Sitting down at dinner... Hans said, "Honey! Stargate Atlantis is playing all the episodes back to back tonight and there are a bunch I haven't seen!"
So here I am.
Tonight is the start of my vacation. A full week off! I am headed to Colorado with Leif to see my family. Hans isn't really thrilled. Really, I should count myself lucky. I have a husband who is so attached to his son (oh and I am sure his wife too) that he is not the least bit thrilled to have a week at home to himself. He did realize last night however, that he could go to a movie every night of the week if he wants to. And evidently there are a lot of movies out there to see. Fantastic Four or whatever that is and War of the Worlds. Which even if I had the interest and someone to watch Leif I would not go see based off of genius Tom Cruise's comments on ppd. I did not have ppd, however, I believe it is a real issue and his comments were damaging to women. He won't get a dime of my money until his statements are recanted, which they never will be I am sure.
Tomorrow Vanessa and I have our pedicures and manicures. We need pampering. Hans and I ran a few errands tonight and so fewer for tomorrow. Went to Target to get a second carseat and the one I will haul to Colorado with me. Let's see, about $60 above and beyond the carseat later... they had straw cups that glow in the dark on sale (obviously a must), infant spoons, infant Advil and the major purchase, two toilet seat locks to keep Leif from playing in the toilets. Ick. My goal is to get both installed tonight and see if Hans can figure out how to use them...
Sunday we leave at 6:30am, layover in Salt Lake for an hour. A very rushed hour trying to get from one concourse to the other with Leif, a stroller and a car seat. Then into Denver at about noon. Mom will pick us up at the airport.
This week has been busy at work, but productive. I made up a list of things I needed to do before leaving today and accomplished it. It wasn't easy, but I did it all. And no leaving early this Friday. My new task on the LDRD project is going well and the project manager commented that she was happy to see how quickly things started to move on it after I took it over last week and she was pleased with the meeting! Yay! I have a team set up I am really excited about and managed to put two students to work.
Then my shiny, happy project. Got a long experiment set up, details to my former team lead, Tom, on how and when to terminate the experiment. Worked with Clem to get his samples submitted for SEM that he ran to help me. Then I printed up our patent. 25 pages to review by Monday cob. Yikes. It looks alright so far. Lots of stuff to work on. But Glen started off on corrections. I will take a shot at them after maybe Tom or Dan take a crack at them. One of the thing that thrills me to bits and pieces is that I WAS listed in the coveted #1 position.
For those of you who aren't scientists, scientific ethics is a HUGE deal. And it ranges from issues such as dry labbing (i.e., guessing what the results are and never doing an experiment) to snarfing or scooping of proposal ideas to who gets listed on papers, patents, and presentations and in what order. Really, the order in which your name appears IS a big deal. There is no clear method to this and it varies, not only between institution, but even within groups and projects.
My PPM on the sucky project, for example... I gave a two day course 2 years ago. I worked with my coworker Justin to design the course, prepare the materials and present it to clients to learn how to use our equipment. PPM had absolutely nothing to do with this, but INSISTED his name should be first on the list of credit. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I argued it, I defended it, Justin agreed with me whole heartedly. But no, PPM wouldn't budge. That is where scientific ethics are screwed. Also in areas of snarfing ideas, which PPM has done to me repeatedly.
So I really make an effort not to do this to others. So in the patent meeting a few months ago I was hurt, disappointed and bummed when my former team lead argued that I was not the lead on the patent despite the fact that the task was mine, I was the one who formulated and performed the experiments and designed the path forward based on my data analysis. I modified and then proved the concept. But here was the kicker... the concept was not mine initially. The concept came out of Glen, years ago to use a particular chemical in this pursuit. He didn't know if it would work, and he handed the project to Tom, who handed it to me.
My great project manager fought tooth and nail with Tom that I should be the lead on the patent. I was afraid to say anything and further more, just nervous about the whole situation. I don't want to snarf someone elses stuff... but yet I did the work, the formulation, data analysis and modified the experiments to achieve the results. It was finally agreed to leave it up to Glen. When I filed the IP he told me that he felt guilty even being listed as a collaborator as he hadn't done anything. Today the patent draft came through with me listed in position #1, inventor. Happy, happy day!
So now we just have to hope for licensure from the client. We are certain they will license the patent being that they are already working to sell the technology to clients, and have clients who are interested. But for how much? I keep thinking that $100K is a minimum license fee. This could potentially revolutionize the semiconductor world, so Hans is thinking $1 million is reasonable, after all they pay us over a million a year for our research. My company pays inventors 15% royalties, split between each inventor, of the license fee up to a maximum of $1 million in royalties. Even licensing for $100K is a nice chunk of change. Hope, hope, hoping for licensure of the patent...
So good things going on this week. Bad things too unfortunatly.
I talked about Leif's head wound and his thrush. Head wound mostly healed, thrush still plaguing him. On Wednesday morning I went out to my car to put stuff in. I got a weird feeling when I realized my driver side door was open. I immediately got ticked at Hans. Last night I asked him to lock my car door and he said he did. He obviously didn't, my door was open. I reach over to put my stuff in the seat so I can go get Leif and notice that my cd holder was open and empty, my other box of cds on the floor, gone, my change holder missing and my glove box open.
I was raging. I could have screamed. I did scream. Hans is SO bad about not locking his car. He is from Alaska and "no one breaks into cars up there"! I have finally given up on him and despite my need, yes it is a need, to have every door in the house and my car locked at night, I have given up on his car. So the fact that he told me he locked my car doors last night and no windows were broken. I was spitting nails.
All my good cds were in my car from the trip. I stormed around, picked up the phone and started screaming in Hans' ear. He swore up and down he locked it. Then I got a sick feeling. My badge was in the car. My badge, work keys and dosimeter. I went out and checked the glove box. Oh shit, major shit. They were gone. I started crying, sobbing, then saw Leif looking at me wondering what was wrong. I gathered myself and called the single point of contact to report my missing classified badge, dosimeter, prox card and keys.
I gave the info and answered the questions and was then told to call the police, file a police report. It was so obviously stupid kids who broke into the car. They left some valuable stuff, Leif's cosleeper, his play yard, nice diaper bag. All of this thankfully was left. The single point of contact informed me that if the people are caught, it is considered a federal crime to steal these items. Why would they take these things. Of all things, why my badge, my dosimeter and keys? Did they really just want my miniature Leatherman on the strap? I was sick.
After screaming at Hans, like I have never screamed at him before. I headed in, dropped Leif off at daycare and went to the badge office. I got a replacement badge after filling out a stolen badge report. Then went to go get keys. Turns out that even though the keys are not identifiable, all the locks must be rekeyed if keys are lost, at the expense of a charge code. Great... crafts gets work... knowing them about 30 hours of work to rekey my office and a lab I don't even use anymore.
It took me about a day to get a new dosimeter. During which time I could not go into a rad lab. Who knows how they will determine my dose for the first 6 months of the year. Bioassay? Ugh. I don't want to pee in a 2L jug for 2 days. My dose is typically zero, so I am hoping that will get me out of a bioassay.
The cds are a pain to lose. But I can deal. Hans' first paycheck went to replace the top 10. But the loss of the badge and accessories is huge. Taxpayer money. My estimate is about $4K to replace that stuff when you count my time, others time, the hardware and crafts rekeying locks. No wonder it is considered a federal crime.
Well it is after 10pm and I really am dying to see the last Six Feet Under we missed on Monday. Hans will have to catch up on Atlantis another night.
I will be around some while at my mom's house and might logon. Or I might just catch up on my reading. Handmaid's Tale is due Tuesday, which I will miss discussing, but will finish anyways. The Time Traveller's Wife is due August for Book Club. Cannot wait to read it.
Have a super weekend!
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