A Few Can-eh-dian likes....

Milk in bags. Are Hawaii and MA the only places that don't seem to do this? I love it, you can buy 3 bags of milk cheaper than 3 cartons (and oh so much cheaper than Hawaii) and it's less waste than cartons too - yes it might be a plastic bag, but carbon for carbon, buying in this recyclable plastic bag is much less waste and energy (both in production and shipping) than a carton. Now if I could find these in Hawaii I would totally do it - here i've been reusing a carton I bought initially (cleaning it out and filling it up), at home I would use one of my glass jugs. Apparently they are hitting the UK too......

In this strip mall city it's good to find the rural - miles and miles of paths for walking and running on. It's fun too - there's a bear warning on campus, quite a few have apparently been seen. Makes for a little extra impetus to run faster......:0) No, I haven't seen one yet - lots of deer and ground hogs, but no bears........yet!

Not an obvious photo, but not having a high point easy to get to, this illustrates two things - 1 - even more trails around the campus, and 2 - this photo was taken at 9pm! Late night light - I love it. In Hawaii even in mid-summer, it gets dark around 7.30pm. I am so enjoying the late night lights! In winter here too apparently you can see the northern lights. Maybe my next visit will be a midwinter to ski and view......

Balloons!

Thanks to Mireille for sending me this link -

No more releasing balloons - by Rachel Harris of the Marine Conservation Society

In case you didn't catch it - this - is why I dislike helium balloons....

A dip in the lake

Today was a beautiful day, and I had my first swim in lake Superior - it was a wee bit chilly! Fun though, and it was nice to sit on the beach in the sun with Kim, Carney and co. I also managed to get a good amount of work done and got in a 7 mile run, so i'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. Tomorrow i'm going kayaking in the AM with Carney and then to work. Things are going well in the lab, I have far more results than i've had before, this project is finally coming together.....always at the last minute......:0)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Mercury in Fish

A report just came out today showing that even recreationally caught fish in US backwaters have dangerous levels of mercury.

We've known about mercury in ocean fish for many years, but not as much in freshwater streams, but it's now looking like many of those fish are also above accepted levels. Fish is so good for you this a real blow, not to mention I also enjoy fish now and then. Where does the mercury come from? A certain amount is in the environment naturally and washes into streams or is evaporated and carried as rain, more is from the mining industry (for both mercury and gold - where mercury is used in processing), and more comes from burning fossil fuels (which have mercury in them that are released when burnt). The mercury gets into the smaller organisms, like plankton, which is then eaten by little fish, who are then eaten by big fish, and so moves up the food chain, getting more concentrated as it goes.

The big difference here is that there was a study that came out a few years ago that suggested large ocean going fish were picking up mercury (or methylmercury which is the 'bad' form) from natural sources, rather than pollution. These freshwater fish though are though to be picking it up from pollution rather than natural sources. The levels of mercury in tuna have apparently not changed over the last 20 years, despite atmospheric levels increasing to much higher levels, whereas these freshwater fish have seen increases in mercury levels over the years.

So here is a recent list of high and low - but even in the high, the EPA still says that eating fish twice a week is still safe.

High Mercury

Shark

Swordfish

King Mackerel

Tilefish

Bass

Low Mercury

Shrimp

Light tuna

Salmon

Trout

Scallop

Canada Goose Crossing - eh!

Best quote of the day....

From a spam email......

"Being alive and being single at this time is a HUGE BLESSING"

I'm not kidding on the capitals either. I guess yes, it is a blessing that I am alive and single, lord knows it would suck to be dead and single......:0)

The next must-see film.....

Oh yeah, murder in Antarctica!

White Out

I sometimes think I should become a movie writer, i'm sure I can come up with more realistic ideas than some of the stuff out there......

A good weekend...

Two proposals in and even a paper submitted this weekend - can we all say ahhhhhhh! I feel like a great weight is lifted, now just to keep pushing at the lab work, which is going well so far, slow, but i'm used to that now with ancient DNA work. I pretty much have all the samples I need cleaned, prepped and powdered, which considering i'm halfway through, is actually quite an achievement, so i'm happy.

This weekend was so nice too. Saturday I spent the day in the lab and then had Sammy and Taylor for the evening while Carney and Kim went out for their anniversary - the first time they had left both kiddos to go out for an evening. They had a great time out, I had a great time in - spending time playing like a 2 year old, who would not have a great time! Sammy and Taylor are so good too, both sweethearts. We ate pizza, we went to the park, we played playdough (my favorite!) and then we read books before bed. Sunday I was treated to a lovely pancake breakfast and then we went out to Kakabeka Falls, for a fair and a walk around. The fair was pretty low key, but it was interesting. We then had a nice picnic and got kitted up for an hour hike, just as the rain started to pour. So we holed up in the visitor center for a short while before deciding it wasn't going to stop. Ah well. Back to Carney and Kim's place, yummy dinner, a few beers and a game of Bioviva - a fun boardgame and a fun evening - thanks guys!

The best thing is that I now have my extra week here sorted. I booked an extra week at the end of this trip, both for catching up with any final lab work, and to go hiking somewhere - i've done some fabulous hiking here on previous trips. Well, i've been having such a great time catching up with friends I don't get to see very often, that we've decided to book a cabin at the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, which is a peninsula sticking out into Lake Superior and not too far away. So the five of us are going to spend 4 days in the park, staying at a cabin, doing some hiking on the trails and hopefully some kayaking or canoeing too. I can't wait, Kim, Carney and the girls are so fun to hang out with, it's going to be a fabulous vacation!

Kakabeka Falls. The sepia made it look less overcast......

Chocolate is good......

O Canada!

A field of daisies outside my apartment. Even in this strip mall city you can still find the beautiful.

Tonight myself and the Matheson's went out for DQ in support of the Children's Miracle Networks (thanks Sarah for putting me onto that one!). Yum for ice-cream and yay for a walk around the marina! Sammy demonstrated her hopping and jumping and balancing for me and we had a good swing on the swings too!

Coaxing a smile from Taylor! She also had a good swing on the swings too, and was giggling away watching her big sister!

O Canada!

How to get dressed for work....

The lab here in Thunder Bay is an Ancient DNA lab, one that works with very old material and forensic material too. This means it's a super clean space, where no 'live' DNA (DNA taken from animals that are alive or recently alive - so there are high amounts of DNA present) is ever analyzed and you need to take special measures to prevent contamination. The methods we use up here are designed to pick up very very small amounts of DNA, so even things like paper cannot go in, as even this has more DNA than most of the samples that go through here. You can't actually take anything into the lab (samples are specially cleaned and put through an airlock), so remembering to upload everything to the computer server before you head in is essential.

Most of the material analyzed here is of human origin, so minimizing human contamination is especially essential. No skin or hair can be left in the lab, even a fingerprint could mess up someone's samples. So here is the procedure for getting into the lab - I have it down to 2 minutes at the moment, a good skill to learn if you have to go in and out the lab a lot to pee!

First the hair net - this is done without gloves on, so your gloves don't touch your hair and get contaminated......

Next the gloves and then the full tyvek suit (it has attached booties). It can get toasty in there, so worth remembering to take off the sweater before putting it on - and taking anything out your pockets, as if it falls out it'll rattle around inside your bootie until you come back out. Ask me how I know this....:0)

Next the mask, limiting the amount of face left uncovered (you have to cover the rest of it with the glasses, which are next). The secret with this is to make sure your hair net is completely covered, as otherwise it comes down onto your eyes as you move around. And to put the nose piece on the mask tight over your nose, otherwise your glasses get a lot of condensation. It's a pest, and you can't take it off or fiddle with it once you're in there.....

Last, the safety glasses and sleeves with a thumb-loop. This stops there being a gap between your suit and your gloves. Now you're ready to go through the air shower (which blows any stray hair or dust off you)! When you get in there you immediately put another pair of gloves on top of that too, completely sealing it up. And whenever you change tasks, tables or rooms, you change those outer gloves.

Now you're ready to go to work, and better have remembered to pee, as you have to take all this off again in reverse order (making sure not to touch suit, sleeves, glasses or mask with uncovered hands) to get back out again!

Thunder Bay

It's been a very busy week. Setting up, doing lab work and unlike previous visits, dealing with stuff back at Hawaii. Every other time i've been here I was a postdoc, and to a degree, pretty much just focused on this project. Now I have many projects of my own, a lab to run, proposals to write and students to continue to advise even though I am not at home, so I can't just focus on this one project. It's made some interesting pulls on my time this week and I'm still trying to figure it out really.

It's been good though and aside from Friday productive. Friday was marred by a migraine that the Imitrex did not kill, despite taking the full dose it only dulled. So by lunchtime I was toast and basically came back and sacked out on the couch for the rest of the day. It's worked 4 out of 5 times now, so I'm still happy about it, I think Friday I might have taken it too late for it to work properly, something I had been warned. Lesson learnt.

Today, so much fun. Breakfast with the Mathesons (yummy pancakes and earl grey tea!), followed by some shopping and then a trip to the Thunder Bay Fair. Carney was volunteering with the St John's Ambulance, but managed to sneak out and join us. It's been a long time since i've been to a fair, but it was fun, and I even got to go on the train with Sammy.

Some pretty reeds around my apartment.

Kim with Taylor. Despite this picture I had many smiles from Taylor today, last weekend she had some nasty teeth coming through so was a little grumpy (but still fell asleep on me, an effect I seem to have on babies.....). She's such a cutie!

Carney and Sammy on the ferris wheel, she loved it!

Thanks!

I think I forgot to say on here thanks so much for the book suggestions - I ordered Canyon Solitude, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the Year of Past things. I am LOVING Canyon solitude, in fact had to stop myself reading all of it on the plane on the way from Boston to Thunder Bay - thanks so much BSA for that suggestion!

First day went well, some BS back in UH to deal with, but it didn't get in the way of my full orientation, starting my first samples off in the lab and even catching up on some much needed proposal writing. Tomorrow the car goes back, so I did go out and get my last grocery supplies (or at least what I think will be my last).

AND - I found a nice 5 mile running route tonight, feeling a little leaden legged, but it was good to get out and it was great to find a route right out my door that is at least half through a nice park and not all on roads.

Back to it.

Tomorrow marks "back to it" day. Getting back to many things that have been on hold for a while.

1. Back to work. Last week at WHOI was awesome, and though I got a few work things done and caught up with friends and collaborators alike (which is always important in this business), it's definitely time to get back to the nitty gritty - Lab Work & Paper Writing - both of which need to be done in earnest here in Canada

2. Proposal Finishing - Aug 15th. All the UH side is undercontrol, but 2 proposals still need the finishing touches put on them in my spare time up here. With limited lab hours (because it's a clean lab) I have the evenings. This I should have got to this long weekend, but to be honest, I was getting set up here, doing errands I need with the car I give back tomorrow, enjoying the unusual sunshine and catching up with my friends here, so i'm not feeling bad about it, just realistic I now need to pull my socks up on this.

3. Fitness. Yup, this has pretty much been on hold since my shin splints, but they are completely healed now and I have even been for a couple of short runs with no pain and no tight calf muscles. Just for the record, I love heel cups. Just the addition of those in my shoes seems to have made a world of difference to my calves. I'll also sign up with the gym and pool here, which is literally 5 minutes away and on-campus where I am staying. They have great equipment, limited pool hours unfortunately, but you can't win them all.

4. Eating Healthy. This last week consisted of lots of meals out and booze. Fun, but not so good for the waistline. My diet has kind of been on hold for a bit now, so i've bought some good healthy foods to live on while i'm here, so getting back to that too. I'm still on the cusp of 140lbs (literally, one day 139, the next 141), and really really want to get to 135lbs. So that's another goal for this next month away. Since the weekend has consisted of two fabulous BBQs and a rather large chocolate fondue, I can probably say i've got another extra pound or two to go too.....:0)

So that's my goals for August.......here goes nothing!

Last days on the Cape

The Vegetarian Buffet at the Coonamessett Farm - yum! This is a summer staple, every friday they have an all you can eat buffet (vegetarian and sometimes they do meat too) using many of the vegetables from around the farm, as well as extras. The weather was overcast, but this actually made it way less busy, which was nice!

You can also bring your own bottle! Me, Laura and Alison! Breck, BL and Kate (Owens) also joined us for the meal - it was in fact BL's idea - good one BL!

And animals too!

I did manage to go swimming on one day, but the week was mostly overcast and rainy. Falmouth Heights beach.

Hanging out with the Soules, such a wonderful family!

So Budget doesn't totally suck....

They came and picked me up this morning, were apologetic and even gave me a free upgrade to a very swanky Nissan Altima. The woman was nice so I found it hard to be really pissed off. And I was just happy to have a car today to go out and grocery shop. I only have the car for 3 days, as it's expensive and I am living on campus so don't really need it so much, but the first few days to get essentials into the apartment is good.

And i've already connected with my friends Carney and Kim and their 2 babies, going to their house for a "barbee" (they're ozzies) this evening. Fun! Tomorrow is a holiday here too, though I really need to get a ton of work done that I neglected last week, so will probably hole up in my apartment.

This day.

Today I am borrowing some words from a friends blog (and i'm sure she won't mind). 

I choose not to remember this single day in her life. I choose instead to remember all the other days I got to spend with my sister. We had a lot of fun on those days, and it's my choice not to mark this day again. It doesn't mean I don't miss her everyday. 

Sophie Megan Waller, July 2nd 1986 - August 2nd 2003

Sisters. I definitely liked red back then.....

....and she liked pink! 

Watching the waves with Adam. 

Happy Auntie with Jack. 

I'm here...

...and I'm grumpy already. Never book a car rental from Budget. I should have learnt that 2000 times over. I got into Thunder Bay at 11.45. I had a car booked, specifically from Budget because they said they were open until 12.30. Being a tiny airport I was through by 12.10. They were shut. The only other car rental place open was Enterprise and they were sold out. So I went to get some canadian $$'s out a machine and that was broken. Luckily at this point a nice security guard found me and helped me get a taxi that took US$$s (for a bas exchange rate i'm sure but i'm too tired to look it up) and now I am in my little apartment. But wound up. To add to this I have a really bad excema rash in both armpits from a reaction to a deodorant i'd been using, it's been itching like hell all week and is now just awful after all the flying. Trying so hard not to scratch it.....

Happy Birthday Grant!

Sorry it's a few days late!

Congratulations to Dr Kate!

Kate successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis yesterday - yay! A great party followed too - thanks to all for putting that on! I'm having a great time in Woods Hole, busy and lots of meetings, but it's been great, I won't fit it all in before I leave for Canada on saturday, that's for sure! 

The talk went great! 
Elise was astounded by it! 

As was Riley! 
Cutting the fish cake......did not taste like fish luckily, very very rich chocolate instead! 

We were a little shocked BL used a cup at all, but I guess it was purple...

Helping out with emptying the fridge of booze.....

I'm outta here....

Well, for once it's actually been a while since I last flew anywhere (April in fact, a record for the last few years!), but the trauma of so many flights last year is still with me, and i'm not totally looking forward to getting on a plane tomorrow. That said, I am very very excited about seeing all my Hole-ians again, I really miss my friends out there. 

So what am I up to? Well for the next week I will be in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, MA. I'll be seeing my friend Kate defend her thesis and become Dr Kate, and then spend the rest of the week in meetings and catching up with people. 

And then i'm off to Thunder Bay in Canada. Going way back in memory lane, nearly two years ago it's from Thunder Bay that I started this blog, while in the wind up to moving to Hawaii. I have a project running to develop a method to get DNA out of really old corals (10,000-40,000 years old) using methods they use for mummies and mammoths, so we can look at past distribution patterns of corals in the deep ocean, when the climate was different, and maybe even make predictions about what will happen in the future. It's a cool project, but a hard one, the method is developed (and published), but it takes a really long time to get very very little data. Too long in fact. It's the kind of project that is going to be running for the rest of my career i'm sure. It takes that long to get good data. 

I've also been getting back to my original reproduction research and moving away from genetics so much in the last few years, and to be honest, i've been loving it. I'm an okay molecular biologist, i'm a great reproductive biologist, and though I like the former, I love doing the later. Directing my own research has been so fabulous. So although I am looking forward to seeing some old friends in Thunder Bay, and to doing some lab work, I also kind of see it as looking into my past rather than my future. I'm sure i'll be more excited about it when I get in the lab, I usually do....:0)

So my lack of pictures again today, means the below - I found my old ID card from Saudi Arabia! Me at 5! A number of people now have said they can see a little of me in the photos of my niece Lucy - really?

Lucy lucy!

 I love that my brother sends me the cutest pictures of my niece! I love that I now live in the time of email and digital photos, the world is definitely getting smaller. 

GO Kate!

You're going to do great! 

Cracked it!

Well I hope so anyway. Yesterday evening I had one of my earache migraines, and this time the drugs (one of many I had to try out) actually worked! Third time lucky! So today i managed to get a prescription for enough to (hopefully) last me through my 5 week trip! Woo hoo for 'Imitrex' is all I can say at this point, two years of sucking it up and finally I might actually be able to control it. 

Ready to go? No. 

More fires than water? Yes. 

Looking forward to see all the Hole-ians? Absolutely! 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy one, last day before I head out. One proposal was fully submitted (yes!) and the other two are going through the very long process of UH signatures. I'm hoping they'll go all the way through tomorrow, really hoping. Had a few hiccups this morning - one extremely last minute budget change by a partner (argh!) meant me running around trying to swop out bits of paper while people weren't looking and the other proposal has had a setback by a rather pompous advisor of a joint student we have. Ego I think is what's going on, but I think I put out the fire and it hasn't affected the student, and that's the goal. Ph.D. students don't have the time to get pissed around in my mind. 

Other than that today has been pretty good, started to get my "work" side together in a pile to take with me (man that's a big pile!), went for lunch and a pedicure with Jenny and Hannah (who is now most definitely smiling, and even laughs at tickles - so cute!), and had a couple of meetings that just went really well. And tonight was the Camp Counsellor debrief at a karaoke bar in town. No I did not sing, but it was fun. They had some great pictures of the weekend, alas none that can be shared by me as they are private to the children, but lots of me in the ocean (either being splashed or falling off paddleboards!) and playing board games with the kids. Cute. 

Coconuts and classes

A good day all around. No pictures though, I realise i've been remiss about taking photos recently. I'm sure it'll pick up when I head to Woods Hole though, so never fear, the monotonous writing will end soon. 

Today started at 4.45am and heading down to Ala Moana to run the Coconut Chase, another run raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This time 5 miles around the park (double loop) chasing 5 guys dressed as coconuts (read: wearing hula skirts and coconut bras). It was fun, though I was worried when I drove down there - it's literally been just a week since my shin splints cleared up, so I have basically done very little running since the half marathon. But there was quite a diverse crowd so as I got down there I was reassured I wouldn't be the very last person over the finish line. Did better than I thought, though not as good as I wanted when I signed up, but there we go. Finished in under an hour (54 minutes), so just over a ten minute mile. I did want to be faster (and my first 5 miles in the half were faster!), but I'm pretty convinced at this point I am not built for speed! 

And classes - so I am now an official scuba diver - woo hoo! Had the last two dives in the ocean today and it was fun! I'm looking forward to diving with friends when I get back and am thinking of taking the advanced class when I get back too. 

The best laid plans......

3pm on friday and alas, neither of the proposals I wanted to send around for university signatures is going to go today. And not for want or trying either. 

One stumbling block after another - one I thought I had ready yesterday and was putting all the pieces together when we discovered we needed another (friggin) form that needed signatures from everyone - including the guy over on Coconut Island, on the other side of the Oahu. The internal mail is pretty fast over there, but not fast enough to get back to me today, so that's going to be monday, at the earliest. The other one was just waiting on some budget figures, which I just got and had almost finished uploading them online, when the system went into "scheduled maintenance" which is going to last until sunday..........

Can we all say ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH really loudly? At least I know that one will get done on Monday. The third National Geographic one (to look at corals in Alaska) is looking great though, and I'm sure will be done on the weekend, so at least one is behaving itself! 

The other good news for the day is that I do NOT have to move offices before I go, nor will someone try and move me while i'm away. Phew. I just hope it stays that way......

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Flowering Friday

I need some up today, so started the morning (I am back at my house now) watering my garden and seeing how it's changed over the last few weeks. I have some good blooms, and more excitingly, my tomatoes are finally turning red........just in time for me to leave next week for my five week trip......

Bye bye Sidiki

Sidiki, my radiator eating, trouble making friend was put to sleep on the weekend after an inoperable mass was found in his tummy. I'm feeling really sad about it, Sid was quite the character and always made coming home to the UK warm and fuzzy. I'll miss curling up on the couch, taking him for walks on the beach and fish and chips in the back of the landrover. He was looking older last time I went home, but I never thought I wouldn't see him again. Big hugs to Sanchia and my dad. I'll miss you Sid. 

Scuba scuba doo!

This weeks excitement - scuba lessons! Yes, i'm FINALLY doing it. I've been down to 3000m in the North Atlantic, and yet have never scuba'd at 30m, so as they say, while in Rome.....and what better place to learn to dive than Hawaii?? I also discovered that the university runs courses for PADI Open Water that run at about half the cost of normal dive lessons too, the one catch is they run every night (5.30-9pm) for a week and then all afternoon saturday and sunday, so it's quite a spread out time commitment, and with me leaving next friday, a bit of a squeeze, but one I think will be worth it.

So - every evening in Scuba lessons, one National Geographic proposal to submit by friday, two NSF proposal budgets to finalize and to send into the UH system for signatures by friday, Saturday morning helping organize the Red Cross storehouse, Saturday afternoon diving in the ocean (weeeeee!), Sunday morning a 5 mile race (that I have done NO prep for, so could be painful!) and Sunday afternoon diving in the ocean. 

Like i've said before, all self inflicted madness (except maybe the proposals which are kind of essential to me having a job/life etc.) and the reason i'm still awake and working at 11pm. The good thing is that if I manage to get the NSF proposal budgets in by friday, that actually leaves next week looking much nicer and more relaxed to prep for going away......if........so I hope that happens! 

Weekend Summer Camp

So it's hard to sum up my weekend, other than I was so tired yesterday I was amazed I didn't fall right asleep during my evening dive class! I volunteered at a "summer camp" for foster children (tweens and teens only) who are separated by the foster process (so siblings live in different homes, mostly in different areas and sometimes even on different islands). Hawaii has many large families and if children have to go into foster care it's often impossible to find somewhere that will take 3+ children, so they often have to be split up, and sometimes will not be able to see each other for many reasons. Project Visitation brings those siblings together for once a month visits with volunteers and this once a year camp for the older children (we had from 9-17). 

So on friday early afternoon I went to pick up two boys who live close to me and take them down to the "camp". The camp this year was sponsored by one of the Waikiki hotels, so we were actually camping in a wing of the hotel - staying in rooms and having a conference room as our base. It was certainly different! Each family got it's own hotel room and a volunteer (or two) stayed in the rooms with them. I was given a family of three for the weekend - an 11 yr old boy and a 14 yr old girl who live together, and then their 17 yr old brother who lives on the other side of the island. They are new to the project and I will be teaming up with 2 others to run their monthly visits too, so it was a good time to get to know them. We are not told their "stories" for privacy reasons, which I have mixed feelings about. I feel that knowing a little (so not every detail) about how they ended up where they are would have helped me get to know them better and understand a little more. 

The younger two arrived first and the older brother didn't join us until later on friday evening (as he had summer school), so I spent a few hours with them on their own. Both very sweet and very shy, we went out to dinner at Jimmy Buffets, a theme restaurant in Waikiki that had waves and lava coming out of the walls and women on stilts in hula skirts passing out balloon creations. Very fun. The young boy soon warmed up to me a little and clung on to me for most of the night, the young girl, also very shy, did come out and speak out a little. The older brother then arrived as we went to play "glow in the dark" mini-golf. A very tall skinny teenager, very "cool" looking and seeming bored already, again also very very quietly spoken. I knew a little about him in that he didn't want to come to camp, but was pushed into it so his brother and sister could come. I don't know how much people pushed, or whether he was forced into it, but either way, that definitely set his tone. That said in the mini-golf his face lit up as his brother scored a hole in one and he did get into it, it was very sweet to see. I don't know when the last time they had seen each other was, they were very quiet and we were told not to ask only to listen if they told you anything about their background. 

And then as we walked back to the hotel I noticed on his hands and arms he had several gang tattoos. Some generic, some from specific gangs here in Oahu. We don't have major gang issues like some places, but there are a number of gangs here who cause trouble, fueled by poverty in many areas and the lack of jobs. So here I had a quietly spoken and polite 17yr old who is either falling or has fallen down the wrong path, and yet whose face just lights up as his tickles his brother and sister out of bed in the morning. It was heart wrenching in many ways and this is where I really felt I wanted to know what was going on. All three of them had obviously been brought up right - they were very polite (the 17yr old even asked me every time he wanted to go to the bathroom!), they listened to instruction, they looked out for each other and obviously adored each other, they came to camp prepared (some kids are from such poor backgrounds we had to buy them swimsuits and clothes) - how did they end up in foster care?

I think it went well with the kids, we seemed to enjoy each others company and other than the 17yr old I think we bonded well. The younger boy clung whenever we did something new, but once he warmed up he was on fire and turned into a very energetic boy, always wanting to show you something (forward rolls in the ocean, racing on the paddleboards, drawing his t-shirt etc). The funniest thing was in the ocean - we had a whole beach day and were divided between free swim, canoe rides, paddleboarding and surfboard shaping (40 minutes in each). We were first up for free swim and he wouldn't swim without me holding his hand. We then did a race and I swam with him holding his hand. We assumed he couldn't swim well and just encouraged him. Next race he shot off and was around the marker person before I could even hold his hand. He was just shy, after that he was rolling in the water, swimming underwater, sneaking up on us and splashing us - funny! 

The 17yr old just didn't settle into any of it, and i'm not convinced he would with anyone there, but he did respect me, didn't give me much trouble and we talked a little about how he'd made his brother and sister really happy that he'd come and he agreed with that. He did try and consistently splash me in the pool on the last afternoon, and i'm taking that as a good sign....:0) I do feel a little like he actually needs a male figure and would have responded better with one of the guys helping out, but either way it was really emotional seeing this tough 17yr old playing ball with his siblings, and actually smiling when he thought you weren't watching. It's in there inside him, and you just ache for that side to win out. 

So for them they got to see their siblings, for me I learnt a lot about the kids in the Hawaii system, I met a whole new group of people, though exhausting it was rewarding to see each of my kids excel at something different (the younger boy it was the water sports, the girl was a hiking all star and the older boy was cute with his siblings and is an awesome artist), and I even learnt to stand-up paddleboard, which I have wanted to try for a while. 

So that was my weekend. 

Back from Summer Camp

....and I promise I will write about the experience tomorrow. No pictures for security reasons, but an incredible and EXHAUSTING experience. For me, I am now going to crash out and am trying to decide on whether to run to grab a fast food dinner before I do or not. Since that involves getting off the couch and back in the car, i'm suspecting not......

News story from the Honolulu Advertiser on the Summer Camp - here 

Good book suggestions?

Today marks 2 weeks before lift off and i'm not back until September 6th - wow! 

With my last few cruises I seem to have burned through what I thought was an enormous and never ending pile of books, and now have none in my collection I haven't read! Any suggestions out there? I suspect i'll get through 3-4 books on this trip, and am only in Canada where I know there must be books! But it's always good to get a few suggestions to pick up from the store quickly, as I haven't been paying attention recently as to what is out there at the moment! 

To give you an idea, at the moment I am re-reading "The Constant Gardener" and I have recently enjoyed The Kite Runner, Omnivores Dilemma and anything by Barbara Kingsolver. Though I liked the God of Small Things I didn't get on with the writing style so much and I usually intersperse fiction with non-fiction, though a good story relaxes me more than a non-fiction. 

Any suggestions on what you have enjoyed recently would be much appreciated! 

Moanday update

Okay, so i'm not grumpy anymore and I have actually managed to sleep this week which has been nice. Still overloaded? Yes. I'm not quite sure why I do this to myself, it's pretty much mostly self-inflicted. Tomorrow I have to drop off the dogs at their other sitter, then i'll go into work for the morning, then I go and pick up two boys i'm taking to camp and then i'm spending the weekend at camp with 30 foster children and around 20 minders. It should actually be fun, and I am kind of looking forward to it. Then next week I took on a diving course, which I know i'm going to love, but runs EVERY evening next week. Every evening. Why do I take on these things? 

It's really the 3 proposals and two papers i'm trying to write, 100 corals I need to process and gazzilion meetings I have before the 25th of July that are bugging me. AND today it was announced that I have to move offices BEFORE I go away too. ARRRRRGHHHHH. I'm moving to a nice office, so can't complain, but the previous occupant is moving out literally 2 days before I go away. I do not need to be moving offices before I go, I really don't..........

Paper Water Bottles

Yup, the newest alternative to the disposable plastic water bottle - a bottle made of recycled paper and bamboo fiber and even has a sealable lid. 

Personally I think very cool, and I hope they plan to keep prices low. Though I try hard not to, there are those times when you're traveling or out and need a drink badly, it would be great to have an alternative to plastic bottles or aluminium cans.  

Read the article here. 

Moanday

Ug. Can today be over already? I am so tired and so cranky and I have no idea if i'm going to manage to sleep tonight. My insomnia has been really bad for 5 days now and hasn't let up, I really need some decent sleep. I went for a 6 mile run yesterday evening (it went great!) hoping that would do it, but no, I was awake at 3am worried about everything I need to do before I leave on the 25th July (I head to Woods Hole for a week to see Kate graduate - go Kate! And then to Canada for 4 weeks to work in a lab up there). Way too much to do. 

This morning I spent a lot of time getting ready for an afternoon meeting, then the afternoon meeting didn't happen (postponed for tomorrow). I'm so tired and cranky it's probably a good thing too, as the meeting is with what I hope will be a collaborator on a cool project in Alaska. Wouldn't have made a great impression today. So this afternoon I went about making up a blog site for some upcoming fieldwork projects for my lab - take a look and please give me suggestions. It might have been doodling, but at least it was semi-productive in that this is something I need to do sometime. I just did not have the patience for proposals today. 

So tonight, I'm making pasta, sausages and I think i'm going to have a beer. Maybe that will help. 

The great outdoors...

The sunflowers are in bloom....

The echinacea is starting.....

And the tomatoes are still green! They've been green for over 3 weeks now, will I ever have some cherry tomatoes for my salad?

The best thing about the great outdoors? Lots of good smells! Barkley enjoys the bark park.... 

And Goofy too....

Happy 4th July!

A few of life's mysteries.....

1. Terro usually works great. But for some reason no matter how much Terro I put down over the last week, it just seems to encourage more ants rather than kill them. I don't understand it, but now I seem to have twice as many ants as I started with......

2. I am finally under 140lbs. Took a long time to loose the last 2lbs (my post-1/2 marathon chocolate binge probably didn't help there). So I've now lost somewhere between 12 and 15 lbs (depending on which scale you use) - why has my waistline not changed even a centimeter??? Yup, for all that hard work, not a change in my clothing size, don't get me wrong, I feel great and very happy where I am at (my ideal by the books is 130, MY ideal I think is 135-138ish), but where the hell was I keeping that extra 12 lbs......

3. My desk is yet again a bombsite. Didn't I just clean that? Think it's the signal proposal writing has started once again.....