Showing posts with label working from home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working from home. Show all posts

10.05.2009

Hohum

Just to make sure you know nothing has really changed around here today I worked from home (the real home in PhD-Town, not my apartment in Postdoc City) and planned to get a lot done. Including....
Finish getting old data
Start analyzing new data
Do laundry
Cook a nice, healthy dinner for the Grackle and I

What I actually did...
Didn't really get dressed all day
Read journals/books about new-research area
Started catching up on blog reading
Analyzed a tiny bit of old data
Discovered we are out of fabric softener
Am now waiting for the Grackle to get home with pizza and beer.

5.23.2009

Coming out of the fog

I guess I have been suffering a hooding hangover. It went well and it was nice to see ex-advisor for a few hours. He couldn't put his own hood on beforehand and put mine on upside down. Better than backwards at least! While it was good to take part in the ceremony, it was a little weird. Like a bridal shower. I'd encourage others to go to it, but I didn't get the tingly I'm-really-a-Dr-now feelings from it that I was set up for. There was free-flowing champagne afterwards though which was a lot of fun. It made me really miss my old lab. Well, part of it anyway.

After my Mom went back home, I got down to work. It is really more likely that I am suffering from a data hangover. The analysis I'm doing is intensive and mind numbing. It is going about half as fast as I planned. Working from home is great, but after 5 hours of analysis I can not even see straight! Still, spending time in my own house with the pets and being all domestic-like with dinner ready when Grackle gets home from the lab has been lovely. It feels like a break but I am still getting more done than I would in the lab! 

Both Grackle and I are coming under the gun and have to prepare data for conferences that are within a month. Today, he is at the lab and I am analysing. It isn't all work around here though. We are headed to the drive in tonight! Yay! I hope everyone is having a good holiday!   

9.21.2008

My demise

If the Grackle is upset about the prospects of my graduating and moving (not too far) away, he should just say so.
Instead, he is plotting my dissertation writing demise by signing up for a big fancy tv package. It is sports inspired, and it will actually be cheaper (and far more comfortable) than spending every Sunday at the sports bar eating nachos and watching our team.

Temptation, thy name is 250 channels.

Time to re-evaluate working from home. 

UPDATE: The equipment is actually incompatable with our 130 year old house. No new channels for us!

9.17.2008

Working from home- all day long!

Trying to work from home, be it writing or dealing with dots, is a dangerous game. Sometimes everything falls into place and you write 5 pages and sometimes you end up falling asleep on the couch with a cat on your head. So, in the spirit of what I've really been up to. Today I am live blogging my working from home. 
The goal: I need to catch up on my dots. After writing and going into school yesterday, I feel behind and want to catch up. The most I've ever accomplished in one day is 7 samples. Trying to beat that today. 
The setting: My living room. The couch is big, red, and comfy. A laptop stand makes it easy to type/do data stuff for long periods of time. I used to work at the dining room table and my desk but chairs in those places hurt my back after about 3 hours. There are two cats running around and 1 dog laying on his own couch upstairs. The most distracting/annoying aspect of working here is the buzzing of heaters/filters for the 6 aquaria in this room. 

But it is already almost 10 am! Why am I not working yet? Well, I had a filling fall out and had to get it fixed this morning despite my dentist phobia. The dentist was nice enough but the experience of having to go in the first place was still a bit traumatic. Then I stopped to get coffee and either there was a fender-bender and run in the parking lot OR somebody tried to steal a woman's car while she was inside. She asked me to call 911 for her, but I'm still not exactly sure what happened. Never a dull moment. 
Time to get to work though!
9:30-10am: check emails, blog.
10:15: Starting first sample.
10:43: Grackle comes home unexpectedly to get a pipe cutter that he needs at school. He comes in the front door (which he rarely does) and scares the crap out of me. I thought we were being broken into. AND I had to redo part of the sample because he distracted me.  
11:15: Starting second sample.
12:00pm: My face is still numb and I wish I had some Doritos. The Buffalo and Blue Cheese ones with the two kinds of chips in one bag....mmmmmmm....
2:30: Just finished up the 4th sample and prepping for a meeting later this afternoon. Lunch time!! This brings me to the best aspect of working from home. It makes me healthier. Instead of picking up a quick sandwich somewhere or worse- forgoing food altogether until I fill up on cookies at the seminar- I am enjoying some beans and rice. Plus when I need a little break, I can stretch with some yoga or run the dog around the backyard instead of walking down the hall to the desk with the candy. 
3:30: Meeting canceled. Woo hoo! Doing laundry instead.
5:30: Reached my usual number of 6 samples. 
5:45: Going running and will tie my record of 7 samples afterwards!