Superstar!

Just wanted to spread the news that Cathy won the prestigious Argersinger Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation at KU. Congrats, Cathy!

5-7 Minutes

Just so you know, neither speaking for 2.5 minutes nor for 10 minutes constitutes giving a 5-7 minute talk.

Happy Birthday Beth!

Thermonastic Freaks

These tulips were all from the same group of bulbs. The indoor ones were picked on Sunday morning and brought into a warm (but much cooler than 70 degree) house. The photos (indoor and out) were taken on Thursday morning. It was cold but bright outside on Thursday. Thermonasty at work.
The up-close photo I took to show how the tulip is the classic monocot: parts in threes. Darned 7 tepaled, 7 stamened flower! Go hang out with the 5 petaled lily I photographed last summer and just showed my botany class as a classic 6 parted monocot.

More Student Tragedy

I'm afraid I'm going to write this as if it is funny. It is not. But a matter-of-fact list-y tone is all a can muster at the moment before I go home and cry, pet my cat and eat ice cream because I can't freakin' DO anything that will be of any help to anyone except prepare my lectures for tomorrow and I'm not just up to that.
So far this semester, I have had a student die, a student with probable ovarian cancer, a student with acknowledged painkiller addiction, a student's whose wife miscarried, a student with brain surgery and the usual quantity of student's with family members in various kinds of trouble (sick kids, nasty divorces, grandparents dying) and romantic ailments. Then today I received the call from my senior who just found both of her parents murdered. Okay, now I'm crying again. Aaaaaagh.

Facebook?

For lots of reasons (I don't need any more on-line time wasters, I don't want to try and figure out if my colleagues are "friends" . . . ) I am not on facebook and don't particularly want to be. However, I am being encouraged to join from various forces and wanted to know 1) who is on facebook? and 2) how often those of you who are on are on? Let me know.

It's a party in my mind!

I hope I don't sound like I am gloating, but I am so happy about the fact that
(1) I have a four day weekend coming up
(2) After today, I am done teaching in one of my classes.

What this means is that I do not have to give another lecture until next Wed.
And tomorrow, for lab, we are going to a place with the largest population of Blood Root I have ever seen. Even if spring weather is not here the spring ephemerals are out.

What are you happy about today?
Thanks for letting me share.

An email from a student

Here's the entire thing:

'was that the percentage of our grade on the garde to date?

i didnt really get it or its base on how many points i have'

Sheesh! Need I say more?

Earth Hour (and baby) celebrated by knitters

For the second time the knitting group participated in Earth Hour, while throwing a baby shower for Sparkling Squirrel. Well, we kept on a lamp for those knitting, but turned off all other lights. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29900742/ Here's the group at Indian Palace, and lounging in bed Sunday morning. Tucson Trekker & Rusty had some aura going on where I couldn't get a photo of both of them in focus.