Last Sunday I harvested DRGs from a batch of 6 day old rats, and there was one left over. The options were limited: either dispatch him humanely since his mom was already gone, or take him home for Melody to play with. After five days of hand feeding human baby formula via syringe every 4 hrs (luckily Melody’s on vacation this week) and playing Miyazaki tunes in the background, Sammy has gotten fat and sassy at 11 days old. It’s pretty surprising, given that we weren’t even sure he was going to make even one night without his mom. This has been the only work highlight in the last few weeks. Otherwise, I’m being flogged at work, trying to submit a manuscript by Sunday. There has been some time to enjoy Restaurant Week, however. On Thursday Melody and I went to Anthem, which offered a very creative 3-course meal, preceded by an amuse and followed by a take-home treat, for just $30 each. Lucky for us, some of the other participating restaurants have extended the opportunity for prix-fixe meals, so we’ll be taking advantage of that in the next several days.

This past week marked the grand opening of a new Ikea superstore down in Connecticut, and despite having been traumatized only last weekend by their state troopers, we braved the interstate highways again to get in on the deals. Even more memorable (at least for me) beyond all the bargain furniture, home decor, and kitchenware, was the store restaurant, serving a delicious crayfish sandwich, a mozarella and red pepper panini, and a Swedish meatballs dish all for just $1.99 each! Mmmmmmm… meatballs… =P~