All in a weekend of work ...

Last weekend, I attended a local symposium to give a little talk about some of my research. This was my 4th time presenting at this and I look forward to it every year, because it is just a few local folks, mostly some professors and some undergrads.

This year's highlight's included:

• RyGuy came for the day to hang out with me (his 3rd appearance at this symposium that is totally NOT related to any of his research interests)


• An old labmate came back to give a talk about her field research and brought a student who did a little poster (and she won Best Undergrad Poster!)


• My advisor actually came .... for half the day ....


• The final speaker of the day gave a 1.5 hour talk on field work on insects in a foreign Asian country ... in which he included many videos ... one of cattle crossing his field site ... one of his colleagues dancing to "Who let the dogs out?" ... and TWO of his van driver singing in a foreign Asian language that none of us know. And I almost lost it near the end when he said something about something "going on and on and on and on and on" (it was like trying not to laugh at a funeral!!!)


• 6 slides into my 15 minute talk I realized ... I was giving the WRONG TALK!!!! (as in, an old version of the talk that still contained many slides that I thought I had deleted and planned to not talk about ....)


• Despite giving the WRONG TALK ... I still managed to be awarded "Best Graduate Student Talk" (Sorry Joe, but 2nd place ain't bad!)


• Best part of the day ... the most awesomely horrible hairclip I have ever seen a female professor wear. I only wish I had a good photo of it. Here is my attempt below. I know it is hard to make out ... but there is (in order) a bunch of bananas, an eggplant, an artichoke, an orange thing (squash?), asparagus and a tomato (or apple?). So amazing ... in the truest sense of the word.

Two life lessons learned:

1. Always, always, always check the PowerPoint presentation after it is loaded to be sure the right one is waiting for you!
2. Accessorize like nobody's watching!

Take me out to the ball game (part 2)

Ry & I also (spontaneously) decided to head to the local AAA ballpark for opening night! I LOVE minor league baseball, because you can spend the night outdoors, enjoy some entertainment, have a drink (although it was too cold in April to drink Bud Light Lime!), and yell a whole bunch for less than $15 a person! (We sat behind home plate for $9 a ticket!) Good times!

We hope to make a few more games this year! (Especially when the weather is nice!)

Take me out to the ball game (part 1)

If you don't know yet, RyGuy loves baseball! He used to play and he loves going to games! (Someday, we'll make it to all of the major league stadiums!)

We started out the baseball season a bit early this year! My good friends Anna and Gorgeous were somehow able to get us $1 tickets to a "preseason" game at NEW YANKEE STADIUM!! I was very excited (being born a Yankees fan) and we got there early to check everything out! It is AWESOME!

Below are some photos we took! THANKS Anna and Gorgeous for coming to visit for the weekend and for a great time!

Here's the field!
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Yum! The 297 calories were delicious! So were the 1236 calories!
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One of the first to use the bathrooms at NEW Yankee Stadium!
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Practice!
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Monument Park was awesome!
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The view from our seats .... at the very top ... the farthest you can be from homeplate and still be in the Stadium!
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Anna & Gorgeous! True Yankees fans!
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A bit chilly! But we had fun!
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Easter Cuteness!

We had a wonderful Easter with Ry's family and I just had to show a bunch of cute pictures of Hannah, because her princess dress was so adorable! She also had a cute pink bonnet, but she didn't feel like wearing it at that moment! She did like wearing my bunny slippers (a gift from Nephew!)! And seems to be very excited about the sidewalk chalk we got her (Can't wait for summer)! Enjoy the cutie pie!

Pondering a poster ...

A quick post on work (because it makes me feel better) and then I'll get back to some more pictures and the fun in life.

While my dear advisor was away doing field work, it fell upon me and my fellow grad students to work with His undergrads on a poster presentation of their research. That meant one of my labmates (Joe) and I had to teach these 3 ladies what their research results mean and how to present that in a poster. How the DATA is all we can talk about and not what we FEEL might be happening. How LESS words are better and how MORE pictures and figures are helpful.

We spent more than an hour with them last week giving specific suggestions on their poster and suggested that they send it to us sometime over the weekend to look at, since the poster symposium is tomorrow (Tuesday).

Have we seen the poster yet? Take a guess.

I am annoyed that they haven't sent it to us. But there are many reasons why I should NOT be annoyed:

1. They don't have to answer to me. I am not their advisor.
2. I can not demand that I see their work. Only their advisor can.
3. If they do poorly, it is not my fault. It is their advisor's fault.

So ... I am not going to be annoyed with them (as they are all sweet girls). Instead, I will be annoyed with this silly grant proposal that I am still working on ...

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Our niece Hannah turned 2 a few weeks ago, and we had a fabulous time at her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party! There were so many family members there to celebrate the first birthday that Hannah celebrated with us! We can't wait for next year's party!

Here are a few photos of the exciting day:

"Mama" dressed as Mickey!
(The rest of us had cute Mickey ears ... but I will save those photos for blackmail)

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So many presents!

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She's so good at looking at the cards! She loves them!
(Our's played the Mickey Mouse song!)
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I hope everyone liked the Mickey-shaped cake I made!

(And Ry carried on his lap for the whole 30 minute drive)
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And Hannah had her own cookie-brownie-cake with a giant "2" and Mickey!
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HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!

Long-distance Annoyance

I was really looking forward to this week (Last Wednesday - This Wednesday) in terms of work because my advisor is off on his tri-annual visit to the desert for some field work. And, as I have been recently annoyed with Him (due to his inability to function the day Rex Manning came and his snarky comments), I figured this week-long break would allow me to get over my petty annoyances and focus on work and be refreshed upon His arrival.

As you might have guessed (from the mere fact that I am actually blogging about this) :
I am still annoyed with Him.

Here's a few reasons why:

• Still not over the Rex Manning thing (why, I do not really know)
• Spent MANY hours re-analyzing data in order to start a complete re-write of a paper (You know, the one that was "perfect" a few weeks ago and ready to go out for review but now that He actually sat down and listened to me, he decided we need a completely new paper (thus, my feelings that he is not paying attention to me are again confirmed)). This will take weeks. In which I should be actually focusing on dissertation work.
• Spent / should be spending many hours working on a grant proposal that I am pretty sure (let's say 99.99%) won't get funded (because it doesn't actually come close to fitting the descriptions of what the money is for, not because the science is bad). If He even spends any time on it when He gets back and actually bothers to submit it.
• Did not get fish that are desperately needed in order to work on dissertation projects. This was due to a glitch with money on His part that has not yet been fixed.
• Have to spend hours working with Undergrads on a poster of a project that they are doing with Him, but He doesn't have the time to help them.
• Still annoyed with someone else, but this is mainly due to His inability to deal with someone else (I know, it doesn't make sense to you, but trust me, it's annoying).

End Rant.

I have 2 days to get lots of work done and get rid of this annoyance. Wish me luck!

Goodbye Mojo

Nephew is pretty much the sweetest kid in the world. Among other things, he loves animals. Especially his bunny, Mojo. Unfortunately, Mojo passed away this week. Nephew took it pretty hard. Mojo was his best friend and watched over him when he slept at night.

Fortunately, the local SPCA has some bunnies and Nephew will go find a new friend this weekend! I just wanted to wish Nephew luck on his search for a new bunny!


( Here he is with the bunnies at the Science Museum this past Christmas!)