Doing my part for the economy and the environment.

By getting a new car!

My old car has gotten too tired to safely drive anymore, so I'm getting a Toyota Yaris. I got a great deal through an incentive plan at a local dealer (but no, not the cash for clunkers plan, my old car had a combined MPG of >18MPG. Sigh!) On a whim I test drove a Yaris and was very surprised that I really, really liked the car. After some number crunching and research I'm going in tomorrow to finish signing the paperwork and pick up my new car! YAY!

I am SO excited!

Summer Disconnect

So, I haven't posted in a while . . . but this is a normal occurrence for me. Over the summer I get so busy with knitting, and dinosaurs, and playing outside in general that my computer and I get a bit disconnected.

But this disconnect is a good thing. Really it is! During the academic year I spend so (SO) much time on the computer it is nice to get away. It also gives me a bit of a backlog for the rest of the year (for the "boring" spells at school). For now I get to focus on summer camp, knitting, dinosaurs, and hanging out with my family.


Have a great summer!

Pinch Me!

Ok . . . I have been much better about eating healthy food and exercising, this past weekend (and the coming weekend) are all about relaxing, and I like my research again!

I submitted my abstract for the 69th Annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists Conference on time . . . Bristol, England here I come! Now to get my passport in order . . . .

And, the BIG NEWS (drum roll please!) . . . I got a $750 grant from the Paleontological Society of America so that I can travel to Paris, France for my research!! I got really great (like, unexpectedly great) reviews from the selection committee. Of my three reviews my lowest was a 23/28 and the two others were 27/28! This is my first "big" grant application, so to not only get really great reviews but also actually receive a grant - it puts me over the moon!

Other pressing matters:
- Finish shoulder warmer for Kev's graduation
- Passport
- Utah Packing List

I figured it all out

. . . and it is all my fault.

I get "blah" about things when I don't eat as well as I should, don't exercise as much as I should, and don't give myself any time to unwind and digest. And, in the past week, I have been guilty of all three on numerous occasions.

But, in the interest of being positive, I have done some good things for myself too. For instance, I had lunch out with friends twice and found a nice (read: simple and easy) yoga/pilates in home routine to start doing I days I don't have time to or don't feel like walking. And, next week I WILL eat better.

On another note, the research is coming along a little better. I still don't love it today, but at least I feel like I have some reasonable results and some good predictions to discuss. I think I will feel better about it when this presentation is over and I start the the third stage of the project.

(Actually, in a side note to the side note, I don't even want to think about how long my master's thesis will be when it comes time to get it written. I haven't even completed a whole semester's worth of grad work and I'm ready to start on a third stage!?! The first stage was my undergrad thesis, the second is this data I'm working with now, three will be additional Prosimians, four will be fossil Adapiformes, and (if I'm lucky?) five will be 3-D scanned data. Oy Vey! I'd better start writing now!)

Disenchantment

Until now I have been totally enchanted with my research. I mean over the moon, dive in all the way, my research rocks, this is awesome, cool, and innovative, Wohoo!

Now, not so much.

Disenchantment hit today while staring at my computer screen, trying to find groups in a graph representing all my specimens, and not seeing any. I actually wished, at that moment, that I was studying something all together different. It is not that the data has been collected poorly or is being badly represented, it is that the method of data collection I am using is not fully capturing all the data I need it to. And I'm speaking about this data on Friday. I feel like I don't really have any results to present. So, I'm not really looking forward to presenting and am feeling kind of blah about the project in general.

Hopefully, enchantment will return sooner than later.

Jobs, Knitting, and Sewing

Wow, have I been busy!

I interviewed today for an assistantship (keep your fingers crossed for me, I really want it!) and got a full time summer job (that I love!). Many thanks to the job fairy, I was getting worried that I would not be able to find anything for the summer.

Since I last posted I finished a Lucy bag for a friend of mine - she LOVED it - and started my shrug for the BF's graduation. The shrug is making good progress; I have 3/4 of the back finished. After that I will only have the sleeves and trim to finish. I really like how it is turning out, it is going to be really nice!

I was home again for part of the past week. Mom and I went shopping for supplies to make some new project bags and some needle cases. (My pencil pouch is getting a little crowded). I think that we might actually make progress on them the next time I'm home. Maybe then I'll learn how to properly set up the sewing machine :) !

Spring Break Recap

Spring break was great, busy, but great. I got so much finished I surprised even myself! I was able to finish shopping for my swap package, make my Warm Woolies charity pieces, make a couple bags, and make a lot of progress on the Lucy bag I'm working on.

I'm planning to send out the charity knitting and the swap package tomorrow - Yay! and I can't wait to see what will be in the package that will be on its way to me - so excited!!

I have quite a bit of traveling to do this week and I hope I'll be able to finish the Lucy bag with the time I'll have on the train and in the car. Then I don't know what I'll work on . . . maybe the shrug for the boyfriend's graduation . . . that would be a good choice.

All that said, I think that Lucy (the spaztastic cat) is very happy to be back at her house. She stayed with me at my parent's home with our families two other cats and dog. By the end of the week everyone was at least politely ignoring one another; she and the dog actually got on pretty well with one another. I do think that she misses the big south-facing window seat though! She'll stay at home while I travel this week while a friend checks on her daily. I think she'd prefer a few days at home as opposed to more travel!

Spring Break WooHOO!

WooHoo(!) for:
-sleeping in a little bit
-knitting
-seeing my family
- relaxing at home
- reading

Now, just one more exam and then I'm home free!

All Better :)

Yay for not being sick! I finally feel like myself again . . . thank goodness, I couldn't handle another week of being that miserable.

I went owling last night with a couple friends - what a hoot! (ba-bum-ching!) We found 1 (one, uno, mono) owl in the county but had a great time. We got cut off a bit by a thunderstorm that was heading into our area. I'm looking forward to doing it again.

I'm casting on my second Warm Woolies vest in some awesome Elann Highland Peruvian Donegal wool - it's going to be so cute! And I think that I might have enough leftover for a hat, how great would that be?!

One week and two exams stand between me and my spring break. Information about this year's Utah Dino Dig is coming out this week (and I can't wait to go back!), and the TA interest list comes out this week (yat for having a job next year!) - it is going to be a good week!

Now if only the boyfriend would get his act together.

The Fifth Sign of Spring

#5. I am sick. Coughing, phlegm, post nasal drip, head-in-a-fog, lay-on-the-couch-and-do-nothing, wishing that someone would come take care of me, to-miserable-to-knit (because watching my needles move makes me nauseous) sick. I hate being sick.

Luckily, I stockpiled mom's chicken soup. Thanks Mom!

Spring IS Coming . . .

and like the true scientist I am, I have data to support this claim!

Observations of the Impending Approach of Spring:
1. The little birds had returned; and are very active in the morning . . . at sunrise . . . right outside my bedroom window . . . at dawn . . .the crack of dawn . . .

2. The farmers have their irrigation/fertilizing/watering lines out in the field and assembled. The farmers around here know what's up, so I trust their judgment.

3. On my drive back home from Champaign (more about that later) I saw fields that were green - not tan, not yellow, but verdant, grass green.

4. The daffodils and jonquils are coming up around campus and the magnolias are starting to bud!

Yay for spring!

This weekend I spent some time in Champaign - mostly shopping - although Kevin and I did eat out at a couple of our favorite restaurants too. My new favorite shop in the C-U (aside from Espresso Royale) is Klose Knit - an AWESOME yarn shop in Urbana. They are the total package when it comes to a yarn shop. Friendly but not hovery, cozy but not crampt, large selection while still haveing a decent amount of each type of yarn. And . . . I think that this is so cool . . . they knit and sent socks to the whole Obama family during the election! How cool is that??!
So, in short if you happen to be in Urbana check them out!

In addition to all that my school had to inact the emergency alert system . . . booo . . .
They found an IED near campus, it was destroyed before it was able to harm anyone. So thank you to the MPD, ATF, and State Police for keeping us all safe. What would posess anyone to make one is beyond me; but I do hope that they find out who did and that they are held accountable for their actions. I seriously don't get people sometimes . . . why can't we all just get along?

On the Fence

I don't like being on the fence. I much prefer knowing what side I am on, how I got there, and where I am going on that side of the fence. But here I sit on the fence, and its giving me the blahs.

There are two sides of paleontology; warm & fuzzy and cold & scaly. The more I work on my masters research the more ensconced I become in the warm & fuzzy camp, but there are things that I know I like about the cold & scaly camp that I get to visit occasionally.

The warm & fuzzy camp is filled with scientists studying mammals, proto-mammals, primates, and the like. It really is a pretty cool place to be. I fit in here pretty well because I love human evolution, and someday would like to do a study that encompasses all the major extinct hominid classes and see what I can figure out. Basically, I want to add my piece to the puzzle. The w&f camp would also be an infinitely easier place to make my career as it is more female friendly than the cold & scaly camp.

But, the cold & scaly camp is just so . . . cool! I adore doing fieldwork and all it entails. On top of that cold & scaly was my first love. When I was 3 or 4 my mind was all made up to be a paleontologist and I loved dinosaurs . . . particularly Ceratopsians. It wasn't until I learned about evolution, when I was 4 or 5, that I became enthralled with hominid evolution. [Yes, I was an incredibly nerdy child. I rented the same movies about paleoanthropology and paleontology from the movie store over, and over, and over, and over agian. By first grade I could explain the carbon-14 dating process.] The problem with the c&s camp is that it is not terribly female friendly, however with the right connections it could be.

So here I am, on the fence between two diametric opposites. And, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the research I am doing right now (heck, I just got offered an undergrad assistant, what more could I ask for?!) but I am not sure that it is the path I want to follow for the rest of my career.
What I want is to be able to sit on the fence forever, and work in both the warm & fuzzy camp and the cold & scaly camp and even combine data from both sides of the fence and see what we get then.

Hopefully, the more work on my research I do the clearer the path I want to take will become.

A good mail day . . . .

I came home from a busy day on campus to a mailbox (and doorstep) full of packages! I love getting mail :)

My new, and very pretty, checks arrived finally. With perfect timing too, I accidentally left my normal check book at home over the weekend and was checkless until today.

My dissection manual (that has been lost in the mail twice and that I've been waiting 6 weeks to get) came, miraculously in one piece. Now I can study in peace for my comparative exams on Friday.

Shoes!! I needed new everyday shoes for the spring, as my current everyday slip-ons are on the verge of death. I ordered the Terrain Janes from Lands' End - I love them and they are surprisingly comfortable on top of being cute! (I should also add, if you ever want to deal with customer service for a retail company this is the place to go. I had to get a different size in the same shoe last week. First I used their online chat function to find the difference in length between one size and a half size smaller. Then, I called to place a Return/ReOrder. Both of the ladies I worked with were both more than pleasant and super knowledgeable. Yay for great customer service!)

Yarn!!! I'm in the Guilty Pleasures / Good Karma Swap on Ravelry and won the week one contest. My prize was a lovely skein of blue/green sock yarn called "Under the Sea" made of Merino wool, Bamboo, and Nylon. Thank you Mspalmtree!

Swap Package from my $10 Swap partner. She spoiled me rotten! Who knew such a little box could hold so much stuff - it follows the good things come in small packages addage! My fave was the little pouch that she sewed herself; it is absolutley perfect and I will enjoy it everytime I use it. She also packed in some Simply Caron bamboo yarn in a great shade of green, Sugar and Cream in bright pink and a bunch of other goodies. Thank you jamierheller!

All that and not a bill in sight!

Bad Morning . . . Good Afternoon

Bad Morning . . .

Slept through my alarm and missed my 8 o'clock bacteriology lecture. Grrr. On the better side, I had time to take a shower and blow-dry my hair.

Managed to confuse the metencephalon, mesencephalon, and mylencephalon on my comparative anatomy quiz. Double Grrr. My professor in that class is one of my research advisors . . . headdesk!

It took me for-freaking-ever to remove the dorsal chondrocranium of my shark - and I still haven't exposed the entire brain. Even the people that skipped out last Friday seem like they are ahead of me (Super Triple Grrr) - yay for extra lab hours this week . . .?

Good Afternoon:
Shipped my Ravelry $10 Swap Package to my partner today. Keep your fingers crossed that it arrives quickly and in one piece.

I worked out and read - albiet at the same time - but it still counts!

The "Check Engine" light went off in may car - Thanks Dad!

Now . . . on to reading for bacteriology and comparative, editing a grant application, and maybe a little knitting.

The First of Many Lists

I've never had a blog before . . . so here it goes!

About Me (like anyone will actually be reading this besides me!):
-I am a biology grad student focusing on paleontology.
-I live with my very spaztastic cat, Lucy, and many, many skeins of yarn.
-I have my bachelor's in biology and my secondary teacher certification.
-First wanted to be a paleontologist when I was 3 or 4, then had a looooong stint of wanting to be a teacher. Now I'm back to wanting to be a paleontologist.
-I love, love, love being outside. Hiking and canoeing are my favorites, aside from dino digs that is!
- When it is too yucky to go outside I like to read, and love to knit.
- I make lists (go figure!)

My goals for this blog are:
1) To put my resolutions down in writing and out in the world in hopes that I will be better in following through with them.

2) To improve my self-reflection.

3) To make my time spent perusing the internet more productive.

So . . . . more about those resolutions. I made a few resolutions for this year (and my future), I want to be healthier, I want to make time for knitting and fun reading more often, and I want to do everything in my power to make grad school a great experience.

To be healthier I need to exercise more and eat more healthfully. I should workout at least 3 times a week (so far this year I've been lucky to make it once a week). I also need to find some healthier recipes aside from my standbys homemade mac'n cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, and pizza.

I have been good about taking more time to knit and read for fun. I have already read The Last Lecture (soooo good!) and have started Your Inner Fish (also very good). As far as knitting I finished my mittens that I had been working on for the past six(!) months and have started socks, a scarf, and a purse. The purse is coming along nicely.

The Six Month Mittens

And, I can happily say that I am throwing myself into grad school - and loving it! A friend of mine is also a grad student in the same department and has been kind enough to introduce me around and help me get acclimated to life as a grad student.