After many days struggling with this….
Followed by evenings like this…
finally… our lab is starting to shape up!
I promise a more detailed post about our lab move soon… for now let’s say we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully in one more week we can resume our experiments… yeah!!!! 😉
Bewitching Kitchen 
Wow!! That really is incredible!! So much to move and so much of it is delicate! I’m happy for you that things are finally in their “place” once again!! xx
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A lot of complexity is involved in a lab move, so stay tuned if you like to read more about it… 🙂 I can tell you this is my last lab move. Never again, I will retire here!
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I’m lucky I never had to move or set up a lab. The shelves and desks remind me of the various labs I was in at university in the biology department, first as a graduate student when I was doing my MSc and later, as a lab tech/research assistant. Mostly I worked with wild ‘house mice’.
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Wild house mice… how cool! We only use mice for our immunization experiments, but it’s Balb/c, the cute white strain, most common in labs. Back in Stanford I had to deal with C57 black mice. They are smaller, and FIERCE. Got bitten three times, not fun 😉
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I’ve used Balb/c and C57 black mice as reference strains when running electrophoresis gels for measuring enzyme frequencies in our population studies. And for our sister chromatid exchange and comet assays. Mostly though, it was wild mice trapped in corn cribs and brought back to our lab by our intrepid mouse trappers.
After I graduated I was hired as the in house ‘bleeder’ who could snag a mouse and get a blood sample before you could blink. The original tech just didn’t want to/was afraid to/wasn’t fast enough. Real motivation to get over my fear of being bitten … though I was on a number of occasions. My reflexes were pretty good but I remember having a mouse bite through my glove on one occasion (I usually bled the wild mouse bare handed) and I ended up flicking him off the tongs across the room. Good times. 🙂
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Your description of the mouse biting you is EXACTLY what happened to me! Except that in one of my experiences the little nasty thing would not release the bite, so there I had this mouse with his teeth deeply planted in the soft spot between the thumb and the palm, and I’m shaking him like crazy, he would not let go! It took a few violent shakes, he finally flew across the room, and then I had of course to chase and capture him, to put back in the cage! With my hand bleeding all over the place 😉
good times, indeed… good times!
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I shudder at the thought of a “normal” move. Moving a lab must be about as daunting an exercise as one will ever attempt. Glad to read that things are getting done. I hope the rest goes easily and without any problems. Good luck!
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It’s getting easier and easier now – a lot to do still, but at least all boxes are unpacked, and we have a more general idea of where things should go to optimize functionality.
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Cool! Great stuff, Sally! xx
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Thanks, Celia… I still dream one day one of the boys could come and visit our lab
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A truly daunting task, glad to hear you are feeling a sense of accomplishment and close to getting back to your real work, though you can now add “moving” to your resume! Good luck in you new work digs!
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Jim, unfortunately this was my 4th lab move! The first was in Brazil during my PhD, the second in Stanford, during my first post doc, then two with Phil when our lab in OK moved to a new building on campus, and now this. Never again. This is it. Remember Seinfeld? “Stick a fork in me, Jerry, I am DONE”. 😉
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Couldn’t open this. Could you please resend. Thanks.
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Not quite sure what you mean….
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You know every time I see your four legged creatures, I just want to reach into the screen and tickle their bellies… so, so, adorable!!
That’s quite the progress you’ve made Sally… what a process it is moving yourselves, your animals and your lab. You’ve managed it all with grace and humour ;-). The lab looks like it’s really shaping up. Looking forward to hearing more details about it as you go along.
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Oscar is the sweetest dog in the world, I sometimes have a hard time believing he is the same skinny, bald dog we found at the shelter in L.A., shy, scared, insecure. All he needed was a loving home to turn into a fantastic companion
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And I thought moving a home was hard work…this looks totally cumbersome. So many little pieces of equipment and materials. Glad to hear it’s moving along. You’ll be settled in no time now. Sending you happy unpacking thoughts! 🙂
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Plenty of added complexity to a lab move, making it in a way quite a bit harder than a home move. Should be a fun post to write, once I get the time to do it…
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Woohoo! I can’t imagine having to move our lab…oy. Where did you move to??
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Kansas State University – we really love it here, by the way! I think it was a good move, pun intended 😉
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You sure you’re just not getting into molecular gastronomy and not telling us?
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You got me!
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Soo many boxes! After just a house move, I’m very grateful not to have to also move a business…or lab that is!! The pic of your dog made me smile because as soon as I have a chance to rest, my dogs jump right on me!
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You know, normally they are not allowed on the furniture, but we (I) opened an exception that week for Oscar. Chief cannot jump up anymore, so he is happy to lay on the floor nearby. And Buck is not very interested in furniture, for some strange reason. Oscar is the real cuddly one…
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That looks like a huge piece of work – how are you going to celebrate the move? You are both amazing, but you know that, right ? xx Jo
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I suppose at some point we’ll have a get together in the conference room, once everything is in place, and the few pieces of equipment we are still in the process of buying are all delivered. We are not quite there yet, but moving along…. moving along… 😉
as to the “amazing” part. I give full credit to Phil on this. He is incredibly hard working and nothing brings him down. The number of problems he had to deal with in the last 6 months are hard to imagine. He is a Superman. Truly.
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You’ve made me homesick! So many familiar sights in your photos. I worked in hospital labs (micro, chemistry) for 40 years, then took a break to teach high school chemistry for a while. When you love what you do, it’s hard to “retire”. Having some regrets at this moment…oph’s…I’m over it! Enjoy the ride. It ends all to soon.
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I know what you mean by homesick… After working in labs for almost 30 years, I have a strange sense of being at home whenever I enter any lab. The centrifuges and all other equipment, the flasks, tubes, smells… I know when I retire it will feel strange for a while. But I have no intention of retiring anytime soon – there’s too much fun to be had with our projects!
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I am really glad things are begining to look up 🙂
It can be really frustrating to be stuck unable to do your work..wishing you a wonderful start in the new lab
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