Long Day...

I had my first bad lab day in awhile. I had to kill (off with their heads style) three salamanders and dissect out their cloacal glands. Of course these glands are small and all the work has to be done under a microscope. Turns out I do not have fine motor skills nor do I have a hard heart. So, not only was I racked with guilt, but one of my salamanders had a wasted death because I totally butchered his gland. *Sniffle* Poor little guy. It was a rather unpleasant day.

On the plus side I've been analyzing my data from my behavioral experiment and I appear to have some statistically significant results (yay!). I may be a publication out of my behavioral work yet.

I'm also getting super excited (again) about how the female reproductive tract could influence which sperm fertilizes a female's eggs. I think I like the projects that are in the future because I don't have to worry about the hard details, but can bask in the glory of the potential results. Oh science, how I love/hate you.

I've also decided I'm dropping one chapter of my thesis (hopefully replacing it with something cool). We shall see how all this goes.

Teaching teaching teaching consumes the rest of my life. I'm a little resentful of it this week, because I need help on my research and meeting with students is getting in the way of getting that help. Most of the time, though, I'm super happy with it. I'm learning new techniques for lecturing and have been given a new title of mentor TA meaning that I help teach other TAs how to teaching. Its been really fun to be involved in this. I do love teaching.

And that is my life.

I had a surprise trip out to the coast this weekend. Found a really lovely beach with large rock formations that the waves crashed over and seals and ducks and gulls. It made me think longingly of the Farallons. Evidently at low tide this beach has really good tide pools. Unfortunately the tides weren't that low when my roommate and I were there. Caught a bunch of salamanders in the mountains (big 'uns!) and saw 2 new species of bird. It was a really great day. Oh, and how can I forget the clam chowder and hot choclate for lunch?!

Still loving my living situation. We have a fireplace and a bunch of bird feeders. I also have totally awesome roommates that make me look forward to coming home at night. Its nice. Of course, many of you have met them, so you know this.

So, Justin, you can see why I don't update. All I do is spew out science as that is my life.

Oo! Except that I'm reading Lolita and loving it! I totally thought this book would freak me out, but it's written so beautifully that I get completely sucked in. Yay for good books!