Quick update

So very busy getting ready for field season in the lab. Always seems we oceanographers prefer to go out when the weather is nicest! But I have been thinking that I have acquired some unexpected skills so far in life. Below are 5 of my most un-looked for, yet most handy skills :

1. I can plumb almost anything given some tubing (any size) and a couple zip ties. Hedgehog Guy and I once plumbed our overflowing toilet to the sump pump during a flood using a brick, a beach towel, and a garden hose.
2. I can pack efficiently. Our whole lives in 9ft of trailer space going across the country and not a single dish, glass, picture, or piece of china broke.
3. I can make amazing towers of drying dishes. Seriously.
4. I can select the perfect-size container for left-overs. Saves on dishes.
5. I know how most office furniture is put together and can fix or repair it. Thanks Dad!

What are your most unlikely skills?

Back on the Bus!

Hedgehog Guy is away at his departmental retreat today with the Prius. So I got to ride the bus!  The weather is surreally beautiful, so the walk is pleasant and scenery is green.  It felt sooo good to be back on the bus.  But I do miss Hedgehog Guy's company...

His absence has been felt in other ways.  In a 5 minute span while trying to make dinner, I had to (try to) kill two spiders, and I grated my knuckle (for the 3rd time in 3 weeks) into the pizza cheese.  The spiders' appearance elicted a very girlish scream while the grating brought a very un-girlish curse.  I think I am going to have to turn cheese grating, like frying bacon and grilling hamburgers, over to Hedgehog Guy.  

Tomorrow (June 9) is the date set for my good friend Bernadette's baby to be induced.  Wish her and her family luck!  I know I shall be thinking of them.

Birthday!

Ugh, I am not very good at blogging. I often work on the computer all day, and then turning it on for fun at home just doesn't seem like fun.

Regardless, I came one year closer to being grown up (whatever that is) last Friday. I have been feeling pretty old lately - lots of grey hairs, can't lift full 50L carboys on my own anymore, the new fashions in the stores repulse me (the 80's died for a reason...), and the "kids" on campus really seem like kids. Hedgehog Guy took me shoe shopping (bless him) and out to a wonderful dinner on the shore during my birthday weekend. Just what I wanted.

I am not big on birthday parties. But the other post-doc in the lab had his birthday a couple days before mine, so he had the labbies over for a party the night of my birthday. I was not too sure about going, but we had a great time (we are so anti-social!). Below is video of the cake that Jessica graciouly made for me and a video of Renat and I's cake serenade. My cake has a virus on it (lol) and the name Heather Summers. This is an allusion to the fact that I'm almost the exact opposite of a former post-doc in the lab whose name was Christian Winter. So the opposite of his name would be Heathen Summer... You get the point. Hope this year finds everyone with many happy returns on their birthdays - especially Hedgehog Guy's sister who shares my birthday!