I've always found research to be fairly relaxed...in fact, I'm in the lab right now surfing the web! Everyone who works here works relaxed hours, though sometimes they come in on the weekends, and takes it easy in between experiments. I've heard that it's not the same in the biotech industry where it's strict 8 to 5 with one hour lunch, etc., etc.
Some things I would think of doing - there are seminar series throughout the week here, with professors speaking about research and professional talks, etc. Many people in my lab attend these and they are very informative. Maybe you could attend another lab's lab meeting to see about collaboration or just to see what they're up to. There's always reading of relevant scientific articles. If all else fails, planning experiments around lunch breaks!
E'01 - I'm working on a few experiments around one topic at the moment and not one of them has gone right the first time...it's always been a game of finding out what went wrong and fixing it...even the postdocs/grad students can't get things right on the first try, so try-try again and don't worry about it!