Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful...

Ugh.... HEAT....

I love summer, but this whole "Feels like 117 Degrees" According to Weather Underground is a bit rediculous! 

Here: See that picture below... directly from Ames Iowa... 

I work in an Air Conditioned building, and I am still having heat waves hit me one after another. 

....

Why Can't summer just be nice and fun like it always was when I was a kid? Hit the pool on days over 90 degrees.... which so far this summer would be every single day....

I remember being able to actually work outside when I was in high school... training sheep, walking cattle... this summer you walk outside and you feel like the breath is knocked right out of you because its so dang hot! My lungs hurt! My eyes hurt because it's so bright! My head hurts because its hot and makes me dehydrated! ..... What happened to 80-90 degree summers... why this 115+ degree summer? ... 

anyone know how to turn on the Ozone's AC? 

A Daily Review...

Hello!!! Welcome to a Daily Review of my life! 

4 days out of the week I wake up at 5 AM to start the day. I eat a quick meal and head off to the Vet School. I work in the Large Animal Clinic as a Barn Crew Member. Here I do everything from scooping poop to assisting with surgeries. We don't have set hours, accept that we have to be there by 530 AM. This summer I have been leaving around 8/9 AM, but it all depends on the day! 

Here are a few hilights of this job:

 Super Cute Babies thinking their feed pan's are beds....

Assisting with a Downer Cow C-Section 

Watching endless amounts of foals sleep, jump, play, kick, and mimic mom's every move...  

And of course... you can't forget those wildlife that we get every so often.

After a few hours at the Vet School I head home for a quick shower, another bite to eat, a chug of caffeine, and head on over to the lab. Here I work with all kinds of chemicals and modern technology machines doing protein work for many different people. There are 2 grad students and a visiting scientist as well as 2 major professors who I "assist" within the lab. I do everything from washing dishes, and mopping floors, to computer analysis and running gel tests. 

Here are a few photos/ videos: 

Watching Pedro (the visiting scientist) and Kyle (grad student) put posters up in Pedro's new office, which used to be Steven Lonergan's office (major professor)....

 Some of the tools and chemicals I use to preform Assays within the lab... 

        

A plain photo of the gel before I run any analysis with the computer. The black dots are major protein                                                        

A photo of a gel after I run the initial analysis, gels can have over 800 initial proteins, each protein gets "weeded" according to which proteins we are specifically looking at.

          

 After I run the filter for the highest concentrated proteins.This usually puts me down to only 300 or so proteins that I need to go through and personally select for analysis.                                     

The Final Product. Ending usually around 175 proteins that we actually want to keep in order to compare them to that of other gels.

These are 2 videos of the sweet density mixture I get to perform once in a while. When make buffers so we can run gels for protein samples... the buffer is more dense than water, so here you see water and buffer being mixed together. It makes this cool wavy effect in the volumetric flasks. 

3 days a week round 3:30 PM I pack my bag and head out of the lab and off to my 3rd job.... The Doggie Dude Ranch.

Our Welcoming Sign by the Road

Windows in to the left is my office where I take in and release dogs and cats for customers. I answer phone calls, file papers, take down appointments, and provide daily chores for dogs, cats, and the animals on the farm as well. My Boss is a veterinarian so I get to assist her when she needs a helping hand as well. I also am learning how to groom dogs, and I give baths often! 

A side view of the building, all of our outdoor/indoor runs. We have 10 outdoor runs, 8 indoor runs, and 30 indoor kennels and crates. 

All together, my average week consists of about 40 hours of work. I just recently ended my summer semester of school, so it feels good to finally have hit summertime. I will be working more hours now, being as I have less homework and I'm excited about that! I love all 3 of my jobs, I just wish there was more time in a day! 

<3 Roz 

Ackerman Vacation

At the beginning of this month Dad, the girls, Brad, and Myself all ventured up to North Long Lake in Merriville, Minnesota. We stayed at a camping and lodging resort, the Train Bell Resort. 

Dad had reserved a nice cabin for the five of us just off of the lakes shore. We had two bedrooms with double size beds, a bathroom, living room/dining room/ and kitchen area, as well as a loft with two twin size mattresses on the floor. The girls took the loft and Dad took one room while Brad and I took the other room.There was a nice fire pit, a deck, along with wooden chairs and a swing that we could sit on right off of the waters edge. 

We did a lot of fishing throughout the few days we were here. They had a long dock that went off of the beach they had on the resort. They stored all of their rental boats, as well as the boats of people who had rented cabins, on this dock. We caught a majority of our rock bass off of this dock. We also rented the resorts Pontoon boat two of the days. We were able to explore the lake, watch the loons on their nest, and fish off the shores in deeper water. 

Sara most definatly caught the biggest bass out of the group of us. 

We also were able to use the kayaks that the resort had. Cassie, Sara, and I all had a fun time exploring the lake shore and floating around the docks looking at the fish, crawdads, and all of the snails and clams down on the sand. 

Train Bell Resort had a lot of activities for families and kids throughout the week. When we arrived it was "Halloween" week. Sunday started up the next week which was "Western" week. Here are a few activities that we DID participate in. Cassie and Sara thought they were too old for them... but I sure didn't! :)

Charley is the Mascot of the Resort. On Saturday we participated in the "Charley the Chicken Toss" We had to throw rubber chicken in tubs to get points, whoever had the most points got a prize. I was in first place with 90 points until a 90+ year old horse shoe player came and beat me with 130... =/

We also participated in the Minnow Races. This was fun. One little girl chose her minnow, and when they started the race he turned belly side up. And didn't move. She about started crying! But then she went on to win the whole thing with her 2nd choice of minnow. She wore that gold medal around the rest of their trip there! Below is Sara and I holding our minnows in the cups! :) Mines name was Fin and hers was Tiny.

We also went to Billy Bone's Raceway and Golf Course. The 5 of us raced each other in go-karts. Cassie and Brad kicked everyone's butt thanks to a guy who didn't know how to drive. At ALL. :) We also played a round of mini golf. 18 holes. There were some pretty tricky ones! We had 5 holes in one between all of us. I think I am safe to say that we all had a blast here!

We also visited Nisswa. This is a tourist town about 15 miles from where our cabin was. We walked down the boardwalk and did a lot of gift shop shopping as well as window shopping. We stopped at the Chocolate Ox which was a candy store, We visited The Fun Sisters store, The Totem pole, and many other attractions. We also stopped at Nisswa's Smiley Ox, based off of the Paul Bunion story. These were located all around the area we stayed at because the Paul Bunion Trail went right through where we stayed.

On our way home Sunday we stopped at the Brainerd International Raceway. The CRA Superbike Racing Finals was going on when we showed up. These bikes were awesome. They sped around corners and the guys knees ground against the pavement. It was crazy fun.

A bike speeding down the straightway nearing the finish line.

This is a guy going around a corner... They were at like a 10 degree angle when they went so fast. It was scary, but awesome at the same time.

All in All the vacation was a great one. We all had a lot of fun and it was good family bonding. It was nice to hang out and chill and not be on a time crunch for once. Brad and I are always on the go when we are home an feel like we never get to spend time with anyone because there are just too many to catch up with.

For now, Roz <3