Things have been pretty tough lately. Phil's brother in law passed away unexpectedly, and we drove 15 hours to Michigan on Friday, then back during the night on Sunday to arrive here and get ready for our lab move.

I've been so exhausted lately it's not even funny - plus, after the lab moves and we get the students going, we leave for Los Angeles for a year sabbatical at UCLA - we rented a TINY guest house in Bel Air, and will drive with our two aging dogs in the pickup truck. That should be the adventure of a lifetime...

MOving a lab is the most amazing and challenging experience ever! I made some photos of the process, if you guys want to see it, here is the link

http://picasaweb.google.com/SallyBR2007/LabMove2010#

253 boxes of stuff, plus all the equipment - chemicals moving in a few days still

"If your heart is not in it, excellence is not possible"

In response to Reply # 0

I hate when things get frantic like that and you have more to do than you could possibly fit into the time you have. I hope things settle down for you once you get to LA.

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win - you're still a rat.

In response to Reply # 0

How far is the move? I have to move down to the far end of the building next month, and I am not looking forward to it.


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"Up, Up, and Away"

In response to Reply # 2

about two miles

The horrible part of all this are the regulations and regulations and regulations

folks who donated the millions of dollars to build this center, want the place to LOOK NICE. They are not at all concerned with how it will function for the research. It is a major pain in the butt. We have walls that need to contain only a white board (which we'll never use, of course), and we cannot place a cabinet to store chemicals there - or anywhere for that matter.

I will stop whining, but believe me - those folks are crazy.

Chemicals cannot be moved together with anything else, and they need to be sorted out in specific classes - inventories had to be made etc etc etc

We've worked on this for months, but once it starts, it's like a tornado hitting -

good luck with your move!

"If your heart is not in it, excellence is not possible"

In response to Reply # 0

>253 boxes of stuff, plus all the equipment - chemicals moving
>in a few days still

Do you have to pay a hazmat company to move the chemicals?

In response to Reply # 4

"Regular" movers cannot touch the chemicals - the university had to hire specialized folks, approved to handle all sorts of chemical products.

on top of that, radioactive items needed to be moved by even more specialized guys - in this case, they are from our university and in charge of supervising all our handling of radioactive materials. IN our lab in particular, we have to use a lot of radioactive iron, so they will be busy moving anything that was in contact with that.

believe it or not, a fire happened already on the second day of the move, but not with our lab - it was an organic chemistry lab, some nasty fluid leaked out of a bottle, and next thing you knew, a fire!

"If your heart is not in it, excellence is not possible"

In response to Reply # 5

>believe it or not, a fire happened already on the second day
>of the move, but not with our lab - it was an organic
>chemistry lab, some nasty fluid leaked out of a bottle, and
>next thing you knew, a fire!

And you never know what super-nasty fumes will come out of the combustion of nasty materials!

In response to Reply # 0

Wow, what a crazy busy time. I hope it all goes well. Sounds exhausting.

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and will astound the rest" - Mark Twain

In response to Reply # 0

The L.A. move sounds like it'll be quite exciting, but it must feel odd to leave your (new) lab and students behind just after this big move. Will either or both of you come back during the sabbatical year?

Thanks for the photos. Looks much more organized than a typical house move!

In response to Reply # 8

Yes, we already have tickets bought to come back in October for a week, and should come back regularly, one week at a time

apart from that, the students and our post doc will write a weekly report of what they accomplished in the lab and send to us every Friday by email.

It should work well, but we still want to be back and check things more closely every couple of months or so.

"If your heart is not in it, excellence is not possible"

In response to Reply # 7

I've been feeling exhausted for the past 4 weeks straight - we also have two of the stepsons in the house this weekend, but next Friday it will be again just me and Phil, which makes it a little easier

"If your heart is not in it, excellence is not possible"