Transgenic plants oh yeah!

I have made some beautiful GMOs. Here you see them growing on a medium containing kanamycin, an antibiotic that is killing all the plants except the one nice dark green one. That dark green one can grow in the kanamycin because it has an extra gene, one that I inserted, that lets it neutralize the kanamycin. The kanamycin resistance gene was inserted along with another gene for red fluorescent protein, which I will be able to test for in several generations by using microscopy to see the plants glowing bright red! Rest assured I will post pictures as soon as I have them of glorious bright red plant cells.

One cute baby!

We just had a little photoshoot with the iPad and I figured out how to blog on-the-go. Of course, you have to install the proper app for it. It's funny how the iPad makes all the separate functions of the Internet into their own apps. It's easy to get used to, though!

Oscar's holding his new set of rings! They are already getting well-chewed.

This one is my favorite.

Oscar tries applesauce

That is some sour joots for a little baby.

He's in love with seahorses!

And light houses...



(just a reminder)

he's got skillz

He will jump in this thing for half an hour, sometimes more, as long as he knows we're watching him.

He can hold the bottle all by himself now too! Sometimes he needs a little help. He doesn't prefer to do it by himself yet.

summertime, summertime

Oscar's been going around in just a diaper lately. He's very pleased about this situation, although he would certainly prefer to do away with the diaper too. We put up a lattice on the north side of the patio and I have plans to allow it to be covered with vines. We don't have any vines yet, though. It's getting to be a very nice spot to sit and relax and enjoy the nice weather. However, we have also put up the clothesline pole and clotheslines, just behind the lattice, and since we did that the weather's gotten colder and cloudier. Just thinking about hanging laundry can have a powerful effect on the weather.

Eric has been avoiding taking a picture of me in my new glasses, so this is all I've got for now. I love them! Reading is so easy again! But it is hard not to be able to look up from my reading without getting dizzy because the rest of the world has become fuzzy.

Spaceship Oscar

Oscar's got a brand new toy, yeah. We call it the flying saucer. It comes to us courtesy of Karl, Bouchra, and Marvin, who have to move back to France for a year on June 1.

It seems like it would be terrifyingly overstimulating, but Oscar seems to enjoy it OK. He can jump up and down and cover it with drool, his two main criteria. It can also make horrible musical sounds, but most fortunately, we can turn those off, so all we hear is Oscar saying Mmmmaaa.

In the car today he actually said Mama, very loud and distinct, and immediately went back to moaning. It was both exciting and anticlimactic, since he clearly had no concept of what he was doing. As Piaget says, "for him the world is essentially a thing to be sucked." The world as a thing to be talked to, and to listen to him, won't come until much later.

tradesies

Baby spit is very soothing on a sunburn. Sharp little baby fingernails, not so much.

Garage and Oscar have worked out a deal where Garage gets the lower half of the crib in exchange for keeping Oscar cozy.

Garage has also worked out a deal with Pocky where Pocky gets the lower half of the Eric in exchange for Garage not messing with her chi.

He is a little boy of five!

Months, that is. He is such a happy, chill little dude! On the one hand, we can't wait until he's big; on the other hand, he's awesome just as he is.

What's that? Something's wrong with this picture? Garage doesn't think so!

There he is, the man hisself!

Cue the timpani!

Bum bum bum... Bum Bum Bum... If you can't tell  what's going on that is me trying to type me singing along to this video. I can't help myself!  Oscar shows yet another new skill.  He is a stomping professional now.  He stomps on the floor, the table, my chest and legs, anything he can get his stompin' feet on really.  I believe this video shows of this talent quite nicely. Enjoy!



Also, Rachel posted some nice photos of Oscar on her blog from our photo shoot back in March. Check it out!

Say hello to snake baby.

He has discovered his tongue in a new way and is constantly testing the air with it. He hasn't started hissing, yet, but sometimes he looks a little sneaky. And snakey. Also sometimes he looks like Ross the dog, when Ross is being especially cute.

Ross is making a really cute face at Mark here.

Jake Spoon

Who knew wooden spoons were good cat toys?

Mayday!

This is what greeted us this lovely May morning:

We've been having intermittent power outages and internet disruptions, too. But it's not too cold outside and the roads aren't icy. Everything should start melting tomorrow, so there's no need to shovel!

Spring is no longer in the air.

The trees have started blooming, some of my tulips bloomed yesterday, it's been in the high 70s and 80s.  And yet...tomorrow we have a "winter" storm warning, 6 to 12 inches of snow expected and below-freezing temperatures. Goodbye, fruit! (Although the raspberries aren't anywhere close to blooming, so raspberry jam is still a possibility.)
On the one hand (men), the water is good; on the other hand (de), does it have to come in frozen form?

Today I was a judge at the undergraduate research poster session. I saw posters on algae genetic engineering, EEGs on children, the economics of NHL team fan bases, imitating blood vessels with PVC pipes, and the benefits of migration for mule deer. The conversations were stimulating, everyone was on their best behavior, and the research some students did was at a very high level.

When I left the venue, I was confronted with posters of a different, horrible kind. They were very large and very graphic and very ugly. It was a shocking contrast to the civility of the discourse I had just left! I can't imagine how these posters will enable good conversations. These posters are so rude and disrespectful of the people who have to look at them. It makes me mad every year. There must be some loophole this group is exploiting to allow them to stay on campus all the time, because it makes a lot of people mad!

To end on a good note, I'm teaching my last lab tonight and tomorrow night - next week is their lab final! So spring will eventually arrive, one way or another.

Spring is in the air

Yesterday we went to the grocery store and bought a lot of snack food. We don't usually have any snack foods around, aside from Triscuits, but it was a fine spring day and that seemed to justify it.
When we were checking out the cashier asked "How old is your little helper?" but I assumed he said, "Do you want help out?" so I said "No thanks." Then he said it again, and Eric said, "He's good." Weird, but okay. Then he said it Again!, and we finally understood he what he was asking and replied appropriately.
We were only buying snack food because of the nice weather, it's not our fault we're both deaf.
Here is the little helper in the kitchen:

He hasn't smacked himself in the face with the spoon yet! He smacks his other hand with it, in a very meaningful way.

He is also learning about petting Pocky.