I have some awesome photos of Lucas in his Halloween costume, I will have to post them here and on the web site. I just had to make a statement announcing the start of the Lakers season tonight. Ahh, life is good...

I also finished re-creating the lab website- check it out. There are a few bugs I need to fix. Especially on my page... Gotta give those potential search committees something to look at. Two more job apps out today. I don't even know how many that makes now. Real question is how many interviews will I get?

Just a quick second to blog... Brother came up this past weekend, always a good time. Smoked cigars as always, but this time my bro picked up a tobacco pipe and we switched the inlet of lung cancer causation. The best part of his visit was the search for a pipe. We at first went to a place in Pullman, and quickly realized that it wasn't a glass shop for like windows, but rather an elaborate bong shop. They had everything there, even scales! It was funny that I had to ask the guy if there was a "regular" pipe shop nearby. He directed us to Moscow, Idaho about 10 miles away. So we took the trip out there and got the speal on what to look for in a pipe by a nicely girthed women who kept leaving us to puff on her cigarette she kept by the register. Oh yes, it was incredible. From the 80 year old guy with the oxygen tank coming in to pick up some cigarettes, to the guy they made wait outside because only two people were allowed in the humidor room. I became aware of the fact that Idaho has a very low tax on tobacco, or rather CA has a high one, because the prices for everything was substantially cheaper. My brother spent $40 in the tobacco store on $100 worth of goods. I then took him to WinCo which is nearby to do some grocery shopping. He was perplexed by why we were going there to buy groceries and then to Safeway afterwards (because they have specific things we wanted- like corn bread). Once we went inside WinCo, my brother was dumbfounded by the cheap goods. So much so that he literally bought two sticks of deodorant because they were so cheap! LOL. I had to hold him back, but apparently when I go down for Christmas he will be sending me on a trip for cheap tobacco and toiletries...
The other cool part of the trip was the football game. Clearly the Cougs got killed, but Lucas sat on his uncle's lap for the entire first half. Which is quite remarkable since he never sits still for any reason longer than two min (save if Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is on TV- and even then he has to get up to dance to the Hot Dog song at the end). I am sure that it was because Matt gave him an Elmo doll he was convinced that Matt must be Elmo's dad and that he had to be cool... ha. Ok, enough blogging and back to work. Oregon game this weekend, Rachel's friend from high school, Jen, and her husband Darren are coming out. Should be fun!

Big time... It is funny when I go here to blog something and then realize no one really will know what the hell I am talking about. Anyway, here it goes! I might get to be a PI on 2 million dollar grant with some big whig scientists. PI stands for Principal investigator- and just means that you are one of the main thinkers behind the grant. What it really means is that I will be able to put on my resume that I am PI on a big grant with some big names, and that should turn some heads. Since all these big schools primarily care about are big money grants, it will give me some credibility that I am serious business. We'll see what happens. I need to file some paperwork through the school since it is unorthodox for a post doc to be a PI (and hence why it is special), and get the other PIs to agree to it. Which I hope won't be an issue considering one is my PhD advisor and the other is someone I know pretty well already. It also means I am cutting my Thanksgiving short, flying down on Monday instead of Friday like we originally planned, but that is fine because I can only handle my sister out-law Amy for so long anyway :). Being a post doc is fun!!! haha.
On another note, I am also fired up because my brother is coming to town on Friday. We are going to see the Cal-Wash State game and smoke lots of cigars. Should be interesting considering it was in the 20s last night. Might be time to start smoking in the garage... He is bringing Lucas an Elmo doll as a bribe to break the ice. Once Lucas sees that thing, Matt will easily be his favorite person in the world. Either that, or he will cry and grab onto my leg in absolute fear... Hopefully I can get my crap together and put some photos on here. Oh wait, I think I do have one from the last game we went to: USC vs Wash State. My best friend from high school came up, Jason. It was great to see him and hang out. It is really nice have a big place and an extra room. Good for guests, hint hint.