health kick in the teeth

kiel: okay, but i kinda have to pee.
kie: between a $17,000 plate reader and a $13,000 fluorimeter.
kio: secret agent in the other room for assays

i'm actually doing work at the lab now *GASP*. but i'm running assays and each one takes time. so in between i guess i'll update my blog.

so three of the four teams i picked to win in the quarterfinals of euro2004 got eliminated. yeesh. the greeks really played well against a french team that just didn't seem to want it that badly. so in the semis we have portugal vs. netherlands and the czech republic vs. greece. greece, i know you've got all this momentum now since you're in the semis of a major tournament for the first time ever, but you are gonna get smacked by a czech team that has won 4 in a row. portugal is the home team, and judging by their game with england, they have a shot against holland. we shall see.

the final game will be played on july 4, which is the same day as my graduation party. i'm thinking about ordering the game on pay-per-view, but i fear i might be the only person who wants to watch it. also, it comes on at 2:45, right in the middle of the party. yeesh. if you are reading this and you'd like to come, it's at 1 pm at this address. no stalkers, please.

i'm trying to get back into running. "back, you say? the only running you've ever done is to the bathroom during commercial breaks!" not so, fair reader. for there was a time when i was running about 4 miles a day every day. yup, in the summer of 2001, when the living was easy. i'm doing this for several reasons, not the least of which is the upcoming baltimore marathon relay for which marc, my advisor, is considering fielding a lab team. that should be fun. the course looks kind of wicked though in places, especially druid hill. yikes.

also i've been playing ultimate with a whole bunch of random people i don't know (and éric) on the lower quad on tuesdays and thursdays. so that's fun. and sweaty.

it seems like everybody but me has gmail. i don't need it, but i must have it. don't bogart the gmail, man. send me an invite.

speaking of invites, i won a happy hour at howl at the moon and i set the date as july 16. if you're interested, send me an im or an email and i will get you tickets, either physically or electronically.

**humorous narrative**

so the other day sarah and i went to new jersey for kelly's graduation party. on the way there i think, "gee, i should have stopped at an atm. i have $2 on me. then again, what will i need money for? oh, shit. tolls!" just as i thought this and consequently said it aloud, we arrived at the toll for i-95 before delaware. great. how much? $5.00. fantastic. sarah doesn't have that much cash either, just two singles. as we approach the toll she rummages through her purse for change, finally discovering 4 quarters. the toll is paid and we move on. it makes me wonder, though. what if we didn't have the cash? what if we got up to the toll booth and did not have $5 on our persons? would they allow us to park the car and walk to the next exit to an atm? has this happened to anyone?

anyway, that potential peril avoided, the rest of the trip went smoothly. the elantra averaged about 30-32 mpg for the highway. at kelly's we pretty much ate and drank and sat around talking. i, being my usual self, was in fine form, "pontificating" (as sarah would say) on all kinds of subjects from clinton's memoirs to how chameleons know to what color they need change. (it turns out that it is a common misconception that chameleons change color to adapt to their surroundings. rather, their color changes are a result of mood and temperature changes.)

cut to the drive home. do you ever play the "drive until i am absolutely sure there isn't a drop of gas left in the car" game? it's scary, isn't it. i like to play it because i like to see high numbers on my trip odometer. it makes me think i'm getting better gas mileage. also, in this particular car i have never actually run out of gas, so i don't know where that point is. anyway, near the end of this game we pulled off of 95 at md-24, near bel air. we gas up, then decide that we don't really have any hurry to get home so we'll do some exploring. 24 south should eventually lead to belair road, then take that all the way back to baltimore.

well, 4 lanes turned into two, and the surrounding environment became more and more tree-lined. the road continued past a large gate and led to a guard shack, where three uniformed police officers were standing. there was no pike coming from the guard shack, so i stopped at the stop sign that was there, gave a cursory glance at the three cops, and started to go forward. the moment i hit the gas a cop practically jumped in front of my car, yelling for me to stop.

he asked where i was going, and i realized for sure that this was probably somewhere i shouldn't be. i said "i'm looking for belair road. i figured if i took 24 south..." "24 doesn't go south," he cut me off. i noticed the insignia on his arm said "department of defense". i was going to ask where i was but i didn't want to mess around with any overreactive homeland security types. ergo, i turned around and we went back to 95. on the way past the gates, a sign said "begin state maintenance". apparently we stumbled onto federal property.

what was it? it looked like some kind of development beyond the gates, with lots of houses. mapquest doesn't mention anything, it just has a big yellow area and names of roads. did i stumble onto dick cheney's undisclosed location? or a CIA outpost? or a posh subdivision for moderately-high-level government employees? feel free to take a guess at what exactly that was.

yup. that was last weekend for ya.