$4K Cat for sale...

Anyone want a hypoallergenic cat? Just pay ~$4,000 for one at ALLERCA... and there's a waiting list. (Recent article)

A picture of the newest kittens

Huh, note that the kittens will come spayed or neutered. No breeding of hypoallergenic cats outside of the company!!!

How they were made:
I wonder how they picked up on this mutant.... Did someone happen to have a cat that an allergic person didn't react to? My friends claim that my cat is fairly hypoallergenic. We should check out if he has a mutant Fel D1 gene... Hmmmm, and then I can patent my kitty's genes and make tons of money, too!!

Although it seems to me, based on those Western Blots, that the Allerca cats express Fel D1 as well, as well as multiple variants. What are they? Do they function like dominant negatives?? Show me the science!!!

Bloggers comment about shadiness of the company here.
San Diego Tribune article here.

Ban? What ban??

As a frequent flier, I have to say the ban on liquids is a bunch of b.s. I have seen big trash bins in front of security for people to throw their liquids into. They are always empty. I have yet to see any baggage get rummaged through in search of liquids. Announcements are made asking people to consume their beverages before boarding the plane, but yet I always see passengers drinking from bottles before we've been served!

How is the government going to lift a ban that doesn't exist?!?

More Creativity PLEASE!!!

I'm not one to reprimand people for not being creative, because I'm certainly not the most visionary of people...

but last night, while watching commercials during Grey's Anatomy (heee..my guilty pleasure), I was enraptured by a few previews for movies. The first one was of magicians and seemed full of intrigue and fantasy with some cool cinematography. And with a cast including Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Scarlett Johansson, who wouldn't want to see it?!? But then the title popped up. THE PRESTIGE. What the hell? What lameass title is that for something that appeared to be so promising? Ugh, I definitely reconsidered the movie after seeing the title.... But at the very least, I'll wait for the reviews, and worse comes to worse, I'll still see it using Netflix because who can resist Hugh and Christian in the same movie??? Ooooh la la...

So then, halfway through the show, another commercial crops up for a movie involving a cop undercover in the mob, and a criminal undercover in the police force. This looked good, too. And it had Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Martin Scorcese. This has got to be a good movie.... And then the title comes up. THE DEPARTED. What the... ??? Did these writers just use up all their creative juices writing the script? Lame! LAME, I say!!!

I was so disappointed, I was thinking of boycotting all movies called "The ____". Sheesh.

Some other annoying names that are out right now:
The Protector
The Sentinel
The Covenant
The Descent

Oh, and Cheryl has a challenge for anyone: See if you can find a movie where the title of the movie is not mentioned/verbalized during the movie...

By the way, people always say, don't judge a book by its cover. But when it comes to books and movies, I certainly do. A good title with good cover art can easily get me to pick up a book and give it chance. Likewise with movies and previews....

update 10/17/06:
2 more Jackman movies coming out are titled:
The Fountain
The Tourist
Arg!!!!

Dolphins!

My man sure has a keen eye for dolphins.

We drove out to Torrey Pines this morning for a quick hike. As we looked for parking, Dave spotted a pod of dolphins near some surfers. He's about 9 for 10 when it comes to spotting dolphins at this place. It's pretty amazing.... Amazing for the number of dolphins around here, but more amazing because Dave's got a special talent for finding them!

Today was our lucky day because the dolphins were fairly close to shore (compared to the past times) and we managed to catch some not-so-great pictures of them.

From the beach:


We saw a pod encounter another, and at one point, there looked to be about 10-15 dolphins milling around each other. Some surfers were getting too close and the dolphins were moving away and staying submerged longer, so we didn't get a good picture of all of them.

Then we hiked up Torrey Pines and along Guy Fleming Trail for a beautiful view of the ocean from the cliffs. We saw some of the same dolphins swimming south towards Scripps Pier and La Jolla. We then saw the other pod of 4 dolphins right below us. Here's our best picture of them:


The view of Del Mar from the trail: (One of my favorites)


The view with our heads in the way:

house pics to the max

The pictures will get uploaded soon, but I'm too tired to do it right now. We've got tons to show where all the pipes, beams, and all sorts of things are... We're supposed to keep track of it, so in the future we won't accidentally do something stupid and flood our house or some other nightmare like it.

But in the meantime, I'll just upload one taken while we were admiring the house from the park.

Feet and house:

Mourning for my program...

Today the Dean of my graduate program announced that he was asked to step down by the powers-that-be. He had only been the Dean for 4 years and had a great vision which we could see being slowly fulfilled. He had high aspirations for our program with a goal to make it compete with the top programs in the nation. And he was the number one reason I would tell people to come to Sinai (no joke!). We also had the most student friendly administration imaginable after he became our Dean. In a long, grueling, stressful program like this, what else you could ask for?

Instead, he will be replaced by a neuroscientist/politician who has also been given responsibilities as the new Dean of Basic Science Research in addition to the Dean of the Graduate School. Great. Now, who's going to really lose? The students, of course. Our Dean had dedicated all his time towards our program (I think his lab suffered a bit). How in the world is this new guy going to juggle the two jobs?? And he's currently not involved in any of the courses being taught. How will he meet us, know us, and know what's best for us? He won't. This is a sad sad day for our program....

Cheryl wrote a great eloquent memorial message which beautifully conveys our distress. Please read it here.

There may be a formal protest filed by the Student Council. Power to the students!!

Protection from the elements...

And soon the walls will go up!



Latest update from yesterday (again, from Dave's phone). It was a little late, so the lighting isn't so great. Frame walk will be this Friday...

Front: (Isn't the balcony pretty?)


Front from the other side:


Backyard with doors to garage and dining room/kitchen:


Side (dining room/kitchen):


Side/Front door:


View from the park (house is on the left):

Work and play.... more play than work?

My job follows the philosophy: Work hard and play hard.

Spelling out G.A.D. (our boss' initials)

Yup, mixing play and work!

1st Annual Toast to No Smoking!
August 24, 2006
Andy surprised his wife, Patti, with a party celebrating her 1 year anniversary quitting smoking. Go Patti!

With plenty of balloons and candy cigarettes!


Patti demonstrating former smoking Patti....


Us, the "lab chicks", looking forward to our burgers and chili cheese fries. Yum!


Cheryl, Heather, and I went to the celebration and while there, discovered that Patti's stripper name was Raquelle Sparkle Jugs. Inspired by this, we decided to make up stripper names for each other. Oh dear... and soooooo, here are the results:

Lolita Spicy Hands


Fifi Luscious Golonger
(as in the frisbee term "go long!" thankyouverymuch)


Cheryl and I then used our brains to their maximum capacities to create Heather's perfect stripper name:


Bunny Juicy Lips A'Vroomvroom


And last, but not least....
Lorenzo Homerun O'Shageassy



Aw, aren't we proud?



Housewarming Party!
August 26, 2006.
A few days later, Heather and Christine celebrated their new apartment in Astoria and Heather's move from the sketchiest part of the Bronx to the comfort of Astoria. Yay!

So here are some pictures of that memorable evening...

First thing we were greeted with was this display of 100 jello shots prepared by our fine hostesses! (Keep in mind, they've only been out of school for a year!)


Heather forgot to also take a picture of the 25+ 15 ml Falcon tubes of Minderaser shots... They were a little scary because they looked like FBS. Here we captured a tube (with the camera on some crazy setting):
Much later in the evening, Heather drinking yet ANOTHER jello shot (with Cheryl looking on with envy as we cut her from any more liquor by that point). On the right is my hand with a Minderaser tube. Kinda scary, but cool nevertheless....


Party people...


14th floor girls!
Me, Maria, Cheryl, Christine, Heather


Old folks in one corner: Andy, Patti (who kept telling me that she was THE oldest person at the party), Me


Irem, glazed Cheryl, happy Me


Silly us


Orea is the sweetest! I kept hiding out in Heather's room to play with her kitties...
Awwwww.


To see more pictures from the party, click here.

Now, BACK TO WORK!!

Windows and wires!

House update... 2 weeks later...

Dave went to check up on the house today. He took some nice pics with his camera phone (too bad I have the digital camera with me in New York!)... The changes in 2 weeks are pretty subtle. Most noticeable is that the house now has windows and wires!








And that's it for now....

AL-NYCPUL champs... again!

2006 AL-NYCPUL Champs! (Team Grey)

back row: eric, brant, dan, hunt, aru, eli, ben, tom, joe
front row: charlie, bob, melissa, dai, luke, drew
missing: nnenna, brendan, pete, cyd, josh, jonathan, brooke, sarah

Our playoffs were originally scheduled to take place on August 27th. But due to a mishap by the Central Park people, who managed to give out 2 permits to the Dustbowl on that day, one to us and one to Ellen Degeneres, we were bumped off our field. Yes, no joke. A massive stage had taken over our field the entire weekend in preparation for a taping of the Ellen Degeneres show on Monday featuring Justin Timberlake and Beyonce. Yes, we got bumped because of Ellen, Justin, and Beyonce.... I was tempted to ask friends to show up and throw discs at the stage during the taping...

So playoffs were postponed to September 3rd, Labor Day weekend. We were worried that teams would not be able to field enough people to play, but suprisingly, 4 of 6 teams showed, and they managed to have a good turnout.

In honor of Dai's sparkly skirt and the one she inspired (coerced?) me to make, we all decided to get decked out in sequined material and call ourselves Team Bling for the day....

Eli was very excited to make his skirt.


Brant and Bob sporting their headwear... Tom probably had stuff on his shoes which Dai forced upon anyone that wouldn't voluntarily wear the sequined material.


Squinty Joe (he didn't want to wear anything that would slow him down, but Dai probably attacked his shoes, too), Eli in the skirt you can't see, Eric and his green cape, Dai being Dai, and Ben sporting the shimmering lavender bandanna (and a grey skirt as well! he rocks!).


Luke and Charlie in bandannas as well.... and well, Drew wasn't so shiny that day.


Me with my silvery bandanna and blue skirt, Aru had sparkly ribbons on his shoes...


Sparkleness Galore. I love the hairstlye, Bob. And a better view of Eric's cape and Ben's skirt.



Quarterfinals were Lemon vs Navy (Lemon won by forfeit) and Pink vs Maroon (Pink won easily). Semifinals were Lemon vs Green (Again, Lemon won by forfeit) and Pink vs Grey (Grey won easily). Finals was a very fresh Lemon (with practically their full squad out minus some women) vs Grey, game to 15.

We went to half 8-4 with Grey in the lead. Then we quickly expanded that gap to 11-4. Then... fiasco! My team fell apart with people making numerous unforced errors (people throwing away, me playing terrible and not catching. I'm so embarassed!). The next thing we knew it was 12-11... 12-12... 13-13... 14-14!... Universe point!!! And then..... Whew, we took care of business properly and finished the game 15-14. I think I almost had several panic attacks during that game.

It was a great and spirited game. I love my team and Lemon (granted, many are friends from pick-up which made it much more fun!)... What a great season! And a great finish to my last summer in the City!!

A pull by Dan...


Check out that stack! (and Sinai in the backdrop)


The End.
Ben and Eli strutting in their skirts with Sean. The rest of Grey and Lemon behind them....


Grey with 1st place blue ribbons!


Lemon (with half the team already gone) with their 2nd place red ribbons!

Mike, Nedra, Jay, Craig, Rich, Dan, Apu, Sean, Paul

The great commissioner Cathy then treated us (anyone from the league) to dinner and drinks! Whoo-hoo!.... Some pictures:

Me and Dai...

She is one CRAZY little girl. I'll miss her when she goes back to school.
:(

Many more pictures from this season here!