So the lab today I ran 3 more experiments. The first one turned out alright, except one of the samples failed to clot. So I re-made the heparin stock and ran it two more times. All the times were shorter than what I got last week, but the standard deviations were pretty small so I guess it's not so much my pipetting technique than the heparin stocks (which can be partially attributed to my pipetting technique).
After the lab I met up with Adam again and this time we went for a walk behind Les Prince to the Aviary. It started raining almost as soon as I left the lab, and it was raining hard. I wasn't too deterred though because my boots weren't leaking (yet) and my jacket was holding up pretty well. But by the time I got home to drop my laptop off the rain more or less relented and by the time Adam and I got to Les Prince the sun was actually shining.
We took the trail up to the Aviary, except nobody was there so we just hung around the pheasants and peacocks for a bit. But before we got there, I found out that those weird lettuce things that sprouted everywhere are skunk cabbages and they actually smell like skunk if you broke off a leaf and sniffed it (which we did, oops). And that you should probably never eat the root of a Jack-in-the-pulpit because that stuff a) is a little bit toxic and b) burns the hell outta your throat.
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| A Jack-in-the-pulpit I found on Google |
At the aviary, the male peacock was being all look at me and my majestic-as-fuck feathers to us, and not the female peacock, and it was dancing as well, not just showing its plumage. It was quite literally vibrating.
After that I pointed out to Adam where Rosie and I saw the deer over Easter, and we wandered a little bit into the forest behind the Aviary and we spotted two more deer foraging along the branches. He mentioned how he got a deer to eat an apple out of his hand, and I think from now on I'm just going to carry apples with me whenever I go out walking.
We then wandered further off the trail until we saw a paved path below. We were pretty high up on the top of a hillside but we went down anyway. I managed to fall on my ass twice, getting mud all over my pants, raincoat and bag (the bag cleaned up nicely with some alcohol wipes, the pants are currently in the wash, and my jacket has seen better days but it's holding up alright). - MAY 21st UPDATE: Leggings came out nicely from the wash (they're the athletic stretchy type); they are as good as new. Boots have yet to be cleaned, but I'm wearing them in the lab today. Coat also has yet to be cleaned. In retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't decide to wear my maroon pants because cotton and mud = BAD.
That path turned out to be Sassafras Trail, which was named so because of all the sassafras trees lining it. The trees smelled pretty awesome and apparently you can make root beer out of their roots. We saw some trillium. After completing that trail I went full-nerd and talked about Lord of the Rings for a long time, and Adam didn't seem to mind so I just kept going and going and going. Ksenia texted me 11 times (I counted), freaking about about the latest episode of Hannibal.
We also came across a bunch of little kids (what, 10, 11 years old?) training for a triathlon by repeatedly running up and down the hilly path we were chatting on. Eventually it started raining again, and after standing around for another 10 or 15 minutes we headed back.
I gave Adam the card I made when he dropped me off at home (and I sort of ruined his car with the dirt that still caked my ass, oops).
All in all, it was a really good nature walk. It was tons of fun + it's always great to be able to share my enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings and nature without having to dial it down a notch. I mean, I got a little muddier and slightly more soaked than I had anticipated but I'm not complaining.
End of the day wildlife tally:
- 2 deer
- A lot of squirrels
- A few Canada geese
- 2 or 3 swans
- A few goldfinches
- A canoeist
- Birds in cages
So tomorrow, I start using the antithrombin-deficient plasma. So I'd better not fudge things up because the plasma I'm dealing with is expensive. And another HSM prod team + writer's meeting to look forward to.
Until then,
Alice out ~
