Survival exercise

Today has been all about survival. More later.

You may not believe this:

It's warmer in Ithaca now than in Houston. I'll be damned.

Instrument update: The computer finally started cooperating last night after I had posted about my troubles here. The samples are running smoothly. If the rest of the run continues so nicely I'll have all the analyzes I need by midnight. Aaahhh.

I guess it's a weird coincidence, but my mom and sis, my friend Erna, and myself are all moving places this week. Personally I am mildly freaking out about all the undone stuff. Alkalinity titrations, for example. Well, at least I got the issue with the company rental car sorted out and I have a place to stay when I get to Houston. From now on it's become a question of how much work stuff I forget to bring along (yep, the plan is to work on my thesis in my spare time... or so my adviser wants... and I'd do it if the word self-discipline existed in my vocabulary) and not forgetting to take the stuff I can't bring on the plane to the UPS store for shipping to Texas.

But this is peanuts compared to the other moves taking place. My mom has a whole home to move from one house to another. Phew. Erna is not only moving houses but also from one country to another. And as if that weren't enough, she's defending her Ph.D. thesis in the middle of it all. Phew again.

Instrument massage

'Allo allo!

erm... the "save now" button is growing as I type. No shittin'. Ok, it's stopped now.

Again, I'm enjoying a full evening in a lab, massaging a stubborn instrument into cooperation. And I even forgot my knitting at the office! The stubborn instrument is actually a laptop PC that remotely controls the ion chromatograph (IC) I'm trying to use... and the friggin laptop is so old and slow that it can't handle anything... even gave me the blue screen of death once... and I'm having to shut it down and restart it over and over again... and voila, the clock went from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, and still no success (or dinner!).

Hopefully this will be over soon. I have the Fifth Element at home and need to watch it by tomorrow (I know it's supposed to be crappy, but I need to (finally) find out for my self). I also have to start packing for Houston and throw my dirty clothes into the washing machine. And most of all I have to run these samples!! Wish me luck, please.

Mr. Squirrel

As seen on my way to work this morning.

Lunch of the week

Under all this yummy salad (with cherry tomatoes and roasted pine nuts) lie hidden the remains of yesterday's dinner: Organic whole-wheat fettucine with Icelandic smoked salmon in cream-dill sauce. Namm!

Late summer afternoon at Cornell

Saturday at the farmers' market

Coming up next in Herdis's life:

Internship with Shell Oil in Houston!!

Yes, for those of you who did not fall of your chairs when reading this (or who have already managed to crawl up into your seats again): I, the tree hugger, the environmentalist, the general protester, I am going to work for Shell.

What happened? Well, I got an offer for a really nice internship (as in, really interesting science, or so it sounds) and after thinking about it for about... 1 minute... I decided to do it. The internship being quite well paid didn't hurt either, but was not the deciding factor. I simply figured it would be great to learn something new, get a glimpse of life as a professional, get to know a multinational company from the inside, meet new people and live in a different city. Can't hurt, can it?

I'm starting work on October 1st and will work for them until Christmas, more or less. I found a really nice place to live, with a really nice housemate, today. I'll have a car for the time that I'm there and maybe I'll get a chance to travel around a bit on the weekends.

After Houston, it's the Philippines again, with a possible stop-over in Hawaii. As I've said before, never a dull moment :)

But first things first. Erna, the recently published author of this article in the PNAS, is coming into Ithaca as we speak. She'll stay with us until Sunday. She's never seen Ithaca in the summer (well, late summer) before and I can't wait to show her around... and have some Ópalsnafs with her :)

Europe, part 4

I also had a few glasses of white with my bosom buddies Hallveig and Stína. Aren't they gorgeous??

Europe, part 3

A nostalgic visit to the library of my old high school and a connection between Íþaka and Ithaca:

Europe, part 2

Stína and her sushi boat:



and Erna's living room after a day or two of visiting Icelanders (and their shopping bags):

Europe, part 1

Yes, I do owe you all some juicy bits from Europe. Actually, Stína has done a fantastic job on her blog telling about the Austria part. *sigh*, I miss the Vienna days and my fantastic friends there...

Let's take a look at the Schloss Schönbrunn. Stína and I went for the imperial tour of the premises while Erna Ýr and Íris went shoe shopping. Not that I would have minded shoe shopping at all...

The front of the castle:



and the back of the castle:



The Habsburgers didn't exactly rough it, did they?

Early dinner in Frankfurt