Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

Work has just been ridiculous lately. I've been effectively working full time hours to try and help the lab stay on track with all of the sample submissions since our supervisor left for a new job at the end of June. We FINALLY hired someone who started at the beginning of September to be our boss but training her has been a trick and a half.

Because this blog is public I really don't want to go into a lot of detail, but it is very frustrating on a professional level to have to train your boss in microbiological basics. And in Excel. And how to save. And the rules of how to name the files so everyone knows where and what everything is.

I've also been adding new skills to my repertoire including taking point on running a proficiency test that is required for the company to maintain certain certifications. We passed. Oh yeah, I'm amazing.

I started my October birthday month shenanigans on September 30 when I volunteered for the Metropark Express. Remember, going to ride in it, but I knew Gwyn and I would not be fit and that wasn't fair to either of us. So I volunteered to be the timer and that was plenty enjoyable! Not necessarily stress free, but it's a fun kind of stress when you're juggling riders coming in and riders going out. It's something I'm good at.

The start in the fog.

Kaylee and I decorated our mini pumpkins that we grew ourselves

On October 6 the Kindergarten and First grade classes all went to the zoo. I took the day off and chaperoned because why the fuck not? I was in charge of Kaylee and one other little girl from her class, A. We had a blast together.

On Saturday we finally relented and let Kaylee set up my old tent in the back yard. She was ADAMANT that she was going to sleep in it that night.

It provided great entertainment for both kids!

We went to the Enchanted Woodland at Seven Ponds Nature Center. In retrospect I picked too late of a time slot (reservation only) but both kids had fun, even if they were ready to crash by the end of the night.

Meeting the coyote

True to her word, Kaylee went to sleep in the tent all by herself. But then we had a tornado warning for the county and we grabbed her and brought her back inside for safety. She never woke up through the whole relocation. Thankfully she understood when she woke up in her bed the next morning and we explained what had happened.

That led to her saying we had a tomato warning. :'D

Hazel being mischevous at my work. I had to work both Saturday and Sunday. But I didn't let it stop me from my plans!

I wore Kaylee out.

I had the Hunter Pace on Sunday (I opted to skip the Hunter Trials on October 1st and go get hay instead since my wasp problem was finally cleaned out).  This upcoming weekend I'm going camping with Gwyn. I'll ride unoffically and volunteer for the endurance ride. I can't wait!

24 facts Meme!

If you would like to participate, comment and I'll give you a random number of facts that you then share! Dom gave me 24 :)

1. I wanted to be a scientist since middle school and was ready to specialize right then and there
2. My high school biology teacher nearly turned me off science forever if not for a special after school program I took in biomedical engineering which led to...
3. I attended the inaugral year of a 1/2 day magnet school that focused on math and science, GHAMAS (Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science) but I was the second graduating class
4. I've performed ovariectomies on rats (at GHAMAS) 
5. I once stunk up the entire magnet school, both the math and science AND performing arts side in a reproductive biology project that went totally wrong when all our sea urchins died.
6. I took a snake over to the performing arts side specifically to scare all the arts majors
7. I hated Connecticut, where I grew up, and traveled the furthest out of my entire graduating class to go to college in Florida
8. I met Eric because I had just broken up with a boygirlfriend and was required to bring a date to my fledgling local sorority formal so we could meet the minimum head count for our banquet hall. He was the third person I asked.
9. I would trade manpower for help with my undergraduate research project with a crazy grad student named Matt.
10. Matt and I once canoed up a creek from the Indian River Lagoon, caught a baby alligator, kept it in a tackle box and then portaged the canoe from where it met campus a mile away to the fish biology building. I still made it to class on time, albeit covered in grime and muck.
11. I was on the crew team in college for one semester and dropped out due to the time commitment
12. I'm a certified SCUBA diver.
13. I spent 6 weeks in Australia and 3 days in New Zealand in the summer of 2005
14. I was a competitive viola player in high school in that I competed for spots on regional, statewide and New England youth orchestras and regularly was a part of them.
15. I can also passably play the violin, less passably the piano
16. I love to sing and went out of my way in high school to take both orchestra and chorus while also attending the magnet school
17. I have seen Phantom of the Opera off broadway 6 times
18. I worked at Sears to raise money to go to Australia.
19. On a whim I asked for a job when I toured the Space Life Sciences Lab at Kennedy Space Center while considering grad school options. Wayne said yes and I worked part time as a lab tech at KSC SLSL my last semester of college and then full time once summer started.
20. I hated living in Gainesville.
21. I loved the last place Eric and I lived in Florida, Port St. John, a 2 bedroom 1st floor condo right on the lagoon. I could wake up and see dolphins or an alligator swim by and we never needed to go anywhere for rocket and shuttle launches.
22. I prepped pieces of an experiment that flew on the International Space Station as part of a project with the European Space Agency.
23. NASA paid for me to go to Spain and attend a summer school in Astrobiology. I learned more spanish in the 2 weeks I was there than the semester I took in middle school.
24. After grad school I worked for a local zoo on a conservation project where I got to go to scrubland and identify Scrub Jays. I also cared for breeding population of beach mice and was watched by giraffes every time I clocked in.