More Science Quilts: Space Quilts

Victoria over at Bumble Beans posted some of her pics from the Lancaster AQS Quilt Show and one of the ones that caught my attention was The Black Eye Galaxy by Jimmy McBride.


Pretty cool stuff for two reasons. 1) It is a science quilt and 2) it was quilted by a man. Not something you see every day.

He seems like an interesting guy. His website is filled with some great realistic and science fiction-esque fiber art and he even explains on his blog how he designs, assembles and quilts his wonderful creations. Completely self-taught.

If you are interested in owning one of your very own, he sells them on etsy. Keep up the good work Jimmy!

CSI: Please get a better science advisor!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
That is the only comment I have about this clip.


The real thing is much much better looking (on a mouse not a rat by the way). I especially loved how it was housed in a fish tank with a glowing green floor. Don't you know IACUC would frown on the lack of enrichment? (Not to mention food and water!). Jeeze!

And don't even get me started about the spider-goat milk silk. For that there just are no words.

31DBBB Day 29: Develop a plan (aka "We don't need no stinkin' plan!")

The goal of Day 29 is to work on building up a presence online in other forums. The idea here is to FOCUS so you don't just waste time flittering around cyberspace. Actually make a plan like:

Spend 10 minutes per day on twitter
30 minutes per day on facebook
10 minutes on linkedin
20 minutes reading other blogs
blah, blah, blah

Umm.. yea. No way Jose. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants girl. I cannot pre-plan my surfing time. Obviously Darren at 31DBBB isn't a working mom.

Saturday Suckitude

Today sucked on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin. Let me make a list:

1) Realtor calls last night, says "Definite offer on the house will be coming in tomorrow. Wait by the phone."
Today: NO CALL. No offer. Thanks for that false hope.

2) Had a showing this afternoon (number 23 for those of you keeping score) and the feedback is that they love the house, but the bedrooms are too small. Another waste of a showing (and BTW buyer: The freakin' dimensions of the bedrooms are listed on the MLS so don't waste my time if you know you need rooms of X size!)

3) While killing time during the aforementioned pointless showing, our car dies. Yep. Just sputters to a stop in the McDonald's drive thru and won't turn over. Dead car is now sitting in the parking lot waiting for our service shop to open on monday so I can have it towed. It isn't something simple like the battery, it is something wrong with the fuel intake. Great. Just great.

4) We have an Open House tomorrow, but LabDad has a big experiment, and we are down to one car (as described in suckitude number 3). Wonderful. Looks like we will be either dropping him off so we can have the car, or walking around the neighborhood in circles in order to not be home for the open house.

5) Found out our relocation company will only store our crapola for 30 days. There is no way we will be able to find, buy and close on a house in 30 days. The selection is just too scarce. Looks like we are going to be sucking up a HUGE storage bill or else having our crap delivered and pay for an intertown move. Yay! Add that to the huge stack of bills. Lovely.

Anyhow.. I am glad this whole day is coming to an end. Sunday has to be better. Maybe our open house will change our luck! Fingers crossed.

31DBBB Day 28: Fuzzi Bunz OS: 2 Bums Up!

Wow.. only 4 more tasks and I will have completed the 31 Days of Building a Better Blog Challenge. Whoo hoo!

Today I am supposed to be writing a review post. That means I have to figure out exactly what to review. Since I am elbow deep in laundry, it hit me: Cloth Diapers! I would love to spew my two cents about that topic, so here it goes:

Lab Mom's Review of
Fuzzi Bunz One Size Pocket Cloth Diapers

I have cloth diapered both my children and they could not be more different. My eldest was a chubby thing, topping off the 100th percentile since birth. On the other hand, my latest offspring is a teenie peanut barely pushing the 8th percentile and weighing in at a whopping 14 pounds at nearly nine months old. Because of this huge dichotomy I have been able to evaluate cloth diapers on very different body shapes.

I have tried out dozens hundreds of diapers and my latest find are Fuzzi Bunz OS pockets. I am in love with these dipes! If this sounds like a foreign language to you, let me quickly summarize what a One Size Pocket Diaper is. (If you are already a CD user, feel free to skip this next paragraph!)

Pocket diapers have a waterproof outer layer (usually made of PUL: polyurethane laminate) and a second layer of either fleece or microfiber (something that wicks moisture) which is placed against the baby's skin. Between those layers you can stuff an insert of some kind (cotton prefold, microfiber towel, hemp insert etc.) which absorbs and holds the moisture in the center of the diaper. The area which holds the insert is called the pocket (hence the term "pocket diaper.") You can get pocket diapers in multiple sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL and Toddler), but this can get expensive since you need new diapers every time your child grows. The alternative to this is something called the "One Size" diaper. This is an adjustable diaper which you can manipulate in order to fit your growing child. This is often done with a series of snaps that fold the diaper down creating a smaller pocket.

Unlike other brands of One Size Pockets that adjust with snaps that just fold the front of the diaper down, the Fuzzi Bunz actually have a strip of elastic in each leg casing. The elastic has holes and buttons (similar to that in adjustable waist pants) which allow you to manipulate the leg opening into 8 different lengths. I personally love this feature. It can be hard at first to figure out exactly what size to use, but once you have determined the best fit, it is smooth sailing.

There are some minor drawbacks to these diapers compared to Fuzzi Bunz perfect fits (The Fuzzi Bunz sized pocket version.) Because the One Sizes need to accommodate larger babies, they contain more material and are bulky on smaller infants. However this drawback is true with all One Size diapers, not just the Fuzzi Bunz.

The other thing I do dislike about the elastic system is that the tail of the elastic does tend to hang out of the diaper, and needs to be stuffed under the microfiber liner when you are using it to avoid having it rub on your baby's thighs. Stuffing the elastic in can be a bit of a hassle.

But besides those negatives, there isn't much I don't like about them. The fit is good, the size of the pocket accomodates a large prefold or multiple inserts if you have a heavy wetter, the series of snaps at the waist make for even further size adjustment and at $18.95 retail (although I got mine for under $15 on sale at ClothDiaperClearance), they are a bargain considering they will be the only dipe you ever need. Plus they come in an amazing array of darling colors/patterns:

If you are new to the cloth diapering world, I would encourage you to give it a shot. I personally use a diaper service to deliver my prefolds (which I use as inserts) and then use pocket diapers so I don't have much laundry. Win win! And if you are looking for an easy diaper, which will last your entire cloth diapering career, you should try the FB OS Pocket.

If you are an experienced cloth dipe user and are looking for my other recommendations here they are:

Other great OS Pockets: Haute Pockets One Size
Favorite Pocket (Sized): Happy Heinys
Favorite Inserts: Knickernappies Super Dos
Favorite Nighttime Diaper (heavy wetters): Crickett's Hemp Fitted
Favorite All In One: BumGenius
Favorite Cover (Sized): Bummis Super Brites
Favorite One Size Cover: Blueberry Minky
Favorite DSQ CPF: GreenMountain (or my delivery service which shall remain nameless!)
Favorite Flats: Plain old Gerber (a la Wal Mart)
Favorite Training Pant: Happy Heinys
Favorite Diaper Detergent: All Small & Mighty Free and Clear

Best place to buy/sell diapers: www.diaperswappers.com

I'm a good working mom. Really.

Today I heard a vent from a brand new mom who was planning to go back to work and was being eaten alive by mommy guilt about using daycare. Specifically she said:

"I am going back to work because I HAVE to, and my baby will be doing all of his or her awesome new tricks, like smiling and laughing and rolling over and sitting up, all with someone who is NOT ME. I HATE the thought of it. I just hate giving up all of the milestones to someone who is not me. I can't imagine not being the one caring for my own baby -- if not 100% of the time, at least 95% of the time"

Oh lady! How I have been there! With my eldest daughter, those thoughts were constantly in my head. I compared the infant room at my daycare to "baby jail" with all the little ones lined up in bouncy seats, as if prisoners on death row.

Yeah, seriously. That was how bad I making it out to be in my head. DEATH ROW! It didn't help that I was hearing all the negative messages from family, fellow moms, and of course my favorite talk radio doc.

It is hard to see reality when you are standing there in the trenches, you are so engrossed in it. You are constantly second guessing everything. "Can the daycare teacher tell the difference in her cry? Will she sleep if it isn't dark? What if they feed her something she hasn't eaten before?" The what-ifs drive you crazy.

And in all honestly, there isn't any real way to get over those doubts until you have walked through it and come out the other side. Now that I have an older child (almost 5) and a new baby my perspective is very different. I am both "in the trenches" and "been there, done that" so all those 'what-ifs' have been answered.

So how did I answer my fellow working mom? What advice did I offer?
Here is what I said:

"Don't focus on your guilt. That isn't constructive, and in fact, isn't deserved. In realtiy, you may face people who will tell you that daycare is "neglecting your child." We will even beat ourselves up by saying that to ourselves. We tell ourselves nobody could do as good of a job as (obviously) we can.. and that couldn't be farther from the truth. It isn't like we are dropping them off at a crack house or leaving them in a box at the side of the road. We are selective with who we choose to care for them. To me, if you find someone who cares about your child, it isn't that you are taking something away from them.. you are just adding more people in their lives, who love them, care for them and nuture them to grow up to be wonderful loving, caring adults. You are providing for them what they need.

You wouldn't resent a kindergarten teacher, or a college professor, or a grandparent.. for spending time with your child. Maybe they aren't you, but they help shape your children to become independent and self-reliant. And you are doing all of this in addition to showing them a strong independent role model. Someone who is willing to sacrifice anything to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Your motivation is one of love.

If your father worked full time outside of the home did you ever resent him? Did you ever think he didn't love you, that he chose his career over you? NO. Nobody thinks that about work outside the home dads. Why is it when a woman makes that (or is forced to make) choice, that that rationale is questioned? Why is that a guilt trip that only we get to take?

I know this probably doesn't sound super reassuring, but hang in there.. walk through the self-doubt and guilt. Since on the other side, you will look back and realize that the harshest critic of you is YOU. Your baby will love you unconditionally.. they will love the mom you are, and they will love the life you gave them because you worked hard, and had only their well being at heart. That is something they can only get from a real parent.. a GREAT parent."

I wish I had heard that advice more often. Since now when I pick my youngest up from baby jail I no longer feel any guilt. I have been there, done that, and come out the other side and in reality I am a better parent, a wonderful parent, the perfect parent for MY kids.

31DBBB Day 25: We're going on a hunt!

Yes, just like Laurie Berkner says:
"We're going on a hunt,
We're going on a hunt
We're looking for adventure,
We're going on a hunt."

(Although, what the hell this kid is doing is beyond me..)


Back to the task at hand: Today I am searching my blog for dead links. Another "Don't" I should have added to yesterday's post.

I could go through and click them one by one, but that is too much like work. Instead I downloaded link checker software and just sat back. In my case, since I am running MacOSX (Shout Out to the Mac people!) I used Integrity. Quick, easy to use and FREE!

I currently have 225 links on my blog, and 5 were bad! (But not for long!)

So go ahead.. click away, you will no longer run into any dead links or the dreaded 404s! (at least for now)

31DBBB Day 26: 5 things I would change about your blog.

Today's task is to take my ample knowledge of blogging and make suggestions to a fellow blogger on how to improve their blog.

I don't necessarily want to go off giving advice when it hasn't been asked for, so instead I am just going to put my 2 cents out into the blogosphere and you can take it or leave it if it applies to you.

Five things I have noticed about your blog that I would suggest you change:

1) If your blog has text that is light on a very dark background is impossible to read and burns into my retinas. Please re-think your color scheme.

If you want a little science to back me up on this one: Bauer and Cavonius found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background. (Bauer, D., & Cavonius, C., R. (1980). Improving the legibility of visual display units through contrast reversal. In E. Grandjean, E. Vigliani (Eds.), Ergonomic Aspects of Visual Display Terminals (pp. 137-142). London: Taylor & Francis)

Yes, I know I could switch over and read everything in Google Reader, but I enjoy reading directly off people's blogs.. The backgrounds help me keep everyone straight.

2) If you are going to comment, please change your email settings so it doesn't come up as noreply-comments@blogger.com. (Not that I ever respond via email, but some people do.)
In Blogger here is how you fix it:

Click on the Customize link in the upper right hand corner of your screen.


Click on the Dashboard link in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

Click on Edit Profile, which is on the left hand side of the screen next to your picture.

This will take you to the Edit User Profile screen.


Look in the Privacy section.

Check the box that says, "Show my email address".

In the Identity section, enter in an email address. (Paranoid users: create a new email address for this, if you want.)

Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Save Profile.

3) Turn off any auto-play music. It scares me every time it starts up, and if I'm reading your blog at work you are going to get me found out. (Plus your music choices can frequently be annoying.)

4) When your URL isn't indicated/alluded to anywhere on your actual blog. Yes, I know people frequently don't use their blog's title as the URL, but it would be great if you at least mentioned it somewhere in your header. I say this because if I want to ever go directly to your blog in my browser and it isn't anywhere on your blog homepage, I mostly likely won't be able to remember the URL.

For example, let's say your blog's title is: "A day in the life of Crazy Hilda"
if your URL is: www.crazyhilda.com Great! All is well. Life makes sense.

But if your blog URL is instead www.themothership.com then we have a problem. I will NEVER connect the two and won't be able to find you again. You must have chosen that URL for a reason.. so indicate that somewhere on your header!

You could rename your blog: "The Mothership: A day in the life of Crazy Hilda"
Or use a subtitle:
"A day in the life of Crazy Hilda
My quest to find my way back to the mothership."

Just make it make sense!

5) Not having some sort of biography. Who are you? It is hard to figure out what POV you are blogging from if I cant' figure out who you are. It especially drives me crazy when I am reading a new blog and I can't determine the author's gender. If I have to scan through a dozen posts to figure out if you are referring to a husband or girlfriend (and even then I can only assume you are heterosexual) to determine your gender, we are starting off on the wrong foot.


Those are my suggestions. Things I have noticed about some of the blogs I frequent (and don't frequent). Just keep in mind this advice is worth what you paid for it.

Fun Stuff: More Science Cookies (but what ARE they?!)

Mrs. Humble has them up again: Science cookies. Go check them out!

I actually had to google the nuetrophils (to remind myself what they looked like) since I couldn't get mouse uterui out of my mind when I saw these cookies:

I see:
Courtesy of the Kennedy Group


They are supposed to be:

Taken from The Animal Health Diagnostic Centera at Cornell

OOPS! I need to get out more often, maybe catch a movie or something. Seriously.

31DBBB Day 25: Would you ever choose to quit your job?

Whew.. Only one more week of this and then I will have a better blog! Yeah, right.

Today the tables are turned, and it is my chance to ask you, my loyal reader, a question and I have a great one:

Would you ever quit your job to stay at home?
What would be the deciding factors?

This is a hypothetical question.. so here are the ground rules:

1. Money is no object, you are financially secure without employment
2. You are marketable.. You currently have a job or could get a job if you wanted it (at least right now), you have a great skill set and great references.
3. You are relatively happy at your job. You don't lay awake at night and think about how much you love it, but you wouldn't choose a root canal over a day at the bench.
4. You can consider flexible job options, but aren't guaranteed to find them. (Working part time, telecommuting etc.)
5. You have small children. (Let's say they are 4 and 9 months.. hey, my blog, my kids' ages!)

So you are now asking yourself, "This scenario sounds familiar LabMom. What is the deal?"

Okay, I'll fess up: I am asking this, since I am in this boat. I really can't decide if I want to look for a job after we relocate or hold out for a while, take some time off and then re-enter the workforce later. I am torn since I don't want a huge gap in my CV, my skills/references are current and I don't know how long it will be before they get stale, and I just don't know if I am cut out to do the SAHM thing. Just not my cup of tea. However, there is some appeal to becoming a housewife for a while, and taking a break from the lab.

So, what would you do?

31DBBB: Day 24: Being spanked makes you stupid (or Analyze A Magazine)

Day 24's task is to look at 'old' media (although, I don't know if I would consider magazines passé just yet. I do agree that one day will we all be sitting in the doctor's waiting room with our Kindles and Crackberries, nary a magazine in sight but not just quite yet.) Anyhow, the idea is that you can get ideas for how to improve your blog, by looking at how magazines were/are successful.

So, I grab the nearest magazine (figuring that scientific journals don't really count) and come up with April's edition of Working Mother Magazine. I get about 10 pages in when I realize this task is boring and instead begin browsing for a post topic. Suddenly an article catches my eye.

On page 56 (under the title Spanking News) it was reported:

"Children who are spanked have lower IQs than those who are not (even after accounting for parental education, income and other factors)"

SA-WEET. Just the kind of generalized over-simplified data explanation I like to read in the mainstream media. This has piqued my interest. Especially knowing that spanking can be prime mommy-wars fodder. (Okay, maybe secretly I can't wait to tell my spanking mommy friends their kids are stupid!)

So of course, I am dying to track down the source. Murray A Straus PhD (codirector of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire in Durham) is credited for this finding. I can easily find his work in PubMed, but nothing having to do directly with intelligence, although it is clear which side of the spanking fence Dr. Straus falls on. Bummer.

Time to see if he is citing someone else's work.. AH! Yes.. here we go.
No! Wait, that won't work.. that is HARSH punishment (defined as "frequently involving objects").. more than just spanking.

Okay, how about here. Eh, nope. That won't do.. it wasn't normalized "for parental education, income and other factors" and that is what that article said.

Hmm.. I am beginning to wonder if I can't find anything to back up the article. Damn! Does that mean I really can't consider my non-spanked children intellectually superior?

So I guess the article was wrong, or at least it isn't as black and white as they make it sound. Stupid magazine. Maybe it was spanked.

The Free Internet Nazi.

Remember this?


Apparently my neighbor is also a fan. Glad to see he has a sense of humor.

At least I hope it is a sense of humor, or else it is just obnoxious.

Evolution of a house sale..

So our house is finally listed on the market!

My life has gone from this:

to this:


and frequently a whole lot of this (which is actually where I sit right now):


Hopefully soon we will see this:

Since I can't take living this way for too long.

31DBBB Day 22: Call to Action! End Scientist Abuse!

Today's task is to rile up my readers and get them to actually DO something.

So, in light of recent events where a UCLA researcher was attacked and then his children were threatened by animal rights activists, I am asking you to stand up against this illegal and outrageous behavior, no matter what your view is on the use of laboratory animals in biomedical research. People cannot be allowed to bully and harass scientists who are doing animal research legally and ethically.

If you are following my blog as a mom and not as a scientist, and you think this doesn't apply to you, you are wrong. Celebs and activists are going to influence your kid's opinions on animal research if you don't take a stand. This is a topic that may be hard to actually talk about, but like sex, drinking or drugs it is one they should learn about from their parents, not from the media or their peers. I would encourage you to have a conversation similar to this one with your kids. Honest and open. Answer the hard questions the best that you can or else someone else will do it for you.

You don't have to agree with my opinion on animal use in science, but at a minimum educate yourself and listen to both sides of the issue. (For the record, my personal stance is obviously pro-research but I do agree we need strict oversight to end any TRUE animal abuse [yes this in fact does happen] which may slip through the system.) No matter where on the spectrum your views fall, I would hope we can all agree we all need to stand up against the people who are not actually activists, but are in fact terrorists who threaten and hurt people.

So what can you do?
1) Educate yourself. Find out what really is involved with animal research. How the NIH enforces humane care and use of animals in laboratory research.
2) Educate others. Start a dialogue with your friends and family who may not support research and/or may support some of the organizations responsible for these heinous crimes. You don't have to agree on the role of animals in research, but make it clear that violence to achieve activist goals is never acceptable.
3) Be visible. Protesters are out there making themselves seen, we cannot stand by and be silent. We must PUBLICLY condemn these acts and those that sympathize with them.
4) Change the laws! Write your senators and congressmen and let them know we will not tolerate harassment, stalking and threatening of animal researchers. There is a big difference between constitutionally-protected protests and criminal threats.

If you do nothing else, I would encourage you to at least touch on this topic on your blog, on facebook, on twitter. Nobody should have to live in fear for their personal safety or the safety of their children because of their use of research animals.

Gorgeous Quilt Inspiration!

Vicki at Sew Inspired posted the most beautiful watercolor quilt on her blog today.



I LOVE it.. LOVE LOVE LOVE! (Almost as much as I love iced coffees... and that is a lot!)
Look closely, see how it is a nine patch overall, with lots of little nine patches made up of hundreds thousands of tiny squares and triangles? The subtle shading and color choice is PHENOMENAL! I love it! (Have I said that already?)

It is definitely not your typical watercolor, which tend to be non-geometric and much more "foo-foo." Not that there is anything wrong with foo-foo but I just don't have the same love for them.

Image source: http://www.womenfolk.com

I know I will never have the time nor patience to ever create anything as beautiful and subtlely complex. So once again, I'll just live vicariously. *Sigh*

I won! I won!

It may not be the Nobel Prize, but a win is still a win. (And my chances at the Nobel aren't exactly stellar these days!)

Andrea over at Good Girl Gone Redneck was doing a giveaway with Lisa at Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs and I actually won! Get out!

Now the Princess will be decked out in a fabulous new Red Checked Apron. (And you thought she would be sportin' a lab coat!)

Thanks Andrea and Lisa!

31DBBB Day 22: Send some love to a reader

Yes, I realize that at this rate getting though 31 days of building a better blog is going to take a lifetime, but I am going to try to get back on track. I will confess that at this point I just want these damn 31 days to end but I refuse to quit. I am not sure why I refuse, maybe because I have so many quilting UFOs in my closet, that I didn't want to start piling up blogging UFOs too.

So without further ado.. Day 22:

Today's goal is to acknowledge a reader of my blog. (Wow, who knew I'd have readers!?) Fortunately I have the perfect person for this! I just recently stumbled upon her blog which is relatively new (just like mine) she is also in job limbo/possible relocation mode (just like me) and she is hoping to soon become a mom (praying for her! *baby dust!*)!

So if you haven't ever been over there, please visit Dr.O over at The Tightrope. I also want to congratulate her on recent wrangling of a beast rarely captured in the wild: The "accept with minor revisions" manuscript! Congrats again Dr. O! And keep up the great blog.

Light at the end of the tunnel

We are almost ready to actually put the house on the market. It can't come too soon, since this whole house prep thing is really cutting into my blogging time.

4 words that make my ears bleed

If you have recently joined a new lab, don't constantly start sentances with the phrase "In my old lab..."

I don't give a damn how you did it back there. You are here now. Suck it up.