Waking up to roofers...

So, we are finally getting our roof fixed today from the downburst that hit Norman back in the spring. The sound of banging on the roof is what I woke up to this morning. Very pleasant. The other thing that is so great about this is all of the roofing shit that will inevitably be left behind in little pieces all over my yard. We have a very nice front yard with grass that is about 3 inches thich, very soft, and weed free. Brian is very proud of it and enjoys the endless compliments that he recieves. It is also where our son plays when he is outside (the dog has taken over the backyard and is too hyper to be around the little guy). Even though the roofers used those little magnetic things to get up all of the loose nails, there is no way that it will pull them all up from the depths of our lush grass. I have no idea how we will find them all and I am very worried that someone will end up with a nail stuck in them. We asked the roofers if we could put a big tarp over the front yard and flower beds and they said that it would cause more problems. But, as I looked at my poor flower bed this morning, I can't figure out how that would make things worse. My poor bushes are full of roof pieces, nails and whatever other crap came off of the roof and there will be no way to get it all out. It is all prety frustrating and I hope that no more big storms hit us anytime soon because I don't want to go through this roofing thing again!!!

Free stuff!!

I have never seen someone get more free stuff in my life than my fiance. And by free stuff, I don't mean winning something in a contest or free samples. I am talking about businesses giving him free stuff because they have screwed up. 

Example 1: Before our son was born we went shopping for cribs. We decided to buy one from the consignment store Once Upon a Child. I knew that they were suppose to be very up to date on any recalls so I felt comfortable when we chose a drop side crib and took it home. One week later was the BIG crib recal that included almost all drop side cribs. I was pissed that this hadn't come out a week earlier before we threw $100 down the drain. However, after doing some research, the crib we bought had actually been recalled about 8 months earlier and the store missed it. So, my fiance went and spoke with the manager and ended up walking out with a refund, a brand new high dollar convertable crib, and a bunch of store credit. Now this was actually a situation where a lawsuit could have been in order, so they wanted to do anything to make the situation right. But still, free stuff.

Example 2: Last week he went to get two tires replaced on his truck. He asked for the back two tires, which were obviously in the worst shape, to be replaced and for the better of the two to be placed in the truckbed to be a spare. The next day, he realized that they had mistakingly replaced the two front tires, the good ones, and had not left him with a spare. He got two more new tires free.

Example 3: We went to Vegas for the first time last summer. We got a really great deal on our room and were really excited. When we got to the hotel to check in there was apparently some sort of mistake on the booking and we were upgraded to a suite. Now, upgrades happen all the time in Vegas, but I have no doubt that it wouldn't have happened if I was there without him. I can't explain why, people just like to give him free stuff.

Example 4: I think everyone has had a bad restaurant experience or two. I'm sure plenty of people I know have gotten a free meal from someplace because of an order mistake or just bad food. But, for some reason, Brian has horrible luck when it comes to eating out or going to a fast food restaurant. I cannot even begin to count the number of free meals he has gotten. In fact, McDonalds has screwed his order up twice in just the past two weeks and given him free meal coupons. It probably sounds like he is trying to find ways to get free food, but these are genuinely situations where they have just flat out given him the wrong meal order and when he calls to complain they give him free stuff. It is also comical, because Brian works in the restaurant industry and he NEVER gives people free meals. He can always talk his way around anything.

Example 5: Cox cable is one of the worst companies on the planet. I don't know anyone who has not dealt with problems from them. And it is very rare to actually get anywhere with them. They are right, you are wrong, end of story. They say you owe money for something that you know you don't and they can't even tell you what the charge is for, but they will get it out of you one way or another. Twice in the past two years we have not only gotten a refund on something we should not have been charged for, we have gotten additional credit towards our bill. Unheard of!

There are many, many other examples I could give, but I think I have gotten the point across. This does not even include all of the free stuff he gets from friends, like tickets to sporting events. It is seriously ridiculous. I have never seen anything like it before. I am just waiting for him to come up with some way to get our entire wedding for free. I don't think he is that talented, but it is something to shoot for.

Long weekend....

In hopes of finally finishing this current experiment once and for all, I went down to the Biological Station on Friday. I should have known before I ever left that it wasn't going to go well. My professor constantly brings up how I am plagued by bad lusk and this past week was no exception. I was originally planning to leave Wednesday night, but a bad case of food poisoning had me down and out until Friday morning. After getting the car packed (including the kiddo) Friday morning the car wouldn't start. We got it jumped and off we went. On the drive down I called our lab manager to make sure that the water and culture that they had filtered for me was taken out to thaw. It was, but all of the glass jars with water had shattered. Once I got to the station I spent part of the day changing out water baths to get my culture to thaw. In the meantime I tried to get more water filtered. Getting 100% bacteria free anything has been a big challenge for us and the pricy filter we were using was just shot after filtering my culture through, so I had to just go with some pretty dirty water. After 7 hours the culture thawed, but due to baby sitting issues my day had to end. I put everything back in the cold room to start again in the morning. I finally got the experiment set up by about noon the next day, but unfortunetly after a 24 hour assay on fish it was apparent that my culture had lost toxicity after sitting for 24 hours, presumably eaten away by bacteria. Just GRAND! So now I will patiently wait for a month for a new culture to grow and try this all over. I wonder what will go wrong next time?

Vitamins

So, I have been doing my best to get in the regular habit of taking vitamins and fish oil supplements. I figured this was a good thing. Then today I read two different articles on Yahoo Science. One says that the health benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids may not be as great as previously thought and that the supplements may not have the same affects as actually eating the fish. The other article says that long term use of multivitamins may increase a woman's risk of dying. Although it looks like their study may have been pretty dumb and the data are not that strong, it just bothers me when ideas like this come about after always assuming that this was something good for you. This is another reason I am trying to get away from processed foods, etc. I have no doubt that many, many years down the road they will begin to link all sorts of ailments to just that. As great as science can be, we have created so many "things" that are going to come back and bite us in the ass long term (many things already have). I am saying this, of course, after devouring some delicious pork chops that were probably full of antibiotics and hormones, some fresh squash likely contaminated with pesticides, and some canned baked beans with a million ingredients that are difficult to pronounce. I guess I will have to try the all natural thing another day....

Self critiquing

I am sure that everyone can agree that watching a video of yourself and critiquing it can be horrifying. Most people (except those with unwavering cockiness) tend to be much harder on themselves than the audience who critiques you on the spot. When watching ourselves we focus in on every stinking detail as opposed to looking at the whole picture. However, I think this is a good thing because outside reviewers often hold back for fear of being mean or hurting someone's feelings (even if they are anonymous). I have learned over time that even the best presentation has something that can be improved upon and not giving any criticism or advice is doing an injustice to that person. I always feel that I am being to picky or hard when I am asked to provide a critique, but I also try to address all of the positives as well. That being said, often the best critique is that of ourselves, because if we don't think that it is perfect then it isn't. So tonight I went through the motions of ripping my presentation apart, but I don't feel bad after doing it. I feel good that I can improve upon my mistakes and hopefully next time I present I won't say "ummm" incessantly. 

Go Rangers!!!

Well, it's baseball playoff time. I was never a baseball fan until after I started dating Brian and was forced to watch it almost nightly. Unlike football, my sport of choice, baseball isn't just a couple of days a week. Eventually, I guess I just gave in because I could either find a way to like it or be pissed off having to watch it non-stop (this was not a subject of compromise for Brian). Now, 3 years later I am a Rangers fan and the season continues since we made the playoffs. Maybe we will make it to the World Series for the second year in a row. It would have been nice to have gotten tickets for the World Series, but they sold out right after going on sale Sunday. Oh well. In the meantime, we still have it on tv EVERY night! Honestly, I am pretty glad it is winding down because until it does Brian will be absolutely useless. The game may only be 3 hours, but somehow he tries to justify making it an all day event. I can understand that if you are physically going to a game, tailgating, maybe having a party at the house with friends, but not when it is just you sitting on the couch. Anyway, I guess I should get to work on all of the chores that I will get no help with....

Why beetles have sex with beer bottles

I struggle to write about science as much as I should for this blog. I really hope this does not get back to the wrong person, but I think I am just burnt out from the stress of it right now. Maybe, however, it is because I am doing the wrong kind of science! Maybe I should just do really stupid and pointless science so that I can win an Ig Nobel prize! Seriously, for anyone who has not heard of this you should definitely check out this year's winners. Today was the first time I had ever heard of this and I actually laughed out loud. The awards are meant to mock the real Nobel science awards, but the fact that people actually did these experiments blows my mind. I want to know how they keep their jobs doing this so I can go there and get a job.


Here is a link to the award winners:
http://news.techworld.com/personal-tech/3307337/for-science-proud-ig-nobel-prize-winners-of-2011/?olo=rss


The funniest thing was one of the closing statements: "If you didn’t win an Ig Nobel prize this year, and especially if you did, better luck next year." Bahahahahahaha!


Also, check out this link:  http://news.yahoo.com/why-beetles-sex-beer-bottles-q-scientists-200203561.html 


At least these guys were able to come up with some somewhat reasonable scientific ideas about the long term effects of having sex with beer bottles for these beetles. This is much better than the wasabi fire alarm or the dangers of driving with a full bladder.


Seriously, I think this is what I should shoot for considering all of my issues with doing science....