Conferences

This was a semester of conferences. My first one was in October. It was the Biomedical Engineering Society meeting in Hartford, CT, where I presented a poster on the HealthWorks! exhibit. The second conference was the American Heart Association scientific sessions in Orlando, FL. The conference had about 22,000 attendees with a rather large career fair featuring all the major drug companies. Their booths were extremely posh and most featured catering with everything from smoothies to fresh baked cobbler. The best part about the conference was our dinner at The Oceanaire where I had a wonderful swordfish steak.

Two days after getting back from the AHA conference, I was off the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Baltimore, MD, where I gave my first conference presentation. The conference proved to be interesting and useful. I met a girl from Canada who was working to build a flow loop similar to mine and she had been struggling with some of the same issues as myself, which made me feel better since I wasn't alone. I also had a really great dinner with two of Dr. Paolucci's Italian students, two of their Italian professor friends, and a recently graduated student of Dr. Powers at Luna del Sea.

While going to conference was fun and really good for my sky miles account, I hope never to do 3 in the same semester again.

2 AM Ideas: Homebrewing

When I was back in middle school, my father received a gift of a home brew kit where you would let your let your beer ferment in a big bag. At the end of the fermentation time, you would drink the beer using the spigot at the bottom of the bag. I don't remember anything about prepping the mash. The only thing I remember was the bag being placed in our downstairs bathroom so it wouldn't be disturbed and then watching it slowing inflate. The beer was disgusting (and not just to my ~12 year old palate) and my dad dumped in over the edge of the porch, which killed the grass in our backyard. I am now 25 and, while I do enjoy alcoholic beverages, I have never been much of a beer drinker. I prefer the fruity and sweet drinks more. However, I do like hard cider and other fruit beers.

So when I couldn't sleep last night, I got on the computer and started pursuing my favorite website, ThinkGeek. One of the products I have been eying for awhile is the DIY Juice to Alcohol Kit. The idea of turning my favorite juices into spiked drinks seemed quite fascinating and easy. Then, I remembered hearing a bunch of my friends from TU talk about enjoying the home brewing process and thought that maybe I would enjoy beer more if I was able to craft it to my likes (which would probably have most beer connoisseurs turning their noses up). After looking at a couple other sites I frequent which have wine and beer making kits, I decided that I wanted to give hard cider making a shot. I am an impatient person (I know, not a good quality in a brewer), so I searched for a local store where I could purchase the necessary equipment rather than wait 3 days for Amazon. Luckily, I found the Quality Wine and Ale Supply in Elkhart, IN. The store was small, but well stocked. The staff were really friendly and helpful. I really appreciated that they did not sell me more than I needed. I had originally walked in and asked about the wine kits, which were about $80, but after I told them my plans, they suggested the $45 kit. They also didn't try to sell me bottles and just said that I should wait until I know if my cider worked or not. When I mentioned my friends did their own brewing, they took me back into the stock room to show me all of the brews and wines they had going.

So, today I started my cider. The clerks at the store gave me three different yeasts to try (one for each gallon I was making). I can't wait to hear the popping of the gases escaping through the airlock. I am sure there will be many more updates to come.

Happy Birthday!

Sunday was my birthday and it was really good, because I did not spend it in the lab. And, yes, there was a possibility of that happening. The Wednesday before my birthday, I was going over the data I had spent the last 5 weeks collecting, only to discover that it was mostly trash, which meant I had two weeks to try to get data for my conference presentation. My goal was to complete four valves, which really means 8 different configurations and each configuration had 6 different experimental conditions to be tested. I had the additional constraint that, due to a home game, I would not be able to come in on Saturday if I was unable to finish before the weekend. I ended up in the lab until 10:30 pm Thursday collecting data. I came in by 8:30 am on Friday carrying breakfast to start readings. I spend the rest of the day in the lab getting data. I hit a snag around 7 pm when the battery that runs my pump died and I had to wait for Michael to finish Taekwondo before I could go to the store.

I have a rule: I don't like to eat more than one meal on campus a day in order to maintain my sanity. On Friday, I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the lab. And, yes, I was being a bad girl and eating in the lab, but I didn't want to be in the lab on my birthday. After spending the waking hours of two days in the lab, I was exhausted for the entire weekend. Elaine and Alex came over for dinner and games on Saturday to celebrate. On Sunday, I woke up and Michael gave me my birthday presents. The first was beautiful pair of earrings from his Mom and sister. The second was a small Luminglass which I have brought into my office to adorn my desk. The next present was given to me with the instructions not to shake or turn it upside down which made me start to wonder if he had given me an Etch-A-Sketch. However, it was one dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Apparently the one of the presents he had planned hadn't been put in the box before it was shipped from the warehouse.

I didn't find out until today what the final gift was. When I came home, there was a pillow shaped package at my door. I thought I knew what he got me, since one of the items on my ThinkGeek wishlist was a light up pillow. However, it turned out to be Spock's bathrobe, thus ending my search for a second bathrobe.

Thank you everyone!