time for a small change/newsey stuff

i finally finished one site, 3 more to go...i spent the last 2 days sorting and condensing. I have it down to ~9 boxes and ~500 guts...some of these are in excess, just to be sure that we have at least 5 full guts...sigh. today we had some kids (age8-10) into the lab to look at the stuff we do. we showed them fish, a conger eel, bowfin, etc. then we had some otaliths and scales and then a shark station with a spiny dogfish...way cool. then we also had an acoustic station that dr. joe tried to run, he didn't do a very good job...sigh. but we had fun and the kids had fun, poking fish, etc. the conger eel was way slimy and made me gag, yuck! but it is also a cool fish.

boss had surgery a few weeks ago (some sort of *plasty) that took the pain from his back. then 2 weeks ago, he went in for a disk-removal and spine fusing to help with some tingling/numbness in his feet...started the surgery and then stopped when he was having some heart problems. he had an angiogram on last monday...one of his arteries was ~99% blocked! the back surgery is on hold for a while...no use having a good back if your heart is not working, Huh? He was resolved and happy to have had the heart attack in the hospital where they could quickly ID it and give him good rx.

last i heard, he had to stay home until today (dr. at the hosp. said 8 weeks off) then his local dr. could make the next goal/or say OK, i guess. i haven't heard.

i made him a quilt, but it needs to be washed and then put somewhere where it won't start to smell like cigs again. i was worried about the quilting, but then got a hint from a woman who is going to teach me more-better about machine quilting...it worked like a charm...i will post a picture soon of this quilt. also i have been working on another quilt that is a challenge. thanks to f's color options, it looks great. i picked out 3 patterns--double friendship, ohio pride and north carolina star...they all have the same 3 colors, but one ended up being ~1.5" larger than the others (opps!) oh, well, again, f's choices helped and i made add-ons so they would be about the same size. it really is nice...more about this later, too.

really this is just newsy stuff...more and pictures later. peace

OMG!! IT IS HOT!

omg!!! i can't believe how hot it is here...we broke a record yesterday of 101 F! the old record was 99 F. our front porch thermometer recorded a temp of 105! (in the shade!). i went out this morning to water the garden (wow, i have never felt 85 F this hot!)--i was sweating within ~5 minutes! holy cow! i was surprised that the plants weren't wilting...the tomatoes look great and the cucumber is doing well too. the flowers are OK, but the new clematis is not growing, just surviving. the compost pile seems to be thriving too. i need to get some support around it and define it a bit more...maybe later, when the weather breaks.

working on guts...have a few to enter and "massage" (manipulate). these need to be re-organized to accommodate all that i need to do with the statistics...i have been arranging the data in 2 formats, what a pain.

hey! my sister just graduated Suma Cum Laude! it took her a long time to finally finish her education, but she did it with a bang! Congratulations to Elizabeth! she is the second kid to graduate with a bachelors degree! YAY! she is now thinking about going back for a MSW--she wants to work in hospice--better her than me, i don't think i could do that...too hard.

time to enter more guts and then go in tonight when it cools down. thank god for air conditioning! but i might be skinnier if there was none...nah, i hate to be hot.

smile. k

la, la, la

la, la, la...going through the guts...gonna' teach a group of people a pattern this friday and then i am helping at a wedding next friday and then teaching on saturday. i will be only teaching 1 person, at this point, but i am happy to do that too.

this past weekend fonda and i went to the John C. Campbell Folk School. what a crazy weekend. we went out on wednesday and stopped in greensboro then ashville and then to brasstown (near murphy, NC). we had a good time getting there. but the hotels were awful! the folk school was great, fun and the food was great! the problem was the craziness of a friday-sunday class. it was intense and crazy. i made a bear, i will show a photo later, once i find the $%^&# camera (smile). she is cute...everyone thinks she is a he, but i know better. she is the most expensive stuffed animal i have. she doesn't have a name yet, maybe soon. i hadn't thought about the cost, then i was talking to some of my cohorts and we talked about it and i didn't include the cost of the class and the room and board...you know.

learning how to make the bear was good, but the instructor left some things to be desired, as well as not including all the stuff needed, i could have saved $10+ by bringing some of the things she supplied and charged us for. i am pleased with the bear i made and i bought some more mohair too, so i could make a cat (i need to figure out how to make the tail and change the ears...anyways...

i miss mom...the folk school was a favorite place for her...no one i met knew her...sigh. oh, well.

more later...gotta think about the guts (smile).

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.