I'm not exactly sure how we got on this topic but all I know is that it ended up with Chris and me on the Bachelorette 2010 website rating the headshot and bio of each bachelor vying for Ali's love. I gave him the rundown of who I liked and disliked based on last nights premiere and who, despite not looking so hot in their headshot, was a winner on TV (don't worry Kasey from Fresno, I gotchyo back).

I am going to start out by answering Veronica's question:

After lunch Chris wrote some emails while I shopped online for graduation shoes. After letting out a sigh of frustration at the overwhelming number of shoes I would never EVER wear, Chris asked what the problem was. I told him my dilemma and then brought up a picture of my graduation dress so he could fully understand my problem. "Allow me," Chris said and quickly landed on multiple pairs of Jimmy Choo's, Christian Louboutin's, and Kate Spades. "I like these," he stated. While about $1,000 out of my price range, I have to give it to him.

On one of Chris' tangents he told me ALL about fermentation and distillation and what constitues good alcohol. I learned the differences between gin, whiskey, wine, brandy, tequila, scotch, vodka, and beer to name just a few. Chris even makes his own beer, which he says is legal, although I'm skeptical. Because of the hydrogen bonding between ethanol and water it is impossible to completely seperate through distillation; this is called and azeotrope. When distilling vodka you end up with 95% ethanol and 5% water.

I'm sorry to report that today we lost mouse 5-1. Chris said we're not allowed to name the mice, but I'll always remember him as Larry. We walked into the mouse room to check on them after the weekend only to be affronted by a foul smell. We proceeded to change out their water bottles and as we made our way to row 3 we came across poor Larry. He was part of the multiple withdrawal group but surpisingly his blood alcohol level was on the low end when we assayed it last Friday. By the time we found him he had already started autolysis.

Today we took blood samples from the mice before sending them back to their home cage. We put the blood samples into a water and propanol solution. The propanol acts as an internal matrix (something we can compare the ethanol in their blood to) when we assay it using GC. We then cleaned the cages that were in the chambers. Underneath each cage was a large rectangular diaper thing that catches all their food crumbs and poop. I got the lovely job of gathering these diaper things and throwing them away.

 Here's what I learned today:

The mice stay in the chambers for 16 hrs with an 8 hr withdrawal period. They go back to their home cages tomorrow afternoon where they will stay in withdrawal until monday when they will be given both ethanol and water bottles to choose from. 

Today we had to show up at 7:30am (the mice have their schedules...) to take blood samples from the mice. We took each mouse and accessed the tail vein (similarly to when the doctor pricks your finger to test for anemia) and then we pushed out the blood into a very small vile. I wasn't very good at this because I wouldn't push hard enough so it took a lot longer. This then caused the access point to clot before I had collected enough blood. We then assayed the blood alcohol level through chromatography.

 Today was my second day on the job. We did a lot of small things and Chris constantly goes on tangents about any questions I asked so to make things simple I'm just going to give the basic run-down of the day.