My grades are in

Woohoo! Woohoo!
Another semester survived.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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