Another Saturday night, another helium transfer

Yep, I'm in my boring old lab, where my cryostat is very slooooowly being filled with liquid helium and liquid nitrogen. I didn't want to come in today, but it was either today or tomorrow, so I figured I'd get it over with, since we had to go out to return a movie anyway. I can't tell you how much I look forward to the days when I don't have a cryostat to deal with over the weekends. (Or during the week, for that matter.)

So, last night we rented The Company, Neve Campbell's movie about a ballet company, based on the Joffrey Ballet. If you don't like ballet, don't bother with it. There is a lot of dancing and next to no plot. If you don't mind ballet and like pretty movies, give it a try. Matt's not much into ballet, but enjoyed the movie. If you love ballet, definitely rent it. I liked it a lot. There aren't many special features and the "making of" featurette is very short, but I found it interesting.

And now on to my biggest story: This morning I saw a dog riding a skateboard. No, really riding it. It would push for a couple of steps with two legs and then jump all the way onto the board and glide for a while and then start pushing again. It was phenomenal. I laughed so hard that I started crying. Oh, this was at the Big Dog Parade on State Street. It was the leader of the parade--no seventy-six trombones here. It made my day. And then I went home and found out that Ronald Reagan had died. I was way too young to understand anything about his politics, but he is the first president that I remember as a kid, so I was kind of sad to hear the news. I mean, he was really old and suffering, so I'm sure it was also something of a relief, but still. I remember feeling sad when Richard Nixon died, and he was way before my time.

And THEN there was the Belmont Stakes. Ooh, doggy. I liked that the race was close at the end, but I thought that Smarty Jones was going to win. I guess I wasn't the only one.

And then there was lots and lots and lots of cleaning. Long ago I designated today spring cleaning day. Mostly that's because Robbie and Jess are coming this week, but also because I think it's a good idea to clean every, you know, once in a while. I hand-scrubbed the kitchen floor. Now, to be fair, I'll let you know that the kitchen floor is tiny. But still. Hands and knees. The works. Now I am exhausted and I just finished up the cryostat business, so I am off.