This week in the lab we got a new supervisor, her name is Molly and she hates silence. We spent the majority of the week doing surgeries on the rats to place the catheters we made last week into the group of rats we preformed experiments on the first two weeks. Molly had us play classic rock and talked to us the whole time we were in surgery which was nice because it could have been extremely boring if we were just sitting there for 6 hours a day watching her do the same surgery over and over. Of course the first couple of surgeries are exciting, but as you get past about the 5th one they can drag on.
Before the experiments and catheters the rats were placed in their nicotine vapor chambers to get them addicted to the drug and now that they have the catheters they will be placed in a self-administration box where they have the choice to press a lever and give themselves nicotine. We expect the rats that were in the high nicotine chambers to press the lever the most followed by the medium then the low with the naïve bringing up the rear.
When we weren’t doing surgeries we handled more new rats and helped clean cages for an alcohol group that is in Giordano’s control. Giordano is Marsida’s husband and his specialty is alcohol.
Outside the office we moved into our new home with Betsy, Turner and Pilar. Betsy is the owner of the household and is super nice and loves to keep us entertained. She also knows where all the good restaurants are. She likes classic rock music and knows when all the big bands are coming to town. Sadly you have to be 18 to see most of them. Turner is Betsy’s son and he is very like-minded to Ella and me. He is smart and loves sports (surfing mostly). Turner took us out to Del Mar to go surfing with him and he is really good which would make sense as he has been a surfing instructor for the last three years.
Pilar is a 95-year-old woman who was Betsy’s nanny as a child and has lived with their family ever since. She always sets the table and cleans the dishes for every meal and always comes to breakfast cheerfully which definitely helps you wake up and starts your day off well.
This weekend Ella and I are headed up to Los Angeles to see family which is pretty convenient because Betsy needs our rooms for some guests she was having over for a birthday party and Polo matches in Del Mar.
Still loving it here and loving the change of scenery.
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