The new pad!

Here are some photos of the new pad! Now i'm off to Boston, then Juneau early in the AM tomorrow. I'll be updating my work blog - http://alaskacorals.blogspot.com/ - if you want to keep in touch while i'm in Alaska! Otherwise, i'm back in 2 weeks!

My dining room, complete with elegant furniture!

Kitchen

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Basement/living area

Other side of the basement

House moving weekend!

Moved into my duplex this weekend, with the fabulous help of Kathy, Rod and Niko! It went faster than expected, and was way more overwhelming than expected too. To the point that i'm actually staying in the farmhouse at the DMC tonight, I needed the bed, internet and space without boxes. I leave tuesday for Boston to catch the early flight out to Juneau on wednesday, so there is really no hope of unpacking anyway (least of all because I have no furniture!). I didn't take many photos of the new place, here are some of cutie Niko though...:0)

Niko versus the lobster! I bought this for Barkley just before she was supposed to arrive. At the moment the plan is to try again for June for Barkley to become a Maine pup. 

Niko loves the snow!

Romping at Pemequid point - it was super chilly today!

Niko at the new pad!

Moving Up!

This is becoming somewhat of a theme, but it's been super busy again this week. And today, i'm moving house! Moving out of the Darling Marine Center and into a house in town - it's going to be so nice to have somewhere "off campus" to roost. Even if it's only for 3 days, as on Tuesday I drive down to Boston to catch an flight super early Wednesday morning to Alaska! Kathy and Rod have driven up to help me today, they stayed in Freeport overnight and will wander up here around midday to help the schlep. I'm so excited about seeing them, and having some help to move all these boxes!

And....it snowed again yesterday! I am truly loving the snow, though I admit yesterday was a bit much, as I really wanted to start moving boxes over. But the snow was the wet slippery kind and when I ran out to Damariscotta to do an errand at lunch, I was sliding all over the place, so decided it wasn't such a hot idea to move boxes around yesterday, so I packed up the farmhouse instead!

Here are some photos from the snow, i'll update on the move before I head to Alaska!

Happy Weekend!

Particularly if you're on vicodin....:0) The tooth pulling went well, very well as far as I can tell! Yesterday went super smoothly (thanks mostly to Chris and Gabby being awesome, putting me up for the night and shuttling me around!) and I really caught up on sleep in the afternoon! Minimal soreness and minimal painkillers today, even went into work and unpacked some boxes, started thinking of the next proposal (due tuesday) and went out with the Darling Marine Center ladies for lunch. All in all a fun friday! I can feel stitches in there which is a little weird, and am definitely on soft food for a while, but my hope is for it to be healed enough to get a dive or two in next week - it's just a week and a half until I head to Alaska, man that crept up fast! 

Hope you all have a good weekend!

All a whirlwind....

Wow, the last few days have been such a whirlwind. National Science Foundation proposals were due yesterday, and i've been writing one to go back to Alaska once the project finishes up there in September. I've been writing it with a collaborator, who luckily I like, because otherwise, this whole giving me text for the first time at 2am the "morning" the proposal is due is really not the way I like to do things.

But the good news is it's done. It's in. And I wish it had a chance, but with funding rates these days i'm totally dubious. Last night I had a nice beer, and took part in a local pub quiz which was a lot of fun. Then I actually slept for longer than 4 hours, the first in well over a week. On to other things, like another proposal next week, student papers I should have been reading, and the ever dreaded completing the Antarctic medical and dental.

So I found out last week that I need a tooth pulled, and am having that out tomorrow. It's actually not a huge surprise, i've known that tooth has been dead for a long while. It's not been causing any problems (it's one way at the back), but good 'ole Antarctic program says it has to come out, so come out it shall. My friends Chris and Gabby are kindly taking me in tonight and Chris is taking me to my appointment tomorrow (they're sticking me under, so no driving for me).

Fun fun fun. To look on the bright side at least I get to catch up with more sleep tomorrow.....:0)

Still diving!

Pics from the snow storm

It was certainly a big one, though maybe not "Colossal" like was predicted, but we did get a lot of snow! The weekend just flew by, but the good news - i've found somewhere to live! Yay! I'm going to sign the contract this afternoon, so by the end of the month, right before I head to Alaska, I can move in. It's not a long term solution (duplex in town), but I have to keep thinking that buying a place in a year or two is on the radar, so it doesn't have to be a long term solution - and until then, it's totally doable. It'll be so nice to be somewhere I can unpack - i've been living out of a suitcase since late October now, so i'm ready! 

Here are some pics from the storm. 

Some icicles hanging outside my apartment window.

The snow coming down - we had a good 1.5-2ft of snow on Weds. 

A break in the snow so I walked down the hill to my office to do some work and grab a coffee. 

Some equipment in the snow. 

Snow Belle wrapped in a blanket. It took 2 days to get her out of there! 

The Flowing Seawater laboratory in the snow. 

Looking down to the water. On Thursday we went diving again - #12 done - yay! 

I thought a little measuring was in order. 16 inches in the middle, over 1 meter in some of the snow banks. We've unfortunately had rain since, so there's now just a lot of slush around. 

Big storm is coming.....

Must be time to jump in the water again....:0) 

Seriously though, we're supposed to be hit with the biggest one yet tomorrow, so we're all battening down here. Did manage to get dive #11 in this morning though, and aside from some initial weight issues and a frozen regulator at the end, went pretty well. Just one more before I can get signed off. One more and a big ass exam and a first aid day on friday that is. Today was bloody cold in the water though, so i'm ready to be done with training dives! 

Excuse the hiatus....

Some serious proposal writing to do. Things have been way hectic, but good, if you know what I mean. I made a "To-do" list today that is 3 pages long (that's letter size pages), so I need to knuckle down and get through that before I can come up to breath. 

I need to find somewhere to live, cabin fever hit yesterday and I was so glad I had to go to Portland to get my drysuit (new seals) and had the excuse to leave the campus. So apologies for being sporadic, but it's going to continue for a wee bit. And no, I haven't been running here yet, the cold is okay, I think I can handle that, but it's literally been snowing on everyday I would even have considered it. Running in the cold is one thing. Running while it's actually snowing is a whole other ballgame and I need to build up to that! 

It was so cold in the lab today that at the end of what I could stand I went out to watch the sunset at Pemaquid Point. Little car may be in shock at the weather change, but boy does she have a good heater! Hope all is well in everyones world! 

Little Lucy is 2!

Wowsers, how did you get to be 2 already! My little Niece Lucy is 2 today, I haven't seen you since you were this big, I hope to rectify that this year. Skype is a wonderful thing, even from all the way in the UK, i've got to talk to little Lucy occasionally (so much easier now i'm on the East Coast) and watch her bounce around the house with babies and bears in tow (and the odd shark and ray!), and love that she can say Aunty Rhian.

I miss you Miss Lucy - Happy Birthday!

Little car got her Lobsters

Plates finally changed, from Rainbows to Lobsters, she's now officially a Maine car (so maybe a Snow Belle). This is the first "life" thing i've accomplished since moving here so i'm feeling a little better about life in general. Wok so far is going well, lab is almost finished, though it'll be a little bit before the shelves are up on the walls as they have to get those made. It's getting there. Next step, should probably find somewhere to live around here soon....

Weekend on the Cape!

Spent this weekend on Cape Cod - a flying visit to drop off boxes to be loaded into the container headed to the Antarctic. Got to catch up with a few people I didn't catch over Christmas, so that was awesome. I'm pooped, so here are a few photos from Friday onwards.

Friday saw more than a little snow at the Darling Marine Center. Perfect time to get in dive #10! I have to get to 12 dives before Chris (the Diving Safety Officer - DSO) can sign me off to dive in Alaska, so getting to #10 this week really made me feel good. 

It's a good thing Chris is about as crazy as I am, or i'd never be able to dive in Alaska! 

Packing, unpacking and repacking boxes - here's part of the stack that's going to be loaded into a container to head to Southern Chile in just a few weeks. Kathy and Marshall came and helped me, which was awesome! 

Got to catch up with my little friend DSV Alvin too, who is in for a long while to get refitted with a new, deeper diving sphere. 

Kathy and I got to try out the mock up for the new Alvin sphere, quite spatious compared to the present sphere - you get a whole extra 4 inches on the inside! 

Three Things Thursday!

Practicing pre-sledding using our trawl sorting tubs....

I've had a rough few days with just way too much on my plate right now. I really needed a pick-me-up, and I got one, in the form of a very nice dive this morning and my teaching evaluations from my undergraduate course in Hawaii!

I look forward to these evaluations, mostly because some of them are usually pretty funny, but also because I do WANT to be a better teacher, so it's important for me to see what the students think. I'm not teaching here in Maine for the short term, but probably in a few years, so it's good to get feedback and have some time to evaluate.

It was definitely a more interested group this year than last, which made it nicer to teach, but I have to say, I wasn't prepared for just how NICE the evaluations I got were. Literally, other than the usual smattering of "go slower", "material too hard", "material too easy", "turn up the lights" comments, there was nothing major.

So for my 3 Things Thursday, I thought i'd give out a selection of my favorite comments.......more than three, but i'm going to group them....:0) Bare in mind, all spelling, capitalization etc. is true to the students comments (which we get typed up and anonymously).

1. The Good - "Biology of the deep-ocean was pretty sick", "have Waller make the slides for Measures and DeCarlo, haha", "it was awesome. No improvement necessary", "SHES VERY NICE ☺", "AWESOMENESS! Love your teaching!", "★★★★★", "A++, so interested in her subject and loves what she does", "thank you for reminding me why I want to be a marine biologist...:0)"

2. The Bad - "Exam hard as FOOOK", "STArT AT A HigHer LeveL of Bio, To RudimenTary iN Beginning", "Sweet Lady, put effort into presentations" (that one made me laugh out loud...:0),

3. The Slightly Bizarre - "Thank God it wasn't all Whales and Dolphins!", "★+✿=♥",

And one of my personal favorites for an Oceanography course - Which aspects of the course did you like the best? "The underwater portion"

That one's obviously going to grad school....:0)

In case I needed confirmation....

It's been a stressful and hard week, lots to do, lots to learn on this diving course, and lots more to do still in life and work (reregister car in Maine, find a house, write 3 proposals in the next month among many). I was treated to moose tracks in the snow, right outside my apartment this morning. 

Just in case any doubt had crept into my mind

I am indeed home

Snow Storm Wednesday

Some pictures of the aftermath of Wednesday. It's still pretty white here, the temps are such it's going to stick around for a while! 

Looking out the front door of my office building. This is how the clear snow in Maine! 

The Darling Marine Center

Still some orange leaves around. Maine is the place to come leaf peeping in the fall! 

The Darling Marine Center

Little Hawaiian Car! 

The building i'm living in right now. 

The protected front porch! 

Down at the docks, looking to the left.

Looking to the right. 

Looking up to the labs. 

Lets go diving! 

Christian and Chris play snowballs. 

The Polar Bear dive team! 

Three things Thursday!

1. I'm loving the Maine pace. The boxes are starting to drive me barmy, but I know that's only temporary. I've managed to get a ton done since I got here work wise, compared to what I could have got done in Hawaii that is.

2. My major concern is still salary. I'm really worried. But I have found other things to apply for, so that's a good thing. I just need a whole ton of luck and maybe something will pan out...

3. Okay, so I haven't been running since I got here. Last week was mental and this week diving has been #1 priority. I need to sign up for a race, that usually motivates me enough to go....

Still a snow day!

This was the day's accumulation - and it's still snowing! Yeah! 

Snow day!

Nope, the snow has not got old yet! 

Taking the plunge

The diving course is going really well this week, so far 5 dives down! Today was a balmy 41F (5C) in the water, only 20F (-6C) in the air though, but a beautiful sunset was had!