Hello to everyone who still reads this! You are few, but you are treasured! I haven't written for a while, but I've got some updates, so I figured I'd broadcast 'em.
Tomorrow is the first day of school for the year! I'm taking one class, Mammology, which is only on Mondays from 2-5 and Wednesday nights 7-10 (so we can go on field trips and see mammals when they are most active: at night!). I'm also taking a credit of research, which I will explain below.
But first: My New Job. George and I had both been thinking for a while that a little extra income would help a lot, mostly because George was getting very few hours at Zelda's over the summer, although that situation has changed now that students are back in town. Nonetheless, extra income is always a good thing, so I got a job at the Reference Desk at the Bucknell library. I went in to have a chat last Tuesday (right after the in-laws left) with the librarian in charge of it, and ended up staying all day (and all week) for training. My first day is also tomorrow. I'll be manning the ASK desk, where people can come up to me with any questions about their research, or how to use the library, or where the bathroom is (which is probably the most common question!). It should be pretty neat. I've already learned a lot about the library so it has been educational already.
As for my research, it's a long story... I had decided that my field work was over right before George's family came to visit because the birds were moving on, and they would be keeping me really busy. I had plenty of samples, so I was ready to call it quits. So if you remember from a few blogs ago, I was comparing the color of their under-tail feathers (the red ones) to the Corticosterone (stress hormone) levels in their tail feathers (chosen for convenience, feather size etc.) under the assumption that these feathers were grown at the same time and thus I could connect the color of one to the cort level of the other. Well, after re-reviewing my catbird papers, I discovered that while they grow both of those feathers in August, they grow their body feathers (and thus their red under-tail feathers) again in March, which destroys the link between color and stress, rendering all of my samples pretty much completely useless. I can know things about their color, and I can know things about their stress, but I can no longer connect them, and really I have nothing interesting to publish or present anymore. I have a 4-page report due to the people who gave me money this summer in about 3 weeks, and not only do I have no results to present, I now no longer have a question. GREAT! (Please read that with a hefty amount of sarcasm).
So while I thought I was done with field work, I have returned to the very early mornings, on days when I don't have work at 7:30am, to catch the last few remaining catbirds before they all migrate south for the winter.
So I've gone from field work, to in-laws, to job, to classes and back to more field work. No rest for the weary!
Oh and I forgot to mention, that I am also working in the museum again this semester in addition to grading exams for an intro to animal behavior class. It's going to be a very busy semester, but I'm looking forward to it!
Lets see if George has anything to add: a blank look. Maybe later.
Love you all! Feel free to comment and ask questions!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Camping
Hi. So here's the honest truth: George doesn't want to do the blog anymore. He is tired of it. Admittedly, I share some of those feelings, and have been doing a lot of updating through facebook recently, but I know some of you don't do facebook, and I still want to stay connected so I'll just champion this blog as my own now. Of course your messages will be relayed to George, and maybe if you make a lot of comments we can guilt him into making a post now and then...right? But seriously your comments are invaluable. If you don't comment, how do I even know it's being read, and if it isn't being read then I really should just stop. So make your little posties, and keep your part of the bargain okay?
On to news: We just returned from a two-night camping trip to Colton Point State Park on the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania! This was our first camping excursion together, and will all of our new stuff from the wedding registry, so it was kind of a tutorial to camping for us, and we learned a lot. Neither of us had been camping since childhood (I've only done backpacking since high school, so figuring out the logistics was the main part. But we did fine! We didn't really forget anything. We got to camp only to find out that the water there was not safe to drink, so we did have to go into town to get some bottled water, and some firewood. The first night there were maybe 3 other camping groups, but the second night we were the only ones in the camp ground save for the critters.
And critters there were. Both nights we were visited by a raccoon, and on the first night we discovered this while trying to sleep, and had to get up and put things in the car. He couldn't' get to the food, but was trying to open the cooler, and had gotten into our pots and pans. The second night he came a little earlier and we were still up, so I got some photos.
We took a hike to the bottom of the canyon, which was really nice. The park was pretty empty so it definitely felt like we had the place to ourselves. Saw some neat wildlife too.
So camping was great except for the sleeping part. We basically could not sleep. The sleeping bags and pads took some getting used to, and left us a little cramped in the morning. But we had a really great time anyway.
It's back to catching birds at 6am tomorrow for me! LOVE LOVE!
On to news: We just returned from a two-night camping trip to Colton Point State Park on the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania! This was our first camping excursion together, and will all of our new stuff from the wedding registry, so it was kind of a tutorial to camping for us, and we learned a lot. Neither of us had been camping since childhood (I've only done backpacking since high school, so figuring out the logistics was the main part. But we did fine! We didn't really forget anything. We got to camp only to find out that the water there was not safe to drink, so we did have to go into town to get some bottled water, and some firewood. The first night there were maybe 3 other camping groups, but the second night we were the only ones in the camp ground save for the critters.
And critters there were. Both nights we were visited by a raccoon, and on the first night we discovered this while trying to sleep, and had to get up and put things in the car. He couldn't' get to the food, but was trying to open the cooler, and had gotten into our pots and pans. The second night he came a little earlier and we were still up, so I got some photos.
We took a hike to the bottom of the canyon, which was really nice. The park was pretty empty so it definitely felt like we had the place to ourselves. Saw some neat wildlife too.
So camping was great except for the sleeping part. We basically could not sleep. The sleeping bags and pads took some getting used to, and left us a little cramped in the morning. But we had a really great time anyway.
It's back to catching birds at 6am tomorrow for me! LOVE LOVE!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Oh! Hello!
Ha Ha! I bet you thought we were so over this blog. It's not really that we're over it, it just that at least my excuse is that I've been very busy since school got out. That's right, no summer 'break' for me, instead I'm getting up at 5am most days of the week to collect data for my project.
And let me just update you with how that's going. If you remember from the spring, my project this summer was to compare stress-hormone levels in the feathers of Northern Cardinals to the brightness of their plumage. So I set out to catch cardinals by use of mist nets, use a spectrophotometer (a device that shines full spectrum and UV light onto a surface, and measures the wavelengths that are reflected back) to measure color, and then collect a feather for hormone analysis this fall.
Well, I set out to do all this in May after some final training sessions with Don to get me fully independent and a pro at getting birds out of the net (this is probably the most difficult part of it...if you think getting knots out of necklaces, or umm shoelaces is hard, try it with some even finer string, with a live bird thrashing about in it. It took some practice for sure.
So I got the hang of things, and then started things on my own, but one major thing seemed to be missing. Cardinals. Yep, I just wasn't catching any. So I quickly began to collect data on a back-up species, the Gray Catbird:
Aren't they cute? And see that little patch of rusty color under it's tail? That's the color I'm specifically focusing on. Work with these birds won't be as simple as with Cardinals, because of the mechanism behind their pigmentation, and because practically nothing is known about whether this color acts as a signal to other birds, or whether it is important for them at all. So I definitely have my work cut out for me with these guys.
So I get up at 5am to head out to my field sites, set up nets, and catch birds. It's fun, but it sure is hard to get out of bed that early. Even for a morning person! I still constantly worry that this project will lead to no interesting discovery, and that I'll somehow fail, and I'm always full of self doubt, but I've heard that this is what graduate school is all about and this is why it is so difficult.
So that's the news with me. When I'm not catching birds, I like to work on my sewing projects, clean the house, hang out with Yonce, and play the Sims 3. Hopefully George will update soon with his goings ons. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to be on the edge of your seat!
And let me just update you with how that's going. If you remember from the spring, my project this summer was to compare stress-hormone levels in the feathers of Northern Cardinals to the brightness of their plumage. So I set out to catch cardinals by use of mist nets, use a spectrophotometer (a device that shines full spectrum and UV light onto a surface, and measures the wavelengths that are reflected back) to measure color, and then collect a feather for hormone analysis this fall.
Well, I set out to do all this in May after some final training sessions with Don to get me fully independent and a pro at getting birds out of the net (this is probably the most difficult part of it...if you think getting knots out of necklaces, or umm shoelaces is hard, try it with some even finer string, with a live bird thrashing about in it. It took some practice for sure.
So I got the hang of things, and then started things on my own, but one major thing seemed to be missing. Cardinals. Yep, I just wasn't catching any. So I quickly began to collect data on a back-up species, the Gray Catbird:
Aren't they cute? And see that little patch of rusty color under it's tail? That's the color I'm specifically focusing on. Work with these birds won't be as simple as with Cardinals, because of the mechanism behind their pigmentation, and because practically nothing is known about whether this color acts as a signal to other birds, or whether it is important for them at all. So I definitely have my work cut out for me with these guys.So I get up at 5am to head out to my field sites, set up nets, and catch birds. It's fun, but it sure is hard to get out of bed that early. Even for a morning person! I still constantly worry that this project will lead to no interesting discovery, and that I'll somehow fail, and I'm always full of self doubt, but I've heard that this is what graduate school is all about and this is why it is so difficult.
So that's the news with me. When I'm not catching birds, I like to work on my sewing projects, clean the house, hang out with Yonce, and play the Sims 3. Hopefully George will update soon with his goings ons. I won't ruin the surprise, you'll just have to be on the edge of your seat!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Churchy picture tour
I've been meaning to do this for quite some time. I finally remembered to bring my camera on my way to Bloomsburg and take some pics of St. Paul's for y'all to gander at.
Take a look-see at my Picasa album for a little tour of the church and the organ.
In conclusion, here is a gratuitous picture of Eileen and Yonce hanging out:
Take a look-see at my Picasa album for a little tour of the church and the organ.
In conclusion, here is a gratuitous picture of Eileen and Yonce hanging out:
Monday, April 20, 2009
Back by popular demand
Due to the overwhelming amount of fan feedback in recent days (and particularly Eileen's constant reminders), I have suddenly realized that--Egad!--I haven't posted a blog entry for two whole months! Where did March and April go, anyway??? What on earth have I been doing with all that time???
... well ... uh, let's see ... I know there's a story in here some where ...
Well--we all know that Eileen (thanks to her copious blog entries) has been entertaining herself with several rather cute, trifling little occupations, such as... capturing living, pecking, fast-moving, sharp-beaked birds with her bare hands (easy!)... skinning and stuffing monstrous carrion-devouring buzzards (piece of cake!)... and becoming a medal-holding Triathlete (child's play!)... all in the span of my own mysterious disappearance from the Blogosphere.
And indeed, I'm sure you are all wondering, "What the heck has George been doing that even remotely compares to the awesomeness of Eileen's superhuman accomplishments???" And surely, I tell you that I am ashamed. For I probably played a few too many video games, and perhaps drove to work instead of walking a few too many times when it was only slightly below freezing or only just drizzling.
But I haven't been a complete loaf. Not entirely!
I managed to survive an Episcopal Holy Week, and that's saying something. St. Paul's doesn't mess around when it comes to holy days... no cutting corners like the Methodists! It started with a Maundy Thursday service in the evening, complete with a foot-washing ceremony (from which I gracefully abstained... after all you can't ask the organist to doff his organ shoes mid service). Good Friday saw another evening service, but since there was no music planned, I stayed home and went to bed early in advance of...
EASTER VIGIL on Saturday evening. The reeeeally serious Episcopalians do this one up right by holding the service until midnight. Thankfully, our service only went from 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm. I had never seen an Easter Vigil before, and it was actually a fascinating experience, because the church starts out in complete darkness, and then a sizeable (controlled) blaze is lit in the back of the church, from which candles are gradually lit until everyone in the congregation is holding a small flame in the darkness.
After a solid hour of Old Testament readings by candlelight, I got to fire up the organ and wake everyone up at the moment of the resurrection! And then the typical hour-and-a-half service proceeded complete with communion. It was a long night, especially since I still had to drive 40 minutes back home to Lewisburg.
Easter Sunday was a good service, considering I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I pulled out all the stops and played the happy Easter hymns good and loud. Mistakes are always best at their loudest on the organ.
With Easter behind us, I've only been getting about half attendance with the choir, so we're looking forward to Pentecost when the choir takes their summer break.
In Coffe Shop News, I have officially begun managing the front of house at Zelda's. This essentially means that I took it upon myself to start taking care of all the inventory and product ordering, because the owners were only doing it half the time anyway, and I was the only one getting stressed out every time we ran out of Espresso beans.
I will also be in charge of hiring and training when about 90% of our current staff graduates from high school and/or college next month. I'm pretty excited about this, because I've been spending all of my slow days at Zelda's learning how to make deliciously artistic lattes, really honing in on all the nuances of crafting a fine cup of coffee, and I want all the other baristas to do it too, so having the power to make everyone else do latte art will make me very happy. All of the coffee shops around here (including Zelda's) are impostors in comparison to the Seattle standard, so I'm trying to raise the bar and bring some respectability to the coffee scene in Central PA.
You will be happy to hear that all my hard work is not going unnoticed by the boss. Check out the new perks... and the 50% raise:
... well ... uh, let's see ... I know there's a story in here some where ...
Well--we all know that Eileen (thanks to her copious blog entries) has been entertaining herself with several rather cute, trifling little occupations, such as... capturing living, pecking, fast-moving, sharp-beaked birds with her bare hands (easy!)... skinning and stuffing monstrous carrion-devouring buzzards (piece of cake!)... and becoming a medal-holding Triathlete (child's play!)... all in the span of my own mysterious disappearance from the Blogosphere.
And indeed, I'm sure you are all wondering, "What the heck has George been doing that even remotely compares to the awesomeness of Eileen's superhuman accomplishments???" And surely, I tell you that I am ashamed. For I probably played a few too many video games, and perhaps drove to work instead of walking a few too many times when it was only slightly below freezing or only just drizzling.
But I haven't been a complete loaf. Not entirely!
I managed to survive an Episcopal Holy Week, and that's saying something. St. Paul's doesn't mess around when it comes to holy days... no cutting corners like the Methodists! It started with a Maundy Thursday service in the evening, complete with a foot-washing ceremony (from which I gracefully abstained... after all you can't ask the organist to doff his organ shoes mid service). Good Friday saw another evening service, but since there was no music planned, I stayed home and went to bed early in advance of...
EASTER VIGIL on Saturday evening. The reeeeally serious Episcopalians do this one up right by holding the service until midnight. Thankfully, our service only went from 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm. I had never seen an Easter Vigil before, and it was actually a fascinating experience, because the church starts out in complete darkness, and then a sizeable (controlled) blaze is lit in the back of the church, from which candles are gradually lit until everyone in the congregation is holding a small flame in the darkness.
After a solid hour of Old Testament readings by candlelight, I got to fire up the organ and wake everyone up at the moment of the resurrection! And then the typical hour-and-a-half service proceeded complete with communion. It was a long night, especially since I still had to drive 40 minutes back home to Lewisburg.
Easter Sunday was a good service, considering I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I pulled out all the stops and played the happy Easter hymns good and loud. Mistakes are always best at their loudest on the organ.
With Easter behind us, I've only been getting about half attendance with the choir, so we're looking forward to Pentecost when the choir takes their summer break.
In Coffe Shop News, I have officially begun managing the front of house at Zelda's. This essentially means that I took it upon myself to start taking care of all the inventory and product ordering, because the owners were only doing it half the time anyway, and I was the only one getting stressed out every time we ran out of Espresso beans.
I will also be in charge of hiring and training when about 90% of our current staff graduates from high school and/or college next month. I'm pretty excited about this, because I've been spending all of my slow days at Zelda's learning how to make deliciously artistic lattes, really honing in on all the nuances of crafting a fine cup of coffee, and I want all the other baristas to do it too, so having the power to make everyone else do latte art will make me very happy. All of the coffee shops around here (including Zelda's) are impostors in comparison to the Seattle standard, so I'm trying to raise the bar and bring some respectability to the coffee scene in Central PA.
You will be happy to hear that all my hard work is not going unnoticed by the boss. Check out the new perks... and the 50% raise:
I did it!
Hi!
So yesterday was the triathlon, and I finished, without even walking, in 1 hour and 43 minutes!! It was so much fun, and pretty much all of my friends participated, so while George couldn't be there, I still had some fans. It was so much fun I'm considering doing another one before the summer is out! One of my friends in the group got photos of all of us biologists participating, and you can check out the pictures here:
http://buquest.smugmug.com/gallery/7952907_j8dML#516282558_eD4J2
Enjoy!
E
Oh and I'm number 26!
So yesterday was the triathlon, and I finished, without even walking, in 1 hour and 43 minutes!! It was so much fun, and pretty much all of my friends participated, so while George couldn't be there, I still had some fans. It was so much fun I'm considering doing another one before the summer is out! One of my friends in the group got photos of all of us biologists participating, and you can check out the pictures here:
http://buquest.smugmug.com/gallery/7952907_j8dML#516282558_eD4J2
Enjoy!
E
Oh and I'm number 26!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
T-minus 3 days
Hi. Again, sorry for not posting. George has had some news to post, but he has pretty much given up posting it seems like...I don't think he's done one since March...or maybe February. You should all comment to him, and make him write a postie or two. This whole blog thing was his idea after all...
So the Triathlon is on Sunday, and I've got some news for you. It looks like they will have streaming video of the event, so if you really want to watch, (although it will start at 6:30 am for you west coasters), you can find a link to the video at this blog, set up for the event: http://passionman.wordpress.com/
Check it out, and watch me collapse across the finish line! Seriously though, there is a high probability that I will come in last, but I guess that's okay with me...
I'll let you all know how it goes! Wish me luck!
So the Triathlon is on Sunday, and I've got some news for you. It looks like they will have streaming video of the event, so if you really want to watch, (although it will start at 6:30 am for you west coasters), you can find a link to the video at this blog, set up for the event: http://passionman.wordpress.com/
Check it out, and watch me collapse across the finish line! Seriously though, there is a high probability that I will come in last, but I guess that's okay with me...
I'll let you all know how it goes! Wish me luck!
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