The colon is a funny organ

Last week, Ben's family came to visit.  We had bunches of fun with a total of 13 people and 1 large dog in our house.  Of course, the food was plentiful, and we took turns cooking meals.  Ben's brother Paul made this really good bean dish that was kind of like baked beans with sausage and peppers in it.  I do want to emphasize though that is was pretty heavy on the beans, and I'm not going to lie, several members of the family experienced some "outgassing" shall we say.  You can't really talk about lower digestive system issues without it getting pretty funny, which brought to mind a column written by the humorist Dave Berry.  It first appeared in 2008, and is about his experience getting his first colonoscopy.  I have re-read it several times, and each time, I can't help but laugh.  I am posting the link to his colonoscopy column here.  Enjoy!

Major things I'm looking forward to this year

In no particular order:

1.  Graduating with my PhD
2.  The arrival of Baby #2
3.  The transition from graduate student to some sort of faculty-ish employment
4.  The Olympics
5.  The presidential election

Happy New Year!

Recent Fall Happenings

It has been a busy month!  Here are some of the highlights.

First, we had trick-or-treating on Halloween.  Ally and I dressed up as princesses.  She had a great time collecting candy from all our neighbors and can't wait to do it next year.

Second, attempt #2 at culturing my leukemia cells has gone well.  They are alive and growing well.

Third, my dissertation data collection is finally underway.  I tested 3 subjects last week, and I have subjects on the calendar to be tested all throughout December.  If the pace keeps up, I could possibly finish my data collection early next semester.

Fourth, we had both sets of parents in town for Thanksgiving.  Ally had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Gran-Gran.

Lastly, we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound yesterday.  Baby #2 is growing right on schedule and looks healthy.  And probably of most interest to everyone, Baby #2 is a girl!  Now to the task of finding a name for this little one.

I Killed Cancer

Apparently my lack of a green thumb regarding houseplant maintenance has followed me into the lab. I managed to completely wipe out my leukemia cell culture in only 2 passages. The culprit: bacterial contamination.

Now, to check my media for contamination and try this again...

Adventures with Bizarre Foods: Eating a Durian

One of our favorite shows to watch on Netflix is Bizarre Foods. It is hosted by Chef Andrew Zimmern, and he travels all over the US and the world to try local cuisine.  Many of the things he eats are really weird by American standards.  For example, he has eaten many dishes with various creepy-crawlies.  Also, many cultures eat other parts of the animal besides the regular muscle tissue, like heart, tripe, blood, stomach, tendon, brains, and both the male and female reproductive parts.  Sometimes things are raw, and sometimes things are cooked.  At first, Ben and I were kind of grossed out, but when Andrew explained that many of these ways of eating came out of necessity or poverty (i.e., eat what's hopping around your house and don't waste any part of the animal), we definitely gained a much better understanding and appreciation of how others eat, even if it is a bit odd.

When Andrew goes and samples all these foods, he is very up front about whether he thinks it tastes good or not.  He admits that very few things in his travels have really grossed him out.  However, there is one food that even Andrew Zimmern admits he cannot handle.  It is not blood, brains, tongue, eyeballs, or fried tarantuals.  Nope it is actually a fruit!  The Durian fruit.

There is an Asian market that opened in our area less than a year ago, where they have several of the bizarre foods we've seen featured on Bizarre Foods.  And as luck would have it, they carry the Durian fruit.  Ben and I were really curious about this thing, I mean how could a fruit be that gross?  So we took the plunge.  We bought one.

Me pointing to the Durian.  It weighs about 4 lbs and is really spiky.

We cut it open to reveal the pulp inside.  The pulp is rather custard-like in texture, kind of like a very soft mango.  It kind of comes in these separate compartments, each with a big seed.  The Durian certainly smelled strong, but it wasn't too bad, more like a very very ripe papaya.

So after mulling it over with our eyes for a couple seconds, we took the plunge.  Was Andrew Zimmern right or was he exaggerating???

Well, maybe a little of both.  The first bite wasn't too bad.  But the second and third bites were pretty gross.  I'm really not sure how to describe it, but I think the closest I can come is EXTREMELY ripe mango or papaya that has also started to rot.  It was sweet, but it was WAY too strong in flavor.  So after about 3 bites each (Ally quit after 1 bite), we tossed it in the garbage.  Actually, since the thing had become quite aromatic once we opened it up, I had to put it in the garbage can outside.

So although our experience with the Durian fruit was not terribly pleasant, we're still glad that we satisfied our curiosity.  I'm sure that this food is an acquired taste, but we won't be acquiring it any time soon.

First Family 5K

This past Saturday,Ben, Ally, and I took part in the Get Heeled 5K.  The event was held to raise money for the Get REAL & HEEL Breast Cancer Program, which is housed in my department.  The 5K attracted several hundred runners and walkers and ended up raising $75,000.  This was the first 5K race that the three of us have done as a family, and my first race while pregnant.  Actually, I use the term "race" pretty loosely here because while we all had race bibs, we didn't have race numbers or timing chips, so it was more of a fun run.  After the 5K, we did a 1 mile family walk, and then sampled a lot of the free food provided by the event sponsors.  Below are some pics of our day.

Ally and me with our jogging stroller.  We loaded her in and pushed her while running the 5K.  We have a race bib pinned to the stroller, which says "In Honor of Aunt Linda."  When running events that sponsor cancer charities, it is pretty common to write "In Honor of. . ." or "In Memory of. . ." on your bib.  We decided to run in honor of Ben's Aunt Linda, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and is now in remission.

One of the sponsors was Chick-Fil-A.  Ally had to go say hi to the Chick-Fil-A cow.  She even gave the cow a high five.

Team Evans

New milestones for Ally

Ally is approaching 2.5 years old, and here are 3 new things that have entered her life, or will be in the near future.

1.  She now sleeps in a big-girl bed.

2.  She is nearly potty-trained.  She is excellent with #1, but not quite there yet with #2.  In fact, she wore big-girl underwear all day on Saturday with no accidents, even as we ran our errands outside of the house.

3.  She is going to be a big sister.  That's right folks, sometime around her 3rd birthday (early May), Ally will be greeted by the arrival of a new brother or sister.