Thursday, August 31, 2006

Whales & Evolution


I love whales. And Evolution.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Front door service

Get everything you want, delivered right to your door .... if you live in New York City!

Max Delivery

While my old roommate Caroline and I would watch Sex & the City, we would often comment that we should start a delivery service in Philly where you could call up and order a bottle of wine and a candy bar. (Of course ... while we discussed this every Tuesday, we never actually bought the items on our way home the following week!)

But, now in NYC, not only can you order wine and candy bars, but you can also order cupcakes, mangos, condoms, Meet The Parents, gluten-free pasta, diapers, eggs, a pregnancy test, cigarettes, and a get well soon card. In less than an hour, delivered right to your door.

Maybe C & I should forget our real "jobs" and start the business in Philadelphia!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Yummy Spinach Salad Dish!

Here's a recipe (as requested by i3ecky!) for Ellen's Spinach Salad (courtesy of my mother who stole it from a woman named Diana, so I suppose it should really be Diana's Spinach Salad):

In a big (and I mean big) casserole dish, layer the following ingredients:

1 small bottle 1,000 island dressing
1/3 big bag raw spinach leaves (baby or whole)
salt & pepper to taste
slices of medium onion
slices of 4 boiled eggs
1/3 bag spinach
2 cups thawed frozen peas
8oz. cooked & crumbled bacon
2 cups shredded swiss cheese
2 cups mayo mixed with 2 tbsp. sugar
salt & pepper
1/3 bag spinach
1 small bottle of catalina dressing

Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

Feel free to substitute your favorite dressings or cheeses!
Or leave out the bacon for a vegetarian salad!

More of my favorite dishes to come!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

My eternal enemy

If you know me, you know I like things clean. Especially the bathroom. Especially my toilet, which tends to get this ring of black flecks around it when it has gone unused for a few days. The black flecks appear to be something from the pipes. Every few days I get the Clorox toilet cleaner out and my favorite blue brush and give it a good scrub.

After 6 days in Utah, the toilet was calling out to me. "Clean me. Please clean me."

And so, the day before Ry returned from his vacation, I decided to devote 12 hours to cleaning the whole apartment. Laundry, mopping, rearranging furniture. My plans, however, changed 2 hours in to the day of fun.

As I crouched over the toilet, the water a beautiful blue and smelling of bleach, I scrubbed with all of my might. And then, suddenly ....

I was paralyzed.

No, not with fear because of the filth. Literally, I could no longer move.

I fell to the floor, with recollections of a Sex & The City episode in which Miranda throws her back out after showering and lies on the rug naked. Because, I obviously clean the house in only my unders.

My Sunday was no longer the joyous day of cleaning. But instead, an internal homage to all of the things I would no longer be able to do -- like walk, clean, dance in the car, go to the bathroom on my own, turn my head, scratch my back, or pick up my nephew. So many thoughts passed through my head as I lay on the bathroom floor in misery.

Of course, it was my obsessive cleaning (and not my risky lifestyle) that would be my demise.

Fortunately, after hours of crawling through the house and a bottle of Ibuprofen, I did manage to walk again.

It's only a pulled muscle. Perhaps the gluteus profundus or the tensor fasciae latae.

And so while I am sore, slow-moving, and pathetic, I am not crippled.

I shall live to clean again!

Kat's Kitty!

Here's a picture of Kathryn's new Kitty!

He's so cute, I just had to share him!

I'm hoping he's named Bam!

YAY Becca!



CONGRATULATIONS!

To Becca (better known as Tigger)!

On the completion of her masters thesis defense at SJU

&

her new nursey school job!!

YAY Becca!

Utah ... not just for mormons

We made it back from the ABS conference in Snowbird, Utah in one piece! The area was beautiful, but we barely enjoyed it as we were too busy attending sessions and talking with way cool scientists. But, here are some pictures below to tell our tale!


The beautiful wildflowers on top of the mountain we took our tram to.
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My friend Becky (whom I did whale research with at Canisius and is now getting her PhD at Hunter in NYC) and I on top of the mountain. The picas are collecting their winter grasses below us!
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The 3 J's toasting a successful conference! We all gave great talks and got great questions and talked with a lot of great people! (Yes, that is cheap champagne in paper cups)
********************************

Maria (DancingFish's old labmate) & Tim (McCann look-alike) -- new friends from Indiana!
**********************************

After the banquet, the 3 Js having fun at the "Tram Club" with cichlid friend Tom (from the Wisenden Lab)!

Super fun times had by all! And we're looking forward to next year's conference in Vermont!!!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Leaving on a jet plane

Tomorrow is the start of the 3 Js' big ABS adventure. Awesome that traveling by plane has suddenly become hell. Way to go terrorists! But, there is no way I am dealing with another roadtrip this summer, so I will just have to suffer through airport security and limit my in-flight liquids to breast milk and insulin. (Serious question -- do you think my chapstick will count as a "gel" product that will be taken away from me?)

Despite the hassel at the airport, I am looking forward to a super-fun conference. There are lots of cool people signed up to give talks and I am just a big super science geek who can't wait to sit around and hear about animal behavior! And I am staying with all the Js in the lab and my old whale-hugger friend Becky!

I've been busy working on data for the talk I am giving on the last day of the conference. I am excited, as it is my first "real" talk AND my data turned out to be OK. If I can figure out how, maybe I will post the video that I have of my cichlid mom picking up her babies!

I'm off to Utah! See ya in a week!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Magnetism


From the girl with whom I share a brain:

Freak Magnet
The sad truth, in an MSNBC article.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Take me out to the ball game!

Along with all of our other summer fun, Ry & I took in a bit of his favorite sport -- baseball! I have never been to a major league baseball game (The Buffalo Bisons are only a minor league team!)! So, I was very excited when Ry was given free tickets to the Phillies game! We drove down to root on which ever team (Phillies or Braves) was further away from the Mets lead! Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy!

After two hours of rain delay, they decided they couldn't take the tarp off the field, and we left our soggy seats and headed home!



But don't fret! Just two days later, Ry & I had tickets with DancingFish & V for the Mets vs. Cubs game at Shea Stadium! After a many hour drive through NYC, we happily arrived to some great seats! And I was enjoying my very first MLB game (which Ry was very happy was a Mets game)!

Don't tell my Dad (the greatest Yankees fan of all time), but I even wore Ry's Mets jersey! Hey -- I can root for the Mets ... as long as they aren't playing the Yankees!!

Fun times had by all -- but more fun had by V & Fish because the Cubs beat the 1st place Mets!


Good Parenting

While preparing for the talk I am supposed to give in 2 weeks on parental behavior of convict cichlids, I type "parenting" in to the yahoo! image search. A few pages in, I get this:

I was hoping to get a picture of a baby monkey on its father's back! Or maybe an aligator with its babies in its mouth!
But I suppose that in order to be a good parent, you really should avoid setting yourself on fire! I will try to remember that, so I can be a good mom someday!