Summer So Far

What a summer it has been. It's hard to know where to start, seeing as so much has happened in the last few weeks. I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I got back in town shortly after my last post here. I soon started my job over in the Vet School. I never thought I'd be feeding cats during my time as a Biochem undergrad :) I work on two projects related to oxidative stress. In one, we're feeding obese cats one of two specially-formulated diets designed to help them lose weight. We're studying the level of DNA damage in these animals as they lose weight. Interesting results, so look for the publication in the near future ;)

The other project I work on is using antioxidants to kill cancer. The long and short of it - everyone should drink pomegranate juice. We're killing cells in vitro with the stuff. No solid data yet, but today I think I solved a pH-buffering problem we've been having and we might be able to start dosing cells next week. We're aiming to figure out how antioxidants in pomegranate juice kill breast cancer cells, either estrogen-sensitive or estrogen-insensitive. The estrogen-insensitive cells are of greater interest because the prognosis for women with this form of cancer is very poor.

Drink a glass of pomegranate juice a day. Our preliminary results are promising, but like I said, we've got a ways to go.

The symposium is just less than four weeks away. It will be my first formal presentation of my work. I've already started writing the paper and I began the PowerPoint today. Overachiever, I know. But I'm bound and determined to do a quality job.

Enough about work.

Raz moved out last weekend, which made me quite sad. At least he's got a great job in Richmond, which is relatively close to the 'Burg. Come back and visit us, buddy, we miss ya.

The summer has been phenomenal in large part due to one person. Yea, you guessed it. It's Kelly. We get to spend a lot of time together. We've developed such a great relationship, and I look forward to each day. Things could not be better. We can always find something to do or talk about. It's great. Unfortunately for me, she's home this weekend for her sister's baby shower :(

I miss you, kiddo.

Two weeks ago we went up to my hometown and saw the Dave Matthews Band live. It was a great show. Three drawbacks:

1. It poured and we had lawn seats.
2. Idiots started sliding face-first down the hill, creating a mudslide, crashing into people and spraying mud everywhere.
3. Apparently everyone in the world is a chain-smoker. Even I got a headache from it, and Kelly is allergic. So you can imagine her discomfort.

Nonetheless, we spent some quality time over that weekend, and saw an amazing live band. Definitely gonna get real seats next time to shield us from the rain and the smokers. Haha you suckers, smoking isn't allowed in the reserved seating section! Three days later, I downloaded the BitTorrent containing the show, recorded live. It's all I've been listening to on my iPod lately (not entirely, but pretty much).

We've spent a good amount of time hanging out with good friends, especially Will and Shivan. It's fun to watch them fight over which of them is Laura's favorite. We kinda miss Laura. A lot.

Joci needs to stop stalking us. She's everywhere that we are!

The Fourth of July was fun. Cooking out with friends and seeing good fireworks are always good things to do. And we did them. And it was good.

I don't know what else there is going on. I'm really tired because today was a long day. I'm also not looking forward to getting up early all weekend to feed the cats. I've been doing that almost every day of the summer. I've had four days off since May 24. And let me tell ya, it takes a toll...

Until the next entry, dear reader.