Skorts are hot

Skorts are too hot to comfortably wear in a hot and humid climate.  Too much material in the nether-regions.  Just an FYI.

No wonder they settled in PA

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.

Off on a aufregend adventure

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.

Happenings of the Greater GBKD

Maybe because I'm not on Facebook (sorry, I still might someday, but another student just tried to convince me to join which reminds me of how little I want to think about students and co-workers as "friends". Somehow I'm much better about publicly anonymously posting about my life for readers who have to seek it out rather than worrying about friends and privacy settings), or maybe because somehow I'm a social-networking "node" (this idea makes me giggle), or maybe 'cause I don't pay enough attention: I've noticed that a lot of momentous things are happening that haven't been fully noted. So, here's a partial list of things that I understand have, will or were going to happen this year and that I desire more information about.
Babies: 4 new ones-- one of undetermined sex to be induced on Wednesday, a girl to Heather due in Sept. and a girl due in October and a boy due in December; plus one one year old.
Moves: Jenny to St. Louis, Cathy to St. Louis, Jennifer to Liberty (from Independence), Molly to Utah (and a marriage), Juls to Lawrence (all completed), TT to California (in progress?), and Beth to a different place (hoped for?).
Travels: Jenny to New Zealand, Erin to Palau, Cathy to Australia, SpSq to Italy, Abby to Britain (?), Jennifer to Puerto Rico (?), Sal Sis to the Grand Canyon and Haiti (?) and many others I don't know about.
Research and Jobs: Cathy fantastic finish, Cheryl almost done, Beth closer to tenure, Juls back in grad school and with a possible new project, Abby taking great pictures and making crazy dives, Jennifer fumigating a greenhouse, TT and Irene involved with all kinds of projects, Sal Sis becomming a stricter boss . . .
On-going Stuff: beekeeping, reading, knitting, commuting, house repairs, house painting, cool crafty mobiles, pets, hiking, canoeing, gardening, fascination with mosses, summer science camps . . .
Anyway, I don't think I'm the only reader who wants more details!

canoeing on a closed river

Oops, for work we canoed a river we later found out was closed for high water. The upstream site we canoed the next day was open, but on the verge of being unsafe to sample when you have to suddenly pull to the bank to evaluate habitat and collect samples. Two people went overboard at 2 different times and in different canoes, resulting in a loss of 3/4 of our datasheets, a clipboard, and GPS. The fun canoeing quickly turned into not fun and shook us all up. But we did complete the site! The motorized boat took someone back to all the transects to redo the data. I'm not going to mention the river in case someone like a park ranger comes across this! I'll post photos when I get them uploaded. We did enjoy a cave tour the 1st day when it was pouring rain, and staying in cabins for 2 nights and grilling out.

Update: I posted more photos on facebook. See Jenny's blog about canoeing high waters: http://gorgeousbiologistknitter.blogspot.com/2007/05/not-ordinary-weekend.html

Happy Birthday Squirrel of the Sparkles!

To celebrate, here are some tropical mammals. And I loved the shrew pictures! Hey Abby - I've gotten a couple spam-like emails from you about an online electronics store. Is that really you?

Good News

So I have some news that I'm finally ready to share. I have been accepted into the NSF EAPSI program for this summer. What this means is that I am going to Japan for two months this summer (from June 17 to August 21). The program is really awesome because it pays for everything (so far the only thing it doesn't seem to pay for is the poster I am required to make and print to give an idea of my research, but that's only about $100, right?). I was tentatively accepted back in Feb, but I didn't want to tell everyone until the Japanese host accepted me (which is the final acceptance). I got the email from Japan this week, so now I'm telling everyone! Tomorrow I go to DC for a meeting about the program so I should have more details soon if anyone wants to know more. I'm so excited!

Aloha friends

Well, I have some news. We just got back from Hawaii yesterday. That is news in itself! We had a great time. The weather was warm and mostly sunny, and the sights were beautiful! But the real news is that I accepted a postdoc in Hilo. I am so excited about the job and living in such a great place.

I will be working on a dry forest restoration project. The goals are to reduce invasive grass cover (which will reduce the potential for forest fires) by increasing native species establishment in the understory. The project has the standard factorial field experiments and a big remote sensing component. Very little is known about native dry forest communities in Hawaii, so there should be a lot of neat questions to explore within the project!

The town of Hilo is really interesting because it is not touristy at all. It has a great farmer's market, with all kinds of things I've never heard of before along with papayas, lychee, and the rest. The population is mostly Asian and native Hawaiian, and there are lots of Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino restaurants. SS, you can't go too far without bumping into another bubble tea place!

I am going to keep advertising the wonders of the Big Island with the hope that you all will come visit us there. Starting with waterfalls in town:



Beautiful Waipio Valley:


And lots of lava and huge craters:


Start saving your frequent flier miles!

Colorado and Santa Fe

Here's some pics from my trip last week with my summer housemate. The car broke down 24 mi. east of Limon on Sat. - we got towed by George from Alaska and his toy poodle Betsy. Then a 'friend' in Denver drove the 87 miles to take us and the camping gear to the Denver airport to rent a Jeep! The 'friend' is really a friend of my best friend - I had met him once at her wedding 11 years ago. Stayed in his posh apt. in downtown Denver, and invited him to horseback ride with us Monday. But his car broke down, so after setting up camp in Rocky Mt Natl Park Sunday night, we drove the 80 miles back to Denver to pick him up & he camped with us. Then Mon. after the ride it poured so we drove him home, got showers, and he gave us rumba lessons. Then set up camp late Mon. night - heard someone outside the tent during the night - elk! Tues. park, Wed. drive to Santa Fe and stop at Sand Dunes, Friday 17 hour day back to Limon to get my car, to airport to return rental, then on to Lawrence. Never did hike in the mountains - a jaunt up to 12,005 ft. from 11,700 ruined us for the day!

Charismatic Macrofauna

Please visit Sparkling Squirrel in the next few days as I intend to be posting essays and photos from the summer adventures. In the meantime, a few reminder that verts can be attractive.

Visit to Kansas

I'm going to be coming into Kansas for field work and a wedding. I'll be there Tuesday night until Monday morning. I'm also going to be heading both to Fitch and Welda looking for snails if anyone wants to help me out looking for them. For some reason the husband will help but doesn't want to go play with ticks if it's not needed. Anyway - I'd love to meet up with all the knitters in the area so email me at elfwren at the lovely G provider of mail or give me a call on my cell (or at home if Monday). Other posters have my cell if needed and the husband (wow that sounds weird to type) and I will be at the Quality Inn for our time in Kansas up on 8th street.

hope to see people. woohoo!

Travel tips - deodorant discovery

I discovered this morning that I don't have to throw away my used up mini deodorant container and buy a new one. I just broke off the appropriate length chunk from my big container and stuck it in the empty container. Ha materialistic world - try to get me to buy another mini deodorant again!

We could start a list of travel tips. Like thong underwear to travel. Tiny and dries fast!

Two (or 5) weeks in and still liking my husband

The Mister and I have now been on the road for two weeks and two days (or 5 weeks and 3 days if you count Ecuador). I am pleased to report that I still like him. Despite my general feeling of laziness, it has been an action packed two weeks-- presenting at Economic Botany in Chicago while seeing Jeff's bro and sister in law, my former advisor and my cousins. Dashing to Lawrence for Jeff's cousin's wedding (and managing to hit the farmer's market, Liberty Hall and New Hampshire St Bistro while we were there for 36 hours). A chicken dinner for Jeff's grandfather's 80th in Abilene. Pie for Jeff's grandfather's 80th the next day. Back to Lawrence for a lovely Woodland Evening (Thanks Sally's Sister!) and time with KBS and Jeff's friends. Back to Jeff's parent's house. To my parent's house. Eating with my family (a major undertaking). Hiking on Father's Day. Throwing the annual croquet tournament. Recovering from the croquet tournament and baking my mother's birthday cake today.
Off to Montana tomorrow, after visiting my friend in the hospital who stopped by the croquet tournament on her way to the hospital for labor to be induced . . .
This does make me wonder if it is possible for me to take a vacation that feels like vacation, or if I would ever want to.

Return to the Seasons

I know any tropical biologist will tell you that there are seasons, even at the equator, but after less than two weeks in Ecuador (see stories and photos at Sparkling Squirrel with many more to come) where it felt constantly on the verge of spring (except that it was dark well before 7), it feels incredibly seasonal to be back where things have changed dramatically in two weeks. The spring flowers, which were just blooming when we left, are completely done.

The grass is brown. The garden has grown. It's light forever. It feels like summer.