3 cheers for me.

I ran this morning. I made the conscious decision to go for a 30 minute run even though Mr.SM took his nano with him. I was committed enough to run without music. Amazingly I was so enthralled by the beauty around me that I didn't even notice the lack of music. Can I say I LOVE LOVE HomeCity.

30 minute meals

Like Candid Engineer, I have no war style pictures to go along with this beauty of a recipe. I do not have time to be taking pictures when I get home at 6pm with hungry child in tow and a hungry hubby waiting to be fed. I made this last Thursday, and takes ~30 minutes to prep and cook. My mom was given this recipe by a friend of hers, Shirley May. Its been one of my comfort foods ever since so thanks Shirley May!

Broccoli Chicken:

Enough steamed broccoli to cover the bottom of a casserole (I buy fresh flowerettes, saves me time as I don't have to cut anything)
Enough chopped chicken to layer on top of the broccoli - you can use either boneless/skinless chicken breast or boneless/skin chicken thighs. I've done both, personally I prefer the dark meat for juiciness and flavor
cream of mushroom soup (1-2 cans, depends on the size of the casserole)
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise - Do not use miracle whip, it gives a weird taste.
Dash of lemon juice
Graham masala to taste
grated cheddar cheese
bread crumbs


While the broccoli is steaming, chop and lightly cook the chicken.
In a bowl mix together soup, mayo, lemon juice, and graham masala, set aside.
Once the brocolli (and whatever other veggies you want to throw in) are steamed and the chicken is cooked, layer as follows:
broccoli, chicken, soup mixture, cheese, bread crumbs. Cook for 20-30 min at 350.

While the casserole is cooking, I will usually make some rice using the chicken juices.

Both monkey and hubby love this dish. Time savers are buying the pre-shredded cheese and pre-cut broccoli.

Those undergrads are killing me again.

Either I was really really smart as an undergrad or our education (at least in Canada) is going to hell in a hand basket today. The course I am grading is a 300 level science course which is designed to teach students how to write a scientific research paper for submission to a science journal. Notice the emphasis on science! We are not teaching them to write, we are teaching them to write scientifically.
I am the first to admit that I do not have the best writing skills, especially on this here blog. I tend to hit publish without proofreading. I type out my thoughts and go. However this a personal blog. Anything that is submitted in a professional setting, ie emails to professors, help lines, research proposals, scholarship applications etc are read and reread to ensure I am clear and concise. If I am submitting something (ie scholarship application), I will re-assess >100x myself, then I will have a colleagure, friend, mentor review the application multiple times prior to submission. I do not think I ever submitted the following paragraph as part of an undergraduate research paper:
"More studies have show that the relationship between a and b has recently been found in longitudinal and cross-sectional studies in men and women" *
or
"With cross-sectional studies looking at factors such as l, m, p, and e level strengthen the difference in the mean of a between group1 and group2 is even more significant. Also the supporting references that central c leading to r, this ripple effect alters metabolic state and increases the chances of disease 1 and 2. These trends move closer to null; there is a significant difference amoung group1 and group2" *

* For obvious reason I don't want to say what the particular research was, the last thing I would want is for someone to figure out who the students are. Any health reseach subject can be subsituted into the italicized words. For example if you were studying Parkisons, that relationship between aluminum intake and parkisons has been..

How do you say to a student, go take english classes???

I blame ScienceWoman

I had intended to blog about science today. I intended to post this video and explain to you all the beauty that is imaginal wing discs and my proteins of interest. I was going to wax on about how Arlenna isn't the only one that can take pretty pictures.



Instead I give you this:



Thanks to sciencewoman, the monkey is obsessed with elmo. He sees my school bag and he will drag it to me saying "elmo, elmo, elmo". My son, who never ever agrees to give me a kiss in exchange for something he wants, ran across the living room jumping with joy to give me a kiss after I said "OK, give me a kiss and you get elmo". Seriously, that boy has yet to want anything bad enough to give a kiss. Doesn't matter if you're offering a toy, food, juice, milk the answer is always no. Elmo is a drug that gets me kisses now.
My son has now mastered not only the ability to open my lovely ibook and turn it on, he can use the touchpad to launch programs. I walked into the living room to find him with both the computer open and FireFox open, madly banging keys to try and get elmo on. It will be a matter of hours before he will figure that out too.

Yet the boy does not talk.....

At least I can watch BSG while he watches that damn elmo's song for the 1001th time....

Running is like science OR Why I need an iPhone

I have started running again. Friday was my fourth run in the last 1.5 weeks. Which is the most consistent I have been with running since I was 7 months pregnant. Yes I ran while pregnant. I made it to 7 months, at which point I could no longer run uphill, and since I live on the top of a hill..well duh, I had to quit. Inspired by all you crazy running moms / bloggers, I started up. Plus if I really want to have that second child, I better get in shape (as in get some strength and stamina) before we start trying.
Anyways back to the point. So Friday, I enter into the trails near campus and start off at my usual pace. It was raining, but I was in trails and enjoying the feels of puddles, mud under foot. I was jumping over branches and being one with nature. However, I had never ran in these trails before and I wasn't sure they do a full circle back to where I started (and where my car was parked). At about the 20 minute mark of my "30 minute" run, I started to wonder if I should turn around and back track to my starting point. I usually have a good sense of direction and was pretty sure that the trail I was on had turned back toward my start point. It is at this point, when I kept going forward that I realized science and running are alot alike.
What the fuck is she talking about you ask? Well, the night before I had read Ambivalent Academics post on when to walk away from a project. Every week / month/year that she worked on it, made it that much harder to say 'fuck it' because that much more time had been invested. And that is how a run works.
When you don't know exactly where you will end up, when do you just say fuck it and turn around to run back the way you came? If you are aiming for a 30 minute run, do you turn back at 15 min? 20 min? 25 min mark? Every minute longer you forward is an extra minute you'll have to run back, so what do you do? These are the thoughts that went through my mind as I ran through puddles, jumped over creeks, and tried not to trip on the tree roots crossing my trails. Do you know what I learned on Friday?
It is best to turn around 20 minutes into your '30 minute' run. Otherwise you may end up on the other side of campus at the 35 minute mark. If this happens to you, it is best to follow the road back to campus otherwise you may end up 30 minutes outside of campus at the 65 minute mark of your 30 minute run. Just saying. Oh and it is a good idea to run with your bus pass, so that if you end up 30 minutes outside of campus after running 65 minutes for the first time 2+ years, you can jump onto a bus to take you back, instead of having to walk back (because you can.not.run.) in the pissing cold rain.

Surprisingly, only my shins were done. I went for a run today and did not get lost. yeah me.

An Open Letter to JLK

On my birthday I had a bit of a rant about how I wished/wanted academic life to be. Many of you posted birthday wishes and commiserated in the misery of it all, however JLK's comment made me realize that I might of made it look like having a family and going to grad school was insufferable. This was her comment:
...
Your post struck a nerve with me. I really, really want to be a mom. But I also really, really want to be an academic. It's not that I necessarily feel that those two things are mutually exclusive - it's more that I feel like I will have to suffer in order to have both. I will not choose a PhD over children. But I don't know how I'll feel about myself for the rest of my life if I am forced to make that decision.

JLK - you don't have to choose to PhD over children or children over a PhD. You can have both. The ability to have both may not be easy, but honey nothing that is rewarding is easy. That 20+ minute run through the trees this morning was torture at times. The feeling when I finished, knowing that am not as sore as I was last week, was worth it. Being a mom and a grad student is bloody hell hard, but not for the reasons that you may think. I find it challenging because:

1. I care about what people think of me. I have learned not to care but I do. So when my first Phdlab mates implied that I was using my child as an excuse, it was devasting (I'm sure the post about that is somewhere in the archives) or when someone accused me of not pulling my weight because I asked the research technican to take plates out of the incubator, it made me self-conscious of getting an easy ride. You can not let shit like that effect you. You will need a thick skin.
2. I do not always connect with my fellow grad students. For some of them, my life with a child is totally and completely foreign to them. They have no concept and some just don't care about monkey's stories these people are crazy, who doesn't bust a gut laughing at the antics of my child?? I miss out on socials and other networking opportunities. I also do not get to participate in as many clubs/ committees as I would like.
3. I need to be super organized and have amazing time-management skills. More often than not, I will have to say no to going for that cup of coffee with my lab mates because I need to get xyz done before TIME so that I can p/u monkey. That is not to say that I can't have lazy days, or go for coffee but the reprecussions are more severe for me. Planning and being careful while doing experiments are super duper important because I only have a limited time. I can't stay the extra hour to re-stain the blot because I forgot to put in an antibody.seriously,?? yes I have done that...

What you need to figure out is do you really want both? If the answer is yes (as it was for me) then you need to figure out how to do that. For me it was this - Change Supervisors.
Although my Old PhD lab and OldGradAdvisor was full of nice people, and very supportative of men and women, it was not supportative of parents. New Advisor and New lab is. When I decided to find the new supervisor, it was not an easy decision but it had to be made. If you go through the archives, you will read how I agonized over figuring out what I wanted. However, I was only willing to continue on the PhD path if all four of the conditions were met:

1. PI was a good mentor
2. PI was a good scientist (ethical and high standards)
3. PI was understanding and supportitave of parents.
4. PI knew and did not have an issue with me having another child.

Grad school is hard, regardless of whether its in the hard sciences or social sciences. If you are going to embark on this road, you will have ensure that you have a strong support system. I love my life. Its hard, but I enjoy coming into work. I really do think about my research all the time. I may not be reading articles 24-7, but I am thinking about what experiment next, what questions I should be asking. I am passionate about it. If I have to leave my child, I damn well do for something that I love.

I am sure Nicky, Fia and all the other mom/scientist out there would agree.

Turn to face wall, bang head.

I drove 45 minutes came into the lab yesterday, on a Sunday, so that I could spend 5 minutes setting up embryo plates (essentially putting little plates on the bottom of where we store our flies). I did this so that I would be able to run an immuno-precipitation while collecting some microscope images, that whole trying to be efficient so that I can graduate in a timely manner without killing myself philosophy?
Yeah will the stupid flies did not lay eggs and my scope died after taking 1 image. FUCK me.