Been a busy weekend here in the SC Lowcountry. We've had a lot of fun with the annual Spoleto Arts Festival here in Charleston, but we started out last Thursday night by attending a non-Spoleto event, a taping of NPR's quiz show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", which was great fun. Friday night we went to see Taylor Mac and his show "Comparison is Violence". Saturday night was "The Red Shoes", a very macabre telling of the Hans Christian Anderson fairly tale. Then yesterday we saw "The History of Charleston for Morons", a Piccolo Fringe Festival offering at Theater 99, the local comedy improv venue. This was the third time I have seen it, and it was just as funny as before. Next up is Thursday night, when we go to see Sarah Jarosz, and young "newgrass" artist who is playing at the College of Charleston. Really looking forward to that!
We just got back from walking the Arthur Ravenel Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ravenel_Jr._Bridge) over the Cooper River from Mount Pleasant to Charleston and back. Had a good walk, though it was pretty hot. Mid 80s before 11am.
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day. It's back to work tomorrow :-(
Monday, May 30, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Busy, busy
Wow... it has been a busy couple of weeks here in the SC Lowcountry. Last week, the National Genealogical Society held its annual meeting here in Charleston... well, actually in North Charleston, which is definitely a different place than Charleston! Anway, I attended the conference and spent a whole week immersed in genealogy. It was great! Got to meet and talk to several of the big movers and shakers in the genealogical world, and I sat in on a whole slew of great lectures about methods and sources and ways to further my family history research. Came home on Saturday evening and jumped right into work. Unfortunately, though, reality set in on Sunday, with home chores to do, and then Monday it was back to work :-p Needless to say, I have not had a spare minute to do much of anything this week. Genealogy research? Nope... no time.
Work has been a bear this week, too. I have spent the week with an ear infection, complete with stopped up ear and excruciating pain. Haven't had one so bad since I was in high school with swimmers ear. And I've spent the week working on samples of human liver. Bossman is putting in a new grant proposal, and he needed work done on liver samples. So this week I have done more immunohistochemistry, looking for aldehydes in sections of liver tissue. And today I took my first stab at running an ELISA assay (ELISA = Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). I think it worked, but I didn't have time this evening to plot out the results. Gotta wait til tomorrow on that.
So, wow... I'm actually becoming a cell biologist in my old age!
Just finished watching the season finale of "The Big Bang Theory". Nerds watching nerds acting nerdy.... go figger....
Have a good one!
Work has been a bear this week, too. I have spent the week with an ear infection, complete with stopped up ear and excruciating pain. Haven't had one so bad since I was in high school with swimmers ear. And I've spent the week working on samples of human liver. Bossman is putting in a new grant proposal, and he needed work done on liver samples. So this week I have done more immunohistochemistry, looking for aldehydes in sections of liver tissue. And today I took my first stab at running an ELISA assay (ELISA = Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). I think it worked, but I didn't have time this evening to plot out the results. Gotta wait til tomorrow on that.
So, wow... I'm actually becoming a cell biologist in my old age!
Just finished watching the season finale of "The Big Bang Theory". Nerds watching nerds acting nerdy.... go figger....
Have a good one!
Monday, May 9, 2011
One of my passions
I guess the best way to kick this thing off is by starting to expand on the initial post of a couple minutes ago. I am an avid family historian. I haven't had a chance to do a lot of research in the past few years, for a bunch of reasons, but I still try to keep my finger in the ol' genealogy pie. For about 20 years now, I've been the list admin for the Lovelace listserv hosted by Rootsweb, and I have watched as this great group of people have tirelessly unraveled the tangles in the limbs of at least 4 genetically different Lovelace and Loveless families in the US, dating from colonial times to present day. I used to write a daily morning message to the list, but time has been at a premium for several years now, and I only post these chatty messages once in a while. One of my listers told me I was one of the original bloggers, since those daily notes were like a blog before blogging became so popular.
So here's a note I sent out to the list just this morning, and it might give you an insight into some of the things happening in my life.
Hi, cuzzins!
Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you had a great Mother's
Day weekend. I started off yesterday by cooking a big pancake breakfast
for my wife and my mother-in-law, then calling my Mom to talk to her for
a bit. Then I helped the girls get their surprises together... a trip
to Earth Fare to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and then a
20-mile drive to Kiawah Island, where we had hoped to get into the
county park and picnic on the beach at Kiawah, which is a gorgeous
undeveloped beachfront mostly reserved for the rich folk. But
Charleston County has a lease on a strip of it, and has a great county
park. Unfortunately for us yesterday, the park was full when we arrived
(then one car out and one car in), and the line was so long that we
opted to turn around and go picnic at a spot by the river. Turned out
to be a great place to lunch, and a great time was had by all.
Weather here in the SC Lowcountry has settled into summertime here in
early May. Humidity is up, and rainfall is down. We're set for the
mid-80s today, and a slight chance of showers through the whole week.
The azaleas have returned to their flower-less state, but they were
beautiful while they lasted. Garden is going full-blast, with peas,
carrots, leeks, lettuces, radishes, and beets. We're counting the days
to our hearing with the zoning board for a variance to allow my
mother-in-law to build a small house on the back part of our yard.
She's been living here with us and with both daughters, and I think
she's starting to go crazy without her own little place. So keep yyour
fingers crossed for us. The hearing is Thursday night.
And I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week. The National
Genealogical Society meeting is here, finally! I have a pre-conference
workshop tomorrow, with two sessions. The first deals with legal
research for genealogists, and deals with interpretation of the
real-life circumstances surrounding the creation of legal documents and
the reasons for their creation, as well as methods for locating the
documents needed in genealogical research. The second session deals
with more in-depth study of documents and how to discover and glean all
the genealogical info from them. Both sessions will offer hands-on
exercises with actual documents, and I think it's going to be a blast!
Then on Wednesday the lectures start, with nine different tracks ranging
from geeky GenTech stuff Immigration and Migration. I'm mostly
attending the Skill Building and Methodolgy & Research sessions. I want
to really get a handle on what it takes to become a professional at this
stuff we so dearly love. So it's going to be a week packed with fun
lectures!
BTW... wife Susan had knee surgery last Thursday morning.... She went
on a ski trip with her mother and sister last February and fell on one
of the runs. Turns out she tore the meniscus in her left knee, which
was revealed week before last by an MRI. So she had arthroscopic
surgery Thursday, and things seem to have worked out really well. She
returned to work today and is taking it easy, but the knee appears to be
healing very well, and she is able to put increasing weight on it
without using a crutch. Can't keep that woman down for long!
So I'll be thinking of everyone as I sit in on the lectures this week
and stroll through the exhibit hall. I know that Bob Velke, the CEO of
Wholly Genes, makers of The Master Genealogist, will be there, and I
hope to get to meet and chat with him at some point. Plus I'm sure
there will be a lot of stuff to look at there, too. Gonna be a blast!
Y'all have a good one :-)
So here's a note I sent out to the list just this morning, and it might give you an insight into some of the things happening in my life.
Hi, cuzzins!
Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you had a great Mother's
Day weekend. I started off yesterday by cooking a big pancake breakfast
for my wife and my mother-in-law, then calling my Mom to talk to her for
a bit. Then I helped the girls get their surprises together... a trip
to Earth Fare to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and then a
20-mile drive to Kiawah Island, where we had hoped to get into the
county park and picnic on the beach at Kiawah, which is a gorgeous
undeveloped beachfront mostly reserved for the rich folk. But
Charleston County has a lease on a strip of it, and has a great county
park. Unfortunately for us yesterday, the park was full when we arrived
(then one car out and one car in), and the line was so long that we
opted to turn around and go picnic at a spot by the river. Turned out
to be a great place to lunch, and a great time was had by all.
Weather here in the SC Lowcountry has settled into summertime here in
early May. Humidity is up, and rainfall is down. We're set for the
mid-80s today, and a slight chance of showers through the whole week.
The azaleas have returned to their flower-less state, but they were
beautiful while they lasted. Garden is going full-blast, with peas,
carrots, leeks, lettuces, radishes, and beets. We're counting the days
to our hearing with the zoning board for a variance to allow my
mother-in-law to build a small house on the back part of our yard.
She's been living here with us and with both daughters, and I think
she's starting to go crazy without her own little place. So keep yyour
fingers crossed for us. The hearing is Thursday night.
And I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week. The National
Genealogical Society meeting is here, finally! I have a pre-conference
workshop tomorrow, with two sessions. The first deals with legal
research for genealogists, and deals with interpretation of the
real-life circumstances surrounding the creation of legal documents and
the reasons for their creation, as well as methods for locating the
documents needed in genealogical research. The second session deals
with more in-depth study of documents and how to discover and glean all
the genealogical info from them. Both sessions will offer hands-on
exercises with actual documents, and I think it's going to be a blast!
Then on Wednesday the lectures start, with nine different tracks ranging
from geeky GenTech stuff Immigration and Migration. I'm mostly
attending the Skill Building and Methodolgy & Research sessions. I want
to really get a handle on what it takes to become a professional at this
stuff we so dearly love. So it's going to be a week packed with fun
lectures!
BTW... wife Susan had knee surgery last Thursday morning.... She went
on a ski trip with her mother and sister last February and fell on one
of the runs. Turns out she tore the meniscus in her left knee, which
was revealed week before last by an MRI. So she had arthroscopic
surgery Thursday, and things seem to have worked out really well. She
returned to work today and is taking it easy, but the knee appears to be
healing very well, and she is able to put increasing weight on it
without using a crutch. Can't keep that woman down for long!
So I'll be thinking of everyone as I sit in on the lectures this week
and stroll through the exhibit hall. I know that Bob Velke, the CEO of
Wholly Genes, makers of The Master Genealogist, will be there, and I
hope to get to meet and chat with him at some point. Plus I'm sure
there will be a lot of stuff to look at there, too. Gonna be a blast!
Y'all have a good one :-)
Introduction of sorts
OK... So this is a brand new step for me. The question is a valid one, though, at this point in my life. I'm going to try to share my musings as an ex-wannabe-professional musician, a retired-but-not-really retired-'cause-I-hafta-keep-working scientist, and an amateur family historian and wannabe-professional genealogist. All in the context of being a family man in the early 21st century. So stay tuned. Could be good, could be not so good...but time will tell.
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