End of the work week?

As I said Monday, I'm leaving tomorrow (VERY early) for a conference, so no post on Friday. I was worried about the week (my third abbreviated week), but just about everything got done that needed to be done. I tell people that I have had three 3-day work weeks, and they get excited. They don't understand that I'm trying to still do the same amount of work in a shorter time.

I'm working on a grant right now. It's based on the NSF grant that I submitted earlier this year. Basically, I worked so hard on the NSF that I want to use that work for other things. But this application takes a part of the NSF that was not the most interesting to me and focuses exclusively on that. And there are tons of hoops to jump through on the application. We'll see, but I wonder if it's worth it. Part of the push is that one of my yearly goals for 2009 was 3 grant applications and this helps me accomplish that goal early, but I wonder about trying to find something easier and more relevant to what I want to pursue.

I got a rejection letter today from a journal. Big bummer. I'm 0-5 on submissions at this journal, but it's considered one of the top outlets for my type of work. Very frustrating. The reviewers had great points, and if I were the editor with these reviews, I probably would have rejected it also. Still, it's disappointing. Part of me wants to fix problems and send it out quickly. But one problem was a (relatively) small sample, so I wonder about waiting until the fall, collecting more data, and then sending it out. Ugh. What do I have to do to get into this journal??!!

I did get a new battery for my laptop. That makes the trip considerably more happy. I'm using it now and it seems to have a pretty good charge on it.