Wedding silliness

So here is some self mockery for you, cause I look absolutely rediculous. But, you've got to admit it was a lot of fun. Too bad they are gay. Like all the single boys at the wedding. The people walking by are actually Jenise's parents, and boy oh boy did they give me a hard time the next day.

Dancing...progress?

I'm basically posting this because my computer is stupid and I can't watch it without downloading something (it worked just fine yesterday!) but I can't download anything without getting tech support to do it since it is a school computer and... yeah. And I need to watch this horrid thing because as you might notice, I don't have a clue what I'm doing and I need to figure it out!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Miami Wedding

My lab mate got married this weekend in her home town of Miami. It's funny how life sometimes hits you with everything at once.
So, while I'm still reeling from loosing Kendra, I did spend spring break in South Beach. huh. Who'd a thought?

Have to admit it was pretty though.

Met a lot of Jenise and Ralph's old friends and labmates. They had a pre wedding party in lieu of bachelor/bachelorette

The wetland girls.

The Wedding

It was rather stormy so poor Jenise didn't get to have her garden wedding. It was still lovely though. She shined enough to make you forget the room.

The happy couple

Emily and her friend Cory. My roomates for the duration.

Wetland girls again. Like my sunburn? Brilliant.

They had a very tasteful cake sharing. Almost too much so. The crowd demanded chaos, here's Jenise's version.

Poor Ralph was mortified by the removal of the garter, but he was adorable.

After the big party, we met the next morning for a post wedding brunch.
Emily, Cory, Steven

Ralph and his family

The Everglades

Since I was in South Florida, and being a wetland ecologist. I had to see the Everglades.

It was a bit of a rushed visit. I had to get the rental car back by 6 (and with Miami traffic too!)

I didn't get to do much more than drive through and stop once or twice to take pictures.

Did see an alligator crossing the road, that was cool. but no pics.

So, I officially saw, but I will have to go back some day if I ever want to really get a feel. It was way too rushed. Pretty though.

Farewell

It is with great sadness that I tell you that my Father's beloved wife passed away last weekend. Kendra's feisty spunk and ethereal beauty will be sorely missed.
Yet, I'm pretty sure God is getting a much needed talking to right now, and there might be a new saint of lost teenagers and spontaneous laughter...

Late night escapades

Ok, under normal circumstances, you may have have noticed the time on this posting, or maybe not. Well, I'm asking you to now. See, its 3:20 in the morning. I am at school. Yep. And I'm not happy about it. Well, I am in a way... I have an appointment on Monday with the statistician. Id like to talk to him about my data from the common garden experiment from a last fall. It would be really nice (not to mentions the polite thing to do) to show up with a complete data set. I have everything except... total N. And our machine is broken. And has been. I've been scrambling for months. finally found a place to do it (not so easy when you are used to doing this in your own lab, not to mention it costs ~$6 a sample to get it done, double if you want the results quicker than 3 months. I have ~500 samples. do the math). And I'm very greatful. The only problem with this wonderful lab is... other people need it. So 3 am it is.
oh, and my car is broken, so Im on the bike. 3 am. weeeeeeeeeee

Wanna laugh at me?

I'm putting this up here purely for the self mockery, and it won't stay long because I can't stand it actually. But, this is what I look like at the beginning of my lessons. Like I have absolutely no clue what I am doing! Can you tell?

So, we can just hope a) learn something (not really a problem since Walter is a decent teacher), but will I learn enough not to look like a total dork? b) get over myself and get some confidence so I can actually so the stuff I learn. c) not hurt myself in the process. By the way, this has very definitely accomplished one goal. I am quite distracted from the stresses of school (which is quite a feat since it is all rather stressful at the moment). I cant sleep now because I'm thinking about dancing fears. weeeee!

Pics from Dasa

Dasa sent me this picture of her and Hugo in the snow. Adorable, no? I miss those guys.

Dancing

In order to distract myself from the stresses of school (finishing by the 30th of July?!? ha!!!), I decided to torture myself in a totally different side of things. I am going to take some lessons and do a ballroom performance thingy. Think dancing with the stars except I'm your not so famous star (ugh). So, if you feel like supporting my crazy endeavor (think graceful thoughts, I need them!), the performance is going to be on the weekend of the 9th of May here in Davis. As you can see by the tone of this, it is already working on the distraction level, maybe not in the right direction quite yet, but... Remember, I'm the one who hides in the corner to play my flute. ye gods, what am I thinking?
So, may 9th, fun stuff.

My personal treasure chest

Making Morgan Garay my own person hero?...

Remember how it took me 7 months to get my permits for the Peruvian collections and how I didn't get my samples until 3 months after I got home? And then how some of the samples didn't make it into the package, and since the export permit was a one time deal, sat mouldering in Lima ever since? Well, my darlin Morgonian went to Peru to visit his family over Christmas and through the miracle of modern technology (still doesn't save the stomach lining though, ouch) I actually managed to get a hold of him, put him in contact with Hector, and get someone here in Davis to venture into the chaos of my office to find the US import permit (brave Carl!), on New Years, on a college campus... well you get the idea. Miracles do happen though, and Morgan managed to get the samples, pass through customs, and mail them to me here. So, it may not look like much, but a big part of my PhD hinges on these scruffy bags of flowers. Yea Morgan!

By the way, I know I haven't posted for ages, and unfortunately this trend is probably going to continue. I have about 1 years worth of work to do in a measly 6 months (or is it 5 now?) and for some odd reason I am panicking. If I go on fun weekend adventures, I will try to take pictures and post them, but alas... I will see you in August, when the world ends!

Fun in the snow

Rinley and I love playing together, and he especially loved the snow. While I love my camera (obviously), I can't do this video thing. So, I have to wait till lovely people like Katherine capture stuff like this for me.