Updates: Palmitate, exercise, caterpillars

The palmitate situation reached a ludicrously comedic state yesterday. My boss tromped upstairs to the business office to find out what the deal was. After he weighed all the evidence and had a brief strategy meeting with me, we concluded that it was time to cut our losses and focus on other projects instead. So he asked me to ask about canceling the order. I raced up the stairs to let our business person know and to apologize for all the hassle. Then I raced back down the stairs to work on a hojillion other things. In particular, if I wasn't going to inject palmitate I could still prepare and inject acetate instead. A few minutes later, my boss comes into the lab to say it's too late, apparently the palmitate has already shipped and is already over in our Environmental Health and Safety office, to be delivered to our lab in the early afternoon. I put in a phone call and got it delivered before noon, which meant I could use the crickets set up for injections for the day. Data acquired. But YEESH. I will be relieved to be done with palmitate, which should be the case as of next Monday.

I guess the latter two subjects are intertwined. Doing creative stuff for cash money is an interesting experience. Overall, I am enjoying it tremendously and it is enough of a change of pace that I can work all day in the lab, come home, eat dinner, and then work for another hour or two on the illustration in the evening. However, it kept me up well past my bedtime last night, so efforts to get up early and exercise were stymied. In the very least I will be going on a bike ride on Saturday, though. I still need to get out of this "all-or-none" exercise mode. The finalized version of the illustration is due tomorrow, so maybe I'll be able to breathe easier next week. Hah, I doubt it.

Tea and spices

Let's see. When I was packing things up for the move out of the Villa Maria house, in the early stages I industriously went through my jewelry box and whittled it down, as part of the first stage of moving (full list of stages of moving at the end of this post, ha ha ha).

This time, I am working on pantry management. I enjoy a well-stocked kitchen, but on the other hand it makes me really sad when stuff sits around for 5 years and gets stale and gnawed on by bean beetles (I'm looking at you, erstwhile chickpea flour. Also you, masa harina.). As such, I have too much: cumin seeds, turmeric, black mustard seeds, and fenugreek seeds. Would anyone like an Indian spices collection? These are all in quantities that would be useful if you've run out - I just happen to have double of what I will realistically use.

I also have a variety of delicious Taiwan green tea, and some mild and tasty Bai Mu Dan (Chinese White Peony tea). Trouble is, I will never manage to drink them because coffee is my go-to caffeine source and I'm too caffeine sensitive to consume more than one caffeinated beverage a day.

I will happily send these things to you - just message me your address.

It will get more interesting when I am ready to dispose of this heavy duty three-drawer filing cabinet, eh? I suspect I won't be shipping it to anyone.