Gobble Gobble Gobble

It's a fun time of year to be in the states. Last week it was Thanksgiving when, unusually, Americans actually take off from work and don't do much except eat, drink, and watch football. It's like a warm up for Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Also, as soon as the day is over, out come the Christmas lights. The houses are now festooned with crazy amounts of lights in all shapes and sizes. It must be awesome to own an electricity company at this time of year!
This year I spent Thanksgiving in Dallas with Rebecca's Mom's family which was really good fun. The Aggies gave the Longhorns quite a scare, but most interesting of all was the treat Uncle Lee had in store for us. He deep fried a 20lb turkey! That was the most amazing turkey I have ever eaten in my life. It was so tender and succulent. Even the leftovers the next day were still not in the least bit dry.
I guess this is the next step in my red-neck evolution.
The next Turkey I see will hopefully be through cross hairs. Roll on Christmas in the Panhandle...

2-3 pint baby?

Finally, the licensing laws have changed back home so you may be able to have a pint of bitter after 11 o'clock down your local (legally). I think a change in the laws is long overdue. However, I would question the decision to move to '24 hour' drinking just at the beginning of the biggest binge drinking season of the year. It got me wondering, how many births in August/September 2006 will be because of that extra few pints Mum or Dad had at the office Christmas party?

More sensible views can be seen here

Return of the Phil

I've been a little busy of late. Both sets of my parents came over to see me in quick succession and then I've been writing a paper. I thought that I missed writing my thesis until now!

Because of the writing I've been away from the lab for three weeks. I returned the other day to start setting up some experiments. The first thing I did was to use the microwave to melt some media. The microwave plate was covered in agarose that someone had boiled over and left to set. So I disposed of it in the bin, only to find that the bin was so full that the lid was balancing up in the air. Funnily enough, the bin right next to it was empty! In the process of doing this I needed gloves and my box had run out so I went to the storeroom only to find (shock horror!) empty shelves where the gloves should be. Even more shocking was that when I told my little tale of misfortune to Karl (whose job it is to deal with the full bins) I found out that nobody had even bothered to tell him that we had filled nearly all the bins.

I sent out an e mail to the lab explaining to them all that I had missed them so much over the past few weeks.

Most of the cheeky boggers thought I'd been on holiday! And the next time I went to use the microwave it was full of agarose again! Is it any wonder I am frustrated with this lab?

You can't beat a good snack

There's nothing better than a good snack. A fine English example is beans on toast, shown here poshed up with some freshly ground pepper and a glass of red wine. A snack and a meal all in one. Fantastic. What makes it extra special is that I had to import these beans from home.

Spot the difference