Day two, with short sentences

This is my roommate at the conference, Sujal.


Last night, Sujal and I walked along the beach to the south, for a change. It is more interesting than the beach to the north. It contains a little shack.


Also, a makeshift wooden cross.


There is a little cave-like area in the cliff. Sujal cannot climb it, but decides to look victorious anyway.


Unfortunately, there was also a dead seal on the beach. It did not smell good. We were very sad.


Not surprisingly, this did nothing to dampen our appetites.

Conference, day 1

This conference is going to rock.

First off, UC-Santa Barbara is a beautiful campus located, as I mentioned yesterday, right on the ocean. Secondly, Drs. Orias and Coyne, who are bigwigs in my field and who organized this conference, are totally awesome. Third, the other 21 attendees are terrific and we're having a great time running around the lab like undergrads who don't know what they're doing. Even those who are long-time faculty researchers. Actually, especially them. It's amazing how different the most basic things are from one lab to another. But we're having a great time. Fourth, they never quit feeding us. It's pretty amazing, yet almost ridiculous. And delicious. I took a picture of my supper last night.


It was awesome. We get three meals a day in the awesome dining commons (waaaay better than dorm food of yore), plus they give us morning snack and afternoon snacks in the lab. Thursday they're taking us out to dinner at a nice restaurant in town. Crazy. But awesome. I guess we need a lot of good food so we learn up all this stuff real good. :)

So after supper last night I walked all around campus and pretty much wore myself out (I'd been up for 20 hours). I saw these awesome trees, but I don't know what kind they are.


They have these big lesion-looking things on their trunks that are pretty bizarre.


I know nothing about trees, but these are pretty cool.

Then I had to go view the ocean from the top of the cliffs that I saw from the bottom earlier. You can see more of Santa Barbara off in the distance there.


I don't know what we'll do this evening, but it may involve more beach walking. I promise not to just post picture after picture of the ocean. However, I do not promise not to post more pictures of food. Tee hee.

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Wet and salty

I got checked into my dorm room for the Tetrahymena Forward Genetics conference that I'm attending this week. I don't have anywhere to be until dinner, so I took off for the beach. It's like right there. In fact, if I stand in one spot and face east, you can see the building I'm staying in...


...and if I face west from that same spot, you get this:


Awesome.


So, I walked about 200 yards (because the path is very winding) and spent an hour strolling in the surf, picking up shells, and getting wet and salty.

There are cool cliffs:


And even a heron in the pool outside the window:



I hope the conference is good, because it'll be hard not to skip out and enjoy more of this!!

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Have sock will travel

This will be short and sweet so I can go spend quality time with my sweet hubby on our last night together.

I have a sock:


It is the Primavera sock pattern by natalja executed in Berocco Comfort Sock in some kinda bluish shade and contains my first ever short row heel. Notice I'm showing you the good side. The other side is somewhat... lacier. Yes, I'm going to call it a lovely lace feature and leave it at that. I've started the second and hopefully will get to work on it some this week.

And I will travel. Tomorrow I leave MO and my boy (boo hoo!!!) and fly back to Beer Town. After a couple of hours with my gal pals, I go home, repack, print my conference packet, visit Benny, and go to sleep. Because, the shuttle to take me to the airport for my 7-hour, three flight jaunt to Santa Barbara for a week-long genetics conference comes to pick me up at 4 a.m. Argh.

So off with me. More cuddling must be done! G'night!

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Crappy bloggers, unite!

I should really start some sort of union for bloggers of low update number. It's gotten ridiculous, I know. Now, rejoice in my excuses!

1) I wrote my qualifying exam, which was a big 'ol thesis proposal, and had to defend it to my committee. I was successful! I won't tell you about it because, frankly, I know you don't really care. It's okay, though! My committee barely cares! I'll just entice you with the title:

Endoreduplication in Tetrahymena thermophila: A model of the endocycle?

Oh. I know. It's just that good.

2) Two days after I passed quals, I hopped on a plane and took off to KC then traveled to Maryville. I spent some time with my great-niece and great-nephews.

Athena and I are being models:

George joined us for one shot:

Athena took a picture of me -- she's pretty good for 4 1/2, no?

Zane and Aiden wanted to be crazy (though Zane looks pretty bored by all the craziness, it was his idea):

Then the boys dug a hole. This is the aftermath:

So I had some great family time. I also got to see my sister, aunt, and nieces, but I guess they didn't really score photos. That's the way it goes when there are kids around to steal the show!

Then I went to my ::shudder:: 20 year high school reunion! It was a really great time and amazing to see so many people I hadn't seen for years! Everyone looked amazing. For the most part, the years have been extremely kind to us. Only about a third of our class showed up, though, which was sad. But I think we made a rather attractive little bunch:


So after a few days in the 'Ville, I grabbed a ride down to Columbia, MO, to...

... SEE MY BOY!!!!! (who I have not seen since Thanksgiving!!)


Aren't we cute?

So I'm here, with him, until Saturday. Then I go back to Milwaukee, repack luggage, and take off on Sunday for UC-Santa Barbara for a week-long Tetrahymena forward genetics mini-course. Whirlwind, I tell you.

So, I haven't been blogging. Sorry 'bout that. But I've got a crazy-cute boy here to love.


Sorry, but you lose. ;)



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My new room mate

Before I say anything else, I want to wish a Very Happy Anniversary to Missa and her dear hubby, Lee, who, as of today, have been married for... well, a long time. But not quite as long as I have. So somewhere around fifteen-y sixteen-ish.

Hi, my memory is crap!

I was Missa's matron of honor at her wedding, and anyone who has ever stood up at a wedding will appreciate this story of just how freaking cool my awesome BFF is:

When she was planning her wedding and asked me to stand up with her, I asked her what her colors were and what my dress might be like. She said, I don't know -- you're the only one standing up with me, so you pick out the dress you want to wear and that will be the color I use. There were a few caveats, of course -- no fuscia, etc. -- but considering that she knew my taste at the time, it wasn't really an issue. I found a simple, dark green cocktail dress in the JCPenney clearance catalog for 24.99, she loved it, and that settled it. And I officially had the best bridesmaid experience ever. Missa 'da bomb!!!

And now, while we're all feeling all these warm and fuzzy thoughts for Missa, let's throw a few in the direction of my awesome new roomie, Benny! Who's Benny, you ask? Why is he living with you? What sort of scandalous things are going on up there in Beer Town, anyway? Am I going to have to start filtering this blog, you wonder?

Never fear, dear friends! As I artfully communicated in my last post, I went to the greenhouse on Saturday. I went with a friend and had no intention of buying anything because my thumb is notoriously black and the thought of killing something I was attached to, even a plant, at this point makes me unbearably sad. But then I saw Benny. He called to me. "Hey, nice lady! I'm small and cute and springy and you can talk to me and not feel so crazy in your little apartment! And, really, with all those south-facing windows, not having a plant is a kind of a crime against the Planta kingdom." I swear, he really said all of that to me. But I took Benny home with me, so the men in white coats can't come get me because then I won't be able to take care of Benny anymore.

Yes! Stay away from me, social workers! I'm protected by... A PLANT!!!

My room mate, Benny, is cute, yet fierce.

Then I went to TJ Maxx, the home of all the stuff no one wanted to buy at other stores, and found a great little pot for $4. I think it matches the decor delightfully:


In case you're wondering, that is a ceramic fish in the upper left. A wonderfully effed up ceramic fish by a locally famous artist in my hometown. It's awesome, trust me. So is the terra cotta ball thingy in the lower right -- also by him. It jingles if you shake it. Such cool stuff I've been given over the years.

Now that there's a plant on that table, I shall start referring to it as my sculpture garden. And the men in white coats can just try to stop me.

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Memorial Day and MeMe

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone has a nice holiday and yet takes a moment to remember the real reason we have this day off. I am sad that I am too far away to decorate the graves of my ancestors, but I trust that, wherever they are, they understand and forgive me.

On a lighter note, I was tagged by Becky for a fun little meme. The rules are: You must answer the following questions using only pictures or graphics. NO WORDS ALLOWED!!!

1. What is your current relationship status?


2. What is your current mood?


3. What is your favorite band/singer?


4. What is your favorite movie?




5. What kind of pets do you have?


6. Where do you live?


7. Where do you work?


8. Who do you look like?


9. What do you drive?


10. What did you do on Saturday?




11. What did you do on Sunday?



12. What is your favorite network TV Show?


13. Describe Yourself.


14. What is your favorite candy?



If you read this, consider yourself tagged!!

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Marquette in bloom

It has been sunny and spring-like this week and I have loved every minute of it. The world has greened up and the flowers are out in force! It's too beautiful for words, so I won't use any more. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Pretty tulips welcome you to Marquette by the library.


The engineering building peeks out over trees in bloom.


These trees are right in front of the building my lab is in. They smell fabulous.


This view of the Pere Marquette statue in front of St. Joan of Arc chapel is always particularly lovely.


The library peeks out over another gorgeous blooming tree.

It's easy to get into a good mood when you walk around in the midst of all this. :)

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