MyerBlog

Truely worthless mini strech model!!!!

I am sure this is exactly what Myer does during the day while we are hard at work. It is very hard work to guard an apartment. I have been told by our very patient neighbors that she barks occasionally when she hears someone come home. Outside of that, she is probaly sleeping...living up to her truely worthless mutt title. Amanda is always quick to remind me that she is a pure-bred mini strech model. We took this picture last weekend. There is warm air blowing out of the bottom of the fridge. It is hard to stay warm when it is 95 degrees outside....truely worthless mini strech model!!!!

Picts for last weekend

Lazy Day

Myer loves the hammock....mainly because it is the ultimate vehicle for a lazy afternoon. Right now I am reading "The Faith of the American Soldier", laying in my hammock with my trusty mutt, and smoking ribs down in the yard (new smoker...more on that later). My bride is laying in her lawn chair soaking in a few rays and reading her GQ magazine (Jessica Simpson was on the cover). Just a lazy day.

Traffic, Lab Meeting, Head Trauma, and a nap

I snapped this last night while sitting in traffic on my way home. Chicago is amazing in that rush hour traffic lasts for 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. The other amazingly annoying feature is that the traffic is heavy going in and out of the city both in the morning and at night. Just thought I would share the picture. I had a few minutes during lab meeting (in between repeated sessions of banging my head on the table and sleeping). All in all, it was a great talk.

First Day of Summer

For those of you in the South, this may be your least favorite time of year. Up here where it is below freezing over 100 days of the year, summer is a great thing. It is more like a Texas fall season without the football. I had to stop by one of my favorite spots on campus, being the first day of summer and all (if my boss is reading this: I ran the whole way. I didn't stop, only slowed down to take the picture, and then raced back to lab. And of course I did NOT type this post while sitting next to the pond in the picture). For those of you who have not been on the University of Chicago's campus, this is a good hint at what it is like during the summer. In winter you just replace everything green with that damn white shit that never seems to end in Janruary. Happy first day of summer to you all!

Myer got her wish

Sleeping Beauties

My Little Helper

This is my little furry assistant. She is not the best typist, but she tries. At the very least, she is a good companion while working on a very long animal protocol.

Slight Corrections

I know Amanda gets really excited about some of my work...often more excited than I am. Things are going well at work and we are starting to see some of my mice get sick. It is to early to call it a success and retire. There are still many more mice I am following and the goal is to learn a little bit about the disease and try to understand the molecular basis for the disease. Thanks to everyone who has called, but it is still very early on and we are still trying to figure out exactly what is going on in these mice. More to come. The picture is from the animal fiacilty and in each of those cages are about 3-5 mice. I have approximately 500 mice down there, so when a couple of them get sick it is only scratching the surface in comparison to the work left ahead. Stay tuned.
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A VERY Proud Wife

Many of you know what John is working towards in school, but some may not and MANY will not know what has been happening lately. He is very humble and does not like to get excited, but some amazing things have been happening and I could not be more proud to be married to him! (And of course I LOVE to sing his praises and announce his accomplishments, because he does not!)

John is trying to model cancer in a mouse. It has been a very long process of breeding the mice to get the right gene deleted (I sound very scientific, don't I? John, if I have butchered this, correct me!) and to make/breed as many mice as possible. All of this is in hopes of them getting sick with cancer to prove that what John thought was right, that if this gene is deleted, the mice will get cancer. Well, last week FINALLY one of his mice died. He was not sure what caused it to die, but he was hoping it was cancer.

IT WAS! And now, another mouse has cancer! This is a GREAT LEAP forward for his project and will give a very interesting result which will help him move towards graduating next year! We will be having everyone here in Chicago to see John become DR. JOSLIN! (Mark your calendars now, you don't want to miss this!)

Can you believe he does this? I can't! I am in constant amazement of how intelligent he is. So, call him and congratulate him and let's HOPE he can work towards a CURE for Leukemia and Lymphoma!!!

Have a great Thursday and remember to get your moles checked!