We also built a shed this year, but ours just has vinyl siding! We were just going to replace 1/3 of the deck wood this year, but I talked my husband into Trex because I don’t want to do it again for a long time, and in my job I study plastic recycling and kind of felt like I needed to put my money where my mouth is.…

E and Z don’t make much sense if you don’t speak german - even most chemists use cis and trans most of the time. I have to dredge the back of my mind to remember which one is which ;-)

Good luck, and hang in there! In chemistry, most people seem to flesh out their job proposal ideas while still working in lab, and then take a week away from the lab to write the proposals, cover letters, teaching statements, etc. However, there aren’t any independent funding opportunities before you get a tenure…

I’m 48 and being in my 40's has been fine. Maybe it’s because I’m fat and average looking, or maybe I’m just oblivious, but I haven’t noticed a big difference. Also, not giving a fuck is totally awesome.

No story to add, but as a chemist you made me LOL! Been doing this for 30 years now and stereochemistry is still my achilles heel.

We’re replacing the rotted out wood on the deck with Trex composite and building a deck extension for the smoker and gas grill. This is mostly my husband’s project but I’m helping with miscellaneous stuff. I’ll be glad when it’s over so that I can get back to my own projects, namely painting the bathroom.

My mom told me that if I ate bread dough with yeast, it would keep growing in my stomach and I would get a bad stomach ache. The stomach acid would kill it quickly so I think she just told me that to keep my from nibbling at it.

This. I’ve been a commenter forever and was out of the greys for a while, but now I’m a perma-grey. I don’t comment every day but I’m here most SNS’s and at least a few times a week.

Kind of like Feud but the the SATC folks instead of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

I am intrigued by how different people age. I think that sometimes the sort of “cute” look (delicate features, small nose, etc) which is great on kids and tweens doesn’t age well. Likewise, sometimes people with more pronounced features look a lot better once they grow into their looks. And then there’s the whole…

I think we really convolute clothes/hairstyle/makeup choices into our mental math of figuring out how old someone is. It’s like if you see someone with an 80's style hairdo + clothes, they look weirdly old even if they’re 16. I even do it despite the fact that I was a teenager in the 80's. We just associate certain…

I got my PHLUR perfume samples and have been testing them. Olmstead and Vaux is very nice - sort of a soapy clean smell with a hint of cashmere. I may order a full size one if I continue to like it. Greylocke is ok but not something I’ll wear - it’s more of a traditionally masculine scent (mostly pine and vetiver) and…

I love Gimme Brow!

I’m procrastinating practicing the talk I’m giving on Monday. I’ve given it before but usually as a 15 minute talk instead of 10 minutes.

Usually I hold on to my skinny clothes even when there is no hope. The few times I’ve done an agressive ditching followed by buying more big clothes, I’ve actually lost weight. At that point, the few skinny clothes I actually kept are so many years out of fashion that I realize I don’t want to wear them anymore.

Congrats! I went through something similar in January. It was more ‘real’ once I realized it was a health risk (blood work was fine before this time). I’m still sticking with it and am down 30 lbs. It’s coming off very slowly now but I’m still moving in the right direction. Much to my surprise, very few people have…

Amen to not wanting to deal with prescription transfers. I left my thyroid meds at home during an overnight trip to Syracuse. If I’d been there for a few days, I’m sure I could’ve called my home Wegman’s but didn’t want to deal with it for one day. I’d sure as hell be freaking out if it happened in a foreign country.

so much this. they’re on vacation and he throws out her birth control in a country where she may not speak the language. So much wrong there.

Call now because they’re slipping this under the rug. The lines aren’t very busy today. I got through first try today.

When I wrote my thesis, I’d have a drink or two at night and write, then edit/make figures/help supervise my undergrad during the day. It helped get me over the perfectionism-induced writers block. Do not do this if you have issues with alcohol, of course.