Swamped!

I am swamped!

The past three weeks have been absolutely knackering. Work is full on. I have finally recruited two fantastic research staff. They were worth waiting for. It is nice to hang out with bright people every day at work and so far I am having fun. My lab is focused on trying to identify foetal DNA in maternal blood as a way of diagnosing disease during the first and second trimester of pregnancy. This is more fun than it sounds but I have to say that my brain is tired! Beer helps!

So apologies for the lack of posting. Here is some recent domestic history.

We moved out of Mt Lebanon on the 31st August. Unfortunately this was also Soph's 3rd birthday which means that her big day was memorable more for how utterly exhausting it was rather than what a great time we had. The movers came at 10 am so we were up early and eating cake at 7 am with my mum ("Gan") on a video Skype call. Soph wanted a penguin theme (Happy Feet has been a huge hit with the kids).






Our stuff spent 3 days in a van while we waited for the owners of our new place in Sq Hill to move out. This meant we were homeless for 2 nights and so we headed up to Lake Erie at the Northern end of PA for some fun.

Lake Erie is great for people like us with sea-faring ancestors because it offers some relief from the feeling of being land-locked that one gets in Pittsburgh. Although not exactly the roaring Irish Sea in a good blow at Aberdaron it has some sandy beaches and even a few waves.

We spent some time hanging out on Presque Isle which was fab and below are some pics.






We have been camping in remote corners of West Virginia for two out of the past three weekends. Pics to follow.