Friday, September 26, 2008

The promise of beer

I've had a pretty full-on week on necropsy, and have seen some interesting diseases and spectacular lesions (and maybe getting a reputation for being a bit tin-arse at finding cool brain lesions). A tip for people who think their dog might be rabid and want it tested: if you euthanase it by shooting it in the head with a high calibre pistol, most of the brain goes bye-byes. Not ideal.

We finally have a TV.... Our neighbours were getting rid of their 27" TV and cabinet, and thought of us. They even helped move it in. I think that was about the third TV we've been offered - people here really like to give stuff away.


Some of the beer packaging here really cracks us up - you'll probably need to click on these to enlarge them to readable sizes:



I've yet to find a beer that truly whitens as it cleans, so it's refreshing to finally find an example of honest labelling...



We decided to have "ethnic" food the other night.... And what can beat "Irish O'Garlic" for a sausage flavour?



Mort spent all day today helping set up for the Septembeerfest tomorrow, I think there will be 63 different beers, and at least one keg of Hoegaarden.... Check out this amazing keg-bar:



With bottle-hub-caps - totally awesome.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

More acquisitions

We picked up a dryer for $40 last week - this was a necessary evil since when the weather turns we will be unable to dry our clothes on racks inside without violating the "don't promote mildew" part of our tenancy agreement. We have a nook hidden away in the hallway which contains hookups for a washer and dryer (no sink, alas). Once we got the dryer home, however, we learned that having hookups doesn't mean the power plug from the dryer will fit in the socket available. The dryers here all run on 240V (shock, horror!) and high current, so they have funky plugs kind of like electric ovens do. There doesn't really appear to be a standard plug for dryers here, so when you get a new one there's a good chance you'll have to wire a new power cord onto the beast.




The top left plug is a NZ plug (lying on its side), top right is a normal US plug - these are for a size comparison. Bottom left is the plug that came with the dryer (2 phase, 1 neutral, 1 earth) - I think this is the newer kind, and is probably safer than the bottom right plug, which is what we needed for the dryer to go in our place (2 phase, 1 combined earth-neutral). As to the wiring itself: thankyou to the internets for providing dryer installation instructions.

Mort made a start on some garden this week - we're going to grab some herbs etc. from some friends who are rearranging their garden. The soil doesn't seem too bad, but it's all incredibly dry since noone was watering it over the summer. There's some drainage gravel or something under there, so hopefully our plants won't drown in winter.



After some days of threats, the other pathology resident hauled me out to buy shoes. I tried on several styles of shoe that I've never tried before, in the interest of experimentation, of course, and was reminded that I have deceptively short, wide feet. I settled on these Dr. Martins:



Don't mock the shoes - they meet my "could I walk all day in them?" criteria. Secretly though, I suspect I only got that colour & pattern because the shop was out of my size in black. Johanna, on the other hand, has scored quite a bit of cred about the lab for converting me from shoes to shoes, at least a little bit.

In technical news, it looks like some more genotyping will be done on the DNA from dwarf Texel sheep I left in Ames in 2006. Next year someone is interested in running some snp-chips, which could generate more information about where the mutation causing the disease may lie.

I shall go and continue coughing now, which I have been doing all week to the amusement, disgust, and infection of the entire building.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Somewhat batty

This week we had an awesome little batty visitor - which apparently isn't too common in this area:



We stayed up and watched the rugby last night (kickoff at 2.45am) - it was totally worth it. I think I was only able to make it due to sleeping away half of the previous day (I had lurgy/fever resulting in a lot of weird dreams about lymphocytes).

In the last week or so I finished off a vest I've been working on for a while - the object was to get my knit & purl stitches the same tension, since my purls were a lot looser than my knits. It worked out pretty well, I think I'll make another like this since I have the yarn.




I've also become a little carried away making these little "yarn cake keepers", which stabilise a centre-pull yarn cake that you can make with a ball winder (which I now have) or a Nøstepinde (a.k.a. Stick!!!!)



In pharmaceutical news: I guess someone took that saying "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down" a little too seriously...





Still, it's been useful stuff over the last couple of days.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

I see snakes

It's kind of hard to write much at the moment, I'm having a great time but it's all quite absorbing and it's so easy to come home and zone out until 6.30 the next morning...

Mort & I made use of the long weekend the other week (Labour weekend) to visit the wetlands that are about 2km from us:




They are very different from the wetlands we're used to. Entering the reserve, we were surrounded by wild roses, apples and pear trees. And blackberries, of course. The bullrushes (cattails) were quite a sight.




The little loop track through the wetlands is on a boardwalk, and even though it's pretty dry at the moment, I'm really glad - I'm pretty sure this is poison oak:




Leaves of three - let them be; leaves of four - eat some more, right?

The highlight of the day had to be the snakes. We managed to spot three or four garter snakes, but they were a bit too quick for us to get a picture, unfortunately.

In food-travesty this week: Bunny-Luv brand carrots:


This concept of "Luv" confuses and infuriates us

Who doesn't like being sold carrots by a skanky anthropomorphic rabbit holding said vegetable in such a provocative manner?



We also got patriotic and tried the official Oregon State University ice-cream:



Chocolate coated footballs collide with a thick band of chocolate fudge in a mild peanut butter flavoured ice cream. GO BEAVS TM.