pas, I am going to change the subject abruptly.

If I were half the writer that my brother Gwydion is, I would be able to convey the last few days of my life to you in such an elegant way that you would leave this blog thinking your own life, as magnificent as it may in reality be, is in fact as ordinary as Joe/Jane Doe's, as if you might as well be eating at McDonalds five nights a week and thinking "The View" is quality television. I will definitely not pull this off to that extent, but I will do my best to convince you (at the very least explain to you) that if you were me, you would be considering yourself one of the luckiest people on the planet right now. I have felt such a wide spectrum of emotions I don't even know how to begin with this story. Awe, crap loads of awe, happiness, sadness, and even fear. I will just dive in with some background.

I will start by quoting a recent newsweek article:

"It's a trifecta much bigger and rarer than an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Only five people in history have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel ... and Norman Borlaug."

Norman Borlaug is the key individual on that list, not a household name to say the least, but he should be. This is a man who is credited with saving more lives than ANYONE WHO HAS EVER LIVED. A BILLION people. He also happens to be a former graduate student in the very same department that I currently study.

This week our department was celebrating its 100th birthday, lots of alumni invited, talk after talk scheduled over the last few days, Q and A sessions, awards, banquet dinners, socials, etc., a real centennial celebration. Being as Dr. Borlaug was a graduate, he was invited of course, and despite his ailing health (I heard he had a blood transfusion just the other day and almost didn't make it), at 93 years old he did manage to arrive and was in attendance throughout the whole event. We are not huge, in fact the department is quite small compared to many others, especially those with big money. And like I said, most people have never even heard of Dr. Borlaug, so even with some local attention, there were only 100-150 people there overall with most talks only garnering 50-75 (and were closed to the public so maybe that made them smaller than they would have been).

Awe: The very first day I was awaiting the talks to begin, sitting in my usual spot near the back of the room (never liked the front of the room), wondering what the events of the next few days would be like, wondering whether Dr. Borlaug would be making it (had already heard about the blood transfusion), when sure enough he strolls into the room and sits down two seats in front of me. That would have been enough right there. But it just kept getting better and better. Having a legend sit in front of you is nothing, getting up and introducing myself to him (for the second time - ok, I did meet him once before about six months ago, but nothing more than a handshake and quick hello) and getting the chance to chat with him for a few minutes was glorious. He is such a down to earth guy, wants to get to know everybody who approaches him. A few of us from the department were standing there with him, listening to him tell us amusing stories about his life, and all the while he made a point of looking at all the badges around our necks so he could try to learn our names. The thing is those damn badges always end up sitting on your chest such that your name isn't facing out, so he kept having to flip them around to see the names, and started laughing and saying just that, "Why the heck do I have to keep flipping these darn things over to see the names"? Such a simple thing for the average guy, but coming from him it was great.

More awe: It just kept getting better. I ended up getting to spend two intimate days, full of an amazing array of talks, with him. Not to mention he signed a copy of his biography for me and I got several pictures with him like this one (Ok, this one is blurry, but I have not gotten the others off the camera yet):

The whole event was about the history of our department. As a current graduate student, of course I was aware of some of the history, you can't help but be, but after hearing what I heard, I am so humbled just to be a part of it. The people that have come through here are amazing. I learned so much it awed me to no end. If I could only be a fraction as successful as some of these people I would be thrilled to say the least. The room was filled with people other than Norman Borlaug that were legendary in their own right.

Happiness: Part of the second day of the ceremony was awards day. I just so happen to have been awarded the M.F. Kernkamp award (for outstanding graduate research) this year. So here I am, being presented an award at this ceremony, with Dr. Borlaug right down the row from me clapping for me! How cool is that? That is like winning an award for civil rights activism in front of Martin Luther King! Very cool to say the least. Another award given most years (if they have a suitable candidate) goes to a distinguished alumnus in recognition for their acheivements, called the Stakman award after Norman Borlaug's adviser, E. C. Stakman (Side note: My office is in Borlaug Hall and many of the labs are in Stakman hall). Dr. Stakman is credited with being the first to describe the physiological speciation of pathogens, in simpler terms, he is the one who first used genetics to further classify pathogens (beyond the species level) into races based on their ability to infect only certain individuals in a population. This years Stakman award went posthumously to Sir Bent Skovman. This is the guy who started the Nordic gene bank as well as what is referred to as the "doomsday" vault in Norway. It is a vault carved into a mountain on an island off Norway near the north pole where they will be storing crop seeds to keep the world's catalogue of seeds safe in the event of a catastrophe as well as to preserve the diversity that is present now. Also, very neat.

Sadness: Sir Bent Skovman (knighted by his Danish Queen for his work) died unexpectedly last year from a brain tumor. His family was present to accept the award for him. His wife got up to say a few words on his behalf and ended up presenting what amounted to be another eulogy. She broke up a little at the end and the room could feel the sadness in the air, I noticed a few people in the room blotting their eyes already. It got sadder though, Dr. Borlaug was asked if he would like to get up and say anything. He did get up to say a few words about Dr. Skovman's career, then started talking about what a good human being the guy was and just suddenly broke down and cried. The room went totally silent and it was strange moment, people started crying all over. I didn't even know the guy and I had a hard time keeping the tears at bay. Very sad moment.

To pull some of this together, but also at the risk of not making this not flow very well, I just wanted to quick comment on my research family tree since this was a lesson in history for me. There may be a better name for it but what I mean by research family tree is something scientists do to describe the graduate student/adviser lineage that they are apart of. Dr. E. C. Stakman had two graduate students (many more than that but only two I will mention), Dr. Norman Borlaug and Dr. Roy Wilcoxson. Dr. Roy Wilcoxson had two graduate students (again just the ones I will mention), Sir Bent Skovman and Dr. Brian Steffenson. Dr. Brian Steffenson has a graduate student: me. Needless to say, I am proud to be a part of that lineage.

Fear: In case you were wondering how fear could have played a role in these two days here you go. It doesn't really fit in with everything else, but it was something I experienced and therefore fitting for the blog, so I just sort of left it for the end. What happens when you get a room full of elderly people together for two days of events? You may have guessed it, one of them has a heart attack. You just don't expect it to be in the room with you. On the last day, after the awards, during the final Q & A session, one of our former alums asks a question at the mic, steps back to his seat, and flops over in convulsions. Lots of people with deer-in-the-headlights looks, and luckily a few controlled persons with experience who handled the situation perfectly (including my good friend James Jacobs who was a medic in the army for six years), and the man was stable and on his way to the hospital. I am now fully convinced that storing portable defibrillator's in public places was a great life-saving idea. They are indeed remarkable little machines.

Anyway, I just had a crazy few days this week, and hopefully you leave this blog thinking about life a little differently, anything can happen at any time, you can do whatever you want to if you strive for it and work hard enough, and you can learn a lot from the past.

Thing that happened to me today #26

2007-09-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

Brewed a nice IPA today, racked a wonderful Belgian Tripel into the secondary fermenter, and kegged an Irish stout. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then, oh well. If you do, then perhaps you are a tad jealous. There is nothing like a good homebrew.

Thing that happened to me today #25

2007-09-12T16:51:00.001-05:00

Saw a huge red-tailed hawk today sitting in a tree about ten feet above the ground right outside the door of the building I work in. I was right under it with a perfect view. It was awesome, had to be at least a foot and a half tall standing up. I tried to get my camera phone out to get a picture but it took off before I could snap it. Things like this are once in a lifetime and to get to see a wild bird like that so up close and personal is amazing. My brother Gwydion who has gotten into bird watching would have loved it, too bad I couldn't get a pic to show off!

Thing that happened to me today #24

2007-09-12T13:44:00.000-05:00

Went to see Rush on Sunday night with my brother Jon. Floor, center section, row 10. If you are not familiar with the music of Rush, familiarize yourself now, trust me. Musically phenomenal. This was the best show I have seen in a long time. Lots of fun.

Thing that happened to me today #23

2007-09-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

Have not been blogging in a while, so I will fill in on a few things:

First, in case you have been looking for a mouse update, the mice are finished (I think). We practically tore our kitchen apart trying to figure out where they were hiding to no avail. Tried the live trap thing for several days and it didn't catch squat. So we had no choice. We had to go with the old fashioned snap traps that kill them. Hated to do it, and I still can't believe that Sandy went for it, but as I said, we had no choice. The darn cat was useless and we could hear them scuttling around in the kitchen at night, just gross and unsanitary to say the least. The first night we put two traps out and we came down to a dead one in the morning. It was huge (probably chock full of nuts). The trap did its thing and although I wasn't there, it seemed as if it was pretty quick (and dare I say painless?). The other traps bait was gone and eaten (malfunction I think). Since we knew there were two (at least) we did it again the following night. This time it didn't go quite as smoothly. I hate to describe this, but if it helps anyone decide whether or not to do this themselves, at least maybe they will have a better idea of what might be in store for them. Anyway, the next morning we came down to a sprung trap on the floor and leading away from it a trail of blood heading towards the living room....yum....and no mouse to be seen. So I start looking around the living room and finally I find the thing under the entertainment center against the wall. I thought it must have suffered awhile, then died of its injuries, but all those thoughts were erased once it moved. Damn (side note - the darn cat STILL could not catch an INJURED mouse). So I grab a produce bag, the kind you might stick your broccoli in at the grocery store, and put my hand in it and head towards the mouse as if it were a pile of dog crap that my dog just laid in the one neighbors yard that was outside on his porch at the moment (this happens all the time but I digress). So what does the mouse do? It takes off running. Clearly hobbled and hurt it still had some spunk. I did finally corner it on another side of the room and tried to grab it, and after a bit of fighting I managed to get it in the bag. What do you do now you ask? Well the first thing Sandy says is you can't let it suffer in that bag, you have to do something to ease its misery. Man this was terrible. So I take the bag outside to the nice concrete steps outside and..........swung that bag around as hard as I could and slammed it onto the stairs. Did I mention that this was terrible yet? It was one of those moments where you just don't know what to do, and you do the first thing that comes to your mind. Anyway, it did the deed, the mouse was instantly motionless, and sparing you anymore gory details, lets just say I could tell it was dead. So, if you ever get a mouse in your house (or 3), think twice about how you plan on ridding your house of the unwelcome guest(s). Please fill me in if you have any better ideas. The kitchen has been silent since.

Also, over the weekend, I installed our new storm door. I trashed the old one when we painted the house and we purchased one of those new ones that is all glass and the top half of the glass slides down bringing a screen down with it (it hides away rolled up in the top when the glass is up). Very cool door. Installation went perfect, saved myself $150. The guide was like a book with lots of intricate steps, but if you pick through it carefully, it's not that hard. Proud of myself to say the least.

Now I am coming down with an upper respiratory infection and have been doing the coughing/sneezing/runny nose thing for two days. Always comes at the wrong time (not that there is a right time), but my brother Jon is coming into town this weekend, going to see Rush at the Excel Energy Center on Sunday night, etc. I just want this to pass fast, although colds like this hardly ever do. Can't we just find a cure for the common cold already?

Thing that happened to me today #22

2007-08-27T13:40:00.001-05:00

So I am trying to learn how to do some work on my car to save a little money and make sure it is done correctly (and also to not get hosed for the extra things they say you always need at repair shops). So I went to do my rear brakes yesterday, and it didn't turn out so easy. I have changed pads on cars 3-4 times before, but have never done the rotors. Apparently it is actually pretty easy, most of the time they just slide off when you get the caliper off, sometimes they have two screws holding them on that you need to get out.

Now rear brakes only actually do about 20% of the braking on your car, the fronts do the brunt of the work. So they don't need to get changed nearly as often. In fact my car was bought brand new and now has 106,000 miles on it, and the rear brakes had never been changed. Recently they started to make some noise and I knew it was time.

So once I got the wheel off and took a look at it I realized that after 106,000 miles, things can get a bit rusty in there. So rusty that I could not get the two little screws out for the life of me. I was told by several car people that they are useless, only put on there during the car building process to hold the rotor in place, but that they really serve no purpose (the lug nuts actually do the holding on, not the two screws). So the advice I got was to try to drill them out, just past the head of the screw, then the rotor would pop off and no need to worry about replacing them. This was much easier said then done. I actually tried an impact hammer first, which uses the force of a hammer blow to torque the screw out, which didn't budge it. So I went for the drill. After toying with it on one side for about a half-hour, I gave up. So I just figured I would put the pads on the old rotors and see what happened. After installing the pads on both sides I took it for a test drive and boy was it horrible sounding. Rotors definitely had to be changed (I could tell they were in bad shape before I even did it but had no choice but to take a chance).

So I took it to a place this morning and watched what the guy did, he took a welding torch and melted those screws out of there, neat stuff, but no way I could have done it. So in the end, I paid $20 for the pads, which they said would have been around $80 installed, and $177 for the rotors installed, which would have cost me $60 from the auto parts store. In other words, it cost me $117 to have a couple screws torched out (talk about getting screwed, literally).

So is it worth it to try yourself? Depends if you are the curious type who likes to know how things work like myself, and also, of course, the value of your time. For me, saving $60 to do the pads myself, which only takes an hour, less if you are good, is worth it because I learned something while doing it. Would have been even more worth it if I could have gotten the darn rotors off, but oh well. I'd say for most people though, just pay for it!

Thing that happened to me today #21

2007-08-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

The mice must be breeding like mice this time of year (or do they breed like rabbits?). At least my house must have some appeal to the few that are out there, because they keep coming in. I caught one recently, and now we have two more. It has been two days of waking up to things having been eaten in the kitchen during the night. First it was a half-eaten tomato on the counter, then the next day they ran off with an ENTIRE BAG OF NUTS. That's right, Sandy left a ziplock bag of nuts on the counter that was to be her snack yesterday at work, and when she got up in the morning it was gone, the whole thing, bag and all. Not to mention a large chunk of a banana eaten out, surprised they didn't take the whole thing with them, or the refrigerator for that matter. I did put a trap out last night, but it was empty this morning. They probably have enough stashed to feed themselves for a month. After I went to work though, Sandy called me frantically, said a mouse jumped on her foot when she turned the oven on, then ran back under it. She said she freaked and the cake batter went flying. I told her to try and pull the stove out. She did a little and said she saw two mice huddling in the corner. I guess I know what I have to do when I get home. The beastmaster is back! I will never buy an 83 year old house again.

Thing that happened to me today #20

2007-08-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

In Minnesota you only get a few months a year of really nice weather, so when it rains for 5 STRAIGHT DAYS like it has, you start to get a little pissy. Everything has greened up nice which is good, now if we could only see some sun, we could enjoy it a bit. Hopefully this weekend will be nice. Otherwise I will begin construction on the ark.

Thing that happened to me today #19

2007-08-22T16:06:00.000-05:00

Went to the doctor this morning, my eye was itching and irritated for a few days, I knew it was pink eye before I had even called for the appointment. It was clarified by a professional. What is with it being called pink eye anyway? I think it should be called itchy eye, or irritated eye syndrome, or just plain eye infection. Pink eye just doesn't cut it in my book, it's not flashy enough. It doesn't quite describe the symptoms enough, at least the ones that annoy you about having it. Pink eye should just be what you get when you partake in the use of natures number one plant. I have seen this in people before. Doctors should take some notes from newer conditions that are more properly named such as irritable bowel syndrome, genital warts, or acid reflux disease, which, by the way, I was also diagnosed with today (the latter one, not the former two, whew!). Been having acid reflux for awhile, finally decided to ask about it while there, and sure enough, I've got it. On some meds now for both, and apparently they are both curable. Obviously not surprising for itchy eye, but it is for acid reflux disease. They say you can be on the meds for two months and never have problems with it again. I am, as usual, a skeptic. I sure hope so though, I'll see I guess.

Thing that happened to me today #18

2007-08-21T17:37:00.001-05:00

My son Sagan, who will be 2 years old in October, has started to string a few words together. His first sentences. The other night when I was hanging out with him on our bed, about to put him to bed, I asked him if he wanted to go to his bed. His response, "No, daddy bed". It was awesome. Watching the development of a child is a remarkable thing. It is the little things like this that not only make your day, but make you appreciate the wonders of human development.

Thing that happened to me today #17

2007-08-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.
College Student: A big day? Doing what?
Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.

Sunday we went to Home Depot, bought a storm door, looked at some flooring. We didn't actually have time for Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I suppose I need something exciting to happen for this blog to work.

Sorry about all the movie references, I guess I can't stop myself.

Thing that happened to me today #16

2007-08-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I officially began writing my first research article to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. I only wrote about two paragraphs of the materials and methods section, which is the easiest part to write, but you have to start somewhere. Hopefully I can crank through this. It is daunting, but I will push on through...

Thing that happened to me today #15

2007-08-16T20:02:00.000-05:00

This is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage. About the size of a cigar. Do I stutter?

Ok. It's actually what you get when you have a grill engulfed in flames and at the very moment that you reach under it to turn off the propane (before it explodes) a large splotch of the burning grease drips out onto the back of your hand. It was actually not as painful as it might seem to be, but now I have what looks to be a golf divot on the back of my hand. Hopefully you got the reference above.

Thing that happened to me today #14

2007-08-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

I went around calling myself the beastmaster Sunday afternoon. First thing that happened to make me do this occurred while watering the plants in the backyard. From about 15 feet away I could see a little pink thing writhing around on the ground near the base of our big silver maple. It was this:

It was a baby squirrel. Disgustingly adorable. It was so helpless, eyes not even open yet, must have been just born. This is the day after a big storm so the nest must have been damaged. By the way, the nest is about 20-30 feet off the ground, so this little guy (like 2 inches long) survived quite a tumble. I couldn't believe it was still alive (lucky the dogs hadn't been out too). It was just wriggling around helpless and I didn't know what to do, so I coddled it in my shirt keeping it warm until Sandy got back. Then I made her take it to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (which St. Paul is very fortunate to have) where it will be raised until it is old enough to live on its own, then released back into the wild.

Ten minutes after Sandy left with the squirrel, I went down in our basement. While I was there I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, it was a rodent of some sort (mouse I'm pretty sure, but it had a bit of a rattish look). Anyway, the thing had jumped right up near me and was just sitting there looking at me. So I slowly walked towards it. All the while thinking about what the hell I would do if it didn't dash off and hide in all our junk as I expected it to. Sure enough it just sat there and did nothing, so I figured I'd give grabbing it by the tip of the tail with my bare hands a shot. Damn if I didn't grab it:

I kind of thought it wouldn't be able to pull itself up while dangling from its tail, but sure enough it could, and did. So there was that instant moment of panic where I thought I probably shouldn't get bit or scratched by a wild rodent, but I held my ground and didn't drop it. It certainly did try to bite and scratch a little, but it was so small I felt nothing and it did nothing to me. Then it calmed down right away and was actually kind of cool. I put it in a box with some nuts and considered letting Solana keep it as a pet, then let it go outside - in my neighbors yard (:

So, after these two incidents (not to mention the earlier raccoon incident), I was indeed the beastmaster.

Thing that happened to me today #13

2007-08-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

Crazy thunderstorm last night. The kind where you get woken up at 3am because a bolt of lightning might as well have struck your house (It didn't) because it was so loud and crashing that I flew three feet out of the bed. I was already having a hard time sleeping because I was stuck to the sheets with sweat because of the broken AC, this didn't help. The kids were up a ton too, just a bad night. When I got up and went to work our power was out and there were trees down everywhere, luckily none of mine and the power was only out a couple hours, it was nasty though. It reminded me of a storm that hit when I was young where a bolt of lightning actually did hit our house. I still distinctly remember a seeing the vinyl siding on part of our house missing and scattered all over the yard, not to mention several broken windows. Scary stuff. AC was fixed today, only $250, was extremely relieved about this, I was certain it was done for altogether. Whew!

Thing that happened to me today #12

2007-08-10T22:47:00.000-05:00

Actually posting about what happened to me today when it is actually still today. Ok, I've totally screwed up this blog, but this post means I am trying again (wish me luck). I totally missed the month of July so here is a quick recap. Went to Baltimore with Sandy and the kids to spend a couple weeks with family and friends, which was great. I very much needed to relax and have some time off of work and this trip was very satisfying in that regard, although trips home are always hectic with trying to fit in visits to a million different people, but still refreshing. I was fortunate to get to see my brother Gwydion's play Abstract Nude which was performed at the Source Theatre during the Capitol Fringe Festival in D.C. while I was in town. It was such a great time. The play was hysterical. My brother is a genius. Mad props to him. Just got back from a three day work trip to northern Minnesota (Crookston) to harvest some barley lines. Today, I awoke to a broken air conditioner and 95 degrees. Can't wait to see the bill to fix it.

Thing that happened to me today #11

2007-08-10T22:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday July 1st, 2007. My birthday, 33 years old. Still have 10 fingers.

Thing that happened to me today #10

2007-07-09T18:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday June 30th I went to see Roger Waters at the Xcel Energy center in St. Paul. I went with Sandy and my brother Jon. It was absolutely amazing. Why the hell can't Pink Floyd get back together again? Just get over your differences Roger and Dave before it's too late, please. You represent one of a short list of great bands from an era of many that still has all its members alive and well (my apologies to Sid). Do something already!

Thing that happened to me today #9

2007-07-03T22:06:00.000-05:00

My brother Jon was in town this past weekend. Friday night he, and my wife Sandy and I, took our daughter Solana (3) to her first real concert. The band was Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead cover band that was pretty jamming indeed. The venue was at the MN zoo. It was located right on a small lake and was very relaxed and intimate. Very cool place to see a show. It was so amazing to see my little girl dancing away to tunes I had grooved to so many times before. I know she had a wonderful time, hopefully not just because of the dippin dots she ate.

Thing that happened to me today #9

2007-07-03T21:43:00.000-05:00

Above is what my house looked like before I took on the tremendous task of painting the outside of it this past week. Actually, most of the credit should go to my father, who graciously spent much time and energy helping me do it this past week while he was in town. You could have said that my house was kind of ugly as it was, and while I recognize it is still not the most dazzling of shelters in the world (MTV will not be coming by anytime soon), I think it is FAR nicer than it was before (pics below). It actually made quite a leap up in my book. From somewhat ugly to kinda cute I would say. Much kudos to my dad for doing so much work. Between this project and crushing work, this was quite a week.

Thing that happened to me today #8

2007-07-03T17:32:00.000-05:00

Wednesday and Thursday of last week was disease reading season as described in an earlier post. This is part of the reason I have not posted in a while, that and I was trying to paint the exterior of my house, more on that later. Plus my father was in town, and my brother, and my birthday over the weekend, etc. Again, more on all this later. For two long days I walked a field and examined 2400 barley plants. One at a time. Back pain was not as bad as expected. The cool thing is some of these lines we rate are the barleys being bred by Anheuser-Busch. They select which ones to keep in their breeding program based upon our ratings. This year was the first that I was the one responsible for doing the ratings for their lines. So in an extremely subtle, in all honesty, an almost non-existent way, I am responsible for the selection of the main ingredient in one of the worlds most enjoyable beverages. Albeit, one of the worlds worst versions of it, Budweiser beer.

Thing that happened to me today #7

2007-07-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, June 26th an ostrich shat on my windshield. OK, it was probably something more likely to be found perched in the maple tree in front of my house in St. Paul, MN. Whatever it was, it has a super-sized colon, and it evacuated it on my car. The coin in the picture is a quarter.

Thing that happened to me today #6

2007-06-23T13:50:00.001-05:00

Five years ago today Sandy and I were married under a 200+ year old Kentucky Coffee tree on the grounds at Swan Harbor Farm, which is located on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. My brother Gwydion presided over the ceremony and we had all of our family and friends in attendance. It was wonderful, stifling hot, but wonderful indeed. Couldn't have planned a better wedding if I tried a thousand more times. Happy Anniversary sweety. Love you.

Thing that happened to me today #5

2007-06-23T13:24:00.001-05:00

My work is located right next to the Minnesota fairgrounds, which every year has a huge state fair, second largest in the country I believe. It also hosts many other events, including lots of car shows, one of which was going on today. So driving into work today, I passed lots of really cool cars. It seemed like I was in another era because most of them were really old. Does it just seem that way because they are so rare, or do they just not make them as cool as they used to?

There were some newer ones as well. Apparently, this corvette was an official pace car for the 82nd Indianapolis 500.

Zoom. Zoom.

Thing that happened to me today #4

2007-06-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

Fridays around here are known as 'Daddy Fridays' because it is the one day of the week Sandy works and I stay home with the kids. The kids get bored pretty easily so you have to take them places or at least come up with interesting projects for them to do. Yesterday I decided that making tye-dyes would be the thing to do. I think they came out pretty good, although maybe they could be a little more vibrant and with less white space, but pretty darn cool if I may say so myself.

Thing that happened to me today #3

2007-06-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

I will just type out the letter I received today:

Dear Ben,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been awarded the M. F. Kernkamp Scholarship for 2007. You exemplify the positive characteristics that we seek in our graduate students and the department is pleased to honor you in this way.

The department awards ceremony is planned for September 20, 2007. The event will provide an opportunity to officially recognize your achievements. Please plan to be present for the ceremony. Again, congratulations and best wishes.

Sincerely,
Carol Ishimaru
Professor and Head

This is great. Couldn't be more happy. This is not only normally a cool thing, but especially so this year because it happens to be at our departments centennial celebration that I will be awarded this. We boast the oldest and one of the best Plant Pathology departments in the nation. I think the former graduate of our department and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug will be in attendance. Way cool, plus I get $750.

Thing that happened to me today #2

2007-06-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

Everybody's work sucks sometimes, yesterday mine was atrocious.

So I am studying Plant Pathology at the UMN. I work with barley, specifically on genetic resistance to diseases of it. In order for us to determine which lines of barley have resistance to disease, we have to make them sick on purpose. Summertime is field season, and we have huge fields of barley growing, usually with thousands of lines spread out in dashes along the rows in the field. Now, the easy way to inoculate a field of barley with, for instance, a fungal pathogen, is to spray a suspension of those fungal spores all over the field and let them do their thing. Sometimes, however, the conditions are not right for disease, it is too dry out and the spores just dry out before that can germinate and infect. So my adviser came up with an alternative method. He decided it would be best if we injected the spore suspension directly into the stems of the barley plants. Thats right, walk the fields with a repeating syringe injecting plants, THOUSANDS of them. So yesterday I walked the length of say, a football field, bending all the way over to about a foot off the ground, injecting a plant, moving one foot further down the row, bend over again, repeat, one foot, repeat, etc. I did this for the length of the field, then back again, then halfway back again the way I started. Luckily there was a lot of us doing it and it wasn't too hot out. It still sucked and needless to say, I have a bit of back pain today.

Can't wait until next week when I have to go to every single line and read the level of disease.

Thing that happened to me today #1

2007-06-20T14:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, this didn't actually happen today, it happened on Monday, but it was so funny it made me want to start blogging again. Not just about this story either, but from now on I hope to start blogging about things that happen to me whether large or small, funny or sad, as often as I can. It's kind of a take on my brother's blog that I frequent and enjoy thoroughly, which is 'Things I Love/Hate' (see: www.gwydions.blogspot.com).

Anyway, here goes:

So to start by setting the stage a little bit, my wife Sandy and I went to take our two little ones, Solana (3) and Sagan (1) to get haircuts at the beauty school down the street. This is Sagan's first haircut. The place is huge because it is a school, 20 foot ceilings, and tons of chairs (and $5 haircuts that are just fine if you get a good student, especially for a 1 year old). So the haircuts go quite smoothly and we are in line waiting to pay and get out of there.

There is a stereotypical male homosexual hairdresser type guy at the register trying to ring us up, and it is taking him forever (has to ring up one at a time, has to change the receipt tape, can't figure it out, etc.). We are standing behind a very long counter with tons of open space on either side. While we are standing there, Sagan, who is just learning to speak, points up to something in the air and says, "Bee!". As it turns out there was no bee, but there was, in fact, a spider. He must have very good eyes because it is not very big and it is suspended in the air. Now this spider is doing his spider thing and dangling about 8 feet or so off the ground from a silken thread that is suspended from the ceiling, BEHIND the counter. Now the fun begins.

We do say, out loud, to Sagan, that that wasn't a bee, it was a spider (trying to teach him correctly), and since it was doing no harm to anybody, we said nothing more. Now the guy ringing us up didn't seem to hear anything, he just went on about his business with the tape fixing. In comes two more employees, we'll name them hairdresser lady #1 and #2. Lady #1 comes around and positions herself behind the counter, DIRECTLY underneath the spider. So of course what happens next, the spider decides to begin to lower itself slowly, very slowly, downward. Now, you have, as an observer of this situation as Sandy and I both were, two options. One is that you can say, very loudly, "Watch out!, there is a spider about to land on your head". The other option is to just watch and wait to see what happens when the spider reaches it's landing pad of, as my wife would say of these types of hair dressers, "over-processed" hair.

Which do you think we choose? Thats correct. Watch and wait. The best part is that we both, silently, choose option two without even looking at each other. I probably would have pegged myself as an option two kind of guy, but not necessarily her, but in this instance she went along for the ride. Very proud of her to say the least.

Now if you have ever seen a mighty mouse cartoon, or more recently any of the Austin Powers movies, then you would be familiar with the scenes where someone is set to die in a violent yet overly drawn-out way, such as a saw that is slowly moving towards them while they are tied down, or they are dangling above a pit of alligators while a candle slowly frays the line. They are always saved in the nick of time, usually, of course, because there is always way too much time. This is exactly what was happening at that moment.

The spider was SLOWLY trickling downward, inch by inch, moment by moment (I could almost feel the camera angles shifting constantly in my head as I watched it unfolding). I felt like a kid in a candy store with unlimited funds. Then into the scene comes Lady #2, on our side of the counter. She must have noticed the jaw-dropping look of astonishment on our faces and followed our gaze towards Lady #1, because immediately, she turned that way to see what was going on.

At this point the spider has made it, literally, to within a half inch or less of it's hairy home-to-be. Instantly, she chose option one (damn her), and screamed, "There's a spider!" while pointing at lady#1's head. Immediately following the scream, cashier guy spins around fast, and let's out, of course, the stereotypical girly high-pitched shrill, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH", with both hands to his face. Lady #1 jumps out of the way at the one instant she had left before impact, ruining our show.

It didn't quite end there though. Everybody laughed a bit and stepped away from the spider, and we were still in kind of a daze about the whole thing that had just unfolded in front of our eyes. Enter in another male employee, who had stepped in to see what was going on after hearing the commotion. He decides to be the hero and remove the spider for all the ladies (including the cashier guy).

Now, we are still standing there with our two children. Solana is at that age where all bugs are cool, loves to find them and play with them and ask about them, and has no clue about death. Certainly would not kill anything she found. So what does hero guy do? He grabs the silken thread about a foot above the spider to carry him away. However, instead of carrying him away, perhaps outside to freedom would have been appropriate, he drops it on the floor about two feet from everyone and slams his foot to the floor in one furious spider crushing stomp. Shocked again.

At this point our business there is slowly coming to an end and we are about to leave (thankfully). Yet, Solana, has some questions to ask first. She says, "Mommy, what did he do?".

Sandy, who is absolutely the type to have carried the spider to freedom is, I can tell, still floored (pun intended) by what just happened, and just matter of factly states, "He stepped on it".

"Why?"

Cashier hands us the receipt.

Sandy, "Um...I don't know".

and we're gone. As fast as we can.

Now, the implication of us choosing option two doesn't really hit us until we are laughing hysterically in the car on the way out of there. The thing is, although we tried to act as if we didn't know there was a spider when the screaming hit, we clearly did know there was a spider. More importantly, Lady #2 clearly knew we knew there was a spider, and even more importantly, knew that we knew it was about to land on Lady #1's hairy dome, and utmost importantly, knew that we knew about it and chose not to say anything. Being as she was an option one kind of girl, my guess is that she figured to inform the others after we had left that we were in fact option two type of folk. Who knows what she did, but the thought of that implication just made us laugh even more hysterically, luckily she didn't call us out on it at the scene. Hopefully that was too much for her to process and she didn't even consider it, let alone say anything. Sandy has an appointment there next week, I guess she'll find out if she gets any funny looks.

Anyway, thought I'd share, thanks for reading. Check in often, although my life may not always be full of stories this good.

Hello, is there anybody out there?

2005-02-22T10:36:00.000-06:00

This is my first time with this, hope you like it.