The Explorium

Saturday morning, J and I headed downtown to the Explorium for 2 solid hours of volunteering. After spending an awkward 15 min standing around and staring at each other, some kids showed up, and from there on out, things seemed to go well.

Jason colored with the kids. I ran around giving everyone the Stroop Test (basically, it's a test of attention). We had slightly different approaches to teaching. For example:

kid: I like coloring.
Jason: That's because your brain releases dopamine when you color.


kid: I know that your brain makes you smart.
Jen: That's right! Do you know what kinds of things you should do to keep your brain smart? One thing you can do is eat your fruit and vegetables.
kid: I like carrots. And broccoli.


Excellent. Even though the kid Jason was coloring with was a few years older, I am fairly certain that the dopamine comment was lost on her. It's good to keep it simple.

J's recently been impersonating a med student that we volunteered with, and it's pretty hillarious. At the organizational meeting, this guy made sure to inform everyone that he had gotten his fellow med students to volunteer so that they could test reflexes (by the way, reflexes don't require your brain, just your spinal cord), and he went on and on about it to the point where we were all clear about how much better he was than the rest of us because he was a med student. Also, he sat and typed on his computer through the rest of the meeting, and at one point made the speaker repeat information because he was typing - but he continued to type while the speaker repeated the information. (FYI: this type of behavior makes me lose confidence in and respect for doctors). Anyways, we're at the event on Saturday, and the guy can't even get people's reflexes to work - all that bragging for nothing! Think it's karma?

(which makes me wonder what's coming our way for making fun of the guy)

Afterwards, we ate at Brooklyn Pizza, and it was delicious. Both the Explorium and Brooklyn Pizza are housed in Victorian Square, which is a pretty cool little mall housed in historic buildings in downtown Lexington. I am certain we'll be back for more.

Science is Silly

We've been having one of THOSE weeks... Without going into too much detail, we'll just say that it's been a pretty long week in the lab. Fortunately, we can take it easy tomorrow (I plan to work 9-12), we only have to go in for about 10 min on Saturday and Sunday, and Monday we'll be at a conference all day (I have to give a 10-min talk, but can relax the rest of the day).

The comedic relief this week has been pretty good, however. For example:

(walking to work this morning)
Jen: Ohh, it's a little cold out here. I'm going to put my hat on. Aren't you going to put your hat on?
J: No.
Jen: What? Why? Aren't you cold?
J: I have to look good for my presentation this afternoon. I don't want to wreck my hair. Because when I look good, my data looks even better.

(yesterday, at the lab bench)
Josh (our coworker): Are you sure you should heat and stir that with the top on?
Jen: Sure, last time we heated and stirred this, we had the top on and it was fine.
(30 sec later)
Bottle: Explodes, spilling about $100 worth of antidepressant everywhere.
(that one was not quite as funny as it was ridiculous, and a little sad - especially since I occasionally claim to have been a chemistry major in college)




Tuesday, we went to an organizational meeting for an event that we're volunteering for this weekend. This is the first time that this particular group has planned an event like this, and I think they may have been overestimating the amount of things that 2-10 year olds already know about the brain. For example, check out the puzzles below - who knows what these pictures are referring to (much less the function of the word in question)? Am I underestimating the abilities of kids? I just don't remember learning ANYTHING about the brain when I was a kid (although, given the incident above, I don't remember much from college either).



(PS if you ever need a good neuroscience resource for kids - or adults - Neuroscience for Kids is super-awesome).

Naming Fiasco

Recently, our friend Dan pointed out that Karl is actually a girl. Oops. We've tried Karl-y and Karl-a, but they just don't seem to click as well as Karl. I think we're probably going to keep referring to the snake as "Karl" and use the appropriate male pronouns.

We fed Karl yesterday, and boy was he hungry! We drove the 7 miles to Nicholasville (subarb of Lexington) to get a "pinkie" (because it didn't have hair yet) mouse, and when we got back, J waved it in front of Karl and he snatched it up. I think J is going to handle Karl in the next few days in order to get him used to people. I'm assuming that (at least) Trevor will want to touch him the next time he comes to visit, and I don't want Karl biting our guests.

I sometimes think we should try to train Karl to do other tricks, seeing as we are animal behaviorists. I think Karl's behavioral repetoire may be limited, being that he doesn't have any appendages. And I don't quite know what we'd use to reinforce his behavior, since he only needs to eat once every 7-10 days and hasn't proven to respond well to touch/petting (like your dog would, for example). Maybe someday we'll get a dog and we can teach him all sorts of circus tricks.

Other than that, still not too much going on here. I started a second experiment last week, and it requires me to be at work by 6:30 a.m. That means that I am usually tired and boring (J asks if that is a change from normal). On the other hand, I am getting a lot of work done, which is great since I am still finishing up some papers from Minnesota.

We did actually go out last weekend to eat at The Pub. The Pub is supposed to be a knock-off of British Pubs, but it is seriously Americanized. The prices are a little high - in England, we ate pub food when we wanted something cheap. The beer prices are ridiculous for Lexington - $5+ for a beer, when other restaurants/bars we've been to have been selling beer for $2-3. Certainly beer should be cheap in a British Pub. Also, the atmosphere is a little off, and the place was insanely crowded (~2 hour wait at 5:45 on a snowy Saturday). Getting past all that, though, the deep fried pickles (I LOVE pickles) and fish and chips were delicious, and it's always great to get out - especially since Josh's wife, Kim, came along. This officially made me not the only girl hanging out in a group of guys, which is typically the scenario here.

Curtains and Other New Additions

The dining room curtains are finished! Yes! Here are some pics:

Dining room curtains open.

Dining room curtains closed.
(the seam at the bottom is not quite as noticable in person... I think the lighting and camera are playing tricks with us.)

So this works, no? I think it will keep a little of the cold out - and boy has it been cold here recently. We've been walking to work in 8 degree weather (Minnesota weather, if you will). However, the Kentuckians are not quite as used to this weather - schools were cancelled today for the 4th day in a row, since we got 1/2" of snow last night. 1/2". Seriously. Is this why Kentucky's education rates are some of the lowest in the US? Because they never go to school?

Anyways, in the midst of last night's "blizzard", we managed to hang up a new shelf and put some things on it. I'm particularly excited about the metal star, as I have been eyeing them up for months and only recently allowed myself to purchase one. The picture is actually a photo of the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We like it because it reminds us of our Minneapolis roots. And because it reminds us that we can eventually move back (or at least, we're crossing our fingers that it will become a possibility at some point).

The new shelf above the TV, complete with metal star and cherry on a spoon picture.

The Entire State is Closed Today

Look what I woke up to this morning - a light dusting of snow in the backyard!

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of joining our friends Josh and Kim and their little Reese on a trip to the Newport Aquarium. It was a pretty great aquarium, and highlights included shiny fish, glow-in-the-dark fish, and a shark-ray mix named Sweet Pea. Lowlights included the family who named their children after disney characters (i.e., Ariel, Belle) and ran around the aquarium yelling things like, "If you don't behave, I'm going to tie you up" (I'm assuming they meant with one of those kid leashes) and, "I'm going to take you out to the car and spank you". Now, I'm completely aware that kids don't always listen... but I can't imagine that yelling idle threats in the middle of an aquarium really solves the problem. The kids, who looked to be between 2 and 4, were just really excited, running from one exhibit to the other. And while they may have run up in front of other people watching the fish, I think the parents running around screaming were much more disruptive.

Anyways, back to the fishes. Here's some photos.

Jason points out a shark.

The shark is bigger than me!

Jason petting a baby sting ray.

J is a great aquarium accomplice because he worked at an aquarium in college. He's a pretty good tour guide and knows a lot of random fish facts (or, he makes them up and we just haven't caught on yet!). And, the aquarium had tons of fish, a bunch of snakes and frogs, alligators, penguins, and birds. The birds were housed in a huge room that you had to walk through, and it was seriously stinky. Those sorts of arrangements always make me a little nervous, since I'm completely convinced I'm going to end up with bird poo on my head.

After the aquarium, we had lunch at an asian fusion restaurant near the aquarium and then hit the Gap Clearance Center and DQ. It was a great day, and fun to get out of town for a bit. I'm sure we'll be back.

Snow!

Look what I woke up to this morning:

Yes! Snow!

This is enough snow to close Lexington area schools and churches for the day.


Unfortunately, it was almost completely melted by the time I got home from work...

A Step in the Right Direction

It snowed* here today! Yes!

The back stairs - slippery when icy.

One of the bushes we planted last fall - safe and sound in a burlap sack.

*and by "snow", I mean, a miniscule amount of frozen rain fell from the sky. Not such a fun walk to work.


Looks like we may get more later this week:

Few Snow Showers
High
41°F
Overnight Low
34°F
Precip
30%

If anyone understands how the above temperatures + precipitation = snow showers, please let me know. I am baffled.

Some awesome things... and some not-so-awesome things

First, the not-so-awesome things:

1. The colds J and I are currently battling.
2. The camry that won't start (and it's not a battery problem, so the fix is likely to involve a tow, and some serious labor/parts costs).
3. The hot water heater that is relieving pressure by spewing water on the basement floor.
4. The leaking cold water line on the bathroom sink.
5. Fox, for cancelling The OC.


Now for the awesome things:

We have some great friends in Lexington, I mean, great. Seriously, with this whole car thing, we've been lucky to have people close by to help us try to jump the car, take us to pick up thai food, and drive us to the grocery store. And not only that, but it's nice to get the advice of people who have lived here a while when looking for things like auto repair shops, or when trying to move items that won't fit in the camry (e.g., dressers).

Also, this video about spiders on drugs makes me giggle. And, if you haven't seen Ok Go's video where they dance on treadmills, you should check it out. You will never look at a treadmill the same way again. I am starting to love Youtube.com - no wonder I was Time's 2006 person of the year!

And, my last awesome thing for today: the Herbie is trying to lose weight. What is the Herbie? Our trash recepticle. Rosie (recycling container) and Lenny (yard waste container) are his sidekicks.

Herbie and Rosie, in all their glory

As much fun as it is to have waste containers that are actually named, it gets better. The other day, we got a little flier in the mail:

Lose 800 Pounds Next Year
Trim Herbie's waste with a low-garb diet

I am not even joking you. Even better:

"Who amongst us hasn't vowed that after the holidays we'll go on a diet! Dieting is no fun and keeping the weight off requires changing our eating habits. In 2007, we hope you will create a diet plan for Herbie... There is no need for the Rosie recycling cart to be skinny when Herbie is so fat."

I love it. Love it. Thank you Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government for making throwing out trash so entertaining.