rats, phones, and old spice

It's been an average week in the lab I suppose, if there even is such a thing.  Normally, I wouldn't consider the things I've done this week average at all, but in the lab it all seems to be fairly routine.  The rats for my project arrived on Monday; however, they need to be left alone for a week to acclimate to their new surroundings.  In the meantime, I have been doing other random tasks.  I've gotten good at cleaning out the ussing chamber and preparing the tips.  I also have been filling the liquid nitrogen chamber.  Liquid nitrogen is pretty cool stuff.  It is so cold that it boils at room temperature, and instantly freezes anything it touches.  So, when filling the little chamber from the big tank in the storage room, the nitrogen often evaporates before it ever reaches the chamber causing the floor of the room to become engulfed in a cloud of very cold steam.  You have to be careful though, because if you spill it on yourself, you can actually get a cold burn.  We use it in the lab to freeze mouse hearts so they can later be sectioned and examined underneath a microscope.  I've gotten a chance to work with some of the mice that are being used in other experiments.  I weigh them and feed them on a daily basis.  Sadly, I've also had to "sac" them.  The other day, the lab tech that normally kills the mice was in a meeting.  Since I was the only other one that had been shown how to do it, I had to kill the mouse that the professor was using that morning.  It was sad.

This weekend, I finally get to start work on my project.  I need to spend time with the rats to get them used to being handled and using the blood pressure and treadmills.  Essentially, both days this weekend I just get to play with them.  The rats are actually really friendly, like to cuddle, and are pretty amusing.  The girls in the lab showed me this technique that you use to relax them if they are being too fiesty.  You hold them under the armpits and swing their butts around in a circle and they instantly relax as if they just had the best nap ever.  It is adorable.  It is going to be hard not to get attached to them after playing for 6 weeks.

In other news, I got a new cell phone this week.  It is a smart phone, which is a HUGE upgrade from my 4 year old phone that finally bit the dust.  The stuff it does is VERY cool, but it is fairly complicated.  I consider myself pretty technology savvy, but I can't even figure out how to enter my friends as contacts!

And finally, as a bit of a laugh, I am going to share some links to one of my favorite TV commercials.  I LOVE the Old Spice guy.  Everything about him is super sexy (hello abs!  that voice!) and the commercial is hilarious.  This is the original commercial and here is a newer commercial.  My mom recently found a parody done by some students.  This is my life as an Old Spice commercial.