Mug Shot

Our friend Brandy took this picture of Cali last weekend. I love it and wanted to share.

All About Cali

My life pretty much revolves around this dog. We both love having her and find ourselves trying to include her in a lot of what we do. For example, we take her to our friends house (Thanks Rob and Erika!), to Friday's at the Front Porch at the Carolina Inn, to gelato in Southern Village, and to Ultimate Frisbee with Mike's friends. One of our favorite things to do is take her to the dog park.

Here is Cali at the dog park. She loves going there. Its not really about the other dogs but about chasing her tennis ball. We try and take her at least 3 times a week. Sometimes we go more since she gets a lot of exercise and Mike and I can just stand there. She doesn't realize it yet but we are going to have to cut back on our trips once the real NC summer heat hits us. Or maybe I'll just get up at 6 am and take her...yeah right!





One way to try and counter the heat is to have a way to cool off Cali after we play ball. We decided, ok I decided and Mike humored me, to get Cali her very own pool. I picked up this pool at Toys R Us. It almost didn't fit into my car but after some shoving I got it in. Cali was skeptical at first and just wanted to drink out of it. Once Mike got in he was able to lure her in as well. He got her to sit down but she wanted nothing to do with actually lying down. We'll take it in baby steps. Maybe next weekend...

The Cali Monster Strikes Again

Apparently Cali has something against plants. I know that she enjoys eating grass and you've read below what she did to the poor basil plant. I went to a friends bridal shower on Saturday. One of our favors was a lovely little spider plant. When I got home from the shower I placed the plant on the kitchen table and turned to get some laundry started. As I was loading the washing machine I hear Cali behind me playing with something. I turn my head and this is what I see first.
When I look further I see Cali with a plant in her mouth shaking it back and forth, determined to kill it. I called her name and she stopped and stared at me. I was laughing by this point but managed to kennel her (to avoid her walking on the dirt) and got the vacuum cleaner. Before I cleaned up I snapped this picture of the poor spider plant where it lay after being released from her jaws.

I guess this means that house plants are not in our foreseeable future. I hope she doesn't try and play with the Christmas tree! Unfortunately the spider plant was not able to survive its injuries. However I am happy to report that Mr. Basil is doing well and if all looks good he will be transplanted to new pot (outside) the middle of the week.

Cali's New Toy

This is an email I got from Mike this morning. I thought it worthy of being posted and wished I could have been home to experience the scene myself.

"I heard a crinkly, plasticy sound this morning and thought that Cali had found a water bottle, so I made the "Shh!" sound and she stopped. Once I finally got out of bed, I witnessed the true mayhem that that sound foreshadowed.

On the ground in front of our bedroom was a pile of dark soil. A few feet away were the limp remains of what once was a basil plant, I'd guess. A few feet further away was the cause of it all, Cali's new favorite toy, the plastic plant holder thingy. Yep, she did it all for that wonderfully chewy plastic plant holder.

She was quite happy with her morning's devastating work and proceeded to walk all over the dirt pile while wagging her tail and utterly disregarding the green corpse at her feet. I patted her oblivious little head, kenneled her with some roast beef to munch on, so she'd really learn her lesson, and went to work. Thanks to my extensive training in plant resuscitation (courtesy of Monsanto Corp.), I was able to very carefully replant the badly beaten basil. He is now recuperating on the back deck. Prognosis is still unclear. I also cleaned up the carpet as well as I could, but there was a giant brown stain and several paw-shaped smaller stains all over the place. I'm still waiting to see whether that carpet cleaner stuff works as well as it advertises.

Anyway, I would advise against leaving Mr. Basil (if he survives) within reach of The Cali Monster from now on."


I'll keep you posted on whether Mr. Basil lives.

Doggie Play Date

What a beautiful Sunday we had here in Chapel Hill! Our friends Brandy and Amir set up a play date with their dog Bella and Cali at the near by dog park. It was a little hot but Bella and Cali survived being in close proximity to each other and I think it may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship! Afterward, the 5 of us headed over to a gelato place for a treat. Cali loved her doggie-gelato. Bella, on the other hand, preferred Brandy's gelato so Cali got lucky and had 2!

New Digs

At my new gig here at Duke I've moved into a very nice new building. Its called the French Family Science Center. There is a very open floor plan with big windows and lots of light. I guess the only problem I have with it is the open lab set up because there is no music playing and you have to watch what you say (volume and content). Otherwise its a step up. Also, here is my newest victim, the Fruit Fly (aka Drosophila Melanogaster). Goodbye tissue culture cell, hello whole organism!

My first day at Duke

I'm sure some of you have been waiting to hear how my first day at (gasp) DUKE was.... Although they may be the Blue Devils and we love to hate them, I had a wonderful day at the Kiehart lab and I work with great people. Sure I was only there for just under 9 hours but everyone was so nice and helpful. I have my own desk and locking filing cabinet (no stolen wallet by a crack whore here!) and my own bench with a set of micro-pipetters! And my new bench is even bigger than my old bench, if you can believe that. Tomorrow I have an exciting day of lab meeting, paper reading and isolating Drosophila ovaries. Not exactly sure how to do that last one but I'll update you once I figure it out. I miss my friends in the Burridge lab but I am very excited to be starting a new scientific adventure!