JetBlue

After never having flown on JetBlue prior to 6 months ago, I am now about to embark on my third journey with them in that same span of time. This time it's off to New England, first for a visit with my great-aunt on Cape Cod, then to Providence to visit the old stomping grounds and see two of my best friends from Brown, and then back up to Boston for a conference.

JetBlue is of course famous for their DirecTV on the back of every seat:
However, as nyanko pointed out recently, it would be nice if one of the channels was a program guide! They do provide an online version on their website, which you can print and bring with you - if you remember to do that before your flight...

Unfortunately even that wouldn't have helped with the problem my last flight encountered - many of the channels looked like this through most of the flight, rendering them completely useless:

Maybe I'll have better luck this time :)

Sunshine state

Just got back from a nice trip to Florida to visit my grandma, who is turning 90 in about a week! My mom and sister made the trip too, so it was a good reenactment of what it was like when the three of us always used to go down there for spring break every year. The weather was warm and muggy - but not as bad as it is in August. After throwing an ice cream party for G-ma with all of her card-playing buddies, we had a nice dinner at the Oyster Bar in Punta Gorda- a town through which the eye of Hurricane Charley passed in 2004. The FEMA trailers were still there - though word on the street was that the residents were going to have to move soon, but to where noone knows.

We also had a close encounter with a local reptile:
Just a small lizard, but he moved very fast. I used my 12x zoom to get this shot. :)

Invest Northwest

Just got back from day 1 of Invest Northwest, an annual event put on by the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Belltown. There were a ton of Northwest Biotech companies there making presentations on why investors should give them more money. It was interesting to learn more about some of the companies, and also just to realize quite how many biotechs there are in the PNW! The lawyers and financing companies who were also there provided us with tons of schwag - some of which is pictured below. The silliest thing by far is the USB-powered fan/LED light combo - useful for when you're computing in the dark desert? Close behind is the DNA puzzle, though I haven't attempted that yet. I did resist the urge to pick up one of those plastic bottles with colored oil and water in them. The pens all seem quite nice - I especially like the one that lights up. And post-it notes in highlighters? Genius! Oh, and in case you're wondering (as I was for most of the day), the yellow smiley-faced thing is a keyboard brush that can sit on top of a CRT monitor when not in use. Hmm... maybe that one comes in second in the silliness quotient.

Jimmy Carter at Foege Building dedication

 
I went to the star-studded dedication of the new Bioengineering/Genome Sciences William Foege Building today on main campus. After some very nice speeches by the Dean of the School of Medicine Paul Ramsey, the acting Dean of the College of Engineering Mani Soma, the President of UW Mark Emmert, and Mr. Bill Gates III himself, we got to hear an amazing speech by former President Jimmy Carter (who happened to be the president when I was born). He spoke mostly about William Foege, who is the namesake for the building and a graduate of the UW Medical School in 1961. After his speech, William Foege got up to speak, but then the high winds and rain caused the tent to nearly collapse so they deftly moved all the VIPs into the Genome Sciences side of the building and then the rest of us milled about the hallways. I did get to hear the last few minutes of Foege's speech after they managed to find a microphone, and caught a tiny glimpse of the relocated ribbon cutting ceremony. Afterwards I took a self-guided tour of the lower floors and 5th floor of the Bioengineering side of the building. Though not entirely appealing from the outside, it was very nice inside and has some great views. All in all, quite an eventful afternoon! 

Ti ThreeVos

 

At first, there was only one: my roommate's Sony-branded 30-hour series 1 TiVo (upper left) that she graciously let us other roomies watch and record shows on. Then there were two: I bought my own Humax 80-hour TiVo Series 2 (lower left), so that I could archive about a month's worth of television last year when I was working on my general. Now there are three: roommate got an 80-hour TiVo brand TiVo (lower right) for free with her rewards points. In this picture it's sitting on top of the new/old DVD player that we sort of inherited when her old DVD player bit the dust. Now if we don't record a show, it's not for lack of devices, and we have only ourselves to blame! 

Vancouver, part 2

Starbucks^2
Originally uploaded by gecko_12.

After the biotech event, we stopped by a Starbucks on Robson St.... that was across the street from another Starbucks. Surprisingly, I don't think this occurs in Seattle (though there are at least 3 in U Village).

Vancouver

I went up to Vancouver, BC in mid-January with some other UW BioEs for a biotech career fair/expo being held by a group at UBC. The event was great - but so was the dinner we had beforehand at a little sushi bar on Davie St. called Kadoya (a native Canadian from our group directed us there). I got the Alaska roll - kind of like a California roll with smoked salmon on top (pictured below). The food was great and the price was hard to beat!
  

iPods galore

 
At one point over the winter break, we managed to have 6 different iPods in the apartment. Two belong to my roommate (3rd generation and shuffle), two belong to her boyfriend (3rd generation and 60GB 5th generation), one belongs to my boyfriend (1st generation, far left), and one belongs to me (30GB 5th generation, attached to the cable in the picture). We lined them up to document them all... scary! For the record, I really like my viPod so far! Once I got a case for it I finally took off the sticker that comes on the front of it. :) Watching TV shows on my little screen makes my bus ride go by so much faster... 

Tacoma Glass Museum

 
Well, I've been delinquent for quite a while now! This is a picture I took in the Hot Shop at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma back in early January. It was awesome to see them make blown glass. We watched them make two pieces; the first was rather boring, but I liked this one better. They had a team of three people making the glass, and there was also a woman serving as the MC who would explain each step and answer questions from the audience. The rest of the museum was pretty small, but the hot shop was totally worth the drive and the admission fee. I just wish we could see the finished (and cooled) piece of glass- but that process takes several days. 

Blooming Christmas Cactus

 

After several false starts (buds that formed but then dropped off), my Christmas cactus that I started from cuttings 2 years ago finally bloomed! It may be only one little flower, but it sure is pretty...