It has really been a great week. Monday came and my patent was filed. I went down and signed away my rights to it to the company. Part of me balked at this, but that's the way it works here. In exchange I got a nice "silver eagle" coin, one ounce of fine silver in a little case. Was busy Tuesday and Wednesday with projects and then Thursday hit.
Yesterday I got an e-mail stating that my big proposal was funded, I am still shocked. It is a little funky how it was done and I am still not sure the reasoning and have heard a few different things. It was placed as a task under a mega-project/program. Deal is that we are using a detector developed under this mega-project, so evidently they thought they were well enough related I suppose. Why, we have asked ourselves would they do this at this point. They weren't tasked together during the creation of the lifecycle plans, which would have made a whole hell of a lot less work for me. I am thrilled they weren't because there goes my credit for writing a lifecycle plan out the window.
Thoughts and statements I have heard are here:
From the mega-project manager: "They want this funded, but it is a small project. Small projects are dangerous because when money is needed elsewhere they are the first to go. Putting it under a big project, protects it."
(I buy this a little... but the mega-project manager is notorious for swooping in like a vulture. It scares me.)
From the program manager: "The PIs are quite young and inexperienced not only in project management but especially in management of a million dollar plus project. Putting this under the other project takes some of the management load off of them and they can stick to getting the science of the project done."
(I buy this a little more. But give us the chance. Hell who am I kidding, they aren't going to take a risk with a half million dollars a year, where they would at a $50K project.)
From the DC office (my thought of what went through their heads): "Hey this looks like that, in fact, that word is the same. It must be the same. Wow, you've made a match, look what you found, you've made a match, hear a sucking sound!"
(What I really think happened.)
Who knows. And frankly, I don't really care. This project does a few things for me, it practically insures a promotion for me be it task or project. It is a slightly bigger issue to be a task for my co-PI since he is a level above me and needs that "project" status for a promotion. Somewhat importantly, it gets me out from under the thumb of my former post-doc advisor. I do not have to work for the asshole again after Oct 1. The other thing it does for me is validates me as someone who CAN come up with ideas, formulate proposals, and have them recognized as valuable. It puts me out there not only to the program managers, but also to my coworkers.
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It is Friday, thank goodness. I dropped fussy Leif off this morning. I was worried about leaving him since he was bawling when I left. He never does this. He has been so tired at nights, falling asleep by 8pm the last two nights. Then he isn't sleeping well. Things have GOT to change, and tonight, they are going to. Stay tuned because I refuse to jinx myself by detailing our plans.
I went by daycare and "peaked" in at lunch. He was done and wandering around, playing on the ramp/platform thing. He loves that. Supposidly he ate some lunch, about 2/3 of it! I didn't tell, although the teachers could probably tell, that I sent horrible processed pasta and sauce for kids. I hate feeding it to Leif, but he loves the stuff. And he eats it willingly, when nothing else will work. Ok, so he eats blueberries. So many that his butt was stained blue. TMI? :-/
I need a weekend to unwind. We have few plans, which is nice. Maybe a trip to Farmer's Market. Setup Leif's new "water playground" and have Cate over to play in it with him. I need to pick the plums and either can them or make jam, or both. We don't have a ton of plums, albeit once I get to picking them I am sure it will seem like a lot more. The tree is sparsely populated though.
There is a ton of yardwork to do. The yard is scary. Although my garden is looking fabulous and raspberries are in their second go around with bigger, plumper berries than the first harvest. Must pick some! I am thinking a golden raspberry ice cream would be fabulous.
I have a baby shower to go to Sunday. But aside from that not a lot.
Have a super weekend!
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