Airport plan

I've been hearing a lot lately about airport security. As I have booked two trips in the next month or so, I am not happy about the possibility of either being exposed to "safe" radiation (but not if you look at a Berkley study) and thinking about a TSA officer looking at me sans clothes, or being patted down extensively. I was patted down once before-I think I was flying from the east coast to the west. Their old non-invasive pat down made me uncomfortable-I can't imagine how violated I'd feel if subjected to the new one. Therefore, I have devised an airport plan. You may recall I was in Norway a few months ago. While there, I purchased this:

My plan is to wear the above item of clothing with my bathing suit underneath. If/when they choose to select me for the additional search, I will refuse both the radiation and pat down, unzip the onsie, strip to my togs and ask politely what more they need to see.

Goldilocks and the Lab Chairs

Goldilocks had been trapped in the Illumina lab and her office for several weeks. Finally, it was the day when she would return to her normal lab. She was a little worried. Once or twice when she was trapped, she walked by the lab and saw the big, bad post-doc sitting in her chair (okay, so he's not really big and bad, but it sounds better that way). Because Goldilocks was the only one who regularly pushes in her chair in the lab, she worried that her chair would get lost in the shuffle. When she arrived at the lab, no one else was there. She put on her lab coat, donned gloves and hopped into the chair in front of her work bench. "This chair slopes too much", she thought, and hopped down. She pushed that chair out of the way and tried the second chair. "The back of this chair is two low", thought Goldilocks and stood up again. Trying the third chair, she thought "This chair is just right" and proceeded to set up her PCR.

Between scoring another goal at soccer yesterday, winning a turkey at the turkey trot today, and finding her lab chair, Goldilocks figures it will be a pretty good week.

Birthday

Why didn't I know about this before?? There will be a Bear Valley trip for my next birthday!

X

Several good reasons...guess I have a couple more frogs to kiss before I find Prince Charming

Finally

I scored! I was near the goal, someone passed me the ball, and I tapped it right past the keeper into the net. And it felt just as good as I imagined it would. The only thing that could have made the game better would have been staying on my feet when I was going for my second goal of the game. Unfortunately, the goalie's leg got in my way and I ended up in the grass.

Good game, team red:)

Success!

My goal as of late with Gus has been to get him to eat from my hand. When we started out, he flew to the opposite side of the cage as soon as I put my hand in, usually making some unhappy squeaking.

 Next, he decided it might be okay to reach for food from his dish that I had balanced on my hand.

 Eventually, he decided he could sit on the bowl in my hand and eat.

 And now, he eats from my bare hand!

He occasionally decides to give a finger a try instead of his seed. This results in a firm scolding. Hopefully he'll learn what "Don't bite" means soon. Though he hasn't bitten me hard enough to draw blood again, it still hurts a bit. I'm happy to be making progress with my little guy. I think he's adorable.

The video is when he was deciding whether it was really a good idea to eat out of my hand. I think his little sideways back and forth dance is cute. Now he just comes right down and gives my hand a good stare down before he eats.

Next year

I'm thinking of carving a pumpkin next year...

Band Aids

I've been thinking a little about quick fixes versus getting to the root of the problem. While I was talking to my dad yesterday, he mentioned having scratched himself with a tree branch while working in the orchard. Due to his medications, his blood doesn't clot like it used to, and he ended up with blood on his arm and his shirt before he noticed. He found a band aid in his truck, and eventually stopped the bleeding. Band aids may be something he carries around now, to compensate for the changed clotting ability his blood has because of medication. In this case, a band aid was really what he needed. The root cause of bleeding may have been preventable, but was not unusual, and will probably be a re-occurring incident. Problem fixed.

San Antonio is now the 7th fattest city in the US. While that's an improvement (we were #3 last year), it's still not great. I heard a proposed solution on the radio this morning. At a YMCA on the south side of town, bicycles will be given away in order to encourage an active life style. Those who receive free bikes will have a 6 month check up to see if they've been using the bicycles. My guess is that the bikes will be taken with good intentions, but when city dwellers realize how terrible biking in San Antonio is, they will hide the bikes in a corner of their garage and give up. Within weeks. I say this because I tried to bike to work for several months. I certainly live within a reasonable biking distance, and had no problem with the physical effort, in fact, I enjoyed it. The problem was the lack of infrastructure for bikers. There are no bike lanes in most of the city, in fact there are few shoulders on the roads and practically no sidewalks once you leave neighborhoods and get onto main roads. San Antonio drivers are terrible to begin with. Add bikes and the equation becomes exponentially worse. Inexperienced bikers expect traffic to yield to them, drivers unused to and not expecting bikes are surprised and angry at the lack of courtesy shown by bikers, and because they are so exposed, bikers are at risk for injury or death. I can't remember how many people told me stories about bikers being hit and left by the side of the road before I gave up biking to work, but I decided my safety was more important than my desire to save on gas money and be fit. The bikes being given away are a sorry excuse for a band aid in an attempt to fix San Antonio's fat status. Lifestyle changes are needed. If the city powers that be want people to get out and be fit (bike, walk, etc.), San Antonio city structure should encourage that lifestyle. I know that changing city structure is more expensive than giving away a few bikes, I'm just saying I believe in approaching the problem from a broader view.

Lastly, a couple of people have apologized to me recently. One for an action he took which he thought offended me, and another for holding a grudge about something I said that, unbeknownst to me, hurt her feelings. The first instance hadn't really offended me, though I had thought the actions taken were inappropriate. While the second didn't remember what exactly I'd said, I'm sure she remembered how it made her feel. Holding on to those feelings were hurting her more, and asking forgiveness allowed her to start healing. Genuine apologies are more than a band aid. Yet these two instances made me wonder if there was anything I could have done to avoid the hurt completely. Was what I said to her unfeeling or thoughtless? I don't think anyone likes to find out they've hurt someone they care about, yet we do it often. Why is it so easy to offend and be offended?