Happy Fourth and Such

Hope everyone had a good Fourth of July. We went to the Transformers movie- it's a good brainless action movie that's enjoyable to nostalgic cartoon and toy fans. We still can't figure out why the Decepticons turn into cool useful military objects like F-16's, tanks, and black hawks while the good guys are objects like sports cars and diesels. Oh well. We had a barbecue with three other couples and enjoyed the night stuffing ourselves and talking. None of us felt like chipping in money to buy personal fireworks, even though you can have all the fun kinds here in Indiana. In fact, the laws here are so loose, that you can buy and use fireworks all year round. And it certainly seems like people around here intend to do just that. At least a month before the Fourth, the fireworks began and are still going on every night. The Fourth was crazy here. It felt and sounded like we were in a war zone. The percussions and sounds of the personal fireworks were strong enough to rattle your bones and light up the sky. The light from the fireworks weren't even dimmed by the thick layer of smoke that filled the street and lasted for two days. It was quite the experience for a girl used to desert bans on fireworks where sparklers were even considered a hazard. All in all, it was a good holiday although I still had to work.

I've been working 6-7 days a week now. My lab work is starting to really heat up and requires me to spend more time there. Growing malaria parasites is a lot like having another pet that you have to feed and check up on daily. It could be worse- our lab tech came in to work on the Fourth too. She only stayed for a few minutes before leaving because she wasn't feeling well. Well, she was nine months pregnant and ended up having the baby at 11:56 pm that day! She's quite the workaholic. She sent out an e-mail from her hospital room at 11:30 pm as the doctor was trying to take her to the delivery room. She kept telling him to wait while she finished the e-mail. Both mom and baby are doing great.

I spent last Tuesday through Friday in Bloomington, IN for some meetings. It was a lot of sitting and listening- 18 hours of it! I must be getting older because half way through the meetings my lower back started to really cramp up, and I had a hard time getting up and down. The meetings were alright, and I had a great time with my labmates. I missed Kevin and Riley, but both seemed fine when I got back. Kevin had taught Riley to shake hands and crawl in the four days I was gone!

Riley is as cute as ever. He's big and can now outrun us both. He's getting a little more headstrong but is still a good dog. He's lost most of his baby teeth. Just a few more to go. More later!