In the TA meeting, we discussed the criteria for the test that the students will be taking in recitation this week. After the meeting, I worked tirelessly on my biology lab report in the library. In today’s lab, we transformed cells of a bacterial strain using plasmids which confer resistance to antiobiotic amplicillin. I also finished the lab report during the lab. It’s nice to get that out of the way.

We’re trying a new approach to grading tests this time around. After recitation, the TAs for today met in the College of Computing to grade tests. Rather than grade your students, TAs were assigned to grade a particular problem. The advantage of this method is that all the tests for that day are graded before the day is done. The disadvantage is that I didn’t get home until midnight.

It rained in the morning. Michael needed a ride to school for some reason. I modified the journal software to support configuration files (.ini). Some parts of the site still don’t use it, however. In the ProgDev meeting, Sanjay and I somehow ended up with the burden of writing the Project 4 autograder. There goes my free time for the rest of the week.

On a somewhat positive note, I’m caught up on grading again.

Obviously, I’m very cool and mature, now that I’m twenty. Like totally. I left for Atlanta in the early morning and made it back safely by mid-afternoon. Exhausted, I took a long nap when I returned. Finally, I uploaded the pictures from the trip and put them on my website. Guffey put up an online journal of his own – it looks suspiciously similar to certain journals that I know of.

I’m glad I was able to spend time with Tracy this weekend.

Free food! For breakfast, we had bacon and blueberry pancakes. For late lunch, Stacie and I stopped by The Original New York Style Pizza for a slice of pepperoni pizza, while Becky went shopping at Sam’s Club. And for dinner, we had steak with sauteed mushrooms and baked potato.

Throughout the day, Becky worked tirelessly on her impossible puzzle. Tracy and Stacie dropped in every now and then help, while I hid away in a nearby room poking at the Internet. It occasionally poked back.

Tracy and I eventually said goodbye to the Guffey’s and Stacie, and returned to the apartment at Duke. It had begun to rain, and that was not much fun. We spent a few hours talking and stuff before heading to bed.

Tracy woke up in the early morning to work on neuroscience research in the lab, while I continued to sleep for a few more hours. She’s working hard, measuring amygdala volumes in structural MRI scans of bipolar depression patients. For lunch, we ate at Chili’s Grill & Bar, where I enjoyed a flame-grilled ribeye steak. Tracy and I also shared a delicious molten chocolate cake for desert.

In the evening, we left for the Guffey Inn, where we would stay the night. There, we had a pleasant dinner, of rice, beans, corn, and pork roast. After dinner, Stacie joined us. She’ll be spending the larger part of tomorrow with us. We spent the evening watching the Duke vs. Virginia basketball game (Duke won!) before heading to bed.

For some variety, Nicky and I ate lunch at Peking Palace, another chinese restaurant located on South Cobb. I had a biology lab exam in the evening. The bank screwed up a routine credit card payment, which led to all sorts of frustration on the phone in the morning, including back-and-forth calls from my bank and the credit card company. Though the credit card company waived all my late fees, I’m not sure if the problem has yet been resolved.

After lab hours at night, I left for North Carolina to see Tracy. I arrived safely at her apartment at Duke in the early, early morning.

Josh and I got checked off on Project 9 in Embedded Microcontroller Lab. Adam and I once again made Charlie’s Enchilada casserole for dinner.

The usual TA meeting in the early afternoon, where I discussed the release of Project 4 with the general TAs. In biology lab, we observed differences in cellular division, particularly, between mitosis and meiosis. For some reason, biology is especially confusing to me, and I therefore stayed after class to fully understand the lab that I had just done. Will, the biology TA, also stayed late to help me. What a greay guy.

In recitation, we reviewed older material, and briefly discussed the topics that would be on their test next week. After recitation, the TAs and I had dinner at Arby’s.

ProgDev meeting in the afternoon, where we went over Project 4 and, later that night, released it to the student body. I must have spaced out or something, as I can’t think of a single interesting thing that I did today. I feel like Michael!

Adam is back. I spent all day staring at a computer screen working on Project 4 for the College of Computing. The rough draft is ready and we should be able to release it to the students by Monday night. Alton Brown has also inspired me to cook more at home. With that said, Adam and I went to Publix to purchase some essential spices and ingredients necessary for most cooking experiments.

I talked with Tracy on the phone. She’s at the Guffey Inn, and is looking forward to any and every future trip that we may have together. The feeling is mutual. And on a related note, the Guffey’s just returned from their trip to Wyoming. Sock it to me, baby.