Actually, I think I do want some more.

I just finished reading Oliver Twist by what's-his-face and found that I actually really liked it. The last book I read by whoever-it-was was Great Expectations which was not really that great even though I was clearly expecting otherwise. Before that, it was A Tale of Two Cities that immediately made me more suspicious of knitting communities in general. At any rate, I guess that old man really can write and I think my next foray into his serials will be Martin Chuzzlewit because my parents bought me that book for Christmas 9 years ago. I guess I just liked those velvet pants more that year. A mistake to be corrected in short order.

Headed to the Ford of the Ox.

Today I received some excellent news. In short, I've been accepted to present my research at an immunology conference at Oxford. Oxford, Mississippi you ask? I don't think they have sharks coming out of buildings in the South my friends. No, those visual delights can only be beheld in merry old England. Wowzahs. I'm so excited. The trip is in August for six days. I hope to meet with some PIs that I'd like to do post-doctoral work with but at the very least, it's a week vacation across the pond. Not a lot of things work out in my life without a whole lot of effort but I'm just thrilled that every once in a while, something like this happens.

No phantom, but it was still phantastic!

Tonight Whitney and I went to see "I Puritani". It's the opera of a guy and girl from opposite sides of a civil war. In short, "I will die of love" then more singing. So, it was good . . . three and a half hours of it. Next on the list for me is "The Flying Dutchman" which is opera + pirates. Can't go wrong there! Oh, the picture above is the guy and the girl. I've never seen a guy wearing more mascara and blush than this dude(tte). It's clear that in their relationship, neither one wears the pants.

Ooh, too perfect.

Oh my. I think you can sum up this past month by this comic as well. Except delete the last panel. I'm trying to think of other life situations that this would apply to but can't think of any. If you want to make a great lemon penne with garlic . . . pretty sure you're not going to spend five years thinking about, obsessing over it, re-trying it day in and day out, waking up in the morning praying that this is the day that you can get that pasta boiled (not even al dente . . . just boiled at all). Or admittedly, to be even more accurate, hoping that you can even find the pasta. I think this is what we affectionately call "an opportunity for growth".

My life's ambition.

So today the boss dropped by and pointed out that if I just finish part II of my thesis and skip part III, I can graduate anyway. This is, of course, fantastic news . . . but also odd. Ahh, I had such grand visions when I started down this road. The sketch below explains it all. Sorry Jonny, no new shoes and Steve, no helicopter flight in Manhattan (presents that friends wanted when I pocketed the $1.3 million that comes with a Nobel). But, maybe I can earn enough to buy a ranch in Montana and spend my weekends building bigger and bigger landscapes and waterfalls on the back 40. Well, that might be a little more ambitious than pepperoni pizza at happy hour, but a girl's gotta dream.

Double Feature, part three!

If you've never done a double feature at the movie theatre (beyond the sweet deals of $4 for 2 movies at a drive-in) then I highly recommend it. But, you have to be careful in the pairing. Two rough and tumble movies will likely make you bored during the second (blah, blah, explosion, blah, blah, car). But two sappy romantics in a row will likely make all but those with the strongest constitution roll their eyes/throw up. Whitney and I learned the second lesson the hard way. We saw two romantics back-to-back several years ago. Yawn-fest! So, for round two, we went with Bourne Ultimatum and Becoming Jane. Wow. They couldn't be more different and that's where we hit on the secret recipe to an phenomenal night. Main dish: action-adventure; dessert: romantic comedy. Last night's pairing was Iron Man and Made of Honor. I'm not going to comment on the second. It was HORRIBLE. But the first was exactly what a comic book movie should be. Fast cars? Check. Explosions? Check. Flying suit powered by an arc-reactor imbedded in the hero's chest? Check.

Ahh, it's been a great four months.

I just looked back at my New Year's Resolutions. I have to admit that I'm a bit behind on my goals regarding how research was going. Anyway, it was good to have a goal. I'll still work for that. As Albert Einstein said, "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be callled research". And that's true. We have a good idea of things to try, things to work out, things to cross of the list, and sometimes, something little can end up working. Sometimes, we inch forward. Most of the time, we angstrom forward. But look at AE over there. He would have fit right in in Seattle. What with the hair, the eco-friendly threads, and the minimal carbon footprint of his transport, we would have loved him. At any rate. I've achieved the other New Year's goals like an ace. Like . . . have fun skiing in Colorado, have fun flying around in a float plane in Seattle, and have fun in the desert relaxing by the pool. It's important to have goals to work towards.