A day of Breaking Things and Getting them Fixed

We got the window fixed this morning before work. While Uri the glass dude cut the new pane to the right size, his side kick, Mr. Smashy, got rid of the old glass and decorated the floor with all the ancient putty. Fifteen minutes and 190 shek later (no worries-the landlord is paying for it) James and I now have a much less drafty apartment.

By the way, the window blew open because the latch doesn't work. Some idiot painted over it. Any suggestions for getting it working again?

I had my first session on the HR-TEM alone today. All was going well until a couple of hours in when the computer started getting really slow. And then the PC had a conniption fit and completely froze and then I heard the unmistakable sound of the column valves closing. That is TEM speak for the microscope going into the fetal position and sobbing. I was freaking out thinking I had done something wrong and hurt the million dollar thing. I had to tell the formidable Russian HR-TEM lady that something had gone horribly wrong. The way my labmates speak of her, I was expecting a real smack down. Surprisingly, she was OK with it and just got down to the business of rebooting the computer, talking nicely to the microscope and getting it going again. No damage was done but I decided to quit for the day while I was still ahead.

The rest of the day was spent much like yesterday: monopolizing two computers in the nanocentre with papers spread everywhere, moving between different types of data trying to figure out what exactly it was that I have been making. The going is slow since the crystal system is super-dee-duper complicated, but I now have a working hypothesis to take to the boss tomorrow. Yippee!

Just before leaving the nanocentre, while scrubbing my environmentally conscionable tea mug, I dropped it in the sink and broke it. Good thing I stopped working on the TEM when I did.

But don’t worry, my day got made when I checked the mail this evening. Waiting for me was a post card from Tofino from my kayaking buddies. How did they know I had been looking at the trip pics on Facebook and feeling really sad?!!? Thanks guys! Your postcard is proudly displayed on the fridge.