I'm alive, honest!
It's been a bit busy lately, culminating in preparing something like seven reports this week for various audiences.
(These symposia and poster sessions do tend to be worth it, though. So yay.)
Some random updates are in order before I go sleep tonight:
- Congratulations to
drenilop, who successfully defended her thesis today! I've been very lucky to know her on many fronts in her time here, and no doubt her new employers at Anonymous College will quickly come to realize the same.
- When baking brownies, always remember to grease the pan. Plans to share the chocolatey joy backfired when I realized that I did not, in fact, own a chisel.
- Last week was spent in a bit of a flurry of nerves, as I came home from a weekend grocery run to find a bat hopping around my living room, in the mid afternoon. Fortunately, the bat tested negative for rabies, in which case the hopping was probably due to an Epic Kitty Smackdown. But it was quite a massive scare while waiting for the results (and particularly when Pi chose that evening to go wild over a strange cat outside her window)... if you know anyone with pets, remind them to get the vaccinations updated. For things like rabies, "after" exposure is too late.
- The state department of the treasury decided not to take the tax money I sent them the first time around, and now they'd like interest too. I suppose that's one way to solve the budget crisis without raising taxes...
- In better news, the local art fair was last week**, and I was also introduced to a gorgeous new local park by way of a free orchestra concert. So although it's been an expensive month, there's also been some very good things.
** For those playing at home, the art fair is a great way to put your vet bills in perspective- what first looked like "what a friend paid for his first car" quickly morphed into "one-tenth the price of a basket the size of a thimble".
(These symposia and poster sessions do tend to be worth it, though. So yay.)
Some random updates are in order before I go sleep tonight:
- Congratulations to
drenilop, who successfully defended her thesis today! I've been very lucky to know her on many fronts in her time here, and no doubt her new employers at Anonymous College will quickly come to realize the same.
- When baking brownies, always remember to grease the pan. Plans to share the chocolatey joy backfired when I realized that I did not, in fact, own a chisel.
- Last week was spent in a bit of a flurry of nerves, as I came home from a weekend grocery run to find a bat hopping around my living room, in the mid afternoon. Fortunately, the bat tested negative for rabies, in which case the hopping was probably due to an Epic Kitty Smackdown. But it was quite a massive scare while waiting for the results (and particularly when Pi chose that evening to go wild over a strange cat outside her window)... if you know anyone with pets, remind them to get the vaccinations updated. For things like rabies, "after" exposure is too late.
- The state department of the treasury decided not to take the tax money I sent them the first time around, and now they'd like interest too. I suppose that's one way to solve the budget crisis without raising taxes...
- In better news, the local art fair was last week**, and I was also introduced to a gorgeous new local park by way of a free orchestra concert. So although it's been an expensive month, there's also been some very good things.
** For those playing at home, the art fair is a great way to put your vet bills in perspective- what first looked like "what a friend paid for his first car" quickly morphed into "one-tenth the price of a basket the size of a thimble".