Tuesday, April 27, 2010

You know it's going to be a hard final exam when

The first page of your in-class, closed-book cancer pathobiology final asks you to describe the functions for each gene in a list of cancer-related genes. Have you seen how genes are named? It's like alphabet soup! Okay, a couple make sense, like how BRCA 1&2 are associated with breast cancer, but when a gene looks something like p18MSH2q&*#$!, it is not inherently obvious what cancer that gene is associated with or what it does.

The second essay question on your in-class, closed-book cancer pathobiology final asks, "Who gets cancer and why? (worth 20 points). Oh, where to begin. . .

There are no "choices" for essay questions on your in-class, closed book cancer pathobiology final. If remembering the difference between oncogene addition and non-oncogene addiction and which types of cancer treatments go with each one is not something that you spent a whole lot of time studying, oh well.

The point values of all the questions add up to ~150 points (i.e., it's a long test).

Thursday, April 22, 2010

A tongue twister

From my cancer pathobiology class:

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer

Say that one five times fast! But if you can't even say it once all the way through, you can just call it HNPCC.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Sold the condo

On Thursday, we had the closing for our former residence, our little 1170-ish square-foot condo. We sold it to a very nice young couple who has a baby about Ally's age. We are happy that we can pass it on to a first-time homeowner, as it was our first home purchase too, over 6 years ago. Before the closing, Ben and I went over there one last time to make sure everything was as it should be (electricity on, fridge running, etc) We were a little nostalgic, as we remembered all the home improvement project we did: painting bathrooms and our bedroom, installing two tile floors, and the concrete countertop that Ben built for the half-bath. So goodbye, little condo, you were a great place and you served us well!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Easter pics






Walking baby!

Today, Ally took her first set of unassisted steps! I guess she is now officially leaving babyhood behind and is entering toddlerhood. Hard to believe. Here is a short video to capture her newest skill.