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< 20 mK

I've finally gotten the dilution fridge to run, and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Although I don't have a definitive way to prove that the system base temperature is 5 mK, I'm pretty sure I can hit < 10 mK. The most conservative statement is that temperatures below 20 mK have been attained.

So lab work has been keeping me busy for most of the last few days, though I did take opportunities during meals to hang out. I went to a delicious restaurant, the Piedmont, in Durham downtown to help celebrate a friend's birthday. The food is essentially French, and for the second course I ordered ratatouille. This is largely because I watched the animated story Ratatouille a few weeks ago, which was an entertaining and delightful movie. I truly believe in the message, "Anyone can cook," which can be shortened, or rather generalized, to "Anyone can." Perhaps some day we may look forward to mice cooking for us? Perhaps they already do, though this is a slightly unsavory thought.

But the ratatouille at the Piedmont was anything but disgusting. It was wonderful. It's a vegetable dish with eggplant, tomato, onions, peppers and zucchini, typically fried or baked. Piedmont's version consisted of baked vegetables on risotto rice, in a tomatoey red sauce, which is not too soupy and not too thick. Yum!

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