All I Want for Christmas...

...is a freakin window already. (I'm sure Steph does too.) With inside demensions of W: 35 1/4 " and H: 60"

Thanksgiving 2008

Family and food. Whenever my family gets together you can always find us hanging out in the kitchen telling stories and reminiscing about old ones. My brother and sister-in-law Julie and their kids, Daniel and Beth came in from out of town this year. Julie always bakes each of our favorite cookie recipes. Buckeyes for Dad, bon bons for me, chocolate chip cookies for Mom and pecan squares for Chuckie. The cousins had a wonderful time being with each other. Lots of laughs and giggles filled the house and of course, we played football in the street after dinner.

Clockwise from left: Cameron sleeping off dinner, dessert table, Madelynne and Beth having girl time, Thanksgiving spread.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up at 2:45am on Friday. For the first time I was determined to be at the stores when they first opened. I had a list of what stores I would go to in the order that they opened, what I was going to get at each store and for who, and then I listed whether or not I had a coupon for that store. So, 2:45 came and I was up, made a pot of coffee, warmed up the car, got my dad and off we were to Carson Pirire Scott downtown. We got there at about 3:45 and were one of the first people in the store. Everyone was really friendly and helpful. (When we first got there, no one was in the parking garage to let us out, but by the time we were done shopping a lady was there) We went to Kohl's afterwards, but not before stopping for coffee. After Kohl's I laid down for about an hour and 15 minutes. I wanted to get to Costco when they opened at 9am. Mom and I went to Costco and then Macy's. We got some really great deals and had a good time making our way through the crowds. That night, I went downtown to see the lighting of the "World's Largest Christmas Tree." It wasn't too bad though the compactness and mushiness and invasion of personal space was worst than last year.

This time next week I should be transitioning into my new job. I will be one on a team of 5 doing cell culture, assay, mass spectrometry and automation. A lot of change this is.

I will be attending the Great Banquet this weekend. My feelings on attending have varied greatly. However, the happenings of the past month have me looking forward to getting away for a little bit.

my little brother started his EMT/paramedic class this week. I'm excited to look through his textbook!

hypersensitive startle reflex=exhaustion

peppermint mochas are back!

**Update to the update... got an e-mail from my manager..."Meghan, there has been a change in your position...I'll tell you more when we talk..." Seriously? Can that be anymore vague?! I hope he didn't hear about the files that I accidentally deleted (which were restored) or the lab that I unintentionally flooded. (how do you not have a drain in a lab?)

Anyway, I'll be working with a different team than the one described above. Budget cuts prevent that team from even existing now. Instead I'll be doing more analyses, preparation, dilutions and documentation work for samples. At the beginning of next year I could move again into investigative toxicology. For now though I'll be working in the mornings at the clinic and spend my afternoons in the laboratory at a different building .