Prepare yourself

Ok, I promised I’d post more over break when I did some traveling. AND, you’ve probably all noticed that there has still been the same old picture of a sad crayfish. In fact, I know you’ve noticed because I’ve heard a few complaints…..

BUT, before we can move on to the exciting break stories, I can’t just skip over the eventful second half of fall quarter. I will try to go quickly however. In fact, just pretend you’re at a horse race, and read the rest as if it there is an announcer following the action.

Wendy’s wild night of trampolining and karoke, heading into thanksgiving, lots of grading, quick, made a pumpkin pie, touch football in the park. Beautiful T-day. Eat, eat, eat lots of food, Pascal’s tur-duck-en, tryptophan naps.

(the great sing-along)

(happy eaters)

(that is, I mean was, one glorious tur-duck-en)

(really, we could be playing anything. Rest assured, it was football)
(My favorite part of the meal.....)(Thomas takes his nap shift, while Dai looks like he's ready for his)

More grading, grading, lab planning, elementary school kids with bottles of colored water and fish costumes, one more job application, last lab, grading, done with TA’ing FINALLY (forever???).

Cram last minute data analysis into a week, make a poster, drive to San Francisco, join 15,000+ (I’m not kidding) geoscientists for a week of anything-we-can-slap-geo-onto-the-front-of, annual thirsty bear and lefty’s (with notable party crashers? Dai? Rychard? Beaver sauces? Unclear). One nice, calm, weekend at home. Fly to Seattle during the “let it snow” party in the Pacific Northwest.

(The old guard at lefty's, presided over by CRowe)

(Slugs and former slugs amass at Lefty's. Can you spot the non-geo "ologists"?)

(Look! Here's one! Oh wait, this is an "onomer," not even an "ologist")

(I don't know. I think I arrived to late to understand this one. How did they decide who got to be "hot dijon" and who got to be "sweet honey?")

Whew. It went by fast, sorry for so few stories……….

Bandit the Crayfish

The night before Rachel and I went to the elementary school, we brought the crayfish for the lesson back to the house. One aggressive crayfish had a tub to himself, because he didn't play well with the others. The rest were in a high-sided mop bucket.

I left them in the living room, and took the lid off of the lone crayfish's tub. I'd only put the lid on to keep the crayfish from slopping out into my car, and figured he needed air for the night. I may or may not have done this a few hours after hearing Rachel's childhood story of crayfish escapees in their car. I've got no real excuse other than blatant absentmindedness.

The next morning, as we got ready to load up, we decided to check on them. You know when you just KNOW something has happened, before you have any proof? Well, this didn't really take any ESP skills but, sure enough, the lone crayfish escaped the tub in the night and was loose in the house. Our handy information cards told us they can only live for 10 minutes out of water, so we did a quick look, found no escapee, then hoped we'd have a half a day before he started stinking.

2 hours later, after teaching, the search began in earnest. After staring behind the dishwasher, I was hopeless that we would ever find this critter. Who new there were so many dark hideyholes? While mentally preparing to break the bad news to the housemates, I heard a scratching sound. Finally, a sad, slow, dust-covered crayfish shuffled out from behind the recycling. Dust on his antennae, dust on his pinchers. He almost looked sheepish.

We named him Bandit.

November? Really???

(Going rogue?)

Somehow, October passed by in a blur of TAing, computer time and music. And election nonsense of course. I'm sure I'm not the only one who attended a halloween party with multiple Palins, a couple of husband Todds, and, oddly enough, a few pregnant Bristols (only one of whom was actually pregnant). The pumpkin was even carved in Sarah's honor, and thanks to the "voting booth of horror" I cast the only vote I will ever cast in favor of the Palin family.

(Dai expresses his opinion of my vote)

And while I can't seem to account for October with the "normal" things, there has been plenty of good, live music to make up for it. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass of course, but I've seen a bunch of cheap and great live shows at a seemingly unlikely venue called the Crepe Place. Who knew a restaurant that specializes in beer and thin pancakes stuffed with all good things would have such good taste in music and bring such unlikely groups? We Saw Sean Hayes and These United States play, and Trampled By Turtles is coming through in December.

(Hardly Strictly Bluegrass for hardly strictly few)

November holds promise for entertainment of a different kind. As part of a "communicating science" class, we are working with a local elementary school to teach short science lessons to 3-5 graders. I have the bulk of my lessons coming up, and am excited to see what will become of 30 3rd-graders let loose on a tub of cray fish. I also thought it would be it would be a bigger juxtaposition to teach 8-year olds in the morning, and 20-years in the evening, but mostly I just wish 20-years would get as excited about learning about density as 8-year olds do.

Anyway, posting will continue to be sporadic for the next couple of months, but should pick back up with the holidays and winter quarter. Traveling starts again; I just found out I'm giving a talk for a conference in New Zealand in January!

And a few more halloween pictures, just 'cuz:

(Marge and Moe. Homer was at the (you guessed it) keg.

(Two California Raisins and the lamb of God)(Somebody got a little too into character....)
(Who knew those grapevine skills from high school soccer would be so useful?)

My Personal Government Bailout

Well folks, in a time of economic uncertainty and government bailout, the folks at the most auspicious of all government science funding agencies (the agency-who-shall-not-be-named) decided to bail me out. Yes, the proposal I submitted on my birthday will be recommended for funding! WOOHOO! I'm gonna say it again. WOOHOO!

My advisor scared the living daylights out of me in my office, and then merely said, "So, we should do the happy dance," and started dancing. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was getting at, and in the meantime I looked at him like he was from another planet.

Needless to say, this feels SUPER validating, since this is the real deal. It kind of makes me feel like a real scientist! And maybe means this quarter will be the last time I TA??? Now I really AM counting my chickens....

Another political departure

Ok, I'm taking the slacker's route on posting, but unless you'd like photos of students firing projectiles into tubs of sand and flour, or of me staring at spreadsheets, I haven't got much to post. The quarter has started in earnest and I'm TA'ing, again. And unfortunately for you faithful readers (but good for my sanity), it is not a field-based class.

Anyway, to keep you entertained, I'm posting a link to a video, in anticipation of tonight's debate. I also recommend you check out other videos this group has made, especially "swing(er) states."

Sadly, I'll be teaching lab and will have to catch the debates later on the old interweb.....

Planned unplanned time. Yar.

Avast and shiver me timbers, September be slippin’ away. We be facing yet o’nother National Talk Like A Pirate Day in a few wee hours, so I thought I’d start a practicin’

The fair port ‘o Santa Cruz has seen many a visitor in the last fortnight. The scurvy knaves, Sarah and Stephanie, came down from the afar isle o’ Berkeley, and we played at the beach,

(No fun at the beach or ye'll walk the plank!)

threw the discs, (Aye, a confusing hole. No one found the refrigerator)

ate up greek food and ran obstacle courses on the playground. All trainin’ fer bein’ a buccaneer.

Q: How much does a pirate pay for corn?
A: A Buccaneer!

And the next weekend, the landlubbin’ parents (what is pirate for parent?) sailed through, and we ate,

(Yar, the mighty Cap'n Snell with his most fearsome weapon, the veggie peeler)

paddled the mighty seas in search o’ the birds,

(The swarthy birders debate)

and they went home with plenty ‘o Santa Cruz' finest booty (and a bottle of rum). Yar. Much swashbuckling done by all, and no one had to walk the plank.

Q: What does a pirate say on his 80th birthday?
A: Aye matey…..

September madness (also known as canning/harvesting/picnicking/holy-crap-I-only-have-3-weeks-to-do-everything-I-said-I’d-do-over-summer season)

(The front yard harvest)

September in Santa Cruz is a glorious thing. The weather is beautiful, the fog disappears for a bit (before the rain rolls in for winter), and the produce goes crazy, so everyone has been busy making the most of the last few weeks before students reappear and the pace of life jumps up a few notches.

(Dai captures the Dinner Harem on film. How does he do it?)

It is harvest season, and as the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But I don’t have lemons, just a whole lot of asian pears. I’ve never heard of pear-ade (I’m sure it exists by now). So instead Rachel and I made a day of canning other pear products.

(Rachel on quality control duty)(if only I knew how to juggle....)

I’ve never canned anything in my life. My only training came about a month ago, when I helped Sora can various peach foodstuffs (salsa and jam). I will admit to being very inspired by how hard it didn’t seem, and by reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I highly recommend it, but be prepared to start spending a lot more time in the kitchen. She can even inspire a person to want to make their own cheese. I’ll save that adventure for a later date however.

(the stove, hard at work)

The grand tally came to ~10 quarts of pear chunks, 6 pints of pear jam, and about 3 pints of pear puree. Oops, I think I just gave away Christmas.
Things I learned:
1: the house gets really warm when you have the stove on all day in September.
2: Hearing the POP that tells you the cans sealed is very satisfying.
3: Having a few cans that DON’T pop is even more satisfying because then you get to quality-control the goods (pear jam is really good on waffles).
4: Pear puree tastes just like applesauce, but you don’t have to add any sugar.
5: And last but not least, you sleep really well after a day of canning, assuming you left the skylight open to let out all the warm air.