Week 3 of MBR experiment 3

Its been a bit of roller coaster ride this week. One the one hand, I got a new car - a 2008 Pontiac Vibe - I'm planning three trips for job interviews in January and February (Orlando, Pasadena, and Denver for job in Seattle), an abstract I submitted got accepted to a conference in New Orleans in April and its Christmas. One the other hand, I burned myself pretty badly in the lab on Tuesday doing something stupid - despite the many lectures I've given my undergraduates about paying attention in the lab, I dropped my cell phone in boiling water, I got a stomach virus last night and the filaments in my reactors are causing major problems making it extremely difficult to leave. Since I won't be here to clean the membranes that are fouling really badly, its pretty likely I'll have to start one reactor over for fourth time when I get back. Its a test to my new positive mental attitude - I'm working on rolling with the punches but its hard. I'll keep working on and maybe by the time I turn 30 in September I'll have learned.

Week 2 of MBR experiment 3

We harassed the cats to take some christmas pictures this weekend - the one of Dina throwing a fit is my favorite. She can be grumpy cat when she wants to be but I've had her since my sophomore year of college so she's been through everything with me.

My friend Kim got his PhD recently and walked in the graduation ceremony this weekend. His family is back in Germany so his work family came to cheer when they called his name. The PhD robe with the hood is fancy - now i have to do some research to figure where the tradition of hoods for graduate students came from. I'll keep you posted.
<--continued harassment of Rex and Chester
My reactors are doing well - they're well on their way to steady state which is why its been a tough decision to leave them for four days to go home for christmas. When I suggested that I might stay in Champaign to take care of them instead of going home, my brothers were actually dissapointed - both of them. Its so rare that they show such emotion that I couldn't be the crappy sister who puts work over family. Lets hope everythings goes alright while I'm gone.

Jeff's family at Thanksgiving

Week 1 of MBR experiment 3
I started my experiment over again this week for the third time. Its a 12 week experiment so for those of you too afraid to ask, that means I'll be done in the lab at the end February instead of my original plan of being done by Thanksgiving - yep, that's three months behind. But, I have a new experimental plan and I've banned anyone other than me from even thinking about my reactors let alone touching them so I predict a perfect experiment or a close to perfect as things can get in the lab.

I'm dusting off my positive mental attitude. When I was a cheerleader my freshman year of high school (yes, I was a cheerleader), I got an award for having a positive mental attitude - called appropriately enough the PMA award (my dad asked if they really meant to give me a PMS award. Wasn't he funny?). After I realized high school cheerleaders suck and quit cheering, I forgot about my PMA and graduated to teenage angst ridden Adrienne, followed by stressed-out, over-achiever college student Adrienne. During my Master's studies, I became angry, advisor hating Adrienne then finally, everything came together. I got rid of that shitty advisor in favor of my current advisor who is great. I started my PhD research on a topic that I love. Jeff and I figured out how to live together happily. I discovered the best way to use martial arts as stress relief. Now, I'm about to get a kick ass job as a consulting engineer after 12 years of graduate education. I just have to finish this last experiment. I can't think about having to start over again so.......meet PMA cheerleader Adrienne.

I plan to give a blog play by play on this experiment starting with week 1: Reactor start up - the growth of the filaments begins. Running an MBR with readily-degradable substrate in a CSTR configuration is a really great way to grow filametous organisms (and tiny protozoa but that's another story). Its the perfect demonstration of the principles I just taught in my lectures on biological wastewater treatment - microbial growth and competition. All six undergrads who have worked with me have gotten the (usually long-winded) explanation about why this happens. Then, mean boss that I am, I force them to explain the concepts to some else to make sure they understood what they'd learned.


We played Cranium with Jeff's sister and cousins in Toledo at Thanksgiving.
Can you guess what clue Jeff is acting out Charades style? (roller coaster)