Thu Jun 4, 2009

So. I did my civic duty for a week. And I have come to the conclusion that our judicial system sucks.

Oh look up there, a cute little inchworm/looper/crawly thing that I found on the edge of a glass sitting on my counter. I'm a little mortified at how icky my glass looks so close up.

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Thu May 28, 2009

Despite being unemployed for six months, my county court system decided it was better to wait until I started a job before summoning me for jury duty. I had to report this week. It started off promising the first day, as I didn't get called to a courtroom, and was dismissed at 2:30. I did not have to report at all on Wednesday. Then I had to go in this morning, and was promptly sent up to a courtroom where they were paneling a jury. And lucky me, I'm now officially a juror on a criminal case.

After the jury was selected, we were released for the day at 12:30, so I was able to go back to work for half the day. But I have to report tomorrow, and most likely Monday and Tuesday as well. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

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Eight months old. Her tongue appears to have grown.
Mon May 18, 2009

In the little time warp I seem to be living in, it seems all I ever post is pictures of K with the dog. But when I looked back just now, it's been over two months, so clearly you're way overdue for another one. Besides, I just couldn't leave that tick on the top of the screen any longer.

I'm happy to report that as of tonight, I can bring Gouda to a baseball game without her thinking that every time someone throws the ball it's for her. Although she still believes deep down in her fuzzy little heart that every person that arrives to the field has come there just to see her.

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Ixodes scapularis, taken through plastic on top of a sheet of notebook paper
Sat May 16, 2009

A week ago, K was feeling something itchy/irritating along her side, but couldn't see anything. When I looked, it appeared to be a teeny little scab, which I immediately suspected was really a deer tick. I removed it and put it in a plastic baggie then got out my macro lens to see what it was.

Sure enough... Ixodes scapularis, the blacklegged tick (deer tick).

It was embedded, but best as I could tell, not engorged. But hey, I just happen to work at a lab that can test ticks for all kinds of crazy things like Lyme disease or human anaplasmosis, so I asked my supervisor if she thought anyone would be interested in seeing it or testing it. She immediately called Dave The Bug Guy who rushed right over to see what we had.

He told me it was a nymph, which is the stage that is the most dangerous... not because they carry more disease (in fact, they carry less) but because they are so tiny (about the size of a poppy seed) and hard to detect that when they are infected they can more easily pass it along. In my area, about 30% of adult deer ticks carry Lyme's but only about 10% of nymphs do.

Dave pulled a few vials of ticks out of his shirt pocket (don't you totally want a job where you get to walk around with vials of ticks in your pocket?) to compare. He had adult males, adult females, and one nymph. The females were more brightly colored and slightly larger than the males, which is good to know since the males do not transmit disease. They embed, but do not feed. They are simply waiting and hoping a female will come along to mate with.

He said my tick did not appear to have had a blood meal, the necessary step to transmit disease. However he said he was going to take it back to his desk to look at it under his dissecting scope, and would call me if he found anything different. Thankfully, I never heard back.

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Sun Apr 26, 2009

I figured I'd better get the last of the Arizona pictures posted before I overwhelm you all with bug pictures. This one is another unidentified cactus in bloom (for only a day), although it was so spectacular with the double flowers that surely someone out there can tell me what it is.

For anyone who's wondering, my job is going fantastic, and I just may be working at the coolest place ever. And with the recent outbreaks in the news, things are really hopping. I love being an "insider" as this stuff is happening. (Sorry I'm not providing much more detail.)

The hard part is feeling like I have no time for anything else any more (yes, that's one more excuse for the lack of blogging). By the time I get home, pick up one kid or the other from golf or swimming or something else (and that doesn't even count baseball, which starts this week), get some sort of dinner thrown together, throw in a load of laundry, say goodnight to my darling children, pet the dog, and get things ready for the next day, it's time for bed. Or rather, I should be in bed, but I'm not since my brain won't sleep before 11:00.

Weekends are crazy as I'm trying to get caught up on all the stuff I used to be able to do during the week... grocery shopping, cleaning, and the home maintenance stuff that never seems to end.

So, um... enjoy the flowers, as it's about all I've got for awhile. At least until the bugs come out and pose for me.

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Tue Apr 14, 2009

Just a random little cactus we stumbled upon during one of our hikes. I'm too tired/lazy to look up the exact species. But it was cute and tiny (about eight inches tall) and hiding under another, bigger, thornier plant.

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Tue Apr 7, 2009

This was my favorite desert hike find. Everywhere we went, we saw trees full of ripe fruit, so I think stumbling upon this was a reward for not pilfering any earlier. This particular property was for sale, so apparently the owners were trying to tempt buyers. I love how they even provided plastic bags.

The lemons were just fantastic... big and juicy and flavorful. As I mentioned below, they made the most excellent margaritas. The grapefruit were a bit on the sour side, plus they were small and really thick-skinned and it took forever to slice one up for not a lot of reward. So instead, I made juice with the rest of them, added a little sugar and it was fabulous.

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An unidentified and very colorful garden flower found during one of our walks through the neighborhood in AZ
Mon Mar 30, 2009

So I was a little less than verbose with the announcement of my new job last week, but don't mistake that for a lack of enthusiasm. I'm really excited about it--I think I really lucked into something cool. However, I won't be rambling on in too much detail about it due to my lack of anonymity here. But I will try to fill in a few more details.

I've been hired by one of the state agencies, the one that rhymes with wealth. Only it's not. I've got a pretty unique position, that's really more like two completely different positions, which is great for someone like me who has a pretty low tolerance for boredom. Part of my job will be in the lab, doing all things labby. I'll be wearing a white coat and non-latex gloves and sometimes goggles and holding test tubes and pipettes culture plates and looking at things under microscopes, just like you'd imagine. The other part will be utilizing my computer skills, and helping them convert their labs to a new tracking/reporting system. So I'll be sitting in a cubicle, with two big flat-screen monitors in front of me, and going to lots of meetings, and talking on the phone, and doing some design and testing and training (but most likely not any actual programming).

Essentially, they hired me to do the computer work, but I got the job because I speak "lab" and can go back and forth between the two. This is officially a two-year assignment, so nothing is guaranteed after that.

Today was my first day, and despite the fact that my badge picture bears a startling resemblance to Duckie from Pretty in Pink, and I am currently assigned a parking spot that is, best as I can tell, somewhere in western Wisconsin, all went well.

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Thu Mar 26, 2009

During a hike in the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, we stopped at a creek and came across this giant water bug. I'm not sure of the exact species, but it's from the family Belostomatidae, probably the genus Abedus.

This one was about two inches long and was not happy about me pushing him out of the water with a stick. They are ferocious predators, feeding on aquatic invertebrates, small fish and frogs, and the occasional unsuspecting small child (see below). They inject their prey with saliva which contains digestive enzymes and neurotoxins which subdue their prey and dissolve the tissues so they can suck it out for a liquid meal.

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Tue Mar 24, 2009

I am interrupting this current blog nonsense, random babbling, puppy pictures and bad vacation photos to announce that I, perpetual student/slacker, am now gainfully employed.

More details later, maybe after I post the photo of that really cool bug I found in the creek in AZ.

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