Jon's Getting the Hell Outta Boulder

Lots of snow at WP...finally!

My friend Jon has been complaining about how much he hates Boulder for at least 2 or 3 years now. Well...he's getting his wish on Friday. He's leaving for Nuclear Engineering School for the Navy on Friday. We decided to have a little bit of a going away party for him this weekend.

TJ showing off his Rock n Roll Jonny custom jacket

We headed up to the slopes on Saturday for a great (and tiring!!) day at Winter Park. TJ had been talking about making a tribute to Jon "jacket" for a long time, and he finally did it, just in time for Jon's last ski day! The resemblance turned out really well! He got some really good points and stares out of it all day!

TJ, Jon, me, and Jeremy

The boys spent a lot longer in the bumps than I did!

After weaving our way home through the I-70 ridiculousness, we headed to Phil's for a little Supercross watching before heading out to Brunken Dowling (TJ's name for the drunken bowling shenanigans that were on the docket for the evening).

We had a good time bowling with high score competitions as well as highest speed competitions. Kevin took the W with some silly score over 200 after 5 strikes in a row, and TJ won the fastest throw, with no real compeition, with a 22.2 mph toss. I was pleased to break 100 and just happy that it didn't hurt my wrist too much to throw the bowling ball!

The Crew

Regan and I decided that we'd much rather that someone we didn't like so much was leaving instead of Jon, but alas, he needs to start a new chapter in his life! We're gonna miss him, that's for sure! Good luck Jonny Boy...Rock n Roll! :)

Travel Grant

I'm going to my first research conference in Seattle at the end of April. I'm pretty excited that I finally get to give a presentation about my research. The conference is the Society for Biomaterials, so it should be very relative to my research! I applied for a graduate travel grant from a general graduate program on campus, and I'm pretty excited to have gotten it, so it'll be nice to have someone other than my adviser paying for the conference expenses.

Eldora at it's Finest

Okay, not really, but Matt and I had a pretty good day on the slopes followed by and excellent lunch at the Kathmandu House buffet! Sweet Potato Masala...need I say more?!?! :)

Stem Cells Doing Their Jobs, Finally!

It's been a long time in the process of trying to get my stem cells to differentiate into osteoblasts (bone cells) and start producing bone matrix, but I think I've finally figured out how to do it in my tissue engineering system...

Stem cells differentiated into bone cells producing osteonectin (red)

I still need to do a few more studies to verify a few more things, but things are looking good on the bone side of things for my PhD project...now I just need to get the cartilage side of things to start working!! In hindsight, I can't believe I picked a project trying to engineer three different types of tissue...ONE is hard enough! haha I am always up for a good challenge, though, so...hopefully it all works out well in the end!

Outlet?!?

This past month (I had surgery a month ago!!) has been a bit of a struggle. My normal outlet for dealing with stress, school, heartbreak, lack of understanding, etc...is exercise, and I just haven't been able to do that like I normally do, and the timing of not being able to exercise has been additionally poor given all of the other stuff going on! :( I really thought this whole wrist surgery thing was gonna be "no big deal". Well, I was wrong! I still have a lot of pain in my hand/wrist/forearm and the scar tissue prohibits me from utilizing my wrist in any sort of normal fashion, which makes yoga a real struggle! Achhhh!

I really hate running, I mean, really hate it, but it might come down to that! ha After reading Born to Run, though, I at least feel slightly inspired to give it a go. If you're looking for a great book to read, give it go. You won't be disappointed. :)

Not Much of Interest These Days

I've just been killing myself at school, rehabbing my wrist, and studying German ALL of the time. A bit boring, I know, but that's what happens when wrist surgery takes away all of my fun adventures! :( Hopefully it will be getting up to speed soon! I had PT yesterday and yoga went a little bit better last night, so...fingers crossed that it will be back to feeling good very soon!!!

Until then, I'll just be LOVING the Olympics and HATING NBC's coverage of it. I wonder if they know that there are competitors other than North Americans?!?!

World Nutella Day!!!

So good! :) Luckily my week got better as it went on!

Montana Getaway

Had a wonderful time visiting my sister and my nephew last weekend. Got to see 6 bald eagles and was witness to a couple of amazing sunsets, too! Was nice to catch up with my family.