Gorgeous Biologist Knitter Diaspora

Birthday Season Returns

2012-02-03T20:25:00.003-06:00

Today is T T's birthday. Erin's is quite soon. Neither is turning 40 this year.
Later in February it's Heather's birthday, then Molly's early in March and SalSis's on the Ides (she is turning 40).
May there be great celebrating for all.

Think spring??

2012-02-02T10:03:00.004-06:00

Today, this temporary tattoo from a past SpSq Groundhog Day celebration reminded me of happy times spent with you all.

I hope you all are happy and healthy on this Groundhog Day, and that you enjoy the supposed six more weeks of winter.

The photo on the right is near our favorite ski trail, on a what has turned out to be an abnormally snowy day in this mild winter. But Michigan is hasn't disappointed us with its beauty yet.

R.I.P. Lilycat

2012-01-24T14:45:00.000-06:00

You were a great companion and well loved by all. I am glad you had a great 15+ years on this earth.

question - silk worm deaths vs. oil industry

2012-01-23T15:44:00.002-06:00

Is it better for silk worms to be boiled alive so that silk fabric can be made (possibly by child labor), or for synthetic fabric to be made from petroleum?

Shaking my world

2012-01-19T13:33:00.001-06:00

Are any of the rest of you dooce.com readers? Are any of you as sad about Heather and Jon separating as I am?

I caved

2012-01-11T20:08:00.003-06:00

So you can find me on facebook now.
Still, I plan to keep the blog alive, if nothing else to report on the "best" of my student answers.
"Friend" me if you want to.

Book suggestions?

2011-12-17T12:09:00.002-06:00

Hi friends, I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season! I am looking for book suggestions-- I recently finished reading the Harry Potter books to my grandmother and she really loved them. Now I am looking for a new book or book series to read to her. She really seems to enjoy mysteries, detective stories, and history, but I'm open to most anything so long as it isn't too violent or R-rated. Any suggestions?

Birthday Week

2011-11-24T17:57:00.002-06:00

Once again, it is the week (basically) when Irene, Jennifer and Jenny all age one year. As usual, it is also the week of Thanksgiving and a week that I will forget them if I don't post all at once.
Happy Birthday ladies! May you have (or I hope you had) a fantastic day followed by a fabulous year.

Breaking radio silence to be gauche!

2011-11-17T17:15:00.003-06:00

Hello knitters...

It's good to drop in on the blog now and see you all again, familiar from knitting of yore, yet with new lives and families sprouting up. I'm doing well and loving being a mom (most of the time).

OK -- that's the breaking radio silence part... now for the gauche part -- I have a request.

I'm tutoring now and don't have the recent edition of Campbell, which I would find very helpful. Before I shell out $150 for it I thought I'd ask if any of you with real jobs might have an extra desk copy I could beg, borrow, or -- well, not steal! If not, I'll think about whether to remain 2 editions behind or shell out the big bucks!

Here's a recent pic of Andrew. We're not making it out to Lawrence this winter but hope to again next summer.

three of my favorite things

2011-11-15T08:12:00.006-06:00

This clip combines three of my favorite things - Kingdom Animalia, Betty White, and the song Africa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hvZkBpUJs

(How does one make a youtube video show in a post?)

I'm off to Haiti on Sunday. I'll post an update from there.

PS - Check this out about a prof here

Happy Birthday Cheryl

2011-10-24T09:48:00.002-05:00

Ecologist, teacher, soccer player, new mother and namesake for several (?) species of beetles, our friend Cheryl is a year older this week.

Birthday wishes

2011-10-20T07:41:00.003-05:00

Celebrate Abby today and beyond!

Sophie Dorothy Berg . . .

2011-10-17T08:40:00.002-05:00

. arrived Friday (Oct. 14) at a healthy size (7 lb. 10 oz. and 19.5 inches). She and Beth are still in the hospital (c-section because Sophie was breach) but should be returning home very soon.
Obviously, she's a beautiful young thing and hoping for early admission to the Starfleet Academy.
Welcome Sophie!

Questions for Class Feedback

2011-10-10T06:46:00.002-05:00

This semester, I'm being very nice to my class and giving them a few 'attendance quizzes'. As the course proceeds, I thought that these quizzes could be a good opportunity to get some feedback about the class if the student chose to do so. If so, the student would need to feel comfortable giving me feedback because their names would be on the paper.

So I was curious if anyone might have suggestions about questions I could pose to the students, try to get some feedback about the class, but have the student be comfortable about putting their name on the paper.

Thoughts?

Diaspora Current Dispersion: Check in

2011-09-20T20:55:00.002-05:00

Several GBKs moved over the summer and I'm not sure where everyone is, geographically or otherwise.
Please tell us where your at (and if I don't have your current e-mail or physical address [Cathy, I know this is you, I'm not sure who else] write me at my plant nerd account so that I have it).

Where are you?

manuscript reviewers - random or legit?

2011-08-31T08:07:00.005-05:00

Once in a while I get an invitation to review a manuscript. Not sure how I got on the list, or if they are even legit (and I haven't paid attention to if it's always the same journal, this one is an env. mon. journal). Why would someone want me to review a paper about critters on a coast? Am I in their database now and they randomly choose a name, or do they truly try to match papers with expertise? I once received an invite to review a paper pertinent to my work, but I knew someone even ore knowledgeable so I recommended him. Insights anyone?

Norah Murphy Chatzimanolis

2011-08-23T17:56:00.004-05:00

The newest addition to our family arrived last Wednesday (August 17) at 9:19 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. All are well, but very tired and sore - thank goodness the grandparents arrive tomorrow :) Stelios and I are very happy (he is such a doting father).

Hope all of you are well

Plastic watershed model ideas?

2011-08-17T19:24:00.004-05:00

UPDATE - Trail 1 - Non-waterproof diorama. I can point out watershed details on this.

Anyone have ideas of where to buy or how to make a small plastic model of a watershed? Something like what's on this page. I'm looking for one to use in Haiti for teaching (I'm planning a fall trip). It has to be small enough to fit in my backpack (<12in x 12in), and already in one assembled piece since I may not have time to set something up. I could try making one, like the one in that webpage, then melt a sheet of plastic over it, maybe a piece of lamination plastic or something from a craft store. Anyone have experience with craft store melty plastic (if such a thing exists)? Or modeling clay that holds shape and water, and won't crack when my backpack gets tossed around? Thanks! (PS I'm taking the intro to Creole class here this fall!)

Knitting chaos

2011-08-06T09:48:00.004-05:00

Latest gathering of the knitting group. (And all but one of us worked at KBS, well, minus the babies).

And behind the scenes:

Rutherford Robinia Arrives

2011-07-23T12:38:00.001-05:00

As of 5 am, Dianthus has a new brother.
We're all well and tired.

Endings and Feeling Old

2011-07-15T09:49:00.002-05:00

I really don't think of myself as a particularly sentimental person, but somehow I find myself teary and nostalgic about lots of different things.
This week, the end of the space shuttle program and the last Harry Potter movie both have me weepy (not to mention things associated with the Women's World Cup).
Anybody else get choked up over the "ending of an era"?
As far as feeling old, when Kate and William married back in April, I was going to write about things one drags oneself out of bed to witness-- I remember the excitement of watching Charles and Dianna's wedding fresh (although I probably did not stay up for it) and that same year I was up at 3 am several times to view the first shuttle launch on television. First shuttle launch and royal wedding were a big part of my third grade year. In April I was going to ask how many of the rest of you were up for either when it struck me that we're not actually all the same age. Somehow Jenny and Irene watching shuttle launches at Dianthus's age probably didn't make the same impression.

Knitting group Wed. night

2011-07-11T10:17:00.001-05:00

Since it happens so rarely, I had to post it. We're having knitting group at my house Wed. night since Tuscon Trekker is in town. Email me for details! And a Chinese friend is moving in with me. She's excited to take Sally for walks. I'm excited for her cooking and pet sitting.

Black Widow Bite

2011-07-02T16:10:00.002-05:00

Because it is so funny, in that absurdest horrible kind of way, and because I want to make you all laugh as well as evoke your sympathy, I'm going to post on both blogs (more details on Sp Sq) that I recently returned from being hospitalized with a black widow bite.
Having lived in a hotbed of brown recluses in Lawrence, I was fairly blase about spider bites. Thursday afternoon being what perhaps the most physically uncomfortable afternoon of my life (ankle break and labor included, although both were more acutely painful), I may now turn into an arachniphobe.
Avoid black widow bites, and if you cannot avoid them, avoid getting them when you are 36 weeks pregnant and antivenom, muscle relaxants and serious pain drugs are all out of the question. You surely needed me to tell you that.
Don't miss TTs message below.

Tucson Trekker in Lawrence

2011-07-01T13:08:00.002-05:00

Hey all,
I do still exist and as proof (well, for some of you) I am coming to Lawrence. I sure hope I can hook up with those of you there -- perhaps even for a baby group or knitting or knitting with babies. Wow knitting needles and babies, what a combo! Anyway, I will be in Lawrence starting tomorrow evening (July 2) until about the 19th or so and then again for the last few days.

Hope to see you!

Symbioses and Other Suggestions

2011-06-21T11:33:00.003-05:00

I'm teaching Economically Important Plants this fall, and, needless to say, I want to make it the coolest class ever. Suggestions are welcome for activities, content, and readings that could help make it so.
I'm thinking of having one day (generally during the agriculture section) on soil and symbioses. I'll have them review nutrient cycles in advance (I think students really need to understand nitrogen in order to get fertilizer in order to understand any ag. issues) and we'll talk about nitrogen fixation (probably using either soybeans or peanuts for case study, possibly the cool bacteria (Anabaena?) that fixes nitrogen with the waterferns (azolla?) in rice paddies). I also want to talk about mycorrhizal associations and pollination.
At the moment, the very cool pollination associations I can think of (yucca and yucca moth, monarchs and milkweeds, bats and saguaros aren't heavy on economic importance. Honey bees are plenty important, but not as useful for cool co-evolution discussions.
Ideas? Vanilla orchids couldn't be cultivated elsewhere for lack of a very specific bee: buzz pollination and the solanaceae?
Any specific mycorrhizal associations that are interesting?
Other soil symbioses?

Just checking in

2011-06-11T15:40:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone,

I've done it again -- I've gone months without checking the blog! Horrible, I know, since I really do enjoy reading the updates from everyone, which I'm looking forward to doing again now. My excuse, if there is one, is that I post lots of photos and the occasional inane update on Facebook and figure that's enough of a mass dissemination; my relatives really enjoy being able to keep up with their Nebraska crew that way.

But anyway, everything's good here. Little Z is 20 months old already and is a big chatterbox. She's getting long and lean and is generally a blast to hang out with. W and I are doing fine. He continues to tinker with honeybees as a hobby, with 4 hives in our backyard. He's also just about to start an MBA program, a little bit at a time. I have the summer free to spend with Z-toddler and O-dog, but as I got a decent state-funded grant to do 1 year of research with some students, I do that twice a week this summer, too, and will have 1 course release in the spring as well as 3 weeks in Costa Rica during our J-term. A requirement of this state funding is that I submit a full NSF Career proposal; that July deadline is looming. In the fall, I'll be teaching comparative (supposedly vertebrate) anatomy, which is freaking me out a little. I've never had anatomy and have had ornithology and mammalogy but no other vertebrate-ologies. I'd frankly rather (and be more qualified to) teach botany or entomology. But I digress. Any ideas you guys have got would be welcome! I've assigned a typical textbook as well as "Your Inner Fish" by Shubin.

W and I just got back from a week in Alaska. My parents insisted we leave Z with them for a while, so it was our first time away from her. Everything was great on both ends, although the packaged tour was a little too packaged-tour-y for me. We got to see great views of McKinley and plenty of critters, too. My favorite part of the trip was an air tour of McKinley that turned into a glacier landing at the climbers' base camp.

Otherwise, we're just rolling along here. I'm looking forward to going through the last few months of posts and hoping that everyone's well.

Haiti fun

2011-06-08T14:41:00.002-05:00

Hi from Haiti. Having a good time here, and seeing what the rainy season is like. Just found out the capital is flooding. No flooding here, just impassible roads that occasionally change our plans. I've been helping with women's church conferences and start teaching ecology tomorrow. I'll post pictures and updates on my blog.

Second baby gift ideas

2011-05-31T18:15:00.003-05:00

I have a new nephew! Anyone have suggestions for gifts for a second baby? First one was a girl who is over 2 yrs now, but I think they still have a lot of her baby stuff. I am looking for something to buy, not knit, since I haven't been knitting since I became a mom. This is on my list of things to change about my life :)

Maine-iac

2011-05-20T13:56:00.002-05:00

Life's trajectory has pointed us toward magnetic north, apparently. From S. Carolina, to New York, to Maine, we've been on the move. Yup, we're about to be Mainers, lured by a tenure-track job at a SLAC in a small town one hour from the beach, one hour from Acadia National Park, two hours from the end of the Appalachian trail. After being ridiculously transient for the last 20 years, I can't say that I'm not just a little scared, but I'm trying to embrace it: we bought a house, we might even buy some "grown up furniture" (and discard the 'perfectly good' futon couch we've had since our college years?!), and we're becoming a one-car, 5-bike family. I call it maturity (finally), my students, I realize, just see me as old.** We are making the most of NYC while we have it (broadway version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert is well-worth the zillion dollars it costs) and eating all the goat cheese the Hudson Valley will spare. Then onward to Vacation land (seriously, that's what the license plates say). We have spare rooms--feel free to use them if you want to escape the summer heat!

**I just spent a fair amount of time at the hospital with a student who looks somewhat like me. I was frequently asked if I was her mother, not her sister. I've crossed some threshold, apparently.

ESA roommate

2011-05-19T19:10:00.003-05:00

Anyone going to ESA this summer and want to share a room? The hotels are kind of expensive!

Happy Birthdays & Babies

2011-05-15T15:31:00.001-05:00

SpSq has not only a baby, but a birthday on the way. Who else? (bday I mean). Congrats to everyone with babies, and finishing teaching for the year. I leave for Haiti in about 2 weeks.

Newsflash!

2011-05-09T09:11:00.004-05:00

If you did not earn over a 50% on any one of the 5 exams in class, you probably shouldn't expect to pass the class.
Your performance in other classes has no bearing on your grade in my class.*
If the state requires a life science class with lab for a degree, and you have demonstrated neither passing knowledge of non-majors biology, nor passing effort in lab and homework, you probably don't deserve to graduate, despite being a senior with only this class between you and your diploma.
Just saying.

*Whether you are a self-described "straight-A student" indignant that you could be performing at less than an A level, or a poor student about to lose financial aid, your grade in my class is based on points earned in my class (and, as it turns out, I've done the math and I know that it is not just my class that is killing your GPA. The low grades in the other classes, be they current or past classes, also contribute to your GPA). For that matter, I don't take into account how upset your parents will be or how bothered that your wife will be that you have to commute another semester to re-take lab, BUT, YOU should probably take these things into account BEFORE you decide not to study or seek help in the class you are failing.

Minor Gloat

2011-05-05T16:39:00.001-05:00

My grades are in!

Moving update

2011-05-01T21:55:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that we're headed to San Diego on May 14th. My postdoc here ended a week ago, so we're on to new things. (Well, kind of-- I'm still going to be working on getting my project finished and published while we're in San Diego). My hubby's job is still in the Bay Area, so he will continue telecommuting from home. I'm not sure how long we will remain in SD-- I suspect we will eventually wind up in the Bay Area somewhere. In the meanwhile we are moving in with an aunt to save money. We are both looking forward to being near family again!

What a Day!

2011-04-28T10:51:00.002-05:00

Well, we survived yesterday relatively unscathed. Lost power yesterday morning with the first round (out of three) of storms. Luckily, campus still had power, so I worked in Stelios' office for the day. It was a good place to be, as we had power to monitor the storms and it's underground. After 11:00 last nigh the front finally went by and we went home - luckily the only things we have had to deal with is lack of power and some water in the basement - lots of grilling in our future. We are both feeling very lucky as there is a lot of damage throughout the area and several people have died. Hopefully we won't have to experience something like that again, or at least for a long time! Whew!

There must be something in the water....

2011-04-23T22:15:00.000-05:00

So I wanted to let everyone here know before FB tells the world.

I'm pregnant and due in late October. :-) We're very excited. And yes that shirt says geek inside. On this same theme, we've already planned possible Joshoween costumes, me as a fly or something that was parasitized, Josh as a parasitic wasp, and the new arrival as a grub.

We just finished an egg coloring, egg hunt, and pinata filled birthday bash here. I wish you all lived closer. I'll post more pictures on that later since they're not on my phone.

On other news, I'll be on sabbatical this fall working on barnacles again. So life is going well.

((hugs)) to all

Dessert Time

2011-04-21T11:49:00.002-05:00

Once again I ask students to look at a map of the world's biomes, pick 2, name them, tell me two characteristics of them and name an organism that lives there.
While this batch is not as funny as the frosted biome or the zebras of the tundra, we do have some new biomes this year, in addition to the ever popular desserts:
Forest, Africa, Terrestrial, Tropical, Temperate, North America (located on the tropical rain forest), South Africa, Egypt, Coniferous, Brazil, Temperate Broadleaf and my new favorite: "Freshwater" which is located on the savanna and has the characteristic of, "it has salty water".
Good times.

Moody Cranky Advice

2011-04-19T11:09:00.002-05:00

I've been cranky, moody and wanna-be-uber-weepy this semester. At least once a week I have a day when I really just want to curl up in my office and cry. Not cry about anything, just cry.
Actually, moody isn't the word for it either, since I haven't been in a bad mood and these spells overtake me without much of a change in my mood. I don't know. There have been some blue or down times, so very tired times, some rationally irritated, some irrationally irritated, some worried times (see my blog when I eventually post about ventriculomegaly, which I just looked up again for the spelling and am re-concerned about) but those are mostly just normal emotions. This season I've also had spells of feeling emotionally really bad that felt like a physical symptom, rather than an emotion.
Anyway, this is fairly new territory for me. I think I have a fine grasp on the long-term- this certainly doesn't feel like it is inescapable or permanent. I can definitely envision that my hormones will change and that I will feel better. It's the short term that I'm having trouble with.
I don't want to explode at/cry at/nag my wonderful Mister any more than he actually deserves. I don't want to feel any fatter or lazier from sitting around eating and doing nothing than I already do. I don't want to be any farther behind in work or life projects than I already am AND I REALLY WANT to explode/cry/nag/eat/sit and do nothing.
Any advice for how you deal with ickiness you know will pass in ways that will make your loved ones still want to deal with you after it has passed?

Celebrating Season

2011-04-19T11:04:00.002-05:00

Beth will celebrate a double digit birthday on Sunday and Irene and her Mister celebrate six years of married life (Saturday, I believe). Meanwhile, Max will be turning 13 months soon, Cheryl and her Mister have been married 5 years and Annika turned 3. 3! That's crazy big-girlness.
Happy spring to all.

Haiti ecotourism gear

2011-04-11T19:49:00.004-05:00

The logos are done! You can buy a shirt with one here: http://www.cafepress.com/zwazoyo. Let me know if you would like to buy a shirt or water bottle for an ecotour guide or ecology teacher I train in Haiti!

Ecotour logo opinion - round 2

2011-03-24T13:23:00.012-05:00

-update - which of the color ones do you like better?-

Designing a bright yellow t-shirt for the ecotour guide in Haiti so his clients don't loose track of him inspired me to create a logo for his tours, and my educational program in Haiti. Though it's really about the ecotours. Which do you like better? Here's the parrot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniolan_Amazon On the front will be the guides name

(PS SpSq will be in town - email me if you'll be around and can come to our gathering).

Tenured Professorship

2011-03-22T11:12:00.002-05:00

A little birdy just reported that the snail-trail-studying one among us was just granted tenure.
Way to go Snail Studier!

Hawaii friends' tsunami

2011-03-11T08:14:00.003-06:00

Hawaii forest friend - let us know what happened with the tsunami! The Japan earthquake is bringing back sad emotions from the Haiti quake.

Inconsistent colleague corrections?

2011-03-09T12:58:00.001-06:00

I am fortunate to work in a department where all of my collegues are professional and competent (this is a rarity in academia as elsewhere). That doesn't stop me from wanting to change some of their behaviors/notes/questions/policies.
For example: 1) Our majors intro class has several lecture sections and many lab sections. My lecture is a week behind where we should be based on my syllabus (which is based upon the official course outline). Another professor is at least 2 weeks behind me. This bothers me because it does affect lab (I teach 3 of the 5 sections and they are scheduled to correspond with lecture) and it means that there is NO WAY she will cover evolution effectively and we will have students leaving our majors class without hitting Hardy-Weinberg.
2) I just received my fall reviews saying how hard I am (typical) in my non-majors class. Just as I was thinking that I wasn't any harder than anyone else, I learned of a section that is receiving points for doing a WORD SEARCH in college biology (and, sadly, one of our student aides had to correct said word searches).
3) I'm guest lecturing tomorrow and the mitosis powerpoint from the instructor (which the students already have) includes the sentence "Eukaryotic organisms do not rely on cell division for reproduction." (HUH?)
I know that I should just shut up and be thankful that I work in such a generally good environment, but I would be delighted to hear of tactful strategies for dealing with peers in such situations.

Request for a friend

2011-03-07T21:18:00.001-06:00

A friend of mine needs some botany assistance - let me know if you can assist.

"My work is large scale paintings of tress. I need to know more about endangered trees or habitats or human behaviors and practices that is causing undue stress on trees. Specifically, what species of trees and were are they located. I'm looking for someone in the field of botany or ecology that has that expertise.

If you could recommend someone or a place, an organization where I could look for information, that would be very helpful to my work.

If you have any questions or if I need to get more specific let me know."

Thanks

Hi everyone! Remember me. . .the non-biologist?!

2011-03-04T15:09:00.003-06:00

Hi all--remember me? It's been a while, been busy with the PhD'ing stuff but I figured it was high time to stop over and say "Hello" and let you all know what we've been up to.

The old man has got to be the most hardworking person I know. He's currently got three jobs: Post-Doc, TA for intro bio lab and still killing bugs on the side two times a week. He's nuts, which is probably why I like him so much. He's also still been brewing lots of tasty beer to keep us and our Larryville friends happy.

PhD for me has been going very well. I've gotten to know our Raman spectroscopy lab "the cave, or the closet" as we like to call it, very well. I'm swimming in data. I've given a couple of talks on my stuff at the Goldschmidt conference (geochemists) and the Geological Society of America in the past year or so, which was an interesting experience. Always interesting when you end of telling people something some of them really, really don't want to hear.

And, gonna toot our horn a bit here, (not too much though, lest it be annoying) we got our first paper out of my PhD work recently published in the geoscience division of Nature (Nature Geoscience). Kinda exciting. Better yet, one paper done for the PhD.

I'm glad this blog is here, it always lets me keep up with the going's on of the diaspora and even if I don't comment frequently, know I'm probably lurking around not too infrequently. The old man and I do miss you all, and hope everything is going well in your lives!

Celebrations

2011-03-02T11:56:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday to Molly!
Happy upcoming (Ides of March) birthday to SalSis.
Happy recent (well, within the last two months) birthday to Erin and TucTrek
I hope you all continue to celebrate with verve.

Poet Answering Questions

2011-02-25T12:47:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite blogs, Wuthering Expectations, is reviewing and interviewing a contemporary midwestern poet right now. Alas, I have nothing to add to the discussion, but just thought it was too cool not to alert my other friends.

Winter Update

2011-02-09T17:12:00.000-06:00

So no big news here but I wanted to say hi to everyone and share some fun pictures of the big snow. J & I decided that we needed Katie from Katie and the Big Snow. Gavin had no idea what to do with snow that was very tall on him. I had to join him in the yard just after I took the picture so he wasn't scared.

The other picture is of drifting by our garage. It was up to over 6 feet in a few spots and is still there. So I lost last week to snow and just finished my teaching for this week. It was odd to lose a week during the second week of class.

Irene came to visit over New Years and we had a great visit. I miss my knitting group. I really want a teleporter so we could all visit more often. So please let me know if you'll be in the Chicago area or if you want to come visit. Gavin gives kisses and snuggles and can be easily kept out of the guest room.

Sending happy wintery thoughts to all. :-)

Some News!

2011-02-07T19:13:00.003-06:00

Hello Everyone! I hope the year has gone well for you thus far. It has been an interesting one for us here in TN, and we are at the point where we are spreading the word as to why. (Drum roll please) I will be joining the motherhood club in mid-August! We found out right before we started traveling to NE for Christmas and things are going well, all-in-all. So if any of you experienced mothers out there have any advice, I would be happy to hear it!

I do think I'm going through a bit of soccer withdrawal because I can't play right now. Saturday night I was having a dream that I was playing soccer, was passed the ball and I passed the ball to someone else. Well, as I passed the ball, I happened to kick a certain someone in the knee while he was sleeping - never done that before - and he felt it the rest of the day. It's a good thing I wasn't trying to score a goal!

To warm you on a cold day - and no it isn't something happy

2011-02-01T16:24:00.001-06:00

sorry :(

but this just made my blood boil. I have already written my representative. Just an FYI - hope you are all doing well in the snow or not snow, wherever you are.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/01/hr3_abortion_rape

Happy Groundhog Eve!

2011-02-01T09:16:00.004-06:00

Surely it's a holiday* where you are, isn't it? Everyone in Oklahoma is getting the day off this year, and lots of friends in Texas, Kansas, and Missouri seem to be home celebrating. Whether or not you are home with the wind howling or having a normal day at work, I hope you are safe and warm and starting a new a happy new month.
Happy Groundhog Day and thanks for being my friend.

Oh, Jennifer and I both have new photos on our respective blogs-- be sure to check them out.

*I was talking to my parents last night, who are in Denver where it was already below zero and blowing hard with a few inches of snow on the ground, but nobody talking about anything closing. I told them we wouldn't have school today and, knowing that we didn't yet have any snow, they had to ask why. The Mister replied, "Doesn't everybody get the day off for Groundhog Eve?"

Refreshing

2011-01-28T10:16:00.000-06:00

Last semester, my classes and students on average pretty much sucked the life out of me, and definitely reduced my enthusiasm for teaching.

But this semester, my upper level Ecology class - they are AWESOME! All of them. Even the weakest student in there is good. They are infusing me with new enthusiasm. It's a nice change. I hope that I am up to the challenge!

Style Mentors?

2011-01-27T10:52:00.004-06:00

Do you have any role models 0n workday style?
Who are they?
What do they look like?
What do you wear to work?
I realize that I have lots of ideas of what I don't want to look like as I develop professionally, but I'm not sure I have any ideas of who I do want to look like.
At my last job I worked with a woman who has the sense of style I always thought I would acquire when I grew up and bought new clothes-- she wears unstructured jackets and raw silk jumpers and loose clothes of purple or green patches purchased from fair trade booths. She wears no make-up, her hair is still long in her forties, and her comfortable shoes rarely coordinate with her outfits (her style somewhat like JD at KBS). It works, but it's not me at work.
In my department here, I've got two short foreign women who end up looking like they don't care, even though I think that both do, a woman who looks great at fifty but wears nylons and sensible heels every day and lots of coordinating synthetic skirt outfits, none of which I am about to do. There's a professor who dresses more like I do, but to the point that I can't tell if she has any style either.
Thinking of the women at KU, well, Maria has distinct style, but it is nothing that I am going to emulate. HA sometimes has a look that I want to avoid-- the little practical scientist lady. Actually, my size (and my smile and my penchant for large necklaces and my unwillingness to cut my hair) make me unable to pull of a "very basic clean and well groomed science lady" look.
So who do I look to?
(Barbara McClintock, pictured, seemed to always be photographed in a blue sweater with a white collar. I don't have the personality to so limit myself. Perhaps that is one reason why I will never win a Nobel Prize.)

Do NAPW members attend fake conferences?

2011-01-26T16:39:00.002-06:00

I've been receiving invitations to conferences that I suspected were fake. Wonder if the professional women attend them?

This website explains the conferences. Wonder if an 'attendee' will post here and say how wonderful it was.
http://www.oceanographerschoice.com/2010/09/phishy-conference/

Plant tax job in KS!

2011-01-26T09:25:00.003-06:00

Brief version of the announcement. Find details at: http://www.fhsu.edu/faculty-and-staff/employment-and-benefits/

PLANT TAXONOMIST - Department of Biological Sciences at Fort Hays State University

Position Description: Full time 9-month tenure-track biologist with specialization in plant or fungal taxonomy. Appointment date: August 2011.

Responsibilities: This position will require teaching Plant Taxonomy to Biology majors, and other related courses (potentially Mycology), based on qualifications of the successful applicant and departmental needs. The successful applicant also will teach introductory biology courses for majors or nonmajors, General Education courses, and introductory biology labs for majors.... Experience with herbarium curation is desirable; the successful applicant is expected to curate plant teaching collections and has the potential to curate the Elam Bartholomew Herbarium at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.

Qualifications: Minimal qualifications include an earned Ph.D. in biology, botany, or an appropriate subdiscipline (ABD will be considered for well-qualified applicants)....

PS love the lab video.

Bad Project

2011-01-23T07:16:00.002-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0

So if you've somehow missed this being passed around... (credit to Abby for posting it on Facebook!), you NEED to see it.

This is pretty much what my job looks like, especially the Western Blot part (but without the trying to get a degree part).

Euphemism of the day: Pelvic Rest

2011-01-21T10:46:00.002-06:00

If you were told that you should adhere to "pelvic rest", at least until the bleeding completely stops, what would it mean to you?

Grumble, grouch, grrr

2011-01-20T13:55:00.002-06:00

Ok maybe I am just a big meanie, but I am really tired of my colleagues bringing their kids to work because of snow days and then just letting them run up and down the halls.

I am actually trying to work here. Really, I am. I understand your predicament, but keep em under control please!

Missing Knitting

2011-01-18T20:13:00.001-06:00

Hi -- I still exist -- Nice to lurk and feel almost like I'm at knitting in a room with you all. I'll post more later. I promise!

Off to a great start

2011-01-18T13:03:00.003-06:00

We discussed major groups of biological molecules today. We had an in-class (ask all the questions you want) "quiz" that asked students to report a favorite breakfast and "name a carbohydrate (chemical, not the food) found in this breakfast."
How many named food items?
How many wrote "lipids" "proteins" or "nucleic acids"?
Okay, so it's not that many. 3 wrote food items (including 2, eggs and bacon, that have almost no carbs,) 5 wrote the names of the other groups of molecules, and one wrote "nitrogen." That means of attendees, 86% wrote "sucrose", "starch", "lactose" or something else that made sense.
While it angers me (although it doesn't surprise me) that I have three students blatently not reading the question, it's the "nucleic acid" or "lipids" part that really bothers me.
These are students who, in the immediately proceeding 40 minutes, just learned (strike that, use "heard"), "there are four types of biological molecules," "these types are 1) carbohydrates, 2) lipids . . . .," "we're going to talk about examples, functions and special properties of each group. Let's start with carbohydrates."
It could be just a basic not paying attention problem. But I see this often enough that I'm really beginning to worry about the level at which logic breaks down. There are (seemingly intelligent) college students who, if told "there are three states in our region," would think "Texas" is a logical answer to "Name a city in Oklahoma"*.
These are the same students who fail to understand that something can simulataneously be an insect, an animal and a eukaryote.
How does one teach that level of logic to adults?

*Bad example if there happens to be a Texas, Oklahoma, but I don't think there is.

How good am I?

2011-01-11T11:14:00.002-06:00

So, my institution awards money to faculty to pay them to write grants over the summer. By the program's guidelines, I'd be top priority if I applied and, assuming I had a generally good proposal, would likely receive the money.
The internal proposals are due Friday. I have good ideas, but nothing written. The internal proposal involves things like the budget and timeline of the external proposal (ugh! Isn't that what they are giving us money to take the time to figure out?). It would be good to receive some summer salary and it would be good to have a some external motivation getting me applying and writing over the summer.
If I feel in May (we're done May 4) like I felt in May with Dianthus, I would like doing some research.
But . . . . I've felt incredibly crappy recently. I was really afraid that I was going to fall asleep at 6:30 yesterday and the Mister would return from his evening class to find Dianthus fallen in a giant heap of tupperware and me incapably zonked out a few feet away. So yesterday I projected this feeling forward and realized that there was no way I could finish the thing (given that I have labs Tues. + Wed. and a Dr. appointment that involves three hours of driving on Thursday) by Friday, much less want to work on the actual grant come May.
But . . . today I am feeling good and think that surely I could put something together.
But . . . I just realized that is also involves a two-page CV and I don't have a current two-pager. That alone could take up too much time.

So . . . I'm writing you instead.
Do I go for it?
And, reminder, every time you update your complete CV, update your short version as well.

Wicked Cool Plants

2011-01-06T16:03:00.002-06:00

So I started putting out the "wicked cool plant of the week" on the bulletin board outside my office. Last semester I actually managed to almost have a wicked cool plant each week. But now I have used them all up and am looking for new ideas for this Spring semester. And since my colleague Paul has upped the ante by putting out the "wicked cool insect of the week" (can't believe he just stole my idea, pffft), I am feeling the pressure to outdo him.

Suggestions?

Rutherford Robinia. . .

2011-01-06T14:31:00.003-06:00

has a beating heart, plenty of amniotic fluid and measures 11 weeks 1 day, which, given that he/she is 11 weeks and 1 day old, are all good things.
It turns out that I have a subchorionic hemorrhage which did cause significant bleeding and could very well cause more bleeding.
Many women have these issues and continue to have healthy babies. In others it can lead to further complications. There is nothing anyone can do to ensure that one is in the former group, but for now I am extremely reassured that the baby is still intact in there and seems unfazed (doing flips all over the place and playing jump rope with the umbilical cord) by what was certainly scary and uncomfortable for me.
Thanks for all your good wishes, hugs and prayers.

Perhaps I posted too soon

2011-01-05T08:02:00.001-06:00

I bled all night and am going to the doctor as soon as Jeff passes out his syllabi.
Waaaaah

News Little and Big

2011-01-04T21:12:00.004-06:00

A) Classes here start Jan. 5 (12 hours from now) and I don't have an eight o'clock class (for the first time since I've started teaching) and I just moved to an office with windows. I may still be in the basement, but I have glare on my computer screen now. I am so excited.
B) If all goes well, Dianthus will have a sibling for his second birthday.
I'm telling my boss tomorrow, about which I am a little freaked out, so thought I should tell my friends first. From my limited sample size, I am concluding that queasiness and gross feelings are much worse the second (well, third) time around, which is allegedly not the norm.
Anyway, happy new year to all of you!
Check out Jennifer's new blog (linked below) and don't spurn me just because I'm not on facebook.

New Blog Address

2011-01-02T16:57:00.002-06:00

Hope you are all having a fabulous New Year's Weekend. I just wanted to let you know that I have moved my personal blog to http://plantecologist2.blogspot.com/, so that it will be on the same account with my facebook.

Cheers
Jennifer

My grades are in

2010-12-13T14:53:00.001-06:00

Woohoo! Woohoo!
Another semester survived.

Cost of a chem sample = should I move to Haiti?

2010-12-07T09:54:00.004-06:00

I emailed my college chem-major roommate (who's now a children's minister) in a panic over the cost of a chemistry sample. Then wondered if such simple questions have led you to question your lives' paths. Here is the path that went from how much does an analysis cost to should I move to Haiti.

Ack – I’m trying to figure out chemistry stuff. Our staff chemists are long gone so we’ve relied on students the past couple years. And now they’re gone, but we don’t have enough work and $$ to hire a chemist, and the new ecologist just asked how much it costs us to run various analyses. So I need to reacquaint myself with SO4 = sulfate or sulfite?, and most stuff I don’t know but my boss is gone for jury duty.

And we don’t have a chemist anyway, so he’d have to kick in extra money to get us up and running again. And I have definite funding only through Jan 22! But stuff always comes through. And if it doesn’t is that a sign to pick up and move to Haiti, but what about the cats and dogs?

Wikipedia, here I come!

That Exam Doesn't Sound So Good

2010-12-06T15:05:00.003-06:00

At my current job we have an old scantron machine that makes loud (but rhythmic) clunks with every wrong answer-- something like an old typewriter with a loud background whirr. Failures tick with every wrong answer and perfect scores glide through with only a tap at the end as the score is printed.
Inexplicably, I love listening as other professors grade their exams. "Wow, that one doesn't sound so good."
In other grading news, I learned that the two characteristics of the rainfrost are "rain" and "frosted" perhaps if I hadn't just read about so many "dessert" biomes, the frosted wouldn't have made me giggle as much as it did.
Happy finals to those of you involved in academia and happy "I don't have to deal with finals" to those of you not.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

2010-11-30T07:42:00.003-06:00

I know that I have been largely absent from this blog for a while and I will post an update on my life soon. But I didn't want to forget to mark a special occasion today, Jenny's b-day. So warm wishes to Jenny on what will hopefully be a good day.

Cyber social mores

2010-11-26T17:27:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! To catch up with all posts at once, happy bday Irene, Jennifer, and Jenny! I'll see Jennifer in a couple weeks in her seminar. I didn't see the 1st or any Harry Potter's with Lisa's Gang, though I clearly remember seeing the 1st one the day after tgiving in the plaza (with a friend visiting for the weekend). My boss had me over yesterday to enjoy tgiving with his family.

I've experienced my 1st facebook friend death. An American I met in Haiti died yesterday. I followed the details on facebook (his wife's page). Weird. And people are leaving him goodbye messages on his page. I always wondered what becomes of someone's page after they die. Will it be on-line forever? Will facebook be around 50 yrs from now? Where do they (facebook) store all those photos? He wasn't even a close friend, was old and out of shape, had a heart attack, so I'm not surprised. But bummed out now none-the-less.

On a positive note, all the post labels to choose from crack me up.

Birthday Season

2010-11-23T17:30:00.002-06:00

It is that time again, three of my favorite people have birthdays in the near future (or near past, depending on when you are reading this).
As always, they deserve individual birthday wishes, and, as always, I know I'll forget if I wait.
Happy Birthday Irene!
Happy Birthday Jennifer!
Happy Birthday Jenny!

(and belated wishes to Cheryl and Abby back in October)

Celebrate with vigor!

Changes

2010-11-22T10:51:00.003-06:00

Hello Dear GBKD's friends

I hope you are all doing well. It seems like it from the posts I have seen. I haven't been posting much here, as there are some major changes in my life, and quite frankly, I didn't really know how to talk about them here. But it is important that I do, so that everyone knows. I am still not sure this is the correct way to do this, but it is the way I am choosing. Etiquette in the digital age is a bit tricky, isn't it. But you are all my friends and it is important that to me that I keep you in the loop.

The big change in my life is that I am in the process of getting a divorce. While the decision process has been long and hard, and there have been rough times and more ahead I know, this, in the end, is a good decision for me. I am happier than I have been in a long time.

I am staying with a colleague right now, but will be moving into a new place soon, which I am very excited about! When the details get worked out, I will let you know.

I have gotten involved with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism)when I decided to take up archery as something fun to do. One of the best decisions I have made recently.

I am sorry that I have not sent each one of you a separate email or given individual phone calls, but truthfully, it is difficult to tell over and over again. Well, not difficult so much as tiring. This is why I decided to post this here.

Hope Everyone Has A HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
I am thankful to count you all as my friends.

Jennifer

NINE years ago

2010-11-20T19:04:00.001-06:00

The first Harry Potter movie came out NINE years ago this week. I watched it that week with many of you (Beth, Jennifer, Debbie, Liz, Tim and maybe Irene, I believe).
It simultaneously seems that it can't be nine years ago-- I haven't changed that much, nine years can't have past-- and ridiculous to think it was only nine years ago and not a lifetime.
As Abby and Jenny pointed out back when book 7 was published, Harry Potter has felt like being part of something greater than us; that we are actually part of a cultural phenomena unlikely to be repeated.
I'm going to see the new movie next week and miss all of you.
I'll be sad next summer, and very excited.

Jobs and yuckiness

2010-11-12T23:29:00.003-06:00

Is it normal to feel depressed after submitting a gagillion job applications? I feel like I should be hopeful and optimistic, but I just feel weird and exposed. I even had the last manuscript from my dissertation accepted this week (with minor revisions...full disclosure). The one that was the biggest PITA* and took the longest to write. I should feel elated, right? Why does applying for jobs make me feel crappy?

*Is PITA a real acronym for pain in the arse? It should be.

Professional Women Scam

2010-11-09T16:16:00.002-06:00

I received a scam in the postal mail! For the National Association of Professional Women. I was chosen to be a member, they even had a webpage for my profile. I looked up their webpage, then googled them and found many postings on this being a scam.

http://michellevillalobos.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/businesswomen-beware-how-i-fell-prey-to-an-ego-boosting-warm-and-fuzzy-national-scam-targeting-professional-executive-entrepreneurial-women-this-is-my-story/

http://www.insiderpages.com/b/15246772989/executive-women-s-association-new-york

No wonder they settled in PA

2010-11-07T09:19:00.009-06:00

I've returned from Germany, sore throat, cold, and all! It was beautiful, and as the Mister said, easy to get around. The hills and trees were very much like those in PA. Check out the guy in Trier who snuck into our picture. Trier is on the Luxemburg border, oldest city in Germany. The other town I was in was Bad Durkheim, visiting the Hardenburg Castle. Other than that I hung out with my best friend at her house, learning what military family life was like. And sampling many wines. Oh - and she dropped me off in a hiking area that also had a wildpark: deer, swine, and old horse and cattle breeds.

You can be a seminar speaker!

2010-11-02T10:02:00.002-05:00

If anybody is thinking of coming to see me in the spring, you should consider being a seminar speaker.
I'd love to bring a cnidarian, mollusc, bat, bee, general insect, evolution, cancer research or even a plant ecologist to campus.
Also, I received my "I voted" sticker so I am happy.

Off on a aufregend adventure

2010-10-26T08:30:00.003-05:00

For the first time I'm visiting a country alone that I have no chance of understanding the language - Germany! Everywhere else I've been with people who knew the language or I knew it enough to get by. I'm assuming the Frankfurt airport will have signs in English and I'll figure out how to get to the shuttle that will take me to see my best friend stationed there. But it might be a big adventure of not knowing what the heck to do. Exciting! I'll post an update when I get back.

Dear Abby

2010-10-20T16:38:00.003-05:00

Happy birthday to a very generous, caring, humorous friend and cnidarian biologist! Thinking of you with a smile today!

Student answers that make you go "hmmmm"

2010-10-09T20:27:00.002-05:00

SS's tales of student answers never fail to make me laugh. Given that the school where I'm teaching is supposedly populated with "high functioning" students selected for their intellectual prowess (or whatever), I was curious as to what types of answers I would see. Here's one from the stats exam I am currently grading:

"I don't have the formula on my notecard, so here's a picture of a mommy elephant and her baby." And yes, there's a picture of a mommy elephant and her baby.

The hubby says I should give this student an A+.

Reunions, Retreats, Conferences and Collaborations

2010-10-04T12:34:00.003-05:00

'Tis the time to start thinking about next year (It's not too early, in fact, I may have already screwed up my two best conferences [see below]).

For many many reasons, I want to see more of you more often (I miss having in person friends. I figure the next best thing to having in person friends in town would be to be in the same town as dear friends).

Here are some potential opportunities [with my comments] (and my likelihood of being there).

Groundhog Party Weatherford, OK, early February (I will be there).

GBDK RETREAT (?) Weatherford, OK. Please come bake pies, knit and hang out. If we plan in advance, we could find cheap airfares here from Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City and probably Nebraska, Utah, Ohio and California (not so sure about PA, NY, TN and HI). I would love to have you. February? April?

GBDK Mini-Reunion Late March, Lawrence. (I'll be in Lawrence for the Society of Self Fellowship Meeting {ACK! I'll be President} SalSis might host something if we ask nicely).

Case Study Teaching Workshop May, Buffalo NY [I received an award from my previous institution to go this past May, but didn't as I was moving. Would like to go, don't know if I can get funding or time. There is also a shorter conference in September each year.]

Party Formerly Known as Wallystock North of Lawrence, KS Memorial Day Weekend [I'm in no way in charge, but this party has become a great tradition. K and T often come from Michigan and SalSis goes.] (I intend to be there.)

ABLE Conference New Mexico June {Association of Biology Laboratory Education} [my university is big into sending people to ABLE, which is apparently a small, very friendly conference of biology educators and is very useful. My dept. is sending a van loadful down to New Mexico] (I will probably be in Hawaii instead).

BOTANY 2011 St. Louis July 9-13 {Society for Economic Botany and Botanical Society of America} [Part of me is very excited to have all sorts of plant nerds together at once, part of me is sad that I can't go to my little SEB conference where I actually know people.] (I may be there, I may have just committed to doing high school teacher workshops in Weatherford then).

AP Bio Grading June 9-15 Kansas City [I've always wanted to do this with Beth and Jennifer. The pay is great for a week of intense work.] (I'll probably be in Hawaii and I've never applied).

ESA Austin, TX Aug. 7-12 (I did not like the ESA conference the one time I went, but good friends could change my mind) (We just missed the Ecology and Education summit. Drat.)

Gerber: A contest behind the contest!

2010-10-02T16:42:00.004-05:00

So I entered Andrew in the Gerber baby cuteness contest. I did this because a woman here (out of the blue) said her neighbor's kid was a winner and Andrew was 'So cuuute,' and because a Friend in Kansas entered her adorable baby for August and I thought, 'Great! I enter for September and we're not competing against each other.'

I finally read the fine print today.

We're not competing for the MONTHLY prize (a HD video camera that WOULD be sweet to have!), but we ARE competing for the grand prize of a $25,000 college scholarship that would be stupendous to have and also a slot in a TV ad (of questionable value, though doubtless an interesting experience). Sorry Friend in Kansas.

The contest didn't really add up from the get-go, though. Whoever can rally the most votes from friends and family wins the prize. I never understood how this guaranteed Gerber the cutest little star for their ad. Nevertheless, I voted daily for the adorable baby of Friend in Kansas, hoping to win them a scholarship.

After reading the fine print, I feel scammed. Turns out my votes had nothing to do with the scholarship. Voting by friends and family only goes toward the (admittedly SWEET) monthly prize of a HD DVD camera. Buried in the fine print is a little bit about how a panel of Gerber personnel select the grand prize winner. I would be totally psyched if the winner were either my cute one or Friend in Kansas's adorable baby. With almost 15,000 submissions (and counting), though, I hardly feel like we're directly competing (even though our 2 are the cutest, of course!).

Anyway, if you're motivated to vote for us to receive the SWEET HD video camera, you can vote at: http://www.gerber.com/photo/#/login/
You will need to register once. Each time you vote, they email you a link to click on to complete the vote. You can vote once per day for a given email address and for a given computer.

(Those of you on FB know how much I would LOVE a better video camera!!)

CHICAGO

2010-10-01T11:46:00.003-05:00

A four day weekend to visit Beth in Chicago in the middle of the semester seemed like a good idea back in August. Now that I am here it still seems like a good idea :), though it is a bit stressful with school work.

Anyway - will post pictures, if Beth can find the camera.

Cheers
Jennifer

I made a student cry today

2010-09-24T12:53:00.000-05:00

She was up at the board and I was having her draw out one of the graphs for exponential population growth rates (dN/dt vs N)… she had the picture right, but didn’t label the axes and couldn’t explain it correctly. I kept pushing her (and giving her BIG hints) until I noticed the tears welling up in her eyes…I think she was scared to be in front of the class and didn’t really know what was going on.

Has this ever happened to you? What did you if so?

A kick upside the head . . . and chest, and back and lots of other places

2010-09-22T09:19:00.003-05:00

I tried to stop feeding Dianthus breastmilk as of Friday night (after a rough start last year, breastfeeding has gone very well. Since July we've been doing it just at night and first thing in the morning.)
Saturday was awful. Super-painful engorged boobs. Achey back. And crying constantly. Not because of anything in particular, but because well, because I felt like crying. I had heard of there being hormonal weirdness with weaning, but I was completely unprepared for the equivalent of the worst PMS ever to happen instantaneously.
Sunday I learned that maybe it wasn't just the weaning.
It turns out that things other than not breastfeeding cause PMS-like symptoms.
Oh, obvious solutions. How often we overlook you.

Stressed.

2010-09-14T20:02:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of postings. My life is rather busy at the moment. Two new preps including ecology and application for tenure in 13 days (not that I'm counting).

So to help my procrastination while editing, compiling and making things look pretty, I'd like a better plan than Facebook. I seem to need to check that way too much these days.

Can I get some stress relief ideas and/or productivity enhancement ideas?

Plant lovin' ignoramus with baby...

2010-08-31T10:47:00.002-05:00

Hi botanical types. I like letting my son play with (= eat) plants and leaves sometimes while hiking. The thing is ... I don't know which plants are safe/toxic/deadly.

Ones I know are poisonous: Oleander, yew, rhododendron

Ones I *think* are safe (PLEASE let me know if I am wrong!): Willow (just a leaf), wild fennel (are there any bad types?), sycamore, cottonwood, oak, manzanita (tons of varieties -- anything that could cause problems?), grass (he's eaten quite a bit of this), maple trees

Ones I would like to know more about: Pepper trees, random ornamentals (do you know of a good pictoral guide on line?), any common poisonous plants I should be aware of.

Houseplants I believe are poisonous: philodendron, dumb cane, ficus (?). Anyone have a good source?

Thanks all!

Dr Nerd?

2010-08-26T12:54:00.002-05:00

I've been asked what I want on my new business cards.
Perhaps because I don't want to plan a chemistry lecture, I'm debating what should be written on it. "Plant M. Nerd, Ph.D." or "Dr. Plant M. Nerd"?
Thoughts or opinions?

NASA contacts?

2010-08-20T13:17:00.002-05:00

The institution I'm now at is part of a Space Consortium and as such receives funds from NASA. Because the last institution I taught at received major* NASA funding, I carry a coffee mug with NASA and my old institution logos. Somehow the chair of another dept. here saw this and after discussing with me my old institution's grant (to do summer science camps, train teachers and encourage undergraduates to do real research), decided that I should definitely submit a proposal for upcoming funds (actually the short term proposal is for a very small award to go to a NASA site and discuss applying for a bigger award) because "with all of your contacts it should be easy."

Of course, I have no NASA contacts.

However, I did learn that one of the NASA areas of interest involves the kind of work I do (invasives, effects of climate change on communities . . .) so I think I would like to apply for one of these awards.

But I have absolutely no contacts. E-mail me via the plant nerd if you have specific contacts. Comment if you have any other good ideas.

*2.7 million for an undergraduate teaching institution with 1,300 students counts as major to me.

Basil?

2010-08-19T10:12:00.003-05:00

Let me apologize for my hiatus from the blog - I'm sorry! - and make excuses for it some other time. I need to get to the heart of a critical matter.

I cannot grow basil. I would love to grow basil. I need help.

I can barely get the stuff to germinate from seed. I have purchased lovely, thriving, pricey clumps of mature plants, only to watch them wither within days. Most recently, I bought 8 little ice-cube-tray plants, each with 4 adult leaves, and divided them among three pots. They showed promise, but two days ago I lost one of the plants, and now several others are starting to get black tips on their leaves, which I know all too well will proliferate towards the petiole, signaling certain demise.

What am I doing wrong? I Googled this and read about how even an idiot can grow basil. Is there some voodoo I should know about? How much and what "flavor" of sun does it need? Watering regime? Something special about the soil or pot? My plants aren't big enough to remove the apical meristem; I figure height vs. bushiness is a luxury I can't afford right now.

All advice about growing basil and comments about me being a dumbass are welcome. Alternatively, I will accept suggestions about how to preserve basil (and hopefully not always in pesto form), should I need to resort to buying the $5-for-a-giant-box-is-the-only-thing-available-at-the-grocery-store stuff.

Thanks!

Texting in labs

2010-08-18T13:47:00.004-05:00

Another start of the semester post - Do your workplaces have rules about cell phone use in working labs? We have a kid in the lab that seems to be constantly on his phone texting. So I think with our new hires this week we need to lay down a rule about no cell phone use in the lab - go outside to talk or text. But I always wimp out of disciplining students. Ack. Though I did fire one last Friday! The students don't seem to take the lab job seriously - it is a real job - work the hours you say you will work or we'll fire you as we did last week! It's been a month of transition with a key lab person gone, another person brought on by the higher ups and trying to figure his role in our work life, realizing I don't really know what goes on in the lab, wondering if past people slacked off, etc.

On a positive note I found great dog trainers for the rust-colored one (great code name eh?) and he's much better with visitors and not attacking people on walks! It was mainly my behavior that needed to be modified. I need them to come in here and train me to get after students.

It begins again

2010-08-18T12:38:00.001-05:00

Good Luck to Sparkling Squirrel on her first day of classes at the new school!

"Please Do Not Throw Paper Towels and Trash on the Floor"

2010-08-16T13:13:00.002-05:00

I feel like such a fuddy-duddy, but I find myself thinking, "What has society come to when we need signs like that in a college women's bathroom*?"
*that, incidentally, has obvious trash cans right next to the paper towel dispensers

I'm a Yankee now

2010-08-04T17:13:00.002-05:00

No more Confederate flags. Yippee! We relocated to the lush and liberal (relatively speaking) Hudson Valley, a mere 90 miles from NYC.....and with a view of the Catskills out our front window. I'm very happy to be in a new (albeit still not tenure-track) position, and the hubby is very happy to be going to school (a Masters in Regional Planning/Geography with the goal of ridding the world of cars). A crazy, somewhat spontaneous move on our part, but the pieces are falling into place. Our house comes equipped with kayaks, so feel free to swing by for a little boating or hiking or blueberry picking near our rural digs.

I hope you are all well. Though I don't comment often, I do check the blog and wish you all well in your respective corners of the world!!

Everything is OK!

2010-07-27T13:14:00.002-05:00

So we've made it to Oklahoma, and, while it has been 96 degrees every day that we've been here, and we've had issues with our gas (solved), car (has appt. tomorrow) , dryer (one bit solved, but mostly not), drain (not solved), house in WV (mostly solved, but nowhere close to being sold) and have mountains of stuff still not dealt with, everything is okay*.

If you did not recently receive an e-mail telling you of my new contact information please e-mail me at my plant nerd hot mail address from your current e-mail, as it likely means you aren't in the right place in my contact list.

And make sure you add on to Jenny's book list below.

*I'm a little bit sad that the new license plates no longer say "Oklahoma is OK!"

Summer reading list

2010-07-23T08:42:00.003-05:00

I would love to hear about great books that you've read recently, or old favorites, that you recommend! I'm going to be traveling non stop for work in the upcoming weeks, and good reading material always makes traveling more pleasant.

New car thanks to Prairie Wanderer

2010-07-09T09:03:00.001-05:00

I'm finally getting a new car, thanks to Prairie Wanderer (is that her code name? JMW) driving me around car lots in the pouring rain on Monday (in lieu of kayaking). I needed that push to get me looking. And found one if it checks out with the mechanic - a 2009 Dodge Caliber wagon. Sally must hate it - I tested out the dogs in it and she darted out and ran away. She came back after a 20 minute jaunt.

Moving Issues?

2010-07-03T11:16:00.002-05:00

As readers of my blog know, our stuff is stuck somewhere between our house in WV (where it was loaded June 25) and our house in OK (where it was scheduled to be unloaded July 1-3 and is now scheduled to be unloaded July 13-15).
Besides being really really pissed off about the communication issues (did our booking agent really not know there were no trucks? Neither the little WV company who loaded the stuff nor the national company in charge of hauling it thought to tell us that it wasn't coming until we called them on June 30 to see if we should expect it the next day) and feeling deceived (we went with this company because others couldn't get trucks) and without the appropriate stuff for the vacation I am leaving for, I am wondering how common issues like this are.
I don't think a moving company can stay in business if they regularly keep things what is estimated (by them and all on-line parties) to be 7-9 days (for a two day drive) 20 days-- but maybe they do.
Any experiences?