Answer: Kick my ass.

Question: What did tonight's The Faint concert at The Roxy do? Oh my freakin' God, that was a great show. Real-live musicians, incredibly good sound, great performances, whoopass video feed backdrop, and a crowd that kept jumping from the first beat to the last Thank You. The woman and I stood on the balcony, on the right side. Great view.

The smoking ban is the best thing ever. I don't feel fatigued, my eyes don't sting, I don't feel lung-gross, and my clothes don't reek.

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Mother's Day: Very early dinner at Camille's in Providence. A tolerable -- even good -- time was had by all. The food was very good, but not incredible. I think their risotto might not be their best dish. The calamari were great. My parents were very careful not to embarrass me in front of sadira, except that they showed her old pictures of me at Disney World in stripey Adidas knee socks (long before they were cool via irony).

Between flowers and dinner for four, I blew close to $300. Jeeezus. The strange thing is that my father later handed me a check to help pay for my upcoming moving expenses. I didn't ask for this, although I didn't exactly turn it down, either, and I didn't scream NO when my mother suggested he should. Haven't looked at the amount. Feels weird. It's a handout.

It's a handout from Dad. How old am I? On the other hand, I'm the biggest reason he's currently employed, and he actually gets money for working.

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Dad's thinking about retiring. I suggested "dropping out" (resigning and then taking a very easy-going, no-stress, full-time job well below his qualifications) for another year-and-a-half or so, so that he won't lose 20% of his retirement to early withdrawal penalties.

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Fluffy got three crayfish on Saturday. I'm fattening up ten more to feed her gradually over the next week or so. She's much better at catching them now, and I can tell that a crayfish dinner totally makes her day. She does the Happy Lungfish Dance for about 15 minutes after eating them.

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I did go in on Saturday to isolate RNA from those HPAEC. It went smoothly, but it took more time than I had hoped. The RNA pellets were loose, so I couldn't remove as much of the EtOH supernatant as I would have liked, which prolonged air-drying time.

Working in the lab when no one else is around is much more enjoyable than suffering nine interruptions per experiment. I really like to help others out with protocols and general lab know-how (makes me feel all smaahht), but I can't get into what I'm doing unless I can block out distractions.