Press 'n' Seal for the lab

Press 'n' Seal is like the parafilm of the kitchen, only BETTER!! I love this stuff. Anyone use it in lab yet?

What would be your last meal?

That's what N.A. asked me on a recent car ride.

For once, I was speechless.

I couldn't come up with a favorite entree. For a starter, I like a garden salad with thicky, chunky blue cheese dressing or perhaps a good caesar salad. Dessert is going to be either some marble chocolate cake or cannolis. Are there cake-cannolo combos? 'Cause that would be my pick.

When it comes to main dishes, however, I remain stumped. I have foods that I like, but I couldn't come up with anything that I would consider worthy of a final meal.

Have I lost my zest for life? Has my unrefined palate finally caught up to me? Are my senses dulled by too many "dinners" of chocolate and crackers?

Happy housewife?

This post over at it's probably me got me thinking about cleaning.

I am pretty much the worst faux housewife ever. (faux because 1. I am not yet married and 2. I don't yet live in a house)

Don't believe me? Consider the following:

1. If left to my own devices (i.e., living alone), I typically ignore the dishes as long as possible. I rinse them off, of course, because although I might be a bad faux housewife, I am not disgusting.

2. I never vacuum. I am really, really allergic/sensitive to dust, so vacuuming, even with our "awesome for allergy sufferers, promise!" vacuum is borderline torture, post-sucking. And yeah, the "never" is a bit of an exaggeration. I typically use the dustbuster every few days under our kitchen table, since it is on carpet, the horror. I also actually vacuum about every two weeks. (So yes, for those of you keeping track at home, I am not only a bad faux housewife, but I am also a liar.)

3. I never dust. See above. Okay, so I dust when people are coming over, but otherwise, let the dust bunnies/tumbleweeds/monsters take over!!

4. I don't cook. I will leave the title of Delicious Dessert Diva to Julie.

And just to prove I am, like, the suckiest faux housewife ever: I can't even think of any more of my terrible housewife traits! I guess I should get back to doing what I do best: reading the Internets while eating bon-bons, while I let the dust monsters accumulate and the dishes stack up.

Early bird gets the worm? Please.

I am *not* a morning person. Without an alarm or obligations, I am happiest if I sleep from 2 am until 11 am.

This morning I had to be in my office by 7 am. I haven't been to work that early since grad school. Now that I'm a (not-so)big time professor, I just try to be in by 8:45 am.

Even as a grad student, by the time I was past my preliminary exam, I rarely was in to work before 8 am. Back when I was still in classes, I was *always* at work by 7:30 am, but that was purely out of necessity. How else was I going to get a new research project going, teach two classes, AND get my homework done?? Looking back, I think it is nothing short of a miracle that I didn't have a nervous breakdown after three months of that, let alone 1.5 years. I suppose I was fresh enough out of undergrad that 4 hours of sleep a night was still doable.

Now I need at least 5.5 hours in order to be effective in the classroom. Seven feels heavenly. Nine hours of sleep makes me feel blissful enough to cook for N.A. (okay, not really... but it does make me feel pretty damn good).


If N.A. happens to read this, I suspect he will be pushing the tylenol pm or ambien on me in order to have a chance at a proper meal. Ha. I've been here in TempVillage for almost three months. In that time, I've used the stove twice (both times when N.A. was in town) but have yet to open the oven.

To get me cooking is going to require a LOT more than nine hours of sleep!

Stranger in a strange land

My mom came to LargeUtown to stay with me during Thankgiving. This gave her an opportunity to tackle one of my biggest flaws (in her eyes): that I'm not a cook.

Sure, I may be a whiz in the lab, but when it comes to the kitchen, I literally don't know how to properly chop an onion.

As we prepped the turkey (ew! ew! Are you all aware that you have to pull the NECK out? SICK!), we talked about a recent techie conference she attended. One of the speakers discussed the differences between younger and older generations in terms of their digital technological savviness and how one must take different approaches to educating the younger generation. This latest generation of students are so-called "digital natives," while others are known as "digital immigrants." For example, current college students grew up with cell phones and the internet. I'm just on the bridge between the two, so while I might say "I'll call your cell phone," a digital native (like my youngest brother) would say "I'll call your phone"--he was too young to remember when we had a landline in my house!

In the midst of our discussions, my mom kept asking if I had various cooking items, such as a meat thermometer (um, no), timer (doesn't the microwave count?), or a knife sharpener (I thought only hunters used those!). She patiently made do without until she asked me to hand her some flour.

"Um, yeah, Mom? I don't have flour."

"You don't have flour?! Who doesn't have flour??!"

Embarrassed, all I could stammer out as an excuse was "Mom! I'm a kitchen immigrant!"


She found this amusing, and I was off the hook (okay, I still had to get my coat to go out for flour, but at least I didn't get any more grief from her!).


Are you a digital native or immigrant? And do you think scientists should be naturally good cooks? Many, many people tell me "oh, you just have to follow protocols, you should be good at it"..... but maybe cooking just feels too much like work, so I avoid it at home? c