mammala
my mother, my progenitor, my viviparous host. thanks to this marvelous lady, my embryo and the resulting organism developed without a single observable flaw...

all jokes aside, i've written this acrostic poem to magnify a few of her traits that deserve ovation:

Mentor: she teaches innumerable quantifiable things, but also educates in more nuanced ways- helping equip people to teach themselves.
Analytical: constantly seeking answers, and never satisfied with stagnancy, she's always learning and exploring.
Resolute:not afraid of defeat (but not likely to surrender easily), she embraces a challenge.
Generous: she is benevolently self-sacrificing.
Affectionate: showers of kisses and hugs and love abound from her, and she judiciously gives praise without carelessness.
Resourceful: she approaches situations with creativity and innovation, skeptical of prescribed solutions.
Equable: her responses are calm and logical, considering the perspectives of all involved- and never volatile or hostile.
Tenacious: she plows through the tough stuff with spunk and grace, not self-pity or belly-aching.

and she's humble, to boot! jealous yet?
i LOVE my momma!

worm castings
i sifted the worm poop from my worms and compost for the first time, and the joy of topping off my tomato plants and spring greens with my garbage-cum-black gold was otherworldly.

field equipment
i began field work yesterday (well, hypothetically. it's been dumping rain so last night we just went and had tea at joe's, and today i called dan at 5am to let him know we were a no-go.), and i got my hands on my brand-new, sparkling equipment. it includes insanely life-like swift decoys (hand-hacked, black painted cardboard probably would have sufficed, but joe wanted them to be hand-carved and realistically painted. ah well, his money.) and a pole for displaying them next to the towers, a generator, dictophones, stopwatches, chimney swift song cds, hobo loggers (measure temp, humidity, etc. inside the towers), a bazillion cd players and speakers (joe was a little neurotic about back-ups), and a rental car.

as for the car, for some reason the company gave us a brand new one -presumably because they're not familiar with field work- that is not only unnervingly clean, but doesn't have a key! all i got was a little remote to open the doors. once inside, you step on the brake and press a "start" button. i anticipate that it'll create many more problems than it aims to solve.

contamination cups
i think these are great, but i guess bac-tea-ria's not for everyone. :) tamsin van essen makes cups that appear to be contaminated by different bacteria. for example, here's the cholera cup:




the university purge
as classes ended the kids all moved out abruptly, which was bittersweet. on one hand, there was a copious amount of free stuff for the taking. on the other hand, rowdy guys seem to enjoy catapulting perfectly good things off their balconies, sofas and chairs get left in the rain to ruin, and lots of the stuff goes unclaimed. so last week i took to the main student streets near my house with a notebook and camera, scribbling detailed notes of what things were in good shape and their addresses, and taking pictures of each item. then, i made a nice post on freecycle so people could go grab them. i got a number of sweet emails about that post, and for those of you in the states who are nearing the grand exodus, you can still get out there and do the same if you like.

clementine boxes
i keep finding these, and they're so handy!