What's Going in your corner of the world

I don't have anything exciting or interesting to say. I just miss all of my friends and wonder what you are up to.

I am slowing gearing up for the start of school in Sept., but have not been that motivated. We are going to Springfield for the weekend, and will be back on Tuesday morning. Wednesday represent the end of my summer vacation, as I plan on going back to work full time. I just wish it were not so cold in my office. I think I need to knit some leg warmers and an afghan. Had some dental work today (see, not very exciting). More in the future. Lily is back to her usual self.

So what's new and how are you doing?

Mr. Splashy Pants

If you must know how this adorably little female cat became Mr. Splashy pants, check out the Sparkling Squirrel Blog.

Lilycat

Lily cat is fine, let me just say that first.

We noticed she has not been eating or running around as she usually does. I thought she was still mad about her routine being upset by my nephew's visit last week. But last night I watched her closely - she sat down very slowly and she kept licking a place on her upper leg. When I looked, she had a sore by her anus.

So we took her to the vet this morning and the diagnosis was an anal abyss. They pierced and drained it (having first shaved her leg and taken her temperature). She will be fine.

Steve and I, well we will be fine to, but we are a bit traumatized . They took her to another room to deal with the abyss, but we could hear her yowls and hiss (I have never heard her hiss before). Right now, she is under the bed and won't have anything to do with us. I don't blame her, but I am wondering how we are going to get her out when it is time to put ointment on the wound.

"Open state land for haying, grazing"

Iowa is approximately 93% agricultural land, with only 4% of natural areas, privately protected or state-protected. Although I know the flooding has had a terrible impact on the state, it kind of breaks my heart to think of cattle grazing that little bit of land isn't already devoted to agriculture or to cities.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-northeylandreques,0,3187433.story
Am I just overreacting? I know state parks aren't exactly pristine habitat, but COME ON, don't we have any limits?

Lying to 5-Year-Olds

I just gave an insect presentation to kick off the summer "Catch the reading bug" program at the public library. I took interesting insect specimens, we counted parts, we sang my original "dragon the fly" song: it was all good. Or mostly good. Or at least it satisfied the librarians.
Except that I made up insect names when kids asked. "Oh, that's an emerald beetle. That's a green beetle. That's a saw back beetle. It's a wooly caterpillar" I know that five year olds love to name things, so I'm not sure why I didn't look them up (except lots were beetles and I'm lazy). How bad is that?
It was a green colored beetle, anyway.

Summer Celebrations and Nerdiness

Happy Birthday to Jennifer's Mister (Tuesday?), Jenny's Mister (late in July) and 3 month to Annika (today).
We just passed Beth's Anniversary, mine is this week, and Tucson's is next week.
But no birthdays among GBKs.
So, I was washing dishes and thinking that between Bridgett and Cathy (late May) and Cheryl and Abby (October), we have no birthdays*. On the other hand, all of the Misters' birthdays I know fall in that gap. Nate is late May, Mario June, Stephen and Tim July and Jeff September. What's up with summer men and late autumn-winter-spring women?
And, while I am washing dishes, I was thinking about whether or not this is statistically significant. And, more to the point, would it be an interesting enough problem for my techniques of science classes to do. I think the answer is no to both (although I haven't worked it out yet) but I am intrigued by the different tests one could do depending on what the null hypothesis is.

*Sorry if I somehow missed someone.

Pipetting

The latest trend - EpMotion

Enjoy!

dehumidifier water safe for pets?

Does anyone know about giving dehumidifier water to pets to drink? I started putting it out in the bird bath, then because it rained last night and everything was watered or filled with water, I poured it in the water bowl inside. I suppose I should drink it too if I'm giving it to them!

J. K. Rowling at Harvard: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination

I found this commencement speech interesting, funny, and inspiring, and I know several of you are JK Rowling fans so I thought I'd share.

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

Blog Roll

I just added a blog roll on the side. I figure that generally we want each other to read our blogs and that we don't necessarily want random on-line friends navigating here (thus no direct link from my blog to the GBKD). In any case, if you don't want your blog included, move it, and if you want a blog added, add it.
On a side note, my parents just returned from a wedding and their 45th high school reunion and returned to a cat-less house for the first time in 30+ years. They are pretty upset but were moved to tears by the kind notes on my blog. Thanks. (complete aside, Mom asked if I had any thoughts about going to me 10th. I had to laugh because well, it was 8 years ago and I broke my ankle in many places that day, so my parents had to wait outside my apartment for the friends who were taking me. I hadn't thought about 20 until she mentioned it. Anyway, at 18 years out of high school I have spent almost exactly half of my life as an "adult".)