free rice--or: your mom always told you about the "starving childern in (name a place)" now you can do something to help

hey, i just figured out that it takes 19,200 grains of rice to feed one person for one day...that's a lot of rice. check out the link to the right and increase your vocabulary and donate rice to people who need it. this is a UN function and it is easy to donate by playing a vocab game...test your smarts. the highest level i have been to is 45. the highest you can get is 60. they say that most people don't go above 50. i have been averaging somewhere in the mid to high 30s. let me know what your scores are (smile). help to reduce hunger in places that have high levels of starvation. i know your mom always told you about the starving childeren somewhere, so you could be guilted into cleaning you plate and being happy about it. now we know better, but we can also help others, without sending them our brussel sprouts and lima beans (smile). check it out and play as often as you need a distraction.

peace

one hoop down

another picture of the big-girl kitty (Sera) ON Webster. at least they are not in the clean laundry, like usual (stupid us)


i have officially become a candidate...all the papers are signed and stuff. i then had a friend point out that i am now "ABD" (All But Dissertation). well, shit! i obviously didn't think that through (smile). i guess it is kind'a fun to think that all i have left is my dissertation (and learning how to spell, i had to spell-check dissertation-hehe). that is what i have fonda around for, right? kidding, she is making me read stuff before she does...sigh; life used to be so easy, before she caught on that i was giving her my first draft...oh well. she loves me anyways (smile).

guts await...there are no fish retaining guts still, unless they were part of the larger fish's guts. i just have jars of guts in formalin...thank god for a REALLY GOOD fume hood! man, formalin stinks! the little guts are quick and easy, the larger ones are not so much so. so, i just have to slog through them...only one thousand, five hundred to go...but i need to not think in that way, as i said before,

time flies

another random picture of the cats--sera in a box, a big box.

time flies when you are doing other things...i haven't even put an entry in my regular journal...i have been going though fish guts and id-ing who is eating whom, but that gets old quickly. i have also been sewing...a bunch...i have been asked to demonstarate/teach a pattern i came up with, to two different sewing groups...as a class at the original place in june... www.cottonfieldsnc.com ...and in the rocky mount quilt guild in september! i can't believe it! i am so excited and a bit scared, but that is how my life goes.

one of my advisors has not given me a number grade, but 3/4 have passed me and so i will be getting a copy of the paper i need to have signed and get it signed to become a candidate. i will offically be a PhD Candidate after that occurs and then life will proceed in the manner it has been, but one hoop has been jumped and it leaves only a few (dozen) (not really) more. guts are the priority at the moment, i plan to teach next fall, so i need to get as many guts done in the next 4 months as possible, i think i have ~1,600 +/- left to do...no probem, right? well, i guess i need to give up doing anything else for a time, huh?

i have been reading a bunch of books on CD using my mp3 player, i love it--that is how i get through the guts, but my co-workers are constantly asking me questions and talking to me without getting my attention first and it frustrates the hell out of me and it pisses me off...who will learn first? i am not sure...i hope they do. i love listening to books. i need to get some books back to the library and also get some more...what fun!

the farmers market opened last saturday and i got the BEST strawberries-EVER-they are locally grown and yummy...got more on friday morning and we just need to get some more poundcake and then we are set...yummy! i didn't and still really don't like strawberries just plain, but these are really good and i will eat them all given the oppertunity, the ones at the grocery store are OK, but not as good...they are from CA, and maybe cheaper, but not as tasty...thinking about them makes my mouth water...i need to get/make some pound cake soon.

so, we have tons of goldfinches (boys and girls), brown-headed cow birds (boys and girls)(obligate parasites on other bird's nests, but they are preaty), nuthatches (?), morning doves (?), cardnals (boys and girls), some kind of sparrow, house finches (boys and girls), a wood pecker out front, a brown thrasher (way cool), the anole (lizard) chickadees, mocking birds (nest out front with 4 eggs) and bluebirds (nest box out back, also with 4 eggs)

got some plants too...some verbina (mint-like plant that will probably take over, but it is preaty with purple-white verigated flowers), carolina jasmin, creeping phlox (purple), and an aprocot-colored zinnia that the woman said i could dry the old flower-heads and plant them again next year--yea-- the wisteria was beautiful and huge this year, i think i will need to prune it back again, later. the azalias are huge and pink and the dianthis (simple, small carnations) came back this year and are growing like gangbusters and flowering all over the place (ok, just in 4 plants, but i am happy, i didn't think: a) they made it last year, and b) that they might be perenial). one of the fringe trees that fonda attempeted to kill (it was surrounded by weeds, so i can't fault her too much...) a few times in ohio, has seemed to survive the trip to NC and the transplant from one place to another...it seems to be off to a good leafy start at this point. i also planted a hydrangia last year, it is seems happy too, at least leaf-wise, so far. who knows what this year will bring in the plant department...the cactus and suculants managed to make it through the winter this time, i tried to kill some of the succulants last year...they are much more suseptible to drying than the cactus...surprise (not!)!

OK, enough for now...peace.

quote from a friend...how true...

SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES: NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING, BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.

weird weather

(get over the spelling errors in this post, can't get the spell check to work)

this photo is of the anoles we have in the area...this was taken in june 2007, but they are the cutest lizards and this one was hanging out in the tree right outside the middle room of our house...what a cutie...we have some others that hang out on the front porch and a differnt kind with blue on them too, much faster than the anoles, too but they don't seem to climb as much either.

it has been really nice for the last few days...we even had the windows open on wednesday to get some stinks blowed out of the house. the birds are ravionous!! i do not know when it will end...we spend more on the birds than the cats, I think. but it is worth it...they are really neat to see...we have a RWBB (red-winged black bird) boy out there now, i have seen a RWBB girl too, but not today.

the land lord tore down his two barns across the street...and a bunch of trees...sigh...he said that he is going to "landscape"...I think that means that he is going to lay sod. he is also going to build a more modern barn to put his boat and trailer into...i guess he is not going to have livestock again. as they were taking down the trees and the barns, everything over here was ratteling, a little disconcerting, but we survived. it was amazing to see them pull down the first barn, it took about a week to get all the pieces down and removed to flat land, the other one was done with a big yellow machine...with a clasper-shovel thing and took 1 day! sigh...i wonder if they are going to take down the barn over here? if they do, i am going to request that we get a small shed to put some of our gardening stuff and the wagon into. we shall see what happens...i am not sure if that will happen or not, but once they get the new barn built, then their stuff in this barn is likely to head over there...why not remove this barn too?

OK...i have heard back from 3 profs re: my exams...2 up-thumbs (81 and 85%) and one down-thumb (from the meanie who i think is still trying to prove something) and one who has not yet read it...my main advisor!?! i am planning to print off a copy for him on monday, if he hasn't read it yet! what a pain. i don't know what the next step is and i don't know what he will think of it, anyways...sigh...well, there it is...i haven't been telling anyone because i haven't heard from all 4, of course the 1st i heard from was the down-thumb...what a ego-bruser. sigh.

almost time to do out an re-fill the feeders for the birds, and go get more cat food too. smile. i just filled it yesterday evening.

birds

we must be the only ones around feeding the birds...we have a TON of goldfinches (picture of winter-boy) hanging out at the thistle feeders and they are also eating at the other feeder, they must be eating the millet. we counted 7+ at each of the thistle feeders plus some waiting for a space, man.

i filled the feeder yesterday and then again today...they eat alot.

goldfinches are cool because they can hang upside down and eat from the feeders...and they are pretty. we also have a pair of cardnals and some birds called a yellow rumped warbler...my bird book says they are also called "butter butts" because they have yellow rumps...what a fun name...and they are cute.

OK, guess i have to get back to data-entry (fun! not)

peace.

done

i'm done-i'm done-i'm dun-n (singing)

finally life can go back to some what of a normal pace...monday starts guts...i love being a fish-girl sometimes.

now i just need to hang out and be cool and wait for them to make the decisions...sigh...

all that matters at this point is that i am done for now.

the photo was taken in 2006 when f and i went to greece--athens...what fun and how cool to see something that people built SO long ago!