Whimper!

I cannot think of anything to blog about today, and I'll tell you why - this assignment (organizational letters have been changed to protect the guilty):

Please provide a separate list for both the ABC approval dates and ABCDC approval dates.  A list should include the PI's name, Grant/Protocol Title, ABCDC/ABC approval date that the grant/protocol was reviewed and approved by the ABCDC/ABC.  Please do not provide periods of time for which the grants/protocols have been approved.  For ABC dates, no date should be earlier than 8/1/2010 and for ABCDC, no earlier approval date than 8/1/2008. 

This is due by Monday, which doesn't give me much time to figure out what they are asking for and then track down that information.  Whimper!

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Scanned Images: Red Swingline Stapler

For all you Office Space fans out there, check it out! I have a red Swingline stapler on my desk. Better yet, I found a metallic R on a business card someone dropped, so now I have a monogrammed red Swingline stapler. (You can see the R a little bit on the front.)

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Bicycle Rescues Reading Glasses

Yesterday Richard Bonomo was working on putting up railings on his front steps when he knocked his reading glasses off of the porch. Luckily for him, Kathbert's bicycle was there to catch his glasses. He thanked her profusely, but she said, "Thank the bike, not me," so he did. I said that was blogworthy, and so I am posting about it.

Since the flower post was such a hit, here are some more photos of daylilies from Mom McToque's yard:

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Anna Banana's Birthday

Yesterday Anna Banana had a birthday party at her family's cottage on a lake. Here is a picture of the their dock on the lake:

We made her a birthday cake, and my job was to mix the buttermilk, canola oil, and vanilla extract. This produced a very odd-looking liquid full of little blobs:

The finished cake was delicious, chocolate with raspberry filling, but it wasn't much more photogenic:

I have no photos of this, but Richard Bonomo, OK Cap, another girl from our church, and I went out in the canoe and swam in the middle of the lake. It was a lot of fun, and we even somehow managed to get back into the canoe! OK Cap, Jilly Moose, Luxuli, an old friend from Chicago, and I stayed over on Friday night and had a slumber party, but only Jilly Moose and I did karaoke. Luxuli said I should be a salsa singer. How great would that be?

Here is a better photo of the painting I ordered from South Africa. The artist is Peter Mutsiwa from Zimbabwe, and you too can order a painting from him or other talented artists by visiting http://www.africancartel.com/

Here are some more photos from the garden. For white flowers, there is a rose, a rosebud, and some balloon flowers:

And here is the phlox growing across the fence in the neighbor's yard:

Remember the baby Chinese eggplant? It is much larger now, and there is a small Italian eggplant as well:

And finally, a blue-flowering outdoor tradescantia. I had no idea these could grow outside in this climate! I thought they were only houseplants.

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Coolest Aloha Shirt ever

I am a big fan of aloha shirts, but my former (oh yeah!) supervisor FOX didn't want me to wear bright colors. Not an issue anymore! Just in time for FOX's departure, we got a brand spankin' new dress code which is somehow very detailed and yet highly ambiguous, like I thought it only banned capris that are denim or cargo pants style, but other people think it bans capris outright. Unless they are circulating several versions, just to keep us on our toes... One thing I did not specifically see banned in this document is the aloha shirt, so I have been wearing one every day this week. Today is the best one of all. I have scanned it for your viewing pleasure.

Black with neon rainbow palm trees and birds of paradise flowers? It just doesn't get better than that!

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Lily Pad

Last night after Date Night with Jesus, I stopped by Toque McToque's house and we went next door to Mom McToque's place, where Toque took pictures of all the varieties of daylilies that are blooming right now. Their house is a lily pad! But first, here is a photo of bee balm:

And here are some very cool black and white petunias:



And here are all sorts of daylilies. I don't know the names of any of these varieties, but they are all beautiful.



And the most perfect hibiscus bloom:

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