miss akay

Expensive taste!

How many two year olds do you know who have already developed a taste for cavier? Hazel loves her Ikura!

posted by miss akay @ 1:56 AM 0 comments

Moki's for Todd's Birthday!

It was Todd's birthday so we went back to Moki's a second time for yumnmy sushi and the greatest ribs with wasabi mashed potatos. YUM! Happy Birthday, Todd!

posted by miss akay @ 1:55 AM 0 comments

Onlookers from the SF Opera House

Apparently the party in the streets for Pride was interesting to the crowd at the SF Opera House. If you look carefully you can spy them looking through their little opera glasses!

posted by miss akay @ 1:53 AM 0 comments

Golden Shower

Does this not look like a golden shower to you? I think Stef was right on the money when see guessed the costume. Apparently when Andy went up to him to have a photo together, Andy remarked that he loved the guys golden shower costume. He was so taken aback and said, "but I'm a windchime!".

posted by miss akay @ 1:52 AM 1 comments

View from above the parade

We were on the top floor of Stef's office building on Market at 5th Street.

posted by miss akay @ 1:49 AM 0 comments

SF Pride Week 2007

In a way, watching the crowd was more entertaining than the parade itself.

posted by miss akay @ 1:47 AM 0 comments

The party was good...

and I stayed out until the sky turned blue! I tend to forget just how much I love to stay out late and dance all night. There are a couple of videos that I took. Once i figure out how to upload those, I'll post them.

posted by miss akay @ 1:47 AM 0 comments

Uni-brow comb-over

Here are Stef and I as we're heading in to go dancing on Saturday night. I especially like my new hairdo in this picture because I am styling the new uni-brow comb-over. It's hot!

posted by miss akay @ 4:47 PM 0 comments

You know it's a good party...

when you're looking for an old lifeboat as the key landmark for the secret party spot!

X marks the spot!

posted by miss akay @ 4:44 PM 0 comments

Mission Cliffs is popular as ever

...and the guys are still super dreamy!

It has been nearly a year since I've been climbing. I got myself a one month membership and hope to get a little tone back into my arms. My fingers are stiff and arms are already achy. But it was fun and I'm looking forward to hanging out there more this summer. The place was completely packed! How can you not enjoy yourself when you're completely surrounded by a crowd of fit, sexy, straight men? For some reason this tends to be a hetero sport in SF. I can't complain! I love it.

posted by miss akay @ 2:13 AM 0 comments

Alicia's bachelorette weekend

I loved every moment of it. There were ten of us renting this huge gorgeous house that backed up onto the Russian River, about two hours north of San Francisco. The back deck was big and it had a grand hottub on it, which of course we all piled into. Down below the deck was a nice lawn of grass with a garden around it and a huge pretty smelling redwood tree that shaded the other half of the deck. Sitting on the deck there was a nice view of a tree covered hill across from the Russian River. In the shed there were 3 kayaks which we put into the big creek at the foot of the property. From the lawn there were a set of steps that led down to a mini deck which Diana used for yoga every morning. Further down the stairs was another deck/dock where we put the kayaks in. The paddle from the creek to the Russian River was short (two houses away) and there was a beach where the creek fed in. It was gorgeous!

We cooked and relaxed most of the time. I made my cosmo recipe and we all endulged ourselves. Saturday night was the party night and we surprised Alicia by getting her out of the house. While she was gone we all dressed up into bridesmaid dresses that one of the girls bought. It was just for fun! We went over the top with make-up and hair... just to sort of spoof the traditional bridesmaid tradition because Alicia decided against having them in her wedding.

Later into the night there was even a trip to the grocery store that involved hysterical laughter down each aisle and ended with pushing each other around in shopping carts. OMG... it was fun. Anyway, it was wonderful to be back with my friends and have another one of the get away weekends that I miss terribly on the East Coast.

posted by miss akay @ 2:08 AM 0 comments

Promised from my lst blog

posted by miss akay @ 8:53 PM 0 comments

Video Bloggers on mid-summers night eve

There's never a shortage of stuff to do during the week in San Francisco! On Tuesday night my friend Eddie had films that were featured in two separate screenings and he's not even a filmmaker. John (aka JD), another friend of mine is very active in the 48-Hour Film Project and serves as a key figure in the San Francisco division. He basically throws it! Eddie and a crew of people entered a film and I got to watch it. JD was the host/MC for the event and it felt to me like the typical SF social-talent mixing pot. So genius!

We skipped out early to head out to the Pier, where Eddie's 2nd film was being screened. The scene was packed with SF's video blogger hipsters... a pretty slick looking crowd, if you ask me! I ran into my friend Brian while I was there, which was a thrill since I love running into people at places like this. Have you been to www.jibjab.com? The makers of, "This Land" a political animation parody. I'll post it above.

Anyway, as usual there is a lot going on all the time and I'm soaking it up, basking in my friends' limelight and flurry of activity!

posted by miss akay @ 8:49 PM 0 comments

SF summer internship

The past couple of mornings I've wondered about my obsession with this city. Is it possible to NEED to live somewhere? Sometimes I feel like I do need to be here. Obviously, I come back frequently enough that I think my family wonders if there is someone special in SF that I can't seem to get enough of. Well, yes there are a ton of people. A whole city full of them. And it takes a lifetime to enjoy their company!

We've had some beautiful sunsets. I took this one from Justine's friend Jen's back deck. She has an unbelievably gorgeous spot in between the Castro and Noe Valley. There are so many gorgeous spots in SF! Alright, enough gushing. On to the latest news.

What have I been up to? Well, I finished my first week of work and am spending more time on my own doing things in the lab instead of just training. Wow, do I feel like a beginner! Luckily I have the greatest teachers/mentors ever. The lab that I'm working in conducts research on Retinoblastoma. It is a type of cancer that some children get, before the age of 5 years old. Inherited as an autosomal dominant mutation, luckily it is very rare. Unfortunately this makes it more challenging for research. There are only around 350 cases each year and is not a lucrative money maker for drug companies, nor are there many subjects for big studies.

What is my role? My role is primarily to learn a lot. My hands are inexperienced and my mind is unfamiliar with bench work. Simple calculations like finding molarity or determining volume needed for serial dilutions take me forever! How Cliff keeps his patience while I slowly plug through calculations is beyond me. I've decided within a week of working with him that Cliff is a genius. He really is! This week he has thrown me to the bench to sort out my own in vitro experiments. I've made some mistakes along the way and am realizing that I've learned stuff when I'm able to figure out my mistakes on my own. Learning can be a humbling process but the growth is enormous. Cliff identified a few small molecule drugs that have been used to treat other cancers and based on their mechanism of action hypothesized that they are worthy of testing on Retinoblastoma. What I am doing is plating cells. This means a solution of floating cells are first counted using a hemacytometer slide. The number of cells per volume is calculated and then a dilution is made so that each shallow well of the 96-well plate is filled with roughly 10,000 cells each. Each column on the plate is treated with a different dilution of drug and plates are made in triplicate so that a plate is analyzed at 24, 48 and 72-hours. Results are plotted and we determine an effective dose.

The next phase of my job, if the drug is a success in vitro, is to test it out on rats. Yes, that's right. I know, I know. It has been a challenge for me to get over this, especially since I was a hamster lover as a kid. I'm still in training and haven't done much with the rats yet, other than last week when I gave them cancer. Yes, you read that correctly. I gave cute tiny little baby rats cancer. It's not easy because they are so darned adorable and very, very little! The day the rats were born I injected retinoblastoma cells directly into the back of their eyes, while they were under anesthesia. So, I got my first experience putting a patient under and also giving intravitreal injections. The cells will take awhile to grow and then I will photograph them and eventually treat them with the drug I test in vitro.

It's basically a great experience from start to finish and the atmosphere is unbeatable. I am in the greatest city ever, learning from the smartest, happiest, and greatest researchers I have ever met! I love it here.

posted by miss akay @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

View from UCSF

If you look at the horizon, what you see is Pacific Ocean. It is truly magnificent on a clear day!

posted by miss akay @ 8:12 PM 0 comments

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

posted by miss akay @ 7:20 PM 0 comments

test

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posted by miss akay @ 6:00 PM 0 comments

My favorite kind of afternoon...

DSCN0073
Originally uploaded by akay

Is spent in the backyard of my dearest friend Hiroko, where we sit in the garden, enjoy lunch and our other friends drop by to hang-out. What a wonderful way to live!

posted by miss akay @ 4:45 PM 0 comments

Back in SF

DSCN0113
Originally uploaded by akay

So this is where my story frequently begins.... San Francisco. My love affair with this city is no secret and I'm elated to be back for two months... let the adventures begin!

posted by miss akay @ 4:24 PM 0 comments