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.