Bringing down the homestretch

Thanksgiving was a blast. Dinner for 19 at Bernard's, followed by dessert at Mary Jo's. Friday found us at the Pinewood Supper club with Crescent, Jason, and Nick. We closed the Pinewood down and then went downtown to a smoky Elbow Room.....Good times.

I have six days left until the semester is done. I have been done with my work for over a week, but this week I have to help get our business plan together. I have one partner that gets his work done and one partner that is MIA. I can see from her facebook profile that she has spent the last three days shopping, watching TV, and anything else other than working on our assignment. This person is responsible for 15% of my grade, and if I am given the opportunity to have input of her effort, she will not recieve good comments.

I saw it was going to snow today, so I dressed up and got out on the bike one last time by 9:30. I was out until 11am...I got 15 miles in, including riding the island. How cool is that to ride rooty, twisty singletrack on November 30th! I can't wait until next summer, when I don't have ANYTHING over my head.

By this time next Sunday I will be done with the semester from Hell, the tree will be here, and the house will be decorated. COOOL.

peace

cd

Flippin Out

Last night I was either going to go to the gym or work on my Business plan for school but a flippy heart got in the way. It wasn't a-fib, but it wasn't great either. I think we were at the tail end of a stomach bug in the house as none of us were feeling that well. Tonight I will prepare myself for the tail end of my Business plan so Andy and I can bang that out on Saturday. I will try to get some exercise tonight when I get home.

I wore a suit again today, just to mess with the boss......it worked. I had to ask him for a meeting today to talk about a partnership with a similar firm to us in Boston, and he just got nervous, looked me over, and asked, "Are you going somewhere today?" I love messing around with him.

I actually wear a suit sometimes because it makes me work harder, and I need to work harder.

peace

cd

I hate my trainer, but I rode it anyway.

Last night I spent about 45 minutes on the trainer, followed by some strength work with some dumbbells. It better not mess up my sweet jump shot! I figured with the dwindling amount of homework left and about four weeks to lose enough weight to get my $500 bonus I better get moving on the exercise. This week is getting the exercise, next week I start adding diet (right in time for Thankstaking).

I handed in my last assignment for Early Drug Discovery. The paper was actually fun to write as I really like microbiology (nerd alert!) and TB is really a re-emerging threat to global health. I think it told a good story about a mid level biotech and their patented technology in drug development. I hope to get an A in that course.

All I have left is part of a Business concept plan that I should have done by Sunday and two slides for a laboratory presentation. The Business concept shouldn't be that hard after Andy and I tackle the Pro Formas for our groups. Our doofus of an instructor said we could put more information that a simple P and L, but I am not going to as I don't care about that class anymore. You can thank Cheri Oteri for that one.

Anyway, I am glad to be completing this semester. As I look back on it, it wasn't really the semester of Hell, I just had one REALLY bad instructor that loused everything up.

peace
cd

The light is getting closer.....

Things are winding down with school finally. My lab assignment is almost done, the business assignment should be almost done after Andy and I do our Pro Formas together. I was up until 4am last night working on my final Early Drug Discovery project. I am about half done at this point. I shouldn't stay up like that, but I was on a roll and the words were flowing. With the problems I have had this semester with motivation, I will roll until the sun comes up if I am being productive. Lorelei is such a doll with me sleeping in the morning. She knows that I am just trying to get this semester finished so we can get on with it. This also gets me out of doing any homework today (likely story).

The faster I can get the work done, the earlier I can start working on me. I really need to see the business end of a gym, and soon.

have a good week.

peace

cd

Sunday

Aside from a phone call to my presentation partner and reading for an hour I didn't do any homework today. I remembered that my boss is gone after early morning on Tuesday and I can get my paper done then. I have a lot of travel this week. Appleton and Green Bay on Wednesday, Wausau Thursday, and then off to school. I have 27 days left until I am done with this semester from Hell and then it really is all downhill from here. We are already making lists and plans for the semester break.

I applied for another job yesterday, and this one looks like it could be good.

peace

cd

Crunch time

We are nearing the end of the semester, and assignments are piling up. I have 95% of my slides done for my presentation, so there is one more assignment done. I think the slides turned out really well and they follow the "tell a story" format. I am very happy with them. Last night I was up again until almost two. I can really get a lot of research done that way. I was looking for information from one company and ended up finding a different company that had more information. I am still going with TB antibiotic discovery platforms as I have always had an interest in microbiology. This could also be a good exercise for the final project.

I still have a goal of getting everything done before the two weeks to go point. The last two projects are group projects, but I can still get my stuff done early.

peace

cd

Let's get to work.

What a night last night. How refreshing to know who is going to president that night, rather than days later after court battles. I also would like to commend John McCain. He may have gotten off track and played dirtier than he wanted to, but he ended his campaign with dignity and grace and I truly believe that he will become the John McCain that I would have voted for in 2000. Americans have given the keys to a messy house to the Democrats. If they don't clean at least one of the rooms up by 2010 we may not see them in power for long.

Today is a busy day at work. With school bearing down, job searches, and work stressors happening, my output at work has been just good enough not to get into trouble. I usually work my ass off one or two days per week and then do homework at work the other days. Today is one of those days that I am working my ass off. I can't stand this place. I get knots in my stomach when I come here. I feel like crying when I leave. It is not good, not good at all. I don't see it getting any better either. One of our PhDs just called to rant to me about our boss. We are used until we are spent and then we are driven out. Great place to work! I almost feel like warning potential PhDs that are here to run away.

peace

cd

Let's get to work.

GoBama!

Election day. Go vote, even if it is not for my guy. Or don't vote because you don't like anyone on the entire ballot.

The stretch run is going well as far as school work goes. I completed one assignment last night, and I have some revisions to do on another one today at work. Tonight I will start my slides for my presentation on NMR in small molecule drug discovery. I hope to complete that by Thursday and then move on to my final project in drug discovery. Lorelei arranged for Maddy to go to JoJo's for the weekend and Eds will go there on Friday night. That should leave a lot of time to get some good homework done. By the end of the weekend I could be done or mostly done with all but two projects. It would be nice to "end my semester early" like I did last spring. I could be done with everything by November 23rd and coast for the rest of the semester (minus practicing my presentations).

GO VOTE!

cd

When it rains it pours!

This morning I was awash in career despair. I saw years of toiling away here at my present job trying to make a go of it while being cut down at the knees after every "decision". I received two phone calls to change that today. The first one from a head hunter for a sales in molecular diagnostics today....phone interview tomorrow at 11am. The second one for a lab supervisor job in Wausau that could come with a significant raise. Either one would be a delicious departure from this pit. It will be good to get some fresh experience interviewing for a job. In the past, I have actually "closed the deal" at the interview. Would it be too much to expect that again?

peace

cd

Tiny Dancer

I got out for about an hour and 15 minutes on the 29er last night. A slow ride with a couple of bursts to get up hills, and one little single track section. It really felt good. Temps were in the mid 50s with dusk setting in. I'll take that in November for sure. Tonight I am going for the last night ride of the year. Overnight temps are supposed to be in the 50's. I can do this only if I get a certain amount of homework done.

In other news, I still hate my job and the company I work for!

peace

cd

20

I have exactly twenty days left of classes before I am done with my MS. It can't come fast enough. In five weeks we will have just 14 days of class left. In light of all of this rosy sunshine bullshit, I was up until 3:30 last night trying to get stuff done. I have five assignments left to complete in the next five weeks. I can't just "go finish this stuff" as three of the five assignments are group assignments.

I am watching the Packers game right now and taking a little break. In watching the game, I have to wonder who let some of these announcers go on screen wearing these outfits. Polka dots on a tie, with a vertical striped shirt and a suit coat with large squares? Really? You can't get someone to give you a suit that matches? Maybe I am just out of it.

Anyway, tonight I hope to get the reading done for one more assignment and hopefully I can write it tomorrow. It will be busy, but I hope to finish in four weeks instead of five and spend the last week practicing my talks.

peace

cd