A quick break

I'm off to IL for the weekend for my grandfathers' memorial service. V will be staying home to study for quals. It will be difficult without him but he is less than 2 weeks from the exams so he needs to be here. My bff and I are going to take advantage of the rare husbandlessness (her significant other is also busy) to enjoy a stop to my favorite little restaurant for steak and lobster. Really, all you can get is steak and lobster*. Comes with a giant potato and a pound of butter. And salad with amazing homemade dressings. And real old-school cocktails...yum!
Evan with the short work week, I managed to get a paper submitted today (woo!) and hopefully will get some other small tasks completed despite travelling. You know, tasks other than watching LOST and eating a ton.

I still have to pack but just got a wicked case of hiccups.
How do you get rid of hiccups?






*Just don't question the lobster in a land locked state...

It's got 3 legs, 2 hearts and a headless chicken for a pet

Ahhhhh, the subject of this post is what V just said to me. It is good to be home.

On my drive I stopped and did 2 research seminars. The first was informal- we had it in super-awesome-guy-who-invited-me's office. Although his office has about as much furniture as my house so it was alright. It was a small lab group of 7 people. The second was a full on research seminar with 20+ people from 3 different colleges of the university. They said that was even some sort of record. Not bad for a late summer afternoon! It was cool, I had people to meet with, drinks, dinner- the whole deal. Great comments on my talk AND great contacts. I still have to post about postdoc stuff that has been swimming around my brain but possibly some good connections there and definitely good advice about it all.

The drive back to PA was loooooooong and boring. I got to see my mom and some family I rarely see so that was very nice. Last week there was also a lot of unbloggable, work related drama that I really hope is now over. Moving on....

I teach a class starting on MONDAY. In LESS THAN A WEEK. Holy cow. Currently, I am working my way through 3 textbooks putting together powerpoints. I am more excited than nervous. The biggest concern thus far is that I really don't know if I am giving too much or not enough time to certain topics in the syllabus. I guess if I don't stick to it exactly and provide updated versions to the students it should still be fine...

In domestic news, I am totally ready to make cappuccinos and homemade bread this weekend while I clean the house and prep for class. Yay for wedding presents!
And being in the right state to use them!
My sewing machine also got its first use last night. Of course, I was making tree cozys for V's research (which he isn't even going to use probably), but it was easy and I am ready to sew stuff. Don't know what yet but stuff. will. be. sewn.
Woo Hoo!

Out of gas

I am back home for another 20 hours. Here are some more travel bullets...

• The conference was good. Tons of great work presented and lots of ideas to ponder! There were lots of white background ppts. I like the growing populatity of the black background. Also, typos piss me off.
• I got to meet my old advisor's baby for the first time. She is so ridiculously cute it is just, well, ridiculous.
• I put in my requisite time drinking/networking-- even closing down the hotel bar not once, but twice!
• There are really good contacts and possibly two invited talks on my drive back to PA from those (and other) nights at the bar.
• I was only really unfortunately socially awkward once- to a very good friend/colleague to my lab. It was right before I had to go talk to MAJOR people and my nerves got the best of me. Sometimes I just shouldn't talk.
• Apparently, it is about time I started looking for a postdoc. Crap. More on this soon.
• V came to do some collecting the first few days of our trip. Yay for spending time in the same state as your spouse!
• Although I am here for 20 hours, I am going into school tomorrow before my flights and long drive back to DO.
• We are in the home stretch of this research position. In about a month I will start teaching again. This fall I have been given the opportunity to have my own class. I get to write the syllabus, lectures, tests- everything! AND it is an upper level course. It is going to be a lot of work and I might be crazy for trying to pull it off but I think I can do a really good job. That was my big announcement.
• Here is a kitty that tried to run away when we were gone. She came back the next morning.
• I am exhausted.

On the road again....

Eh, all I can manage is......bullets.....

• I am 15 rows from finishing the pinwheel baby blanket.
• I've been withholding information from the ol' blog here. I was going to write a big post and am amazed I made it this far without asking for good vibes to make it happen without actually telling you what it is. I am still not going to tell you for lack of time but I promise big, good news with kitty pictures in my next post! (No, not having a baby or quitting my PhD).
• There are lab personnel problems. They end up with my having to do a shitload more work before I can leave today because the postdoc with the lower priority project (and NO deadline) went ahead and used all the supplies. She was told to wait till the new shipment came in and totally ignored that. I know that they are senior to me and we all want to get our work done but don't be like that. And then blatantly lie about it. Not cool. I thought undergrads were bad with the entitlement issues. Apparently, it occurs in people with PhDs too- mostly because of that PhD.
• Yesterday, for the first time in 5 years of working with fish, I dropped some (non-waterproof) equipment in a fishtank. It is sort of amazing that it is the first time but that made for a pretty bad day....
• I am so excited to go to a conference and home (even for only 18 hours) and YAY!!!!!!! I have work, a looong drive, 2 flights with a looong layover in Washington, DC but still....YAY!!!!!

Burn, Don't Freeze

We got to the field site on Wednesday. I got out of the car and immediately remembered what 107 degrees feels like. We started prepping for one experiment and I immediately remembered what 68 degree water feels like. Talk about your hard choices. V and I switch off about an hour at a time in the water and have escaped hypothermia but not sunburn. Luckily, we are doing two projects. The second requires long days in the heat but it is easier than switching between hot and cold. Today is our 'easy' day and we are enjoying the break, a prettier campsite, and the only WiFi in 100 miles.

In our off time, we have been avoiding the crowded campsites full of loud children and people who think they are better at guitar than they really are and going night driving. V loves catching stuff. Look how happy he looks! Even despite the funny sun hat and tick preventing tucked in t-shirt!

Here is a sampling of other things he has found...And don't worry- all were unharmed and immediately released.

Tarantula.

You can see the large ant in the background for scale.

A big yet-unidentified dragonfly

Texas Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutun

Checkered Garter Snake, Thamnophis marcianus, eating a roadkill frog! (Sorry Mom!)

Blacktailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (he's a big 'un!), Crotalus atrox
The pride of the trip thus far....Trans-Pecos rat snake, Bogertophis subocularis

An approximation

I am still in IL. Storms down south and cancelled flights meant I wasn't getting on a plane today so hopefully I will get back tomorrow. I am going to get some writing done this afternoon and play with some data. Or at least catch up on permit paperwork, thank yous from my shower and my Moms Jaywalker...

The fitting yesterday could have gone better. People keep telling me I am handling it well. The dress was 3.5 inches too short. I picked shoes based on the length of the sample dress so it wasn't the addition of the shoes. They got the sample and had me put it on. Low and behold! It was longer! They are sending my dress back to the designer after measuring the length difference. I won't be back till 4 days pre-wedding. If there is anything wrong then... well, I am trying not to think about it. Instead, I came up with the following artistic interpretation of 'DancingFish as Bride with short dress.' It is not my actual dress and while my real feet ARE sort of giant, they are obviously not proportional. I did this while having my coffee this morning and just gave up on the feet. Imagine what I could have done if I were sitting in an airport, waiting for a flight for 10 hours....

2 for 2

I am in IL now and am exhausted. I was on the road at 5am (and was up late celebrating!), caught an earlier flight than I had planned into Chicago, drove straight to Milwaukee for my Grandpas 88th birthday lunch surprise and now am finally relaxing. The conference was a blur of folks I knew (from my MS) and know (from my current work) and need to impress (my outside committee member). My talk went really well. I got a full room and folks were even standing. People really responded to my story and Sneks is the coolest for sending me video clips to add in- people loved them!
My favorite responses were from a couple of female undergraduate students. They tracked me down at the poster session and were all excited and nervous but really enthusiastic about the work. I am used to being a student and looking up to more advanced students, postdocs or faculty. It was the first time I had younger students take notice of my research and approach me in the same way. It was pretty cool...
Even cooler is that I got one of the student grants! I am officially two for two in terms of funded grants this year! It is so great to know that I will be able to afford my field work! Of course it also feels really good knowing that other people think my ideas are alright too! Woo hoo!!
!!!

We made it!

1500 miles in two days and we are in our desert wonderland! It is cold, too rainy to do any of the field work we drove those 1500 miles to do, and foggy...

We stopped in to the only Internet cafe for 100 miles to pass the time till dinner. Hopefully we will be in the field or hiking for the rest of Vs' time here. As we were driving around today we saw the following which leads us to the question of the day....

What the heck is with these things?!? Cow- colored mules??

Quick one...

Wednesday brought an exam to proctor, a traffic citation for expired inspection (I had been at the place the day before but didn't have my registration. grrrr), grading, car inspection, more grading, department holiday party, packing, more farewell drinks, and more packing. After the 13 hour drive, we are safely in Chicagoland. The cats were crazy upon our arrival and I found Seymour IN a closed cabinet in the middle of the night. We've done 3 wedding appointments (chocolate cake with raspberry filling!), two evenings filled with good friends, food and drinks and but only one night of sleep even close to being decent (on Amandamonkeys' floor).

I am exhusted. The coffee that usually flows like water has been hard to come by. I have been going non-stop since Tuesday and I now feel like I'm always only 45 minutes from another appointment or running 20 minutes late. After the holidays (and my trips up to WI and down to V's family) things will hopefully be calm for a day or two.
I'd like to sleep till 11, take a long shower, knit all afternoon and then eat chinese food. Here's hoping!

Day's almost over!

No, I didn't forget my pledge to blog knitting related all week long- just have been busy tonight for a special surprise (more on that tomorrow).

I had a birthday last month that was filled with friends, food, drinks and great presents from V, ArtGirl and my mom! Some were aimed at taking care of myself; V got me slippers and a hat. While others, like ArtGirls' CamelPak, were for my soon-to-be desert lifestyle. My mom got me the BEST. KNITTING. BAG. EVER. I even had the barista at this weeks SnB stop to inquire about it! It is awesome orange and heavy duty nylon so it is super durable...

There are 6 compartments for projects. It will be fantastic for travel because everything I could ever want to knit will fit in there. See how big the compartments are! (ok they don't look so big in this picture but really, they could fit at least 3 skeins of Mauch Chunky)

Inside there are needle holders, a scissor holder, a pocket sized perfectly for my "Knit Chek" and even see through pockets for stitch markers. I absolutely love it.

Thanks Mom!