A quick note about a really cool tool that one of my labmates just told me about: Zotero.

It's a Firefox plug-in that allows you to save papers that you find on Google Scholar, Citeseer, etc., and attach notes to it, etc. Afterwards, you can go back to these saved papers and download the paper or the bibtex file. I can't believe I'd never heard of it before! Also available for download from the firefox plug-in site.

I've been absent for a while...I actually have a backlog of yummy food to blog about! But for now, I'm going to explore getting a cat!

I've always wanted a cat, but when I was younger I developed a cat allergy. Recently, however, I've noticed that when I'm around cats for long periods I don't seem to have a reaction. Yay! So now I'm considering adopting a cat from the Champaign County Humane Society. I figure I still need to be cautious about the type of cat I choose and being extra clean.

So far, browsing through the site, I've fallen in love with this cat, Sheba. She's a mixture of a tabby and a short-hair...which is good, because I'm looking for a cat with short hair and that's preferably a female. Apparently female cats emit less of the cat allergen, a protein called Fel d 1.

So now I'm looking at the cost.

1. Adoption fee: $75 Includes vaccines, collar and ID tag and a microchip.
2. Pet Carrier: ? I can get a cheap one from the pet shelter.
3. Allergen Spray: $7 - OdorLogic® AllergenSpray for Cats
4. HEPA Air Cleaner: $110 on Amazon - Honeywell 17000 HEPA QuietCare Air Cleaner
5. Cat Bathing Wipes: $5 - Simple Solution Cat Bathing Wipes
6. Cat Food: $6-$10 - from Drs Foster and Smith

Anything I left out for the intial start up cost? Right now it looks like about $220! So I'll have to think about this longer I guess...