Found it!

Found my iPod this morning!!  I thought I lost it in the move, but today it just appeared from under the passenger side seat, where I had already looked a few times.  Super excited about it, because the CD is broken, and listening to radio in the car is just the worst!  Now I just need to find my remote shutter trigger....  

 Rocking on Avail, all the time at home, now all the time in the car, too.  Makes me think of Roy and Bookit.  "To leave I would be crazy."

Fall Effect

A cool 16-mile cruise on Ex-Girlfriend today.  Severe headwinds, crosswinds, and tail winds, but this booty isn't going to stay tight on its own!  Fall colors on full blast on the floodplain.

Baby Bro turns 24

Scott-bot is 24.  I can't believe he has made it this far, still hooked on the smack going on seven years now.  Tonight he wanted to eat his birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  My mom and dad sat across from us and took this picture, which when then sent to my sister in Florida.

Ironically, today is world vegan day, as well as my anniversary.  Texas Roadhouse did have complimentary peanuts and cold beer, but I had the foresight to eat dinner at home :)

No problem, I mostly wanted to see my baby bro!  Happy Birthday!  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

I'll have the usual

Woke up this morning to full blown S.A.D.  I don't even know how I made it out of the house and through the day.  This is the first year I'm not going to Florida this weekend in...six years.  And that's okay with me.  But I do want to some warm temps and bright sunshine!  I don't think I'm going to make it.  I applied for some seasonal/holiday help jobs at the mall.  If I don't get hired, I'm going to Southern California as soon as school is out!!  Plus, I really want to see Jew-ISH Adonis.

Productive Friday

Productive Friday off work.

I left the house around 10am because I wanted to make sure to get the cakes to mail to Colin.  That was my first stop.  The bakery was charming, the owner was kind and helpful, and the cakes were all cleverly named.  I ended up purchasing an original gooey buttercake and a devil's food gooey buttercake.  Some of the other flavors to choose included "turtle park" which I debated choosing instead of devil's food, "let's go blueberries," "HWY 40: still driving me nuts," and "chocolate chippewa."  I noticed there were a few seasonal ones to choose including pumpkin, but that one was already sold out, and an amaretto one, which I thought about purchasing as well, but I thought that one would be a better choice closer to Christmas.

I went to the UPS store to mail the cakes (I first went to post office, and the clerk laughed at me when I asked if there were stickers for "this side up" and she told me that the box/cakes would just get thrown around). 

I went to the library and returned a book and checked out a new one.

I went to the Galleria with every intention of applying for a job at LUSH, but I just bought two sweaters and a slutty party dress at Express instead.  Oh, and some croakies since my glasses have been falling off my nose when I exercise.

I went to FPCC and got the run around again.  They did not receive my fax from Monday even though I had a confirmation report.  So I filled out another transcript evaluation form and handed it to a woman at the desk.  She told me it would take two weeks.  I am still sorta on the fence about the pathology assistant program at RFUSM and am gathering info, but honestly, doing that instead of having to deal with the red tape at STLCC would add to the appeal.

These bacteria sure can party!!

Received my unknown specimen for the lab final last week.  Streaked for isolation, including one on EMB agar and one on an MSA.

And tonight, when I pulled my plates out of the incubator....I said, "HECK YES!!!"  Because I knew exactly what I had.  It is beautiful!!

This is Escherichia coli,  a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium that will grown metallic green colonies on eosin-methylene blue agar.

My other unknown, I suspect is either Staphylococcus aureus or Enterococcus faecalis. The second specimen is definitely gram-positive and coccus from the results of the Gram-Stain I did on it tonight and then viewed under the scope.  Both speices, will ferment MSA, as evidence in this photo of the colony I streaked for isolation on a MSA plate.  The species on this plate is incredibly pungent.  Like gym socks.  So my guess is it's the S. aureus, but that will not be confirmed until I run additional tests next week.

I LOVE MICRO!! :)

Undefined

Last patient of the day today was in for a one-year follow-up.  Since we saw her last year, she had been diagnosed with ALS.  And seeing her today really affected me.  I got a little teary at one point.  When she had come in for previous appointments, she was actually somewhat of a pain, but seeing her today, my heart was just crushed!

She is only 58 and was already using a walker.  And her hair was stark white as opposed to the usually dark brown.

Maybe it was something about her that also reminds me of my mom a little bit, but my heart went out to her.  Usually an ALS diagnosis comes with a life-expectancy of two to five more years.  She told us it is progressing pretty quickly.  She did seem calm/accepting of it for what it is.  It was just really sad, and I've been thinking about it all evening.