Otters holding hands

'nough said. Check it out and make sure to watch to the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno

house & pet dream

I had a dream last of being in my house in a coastal area. I looked out my window and was amazed at how often I didn’t really notice I had a great view of the ocean (ocean front!). Then I was trying to deadbolt my front door – the bolt didn’t quite line up with the slot in the doorway. But then a man was on the outside trying to break in. I was trying to turn the deadbolt from inside and he was trying to pry it open, and I think he said (or I somehow knew) he was going try come in and rape me. Or maybe I was just afraid he would. I tried to get Rusty to come over to the door to bark and scare the man away. I think he wasn’t scary enough – the man saw how small Rusty is.

Then a man & woman (either married or partners in crime) showed up at the back door. One of their mothers was there too. They wanted to buy my house, and offered 2x the price (they offered $214,000 in my dream), but I didn't want to sell it, so the man & woman started waving around automatic riffles, and I still said no. So the man shot the woman to show he was serious, and then got out a flame thrower and lit a living room part on fire, but closed the door to the living room to give us more time to bargain. But I moved into save the pets mode, and I let the dogs out the front door, and then had to get the cats into their carriers, and Yoda's was too small. It was a clear plastic round carrier like a gerbil wheel. But I had to get out and so lugged the cat carriers out and was thinking about how I would get Yoda into Guaba’s without them darting out. But then thought I can’t be planning that – it’s important that I got them out. Then I had to round up the dogs. And I think the man was still out there to get me. But then I woke up.

Beautiful pictures of seeds

I found a really cool website that I thought the botany crowd might like to know about, if you didn't already. The USDA has a website with ca. 3,000 photos-- beautiful photos-- of seeds from 418 plant families. The link is http://nt.ars-grin.gov/sbmlweb/OnlineResources/frsdfam/Index.cfm

Tulips!

I know these photos are crappy, but the tulips in my yard seemed to open all at once today. I was so excited that I wanted to share it with you all.

Fascinating Flatworms

I managed to make Cnidaria boring in 101 on Monday (no, Abby, I don't have any idea how that's possible, but I did) so I made up for it by telling fascinating stories of platyhelminthes today. I'm not making that up. Somehow I managed to make flatworms more interesting than corals. Teaching is a strange business.

What do grad students and mail carriers have in common?

I was reading a great article about marmosets at lunch today when I stumbled on something you all have to read. I know there are jokes about grad students going postal, but I couldn't believe how often it seems to really happen! Is it that graduate school attracts people like this, or does the stress make them that way?

Car AND dog wash

I just had to share this with you guys. Maybe it's a brilliant idea -- I just think it's hilarious.

I'm glad they don't wash the car and the dog in the same assemblage. I don't think a dog would like a rolling windscreen scrubber going up its nose!
Just tie the leash to the bumper and go on through!

Dragon Phylogenetics

While this exam uses more current molecular methods, this site takes a broader view of dragon phylogenetics (although the biology is a bit sketchy).

We're all administrators now

So there are no status codes or menu selection options, but it turns out that if I click on the "guest" next to your names you become administrators-- not an intuitive step to me. You should be able to sign up for e-mail alerts under settings. I would still like to have the comments in a seperate column as norlos does, but I can't figure out how to do that on blogger. (It actually makes for particularly interesting reading as comments on any post are posted their reverse chronologically).
If someone wants to change the layout for the month of April, go for it, I only request that we keep the title and I'm becomming fond of the labels now.

Speaking of bees...

There was a funny little black bee hanging around my porch this weekend. I was in the middle of painting, so I didn't take a picture. It was flying from hole to hole (keyhole, mailbox, crack in the siding) and appeared to be looking for a way in. It looked much smaller than the bees that I think of as carpenter bees (the ones that look like bumble bees). Anyone have any ideas about this one? I'll try to get a picture if it comes back. I hope it's not a bee that can causge damage, otherwise I might have to kill it :(

Joining the Mocs!

Hi Everyone!

I had to spread the good news! Stelios' interview at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga went very well as they offered him the position! (he hasn't officially accepted yet but will probably do so at the end of the week). So within the next year he will be moving to Chattanooga. Will keep you posted on when everything happens and when I will be able to join him.

Pondering a Past Post, People

Hey all you statistics whizzes -- what do you think of my suggestion in a comment on Jenny's statistics post of Mar. 8? New comment on old post. By the way, is there a way to be alerted if new comments have been added to old posts? That would be really useful.

R2D2

Some info about the R2D2 Mailbox.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070315/ap_on_go_ot/r2_d2_mail

http://www.frappr.com/r2d2

Spring in the Desert

I went on a hike up at a place called Pima Canyon today and the desert is really green!

The ocotillo are leafing out.

As is the mesquite.

The brittlebush are in bloom.

Snakes are out. I think it's a Sonoran gopher snake.

Probably the coolest picture I got was this big black bee. Don't know what the flower is. (Or the bee, either.)

Damn Klondike

Why is Klondike so addictive when it's not particularly rewarding to win?

Some Pictures from Chicago

Well - Kansas just lost to UCLA. Boo.

On a brighter note - here are some pictures from our trip to Chicago.

Appendicitis in New Guinea?

I just received my Kansas Alumni magazine and the feature academic article is about 2 scientists working in New Guinea. They are ornithologists, one of whom just defended (Edwin, listed as PhD 07, but now at the American Museum in NYC) and the other of whom is obviously still a graduate student but has been traveling to New Guinea studying birds since 2001 (Brett). Fair enough. One was helicoptered out of the field in New Guinea in 2002 for emergency appendicitis in what reads like a very risky move. So, this is what I find weird: I have no idea who these men are. The only name I recognize is one of their wives (Kim) and she was already gone from KU by 2002. Why have I never heard of these people? I know it's a large department, but really, I usually at least recognize the names of the students who overlapped with me entirely. And being air-lifted from New Guinea? Surely that's discussed with legendary field stories or department policies on international work or something. So, am I losing my memory or are there stealth ornithologists that none of us know?

My working buddy

Working with Ally...


Good company, doesn't talk too much, doesn't attack the mouse, only walks on the keyboard occasionally.











Reading can put me to sleep, too!

For TT's YAK post below

Shaving a yak

Ever heard of shaving a yak? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaving_a_yak. Seems to be the story of my life (and CERTAINLY describes doing my dissertation).

How important are stitches anyway?

Okay, so yesterday when I was learning to section blocks for TEM, I accidentally sliced my finger with a razor blade. It's not a big cut, but it's kinda deep and angled (the angle of the cut is what makes it bad, I think). I cleaned it up, used an alcohol pad on it and put some antibiotic cream on it before bandaging it. I once cut myself like this before, when I was in high school, but I felt so dumb about how I cut it that I never told my parents about it. As I recall, I just took good care of it, and after a month or so, it healed. It left a scar on my finger, but no other problems. So, I'm thinking that I don't need to go to the clinic and get it checked. It will probably be alright as long as I keep an eye on it and it doesn't get infected, right? If it needs stitches, I can't imagine that it would need more than one (maybe two). So I'm just looking for confimation that I'm not doing a bad thing by essentially ignoring it. I really don't want to sit in a clinic for a long time just to have the guy tell me it's no big deal.

More March Madness

So, I'm taking a short break from basketball to try to get my blood pressure back down a little. And Mario and I were wondering, what's up with the women sports reporters? The men all wear suits and the women (who are usually on the floor) look like it's casual Friday. Today in San Jose a woman (named Erin...) finally wore a suit. But it was pink!!!

What is up?

Fritz Train restaurant!

Fritz's Railroad Restaurant at Crown City is the BEST! They have trains running over head that deliver your food! Sarah S. and I went there last night for mid-birthday celebrations (after science fair training). After wandering Crown Center and the adjoining hotel for a restaurant (and shying away from them all, $$$$$$), the cheapest turned out to be the best! www.fritzsrailroadrestaurant.com (Cool, my 1st link and photo, the train is above the lady behind Sarah).

Speaking of Spring...

Since we've been talking about the emergence of spring recently:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/
(This link made me think of you and your red bud tree monitoring, Jennifer)

Because I'm sure you all wanted to know more

Since we were talking about echinoderm develoment, I of course had to spend time trying to find pictures of the "tumor-like" adult on the larvae (although technically I believe it's called a juvenile rather than adult). I couldn't find great pictures online although I know they exist (I haven't figured out the best search terms it seems). The first pic is of a young pluteus (sea urchin larvae). The second is of an older pluteus. See the brown growth? That's the juvenile which will attach, reabsorb all of the larval features and crawl off to become an adult. The old plutei are so strange looking with these brown outgrowths which wave around small tube feet and spines. Unfortunately this picture does not convey the bizarreness of it all and how it just looks so very wrong.

Spring in Tucson pics

Spring flowers in our yard in Tucson (taken today in the wind -- wind and macro lens, bad combination!)

Pretty pink mystery flower
















Ruellia

Fairy duster (I think)

Mystery yellow bush (2 pics) --below

Bee bush (Aloysia?) -- above















Creosote-- below

Madly-blooming aloe

Damn it's hard to get the labels where you want them!

Peonies and other pretty plants

These pictures of spring are so nice! It has been a dreary spring break in Lawrence as usual. But things are warming and greening up! My peonies and other plants are starting to break through the ground and I am looking for advice on how to stake them so they don't flop over all spring. I found some grow-through stakes in a gardening catalog (unsolicited) that were $30. Kind of pricey. Usually, I tie them up with twine, but this doesn't seem to work very well and ends up looking kind of ghetto. I also have some really tall Silphium perfoliatum that tend to droop in the late summer. Does anyone know of a cheap and effective way to stake plants that isn't totally ugly?

I will send pictures of these budding plants soon!

I gave this post a label so there would be something beside brawls on the list :)

Hiking pics

Here are some pictures from Canyonlands:

WWF interview

Hi there gorgeous knitters,
So, I had my interview yesterday... and am shocked to report that it was actually fun. I took the metro to George Washington University (the "Foggy Bottom" stop, which my friends and I used to think was hysterical when we were kids, being the bathroom joke kind of kids that we were) and walked the few blocks to the hqs, which has lovely banners with their panda bear logo on the outside of the building. I think the interview went well, although they asked me a couple of questions that I hadn't anticipated, like: If you were in an elevator with Barbara Boxer, what would you tell her is the most important environmental issue today? And, What piece of scientific research would you say has had the greatest effect on conservation policy? Luckily, unlike other interview experiences I did NOT completely blank and was able to say something at least moderately intelligent sounding (well, I hope).
Everyone there was extremely welcoming and fun to talk to. I also got to meet the other interviewees and hear their talks. Again, very nice, impressive people. The projects were: monitoring snow leopards in Himalayas, effect of bushmeat hunting in Peru on forest regeneration, modeling movement of coral larvae in Pacific Ocean, recreating historical warming trends and their effects on fire events in forests of Chile, and using a number of models (including circuits as opposed to random walk) on mammal migration, and other pieces of information, such as response to fire management, to model different possible management schemes on a new reserve in northern Arizona.
Speaking of Arizona, hearing about Anna's recent hikes is making me sooo envious :) The weather is starting to be lovely here, so I'm thinking of making a day trip to do some hiking... maybe near Charlottesville. Also, if you will allow me, I feel compelled to give you a dog update... Our newest JRT foster is getting over heartworm treatment and had a wheezing attack last night. She kept putting her little head on my neck and grunting, which was absolutely as endearing as could be, but it made me so nervous and sorry for her that I didn't sleep too well. She seemed to be ok the rest of the night and this morning, though.

Chicago - not really a big city

I am here in Chicago visiting Beth and Josh. Some things that have surprised me about Chicago, making me wonder about its big city status: Many restaurants close at 7 pm on Sunday, those that are open do not take credit cards, and coyotes roam the streets. Doesn't sound like a big city to me. (Ok, so it was only one restaurant that closed and another that did not take credit cards. But I am pretty sure that was a coyote we saw).


Monday was actually a really nice day: sunny with highs in the 60's. So we did a lot of outdoor things, including going to the Chicago Botanical Gardens (If the Missouri Botanical Gardens are called MoBot, would the Chicago Gardens be called ChicBot?)

Anyway (I am a bit low on sleep right now), even way up here there are signs of spring.

Gone but not forgotten

It isn't quite spring here in IA yet, but it isn't really winter. Up until last week, we've had snow on the ground since the first of the year. Even though I am looking forward to spring and all it brings, I kind of miss winter (the cross-country skiing in particular, but not the icy sidewalks or power outages). Since I don't have spring photos, here are some photos taken during the winter, overlooking the Skunk River. (Thanks to Jennifer for explaining how to post photos)

Have signs of spring emerged where you are?

Slow and arduous...

Hi all,

Nate and I hiked about 25 miles in Canyonlands last week and it was great. Well, "last week" ended yesterday with 10 miles. Pretty good for a sedentary monkey like me. Thank goodness for DDR! We had a couple great days in Lawrence before that. Spent some wonderful all-too-brief moments with friends and met with advisors and committee members. Whew! They didn't boot me yet! Seriously, though, I better get my butt in gear down here in Tucson. I looked up 'Trek' on Dictionary.com and it said to make a slow or arduous journey. Both of those adjectives apply to my dissertation, although I prefer to think of myself trekking among the saguaros of the Sonora. (I finally made it to Wasson Peak, Cathy. It was STUPENDOUS!)

Well, bed time. I plan to read and post more later and hopefully even figure out how to do pictures. This blog is an AWESOME idea! Thanks!

At Least My Hair Looks Good

I know this will shock all of you, but I planned to do more than I was able to over spring break. In fact, by Friday I was in tears about not getting anything done and the fact that I never will. Fortunately, the last two days have been slightly more productive and I can say that while my papers are not written, the labs are not graded, and I still don't know much about echinoderms, my closest is to the point that I can find my clothes (which are clean) and my freshly cut hair looks great.

Cheating at Walking

As part of a state employee wellness initiative, I'm wearing a pedometer and recording steps for 10 weeks. I have no problem with my 10,000 step daily goal when I walk to school and teach, but I've been slow over spring break. So, in order to up my step count this week, I've been cheating. I walk extra, step extra, dance while brushing my teeth and run up and down the stairs. Yes, to make it look like I am being active and stepping more I am being active and stepping more. Still, it feels like cheating.

Plant Anatomy and Morphology Textbooks

I'm teaching Plant Anatomy and Morphology in the fall (I'm very excited, although I may not have any students). I want to teach by adaptation: plants have to deal with drought-- what are the adapatations for that? what are the adaptations for dispersal? pollination? low light? high light? winter? . . .
It will include some family characteristics, but it will not be a systematics class, and I'll be teaching Plant Phys (likely to the same students) in the spring, so should not be too physiological. And I will not spend a month on words for hairs, even though I could.
Any suggestions for materials I should use?
Or, for that matter, any suggestions for Vertebrate Zoology?

In the spirit of March Madness

http://www.drivl.com/posts/view/738

The worst mascot's of the NCAA. Though it gets a bit mean spirited towards the end, I was laughing out loud until tears were streaming down my face.

The Problem with Elimination Tournaments

I wonder if I'm becomming soft. Watching the NCAA women's (DII) tourney, I started thinking about ending seasons with single elimination tournaments. Basically, all of the seniors on these good basketball teams (except one team) end their careers with a loss. Which is the way it goes, but suddenly it bothers me. You could see the desperation on some of these other players, particularly the seniors, as they realized they were going down. One team hadn't expected to make the tournament (the 7 seed out of 8 in our region), already played well above seed, knocking off the 2 team, and then lost decidedly to a better team. Their career was generally ending way better than anyone expected, but the actual end they would remember will be a bitter and decisive loss.
Of course, we're sending "our girls" off to Kearney next week (and I'm all upset about changes to schedules, make-up exams and job searches) and I so want them to win. Win it all. A lot of it is that they can; they really are one of the very best teams in the country (ranked #2 overall, so it's not just me); a lot of it is local pride (little tiny, middle of nowhere Glenville State College will have to defeat UC San Diego [and Drury University] to make it big); and a lot of it is that I just don't want our girls, particularly our seniors, to end basketball life with a loss.

Happy Birthday to Sally's Sister

From all of your friends here at GBKD!

Grades have been posted

Woooooohoooooo.

Finally for my biology 100 class. If you have 960 students, and you make a mistake on an exam key, even for only 1/4 of the exams. It takes a long time to fix. But it was the right thing to do.

A picture of one of the crocuses blooming in our yard (nothing to do with the exams).

Handknit socks

Some of you may know that I have been really into knitting socks lately. I just wanted to share the link to patterns of some seriously gorgeous socks.

Better late than never?

Hi all,
How great it is to read through all the posts and comments and feel at least a little connected to you guys again. I'm in Arlington-- still looking for a postdoc or job. I should hear back from postdocs next month-- two possibilities at the Smithsonian, one at Utah State/USDA wild bee lab, and one at UC Berkeley. Actually, I have an interview for the one at UC Berkeley this coming Tuesday. Since the postdoc is funded by WWF, I'm going to be interviewed at their headquarter in DC. I've been reading up on the interviewers and am super excited to meet them (but also pretty nervous). Who knew that WWF employs so many researchers? Many of them are ecologists and conservationists, so I'm feeling way out of may league, but somehow they are at least willing to give me a try (they're interviewing 7 folks for 2 postdoc fellowships). Hope that you are all well. I, too, cannot concentrate without hair pulled back. Do you think it's ok to go to an interview with hair in ponytail??
On another note, Debbie I was also laughing about your posts, especially the night-time brawl of animals on the bed. I'm now living with my sister, in a three dog household (all jack russells, two of them foster dogs). Every time we get a new foster it's a tense time while the dogs readjust. The latest addition is so pleased to see people that she wags her tail so hard she has a hard time walking while her tail is wagging!

The joys of crab racing

Some of you may be aware of this already, but I only just became aware of the craziness that is hermit crab racing. I went to the Ohio pet expo this weekend and I was suprised to find that there is a National Crab Racing Association (NCRA) that apparently has been in existence since 1979. You can check out the website here. In particular, please enjoy the song about crab racing in which the singer sounds like a gambling addict except instead of casinos he spends his time in seedy beachfront taverns packed around a round table with 50 hermit crabs with colorful shells painted to resemble every type of ball known to man (basketball, tennis ball, soccer ball, baseball, football...) slowly moving as the "commissioner" sprays water at them to keep them moving. Okay, so the song is not that discriptive, but my imagination filled in the gaps.

I also enjoyed watching pigs perform (the Hog Wild Review which is apparently a tv show you can watch on animal planet or something).

Student Question

One of my biology 100 students e-mailed me the following question. Any insights?

When someone is baking a cake with yeast. Is the reason to coverthe yeast and let it sit so that the oxygen level becomes less in turnfermentation can take place?

Unanswered Questions

What's up with Anna?
Jennifer, have you graded those exams yet?
Heather in Peru for what?
Stellio's job and martial arts skills?
Cathy and Cheryl trip to Europe?
Rain barrel fun?
Erin's dad's weightlifting?
Jennifer's mega tv?

Basketball Coach Hair

As the NCAA tournament has been on campus, Jeff and I have attended many basketball games over the last three days (and another tonight). Sitting around for 5 games (and not giving up one's precious seat) leads to things like observations of female basetball coach hair. One team has coaches who have middle-aged lesbian athlete hair (curly, short and style-less). One team had a coach with beautifully coiffed hair. The rest have my hair cut: below shoulder-length, all one length, no bangs, parted on the side. Most also let it hang uninhibited (the one pony-tail looked silly because it was too high of a pony-tail and made her look like a 40+ woman with no-body-hair trying to look like a player, and the one with a little top bun looked fine, if out of style). Which leads me to some tough questions: Is my haircut in style? Am I alone in being completely unable to teach (much less coach basketball) with it hanging unimpeded? Do I look as foolishly flat-haired as some of these women? Why did it look like a great cut on one head coach and so foolish on the assistant? (color? cut? head coach blow in some body and use products before finishing flat?). I need a hair cut so these are sorta pressing issues. I'm wavering between fully admitting that I do not do my hair and claiming that I might or should.

Spring Break!

Woo hoo! It's Friday, my students are gone, it's sunny, it's warm and I am going to go watch live "big dance" basketball here in Glenville. Woo hoo!

The wonders of Bloglines

Since many of us are new to blogging and perhaps to blog-reading, I offer a website that will collect all the blogs that you are interested in, and let you know when there are new posts to read. It's not too difficult to set up. First, register so that it knows who you are, then you can subscribe to blogs that you want to keep track of, as long as the blog publishes an RSS feed (most do). If you don't know what you might subscribe to besides the GBKD blog, there is a directory that lists many popular blogs.

http://www.bloglines.com

Here is a link to my collection of blog feeds, as an example. Once you are logged in, you should be able to subscribe to any blogs on my list just by clicking "subscribe" at the top.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/iskhavin

pizza and beer but no knitting

Hi vicarious knitters from afar,

It is we, the lingering knitting contingent, writing to say hello (was that grammatically correct?) The pizza man gave us lip because we paid him in quarters...he was only partially consoled when Jennifer graciously offered (after he asked for) a used butter container to carry the $9.00 in change. He made us count it out coin by coin. Perhaps it was because we didn't order cream cheese and tomato?

Topics of discussion at knitting thus far tonight: Anna Nicole's mysterious death (Jennifer and Erin were shocked, disgusted and more than slighltly miffed that the public did not know why the mother's DNA was needed to assess the baby's paternity), Debbie's giraffe dream (Lamarkian fantasies? Toys R Us commercialism gone awry? You decide...), Stellio's Tai bo abilities (yet unknown), Stellio's job interview (yes, a REAL JOB interview in Chatanooga), dumbass (Jennifer made me write that) students, Jennifer's mega TV and Steve and Erin's dad's weight-lifting prowess, and, well...it's still early. More to come.

Like Erin, this is the first time I've ever blogged. Thanks to Jennifer for the technical support. :)

Back to knitting. Take care in your respective corners of the world.

Cathy

Statistical question

Hi,
Does anyone have experience with or thoughts on Mantel tests?

I feel sort of silly that I finally figured out how to post on this page and this is all I can come up with today but that's what I'm thinking about at the moment.

Last weekend's party

Hi,
Last weekend I attended a big birthday bash for my nephew. Here is a link to my personal blog with a recap of the weekend (if you are interested).

This weekend will be an at home weekend. I will be meeting with Helen about a manuscript, cleaning out my flower beds, and probably watching basketball.
What are your plans for the coming up weekend?

Hurrah

I am so very glad to read about what everyone is doing and thinking. Hurrah for GBKD!

May the Madness March In

Once I married a KU man, I knew I couldn't escape college basketball (and I do enjoy following it). However, I assumed that once I moved from a historically basketball-centric college town to a small town in rural West Virginia and had no television reception, my basketball following would be limited to occasional radio and reading scores in the paper two days later.

How wrong I was. The Glenville Lady Pioneers are good. Darned good. As the top seeded team in the East region, GSC is hosting the regional NCAA tournament. (8 teams in Glenville Friday! No idea how they are going to fit!).

You can tell that I have become an academic fuddy-duddy because 1) I am really very very annoyed that I have to re-do my lesson plans for tomorrow and Friday because my 101 classroom is in the PE building and they need it for tournament preparations. They didn't even offer me an alternative classroom (I have one of the largest classes on campus), but I insisted on one and was given the auditorium (there goes my mostly over-head based interactive lesson) (writing the power-point is what I'm supposed to be doing right now but I have no interest in it). 2) I am giving a writing assignment in botany on Friday, even though it is the day before spring break and there are NCAA tournment games going on during class.

You can tell that I am totally into this March Madness foolishness because 1) I printed my Women's Division II brackets first thing Monday morning (link so you can have your very own) and 2) I just said to my husband upon finding out the UCSD plays division II basketball (a school of 26,000 students somehow in the same league as 1,300 Glenville), "UC San Diego, we can kick their ass in Kearney." And I think I'll keep using the phrase "We can kick their ass in Kearney"

My favorite part of this madness? A struggling football player/class clown in 101 asked after class Monday, "So where is Nebraska?" (and aside to a friend, "See, I told you'd she'd know")

criminy

Hey - my 1st post. Why does my username have to be my email address? That's too long!

You can call me scar face. Rusty and Sally had a midnight brawl right over my face while I slept.

Exam Day

In biology 100 it was exam day. Students always amaze me. We hadn't even passed out the exams and a student asked when the grades would be posted. As if I know.
Sheesh.

Other GBK Contacts

If I missed someone who would like to be part of the GBKD, please let me know and I'll invite them to join (for instance I'm surprised to find I don't have Bridgett's current e-mail). I put this together in rather a hurry Saturday morning (knowing that I would think about it for another few weeks if I didn't actually do it) and any omissions are completely inadvertant. (Okay, so I intentionally didn't invite our chain mailing somewhat scary male short-term knitting companion, but otherwise . . .)

Pink is the new white?

Hi everyone! This is my first ever blog contribution and I am using it to support the color pink. Surprised? Pink used to be the new black, but apparently now it also works for weddings, funerals, and christenings for the stars.

So, all of you pink-haters out there are seriously out of touch with celebrity style, showing how much better your taste is than mine! But I will remain the outspoken minority here if I must. Thanks, Lisa, for putting this blog together for us. It is really great to know what is happening with everyone.

Brain Food

I am eating Dark Chocolate Dipped Cinnamon Altoids. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Jennifer

Hi all!

Lisa, I'm really glad that you set this up. I like the idea of having somewhere to check in with the group, though I would appreciate it if this eventually became less pink (sorry, I'm just not a fan of the color). But that's no big deal and if it doesn't happen, I won't die.

Anyway, I'm running on about 3 hours of sleep (though just led an academic discussion so I'm not doing too bad). The reason is that I flew back from Kansas this morning at 6:15. I was attending a reception for Erin McLain (now Rogers) who was a masters student in microbiology. I got to catch up with Susan, Julie, Tim and Jenny which was awesome. I wish there had been time to meet up with Jennifer and Debbie as well, but I didn't get a chance (I also met up with some anime friends who were having a big meeting in Kansas City which was fun as well).

Also, Heather (and everyone else), I do have a facebook account, but I should warn you that I am not generally a fan of the system (my brothers made me join and I have made no attempts to find friends). I also don't check it all that regularly, but I'll look you up next time I get on it. I like livejournal better for whatever reason. The site is cassiopeajelly.livejournal.com if you ever want to look it up.

Salutations

Hello everyone! Lisa, thanks for coming up with this idea and inviting us all to participate. Like many of us, I'm very much missing the knitting group, and I like the idea of carrying it on virtually.

I don't have much major news here. I've been working on analyzing my data, and so far it's very unimpressive. Oh well. We've been working on a few house projects, which I will probably post about later once I get a chance to take some photos.

Lisa mentioned weird news items in connection with Norlos, so I'll share one I spotted yesterday that made me laugh: Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein

Batbiologist Plans Defense

I just wanted to make sure that Heather's news didn't get lost in the comments. (Heather, important news like this deserves one's own post).

"I'm pretty much freaking out these days. I scheduled my defense for April 16 and am spending two of the few remaining weeks in Peru. Two "substance" chapters are already done, and the third is nearing completion. The intro and concluding chapters will be easy cut-and-paste from the manuscripts I wrote, right? RIGHT?!?!?"

From Jennifer

Hi Everyone,
I think this is a great idea Lisa. This weekend we are in Tulsa visiting my parents and nephews for a big birthday bash. We have been having a fun time. More details later. I just wanted to say hi!

Love
Jennifer

On the GBKD

Hey friends. Time to stay in touch and share the ramblings that we have shared at knitting over the years. We'll all be authors on this blog and we can all alert each other to the goings-ons in our lives. Miss you much.