I am gone until the 27th

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of Rodrigo Santoro! :)

Rodrigo Santoro

:: girly post alert! :: girly post alert! ::

I am allowing myself to write a very futile post for a change, but I am sure my girlfriends will appreciate it. This morning I read the following news on the local newspaper: "Santoro ranks higher than Brad Pitt among People's The Sexiest Men Alive". George Clooney ranked #1, of course; Santoro was #12 (totally unfair I should add. C'mon - who thinks Leonardo DiCaprio is sexy? ugh). If you don't know who Rodrigo Santoro is, you will probably recall seeing him (shirtless!) in Love Actually. He is now in Lost (not that I care, I don't like the show). To me, simply put, he's the most perfect men alive. The number one on my laminated list (insert deep sigh here).
Girls, it gets better! Looking for a cute picture of Santoro online I came across this website.... check it out when no one else is around! To give you an idea, photos of countless fantastic men are organized as: 'best of', 'barefoot', 'all hands', 'bespectacled', and so on. As an added bonus, I've found awesome pictures of Gerard Butler, who follows Santoro on the laminated list (but far far behind). And of Kiefer Sutherland - if only the website would also play his voice (insert another deep sigh here).

Is it really hot in here, or it is just me??

Note to readers: this post will only make it out there if this temptative comfortable position I found for typing proves to be good enough.

Interesting:
We plant scientists are maybe not as creative but definitely not as freaky as fruit fly scientists:
'Sonic Hedgehog' sounded funny, at first

Disturbing:
I was randomly browsing blogs (something I very rarely do) and came across a white power, anti-Semitic blog hosted by someone at U.K. Quite scary for a pacific, South American, Jewish descending girl like me.

Funny and instructive:
I also came across this very cute blog called Adopt a Microbe, check it out.

Creepy:
Last night I went to the local Centro Espírita, and when I left, a dude who was also at the meeting approached me as I was walking home. After small-talking a bit he asked me if I had a boyfriend, to really throw him off I said I have a fiancee. Dude asked me to send a message to my fiancee - with all due respect (!!! those were his words), he is a very lucky guy. WTF?? I am wearing a neck brace!
Anyway: my dear fiancee, wherever you are, please know you are apparently a very lucky guy, I'll be even luckier if I ever find you.
This morning as I was waiting in line at the grocery store, the guy waiting next to me said "I bet you were fighting with your boyfriend and hurt your neck"; to that I replied "if I was fighting with my boyfriend he'd be the one with the neck brace"; to what he replied "I meant you hurt your neck when trying to hit him! Well, you deserved it". WTF???
As if the pain wasn't enough...

Careful what you wish for!

It might have been all this talk of getting older when really I am still such a little baby, life decided to teach me a lesson...??

As of yesterday morning I can't move my neck. The pain was such that I had to go home at lunchtime. I started taking some heavy drugs (painkiller + muscle relaxing stuff) that made me very drowsy and didn't really help much with the pain. Came into work today but I am still in total pain. My dad told me to take an anti-inflammatory, put warm pads and immobilize the neck as much as possible.

An old lady, the hunchback of Seven Lakes... no, it's me!!!

Airport frenzy and puppy hair

Back from the weekend in Campinas, all I can say is I was glad to make it there at all. Air controllers in Brazil decided to show just how much control they actually have - and in sort of a 'strike', they significantly lowered the number of airplanes controlled by each person simultaneously, this way causing the biggest mess in history of Brazilian aviation during the last national holiday.
Strictly following the Murphy's laws that rule my life, I was caught in the middle of this mess. Last Thursday (Dia de Finados) I got up at 6:30am to get to the airport by 8am and catch a 9:15am flight to Campinas. My flight ended up leaving at 6pm, i.e. a total of 10 hours at the airport - and I should consider myself lucky, since there was people waiting for the same flight who had been at the airport since Wednesday afternoon.
It sounds worse than it actually was - after 2 hours waiting in line to check-in, in the morning I sat around, worked on a manuscript, and got to know a bunch of people waiting for the same flight. The airline sponsored our lunch, and a bunch of us spent many hours at the airport restaurant, chatting over beers. That's when the phone calls started - mom, dad, friends wanting to know if I was alright. "Sure I am alright, just sitting around! I don't understand why you're worrying so much."
They were worried because the TV started to show images of airports where the police had to come in and help control the situation, where airline booths had been invaded, aircrafts taken over by angry passengers... oh boy. From the restaurant at the top floor of the Confins airport, we had not a clue - so we decided to head back to the gates and see what was shaking.
Indeed things were a little crazy... and after some passengers who had a few extra beers making a scene at our gate, the airline managed to fly us with only a 10-hour delay.
The situation is now under control thanks to an emergency plan, but we are far from finding a solution. Flight controllers are overworked and underpaid - and so are we, but they are called controllers for a reason.

Back to 7L, I went to get a much-needed hair cut and decided to try a celebrated, L'Oreal-chique hairdresser. Indeed he did a great job on my hair, with the exception of completely ignoring that I asked him to keep it long. No big deal considering it took me only 5 years to let my hair grow long.... but so they say, short hair suits older women better, so I am getting acquainted with my soon-to-be, over-30 looks.

Much Posting About Nothing

OK... I have nothing really to talk about, but I couldn't just leave without saying a word! I'm going to Campinas, will be back blogging Monday. So let's see... Brazil by Lyza is now a permanent blog feature... it's still hot as Hell here... flight controllers are on strike and I foresee many hours of airport chaos ahead of me. Lab folks finally tested the competent cells and concluded they were at 10e4... guess I should even feel proud that I got two white colonies after all. I'm the cloning wizard! Which reminds me, I saw another lizard today, this one had yellow stripes and it was pretty, but it did kinda scare me since I almost stepped on it. Both Almodóvar and Wenders have new movies that are never going to make it to 7L, and I am tempted to try more downloads using BitTorrent. On second thought, season 3 of 24 is only at 20%...
Gotta run... have a great weekend everyone!!!

WAKE UP, sleepyheads!!!

Readers from Ithaca are sure to appreciate Cham's latest cartoon :)