A plea to my friends!

Dearest friends,

As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. He has been doing well and is currently trying new treatments to stay healthy. There is no "cure" for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that affects the immune system.

In his honor, I am again taking part in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. This is a great event that raises money for cancer research and cancer survivors. For 24 hours, my BOGS team will walk the track at a local high school to raise awareness!

With your help and support last year, I was able to raise over $700 in honor of my dad! Thank you all!!

I urge you to visit my webpage and make a donation. Both in support of my dad and in honor of everyone that you know that has been affected by cancer.

Please share this webpage with anyone you know that would also like to help out with this wonderful cause!

You can donate directly on the webpage using a credit card or you can send me a check in the mail!

Every little bit helps! Just a few dollars really does make a difference!

Thanks so much for your support and contribution!

Go to my Relay for Life webpage by clicking here!

or cut and paste this into your browser:http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifePennsylvaniaDivision?pg=personal&fr_id=7077&fr_id=7077&px=6186164

Off again

Another summer of fieldwork officially begins ...

Sigh.

8 hours of snorkeling in the tropics each day for the next 2 weeks.

I know it sounds awesome, but trust me ...

I'll give you updates when possible!!!!

Happy Summer!

Celebrating Joe's Qs!

Labmate Joe took his Q exams over the last week or so and last night he passed his orals! Yay!

I'm very excited for him and knew he could do it (he is way smarter than me, and I managed to pass them last year!)!

Last night's celebration was a bit much for me, as I am now old and no longer have the tolerance for alcohol that I had at 21. Or 19. Or 20. Or 22. Or 23. But we all enjoyed ourselves and won $50 at trivia and celebrated Joe!

Congratulations JOE!

(Just 6 months until your proposal is due! Tick Tock, Tick Tock!)

BF Baby

Oh, I almost forgot -- now that BF Kimmy's shower is over, I can show you all the baby blankets that I knit for her baby (whom I will from now on refer to as BF Baby, as he/she is the baby of my Best Friend! And she/he does not yet have a name!!)!

Because I am just so excited about BF Baby, I knit 2 blankets! Actually, I started one before BF Baby was even conceived, but it took me this long to finish it!

The light green and white stipped blanket is made out of a giant ball of self-striping boucle yarn. I just knit on the diagonal, adding a stitch at the start of each row, and then decreasing stitch at the start of each row after I was about half way through the yarn. It was easy, but took time because it is thin yarn on small needles (size 8, I think).

The dark green one is a modified Big Bad Baby Blanket. I made it out of Wool Ease Thick n' Quick yarn on a size 13 needle, with less stitches than the pattern called for, so it wasn't too huge a blanket. I just love the pattern, which is difficult to see here, but is basically a square with a seed-stitch border around the edge and then 4 alternating blocks in the center. It's my favorite pattern to knit and this new bigger yarn makes it look very fun!

I hope BF Baby and her parents enjoy them for years to come!

Showered!

For those of you dying to know -- Shower Weekend was a massive success!!

BF Kimmy's Baby Shower was a wonderful event full of lots of green and lots of frogs and lots of fun!! I am just so excited that my bestest friend (for 20 years now!!!) is having a baby! And I am so happy for her and her husband Bill that they got so many wonderful gifts last weekend and so much love from everyone!

Anna's Wedding Shower (which began just 20 hours after the baby shower ended) also went fabulously! Lots of fun had by all and lots of gifts for Anna & George to start their married life with! (Umm.. however, I am a horrible MOH and failed to take ANY photos. I suck!)

I realized something though, that I had previously failed to notice as a shower-giving friend: Moms are crazy. The only real stress associated with each shower was with the Mothers of my girlfriends. Baby Shower Mom hated the ugly room we had the shower in and was upset about the lack of seat assignments. Wedding Shower Mom was in arms over the fact that we didn't buy those pastel mints (gag me) to put on the tables and that another bridesmaid and I kept telling her to sit down and enjoy herself rather than running everything. I always tried to be nice to the Moms, but ultimately I feel like my role is to make the mom-to-be and the bride happy. Who knew that showers could make Moms so crazy?? Luckily, I am sure my mother will be totally calm whenever I get around to having my showers. We'll just share a few drinks and have a good time (right Mom?)!

Cake from Kimmy's shower (made by Bill's Aunt, not a professional bakery!)

The 3 girls!
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In addition to all of the Shower-Craziness, I was also able to spend some time with my awesome family! I had dinner with everyone (from Buffalo's famous Chinese/pizza/wing/bar restaurant), caught a movie and did some shopping with Kel (my lil' bro's gf), watched Nephew play some soccer (perhaps full-contact sports are not his thing, but he wants to be an animal rescuer anyway, so lay-off!), had a super fun time at a party thrown by my sis-in-law (and bought lots of yummy treats), and enjoyed having the "Sneks Girls" (Mom, sis-in-law, Kel and me) at both of the showers! I also enjoyed the whole 6 hours I spent with Ry!!

An action shot of my favorite Nephew at soccer!!!

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Oh, and did I mention that my car had to stay in Buffalo while I came back to the Little Town with my mom's car (Thanks Mom!) because I HAD to give a final??

Overall though, I think the weekend was a HUGE success!! And I already miss all my friends & family!!

Stranded, with 100% chance of showers

Yes, this weekend there is a 100% chance of showers. A baby shower for BF Kimmy and a bridal shower for Anna!

Both are in Buffalo, both are this weekend and both are slightly dependent on me showing up with lots of decor and prizes and gifts.

And I am currently spending my morning at the chevy service center in the Little Town, rather than heading to WNY.

Why? Because some horribly awful person side-swipped my parked car Sunday night while I was sleeping. And not just some scratches, but a broken side-view-mirror and a horribly bent tire. I will make the drive sans-mirror (unsafe, but driveable), but it is impossible to make the long trip with only 3 wheels.

Is anything ever easy for me?

At least I'll get to enjoy this busy busy week/weekend with Ry, my family and my pregnant and engaged friends!!!

Mom's March for Babies

My mom (and my lil' bro and his gf Kel) will be Marching for Babies on Sunday, April 27th!

As my mom writes on her website: "The March of Dimes has changed the name of its biggest event to March for Babies. It's a great change because it makes it very clear exactly who I am walking for -- all babies. I am very excited to be a part of the “first” March for Babies; please support my participation."

Many of you readers have just had babies, are about to have babies, or hope to have babies in the next few years! If you have a few extra dollars ($5 isn't a lot of money!), please consider donating to this worthy cause!

Click Here to donate at my mom's personal website

Week in the life of a grad student

The past week has been super crazy for me! Most of it good, but all of it crazy. And pretty much everything has been about work!

Here's a list of the few things that have happened:

• Gave a seminar (1hr) on a really awesome portion of my fieldwork from Costa Rica this past January
• Spent 1.5 hours helping a labmate go over a research talk for her conference
• Spent 3 hours and then another 2 hours helping a different labmate edit her dissertation defense
• Was appreciated at a grad student lunch
• Worked with undergrad in lab (and she managed not to kill the fish with ice cold water this time)
• Spent 12 hours at a local research conference (which literally drives grad students to drink)
• Gave talk (15min) on fieldwork from last year's Jamaica trip
• Watched 2 dissertation defenses by students in other research labs in my department
• Taught my own classes as well as classes of labmate
• Graded over 100 lab assignments
• Finished and submitted Costa Rica field research paper to very good journal (1st paper submitted in 2008!)
• Finished and submitted Jamaica field research paper to another very good journal (2nd submitted paper this year!)
• Watched my labmate's dissertation defense
• "Celebrated" labmate's dissertation defense completion (by drinking with remaining labmates)

All that, plus normal life stuff, means that I am now exhausted. Perhaps I will catch up with sleep (and laundry) this weekend ...