monday afternoon hilarity

i am having a major case of the mondays. i am disgruntled about the lab, about the people, and about the fact that way too much equipment was broken while i was gone. and that people don't bother to tell me. so, this may give some explaination why i was so entertained by the following:

i was searching different companies for kits to do baculovirus expression of protein (which i have never done before). companies always include a picture of the product to help sell said product - this works for shoes, this works for biotechnology. imagine my surprise when a kit for expressing protein with baculovirus was accompanied by this:

Apparently, blue feet with French manicured nails are the key to successful baculovirus transfection. what a bummer, my feet aren't blue, and not that talented.

9 days

Well, we've been married for 9 days! We had a wonderful time in San Francisco, very busy but wonderful. We were ready to leave but also were enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't want to leave. We took a boat ride around the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge, around Alcatraz and back (free with our CityPass). We walked around Aquarium by the Bay and Adam got to touch a few stingrays and baby sharks (free with our CityPass). We went to Muir Woods to see the redwoods (my new favorite smell) and then three wineries (Jacuzzi, Cline, and Homewood) with Extranomical Adventures. We went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA - free with CityPass) where they had a special exhibit comparing the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe and photographs of Ansel Adams that was fantastic (not free, but only $5 each). We went to the de Young Museum (free with CityPass) and saw a special King Tut exhibit ($15 each - too much in my opinion). We went to the California Academy of Sciences (free with CityPass) where they have a fantastic exhibit on evolution in modern times about the evolution that Darwin discovered on the Galapagos islands, as well as the evolution that has occured on Madagascar. How Survival of the Fittest is displayed so well on the different islands - 7 different finches that have evolved to have beaks specifically for eating certain foods whether it be seeds or worms, etc. It was very great. And, of course, we HAD to go to Haight-Ashbury and 710 Ashbury where the Grateful Dead lived in 1966-67. The CityPass was fantastic not only because of the museums we got into for free but because we were able to ride all the public transportation for free, including the cable cars.

And I was going to upload a few pictures but the site wasn't working. Grumble.