Collin's Crazy Exciting Week!

Annie and I have decided to alternate weeks for writing our blog--obviously it's my week. Unfortunately for the rest of you, I'm going to talk about the research I'm working on. (I'm laughing evilly on the inside!) I finally learned the protocol for the RT/PCR reaction, so I can finally get some research done. I'm testing RNA primers for a CCK receptor so that we can do some in situ hybridization (I think). I'm not really sure what the goal of the research is, so I need to talk to my mentor about it. Oh, by the way, I'm working with Dr. Jeff Edwards, studying mechanisms of memory in the hippocampus. I know that most of you who will read this have absolutely no idea what all that gobble-de-gook means and will find it really boring, but I love it. Hey, and look at it this way. Annie gets this all the time--you just get it every other week. Imagine how she feels when I get home from the lab. She probably would rather go to the dentist or something equally unpleasant. She's actually pretty good about it. She just nods and says "Good job, Sweetie," and keeps cleaning up after the kids.

We started our Christmas shopping yesterday. Let me tell you, what a joy...There were so many people out and about that we could barely get around Orem at all. Annie refuses to do it alone, so I have to endure the crowds, the screaming children, the mall. Also, we still haven't found any babysitters, so we have to try and keep our kids from running amok as well. I love the holidays.

Anyway, I get about as much time in the lab as I want, which is really nice. Dr. Edwards said he wants to make me the lead researcher on the project, which means that when it's all done, I'll get to be on the author's list on the paper. I may even be the lead author. That would be awesome, especially since that's one of the major goals for my program. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. All right, I'm done now. Next time you'll get Annie's blog, not the condensed scientific paper you just read. Like I said, that's what I've been up to this week, and I love it.