Mamma, what they hell did they do to my tail....

I don't know Barkley....but the scissors are coming out tonight.....!

Three things Thursday

I'm not very good at getting this up for thursday am I.....oh well, it is still thursday, even if only for another hour! Three things on my mind....

1. Proposals per-schmo-sals. And that's all I have to say on that matter

2. Next week is hectic-co. Tuesday/Weds i'm in New Jersey for a deep coral meeting, friday i'm off to DC for a meeting at NSF on Mon/Tues. The good side on this is that I get to see the multiple D's on the weekend - yeah!

3. I'm feeling rather chlorinated after a few hours in the pool this evening. A group of high schoolers have been at the center since yesterday, checking out the place and thinking whether the University of Maine is the place to come to. Last night I did a talk on some deep sea critters, tonight it was try out SCUBA. The even better thing in all this? Barkley stayed home alone for a whole 4 hours and was totally fine, found her curled up on the couch. Yeah!

This year of change has brought up a lot of things, how much I miss my little sister is one of those. I have no desire to mark this date, it's just been in my face a lot this year, though i've been busy so that's stops the dwelling which is good. I'm not going to be able to run for SADS this year either which makes me sad, i've just been too busy to marathon train and the one here is in October rather than December, so the window to start was during the cruise, and that just wasn't happening. I'll pick it up again next year and try and get back into it with some shorter races through the winter. My expanding waistline will like me for it.

It's hard to believe it's been eight years. I'm not sure when the photo above was taken, I'm pretty sure I was still in high school, so it's way back there. It was taken in Lynmouth by my grandmother, sitting on the seawall. I'm pretty sure some ice-cream was soon involved too. That's my little brother Adam, my older brother Grant I think was at college.

Miss you squirt, every single day.

R
xx

Barkley's new toy

Took it out this weekend twice - was awesome! I'm so happy we can get out on the water together - she was a little nervous on day #1 (but still sat through 1hr 45 of paddling without complaining!), but today she was awesome, even laid down to go to sleep on the paddle back - yeah! I see some fun times ahead this summer!

Monhegan Diving!

I finally got around to downloading the photos from a diving trip to Monhegan Island I took with the UMaine dive group almost a month ago! It was a great trip, such a beautiful place to dive. And the best bit....i'm going there again on Monday! This time to learn Nitrox diving and to do some deep dives to see what we see - yeah! Maybe i'll get around to downloading the photos from Monday a little sooner! All photos taken by Chris or Mike! 

Myself (right) and my dive buddy Jen face off before we head out on our dive!

It looks a little green, but the visibility on these dives was AWESOME! 

The UMaine dive group, except Mike who was taking the picture......shame you can't do the timer underwater!

Lobster! Jen and I saw some HUGE ones! 

Underwater moose?

My first fish sighting in Maine! 

Three things Thursday

In an effort to blog more, it's back with three things Thursday! It might be 9.30pm on Thursday.....but it's still Thursday!

1. Went up to Orono yesterday, had to pick up some more boxes of books and teaching material of John Dearborn's, a retired faculty member here who died this winter. He was one of the greats in Antarctic Research, particularly in reproduction and development, so i'm very sad we never overlapped at all here in Maine. He'd been retired for a few years, but still remained active and kept quite literally everything. His daughter has given me much of his Antarctic collection of books, reprints and teaching materials, which will be so invaluable.

2. While up in Orono I bought Barkley a present. You'll see what it is by the end of the weekend, but i'm hoping she'll like it.

3. Whatever will be will be, so there's no point in worrying about it and there's no point in letting 'stuff' bring down the day.

A weekend in the Whites

A weekend trip to the White Mountains is never enough, it always fly by way too fast. This was the briefest of visits too, I probably should have pushed it and went on friday night instead of driving up on Saturday, but oh well, a short visit was probably enough for a first camping trip with miss Barkley anyway. We had a great time, and Barkley was a trouper, both on the trails and in the tent, I think she enjoyed herself, and at the moment is asleep exhausted on her bed in front of the TV.

Ready to go!

First stop was Mt Washington! I've hiked up the largest peak in the east three times now, but decided to drive up for the first time - quite the windy road! We then did a short 2 mile hike most of the way to Lake of the Clouds, one of my favorite spots in the Presidentials.  

It was pretty windy up at 6288ft!

The view down the western end of the Presidential Range - Monroe, Franklin and Eisenhower are down the trail. 

Our turn around point, time for a cookie or two and some photos. For an old girl she did great amongst the boulders. 

Lake of the Clouds Hut. Would have been nice to go all the way and revisit one of the weirdest hiking experiences i've ever had (bagpipes and weddings....ask me about it if you haven't heard the story!), but it was late in the day and I didn't want to overdo it for Barkley. I really want her to enjoy camping and hiking, so didn't push anything too hard this weekend. 

Back to our campsite at Cocker Pond, just east of Evan's notch. Barkley was a great tent companion, other than snoring quite loudly! 

The view from our campsite....pretty sweet! 

Today, after a quick (very quick as the bugs were out!) 2 mile hike from the campsite to Round Pond we drove home via Evan's Notch, checking out other campsites for next time on the way. There is an overlook on the road through, so we stopped and found this marker - I love markers and have a photo collection of them from all over the US. 

There was also a historical site in the Notch - Brickett Place, an old farmhouse currently being restored. We got talking to one of the rangers and he convinced us into a short hike from there up to a small waterfall. Someone was lagging a little as we entered the wilderness (it was all uphill till there), but soon perked up on the flat and took off to the water as soon as she heard it. 

Trying to get a good self portrait on the self timer is hard. Trying to do it was a fidgety dog is even harder!

The hike was a great end to a great day and we've scoped out some great camping spots for next time too! Evan's Notch is just stunning, and being in Maine it's only 2 hours away, so i'm hoping we get back at least once this summer.

Heading for the hills...

It's been a bit since i've blogged sorry, to be honest, the last few weeks have been a bit of a bust, so I haven't had much good to say. To start with the good - Barkley is awesome, I am adoring having a pup around and I think we were made for each other; I love Maine, I am really enjoying being here for a good period of time; and I still love  the Darling Marine Center, I am so enjoying being around in the summer, so many people, so many students, so much good science going on.

And the bad, funding just sucks right now, so i'm not sure where my life is headed. Makes it hard to blog. I've had my three big proposals submitted this year rejected and i'm not sure where to head next. One wasn't unexpected, but i've had good vibes from the foundation I submitted it to to resubmit next year, which is something. I didn't get a second year of the Alaska project funded, which is painful. We've found such great things there that need the extra year of observation so it's frustrating to say the least.

But it's not just the frustration of rejections, you need a thick skin to get through those and I mostly have the ability to dust off and try again. If science funding was what it was a few years ago i'd not be too worried about 3 big rejections, as i'd know something would come along. But it's not. This many rejections though begins to erode at the confidence and i'm really begin to question my ability to do good science. I think my general malaise comes from the fact that I do really like it here and want to stay, and i'm now just uncertain how to make that happen. I'm usually happy to keep on plugging away at proposals, but with major funding cuts to science it's all becoming pretty depressing.

The next immediate step for me is a paycut, so that will start next month - i've moved, I have furniture and it's still much cheaper here to live than Hawaii, so I can swallow that now. It's not what I want as I want to build up enough money for a house deposit and that will have to stop, but at the moment it's just survival. I can pick up some teaching next year and have been talking around getting suggestions for smaller pots of money - all in all, it's been mentally exhausting. With some creative rebudgeting, teaching and hopefully a bit of luck for a little more, i'm good through the end of next year - which sounds good, but my creative rebudgeting is not going to help my science get done (other than keeping me in a job I suppose).

I know whatever will work out will work out, it always does and so far i've been lucky. I think i'm just ready to settle and have this instability stop. I'm applying for jobs, but it's lackluster, as I really like it here and don't want to leave. It'll be the hardest decision ever if that happens.

So that's the scoop, i've not been into taking photos to post and I don't like just posting the bad, so it's been few posts instead. I'm about to head to the hills with Barkley tomorrow to do a camping and hiking trip, see how she likes sleeping in the great outdoors. I need some outdoors time, and at the moment we're socked in with oppressive heat and humidity, so some elevation will hopefully provide some much needed relief. I'm looking forward to getting in my tent for the first time this year - yeah!

Emily Jayne!

Welcome to the world little Emily Jayne - can't wait to meet you, I hope it'll be soon!

A quiet and relaxing weekend all around here. Saturday saw Rod and Kathy drive up for the day with a washing machine in tow - I can now do laundry - yeah! I still can't believe they came up for a day, I really do know some simply awesome people, I owe them big time for that one. Sunday saw a nice walk with Barkley followed by a day of sitting by the pool with friends and a few games of Bocce in probably my favorite Maine pub to date. Can't get a much better weekend than that now can you!

This week is a busy one. I've just hired some help around the lab for a day a week, a guy who's done some histology before and is super experienced, but between jobs right now. I'm really hoping that works out, though I know it probably won't be a long term solution, I could really use the hands right now to keep up with the mountains of general lab things that need doing. I'm still waiting to hear about a big grant, and it's totally stressing me out, rejections started coming out last week and i'm at the point of just wanting to know. I need to get my head around new proposals, and I need to keep my nose to the ground for opportunities. Basically, I just need to knuckle down more on the long term, and i've been finding that hard since I got back from sea. Thursday I get to go out diving all day which i'm excited about, and Barkley gets to go to doggy daycare, which i'm sure she is probably excited about too!

This week

This week Diane has been here, which has been awesome! It's been nearly a year since I visited DC, so it's been super fun to catch up, and we even got out and seen some sights I haven't seen yet. The weekly routine with Barkley is going relatively well - we managed 2 mile run/fast walks on 4 mornings (friday was just a little too much!), she had a day with my friend Chris when I went to Orono on weds and by all accounts was a star and little by little she's settling in.

The rest of the week in photos.....

I picked up Diane on Monday and, as it was such a beautiful day and still light, we headed to Pemaquid Lighthouse for a little wander around.

Barkley was quite the climber, enjoying the ocean and the walk.

The lighthouse.

We followed the walk with some good Maine 'Lobstah' at a place I went to with Chris and Gabby on the weekend before - they're fresh off the boat and cooked right there in a big water vat and it's great deck seating with views over the harbor.....can't get too much better than that can you!

Then I put Diane to work......a bunch of furniture arrived this week, so we made a couch, desk and a set of shelves....woo hoo!

Friday saw a "hot dog festival" for charity at some friends of friends, so we went along and took part in some paint-ball sausage shooting, puppy shoe throwing and hot dog eating and beer drinking....but we left the pie and hot dog competition eating to the professionals.....

...like these little guys and gals.....

 ....and especially this little fella.....the winner of the pie eating contest.....

Then on to the mens division hot dog eating.....the record this year....11.5 hot dogs in ten minutes.....barf...!

 Today, after Diane finished up working we went over to Camden hills. We drove to the top then did a "short" hike around. We weren't overly prepared for this hike, with flip flops and jeans, and although it worked out to be a little more strenuous than planned, the views were more than worth the effort!

Best of all, Barkley loved it all and was a trouper. I've definitely found my hiking companion! 

A little break at the top....

....and the hike back down....

Routine

Well, Nicola might have been right, I haven't been blogging too much sorry. It's all been a little hectic, and to be honest, other than the humdrum I haven't had too much to say. I've been back a week and a half and things are, as usual, somewhat hectic at work catching up. Barkley has been here a week now, so we're still working out what our routine might be. Routines are hard things for me to get into, I seem to function in a sense of constant motion, with a million things going on until i'm totally fried, fall over, then pick myself back up and start all over again. I seem to work best that way and get a lot done, and that's okay in a way, but now with Barkley here I need to get back into a daily routine, maybe it's more for her than me, but i'm pretty sure i'll see the benefits too.

Barkley is a special girl who needs a little extra care and attention, she belonged to Jenny and Doug, who with #2 just arrived (welcome Sam!!) already have quite the brood on their hands! She's 11 for a start, so an old girl, and is prone to anxiety in stressful situations. She'd become quite the Houdini in Hawaii, and the same tendencies have started to come out here, so it's time for a routine to hit. The thought behind her move to Maine is that I can bring her to work each day, which so far, she is adoring. As soon as the car pulls into the DMC driveway she pops her head up. As we go down the corridor to my office she veers off and visits her human friends (of which there are many, she already has a good reputation at the center, such animal people here, I love it!) and then we enter my office, she tucks under whichever cubby she's decided is hers for the day with the bone or toy of the day. And there she slumbers until midday, when we walk up the hill to check the mail and say hi to the ladies in the office, then walk back down for another afternoon of slumber.

Just getting outside at midday is already a great thing for me, there have literally been too many days when I haven't been outside all day, let alone got any exercise. Though we have drugs to help Barkley get over the worst of her anxieties, exercise, i'm hoping, will help her a lot. Not to mention help me a lot - I have an Independence Day 10K in a week and literally haven't run since March! So tonight we mapped out a 2 mile route, and tomorrow the "Routine" begins. We'll start each morning with a brisk 2 mile walk or run (tonight she happily jogged with me!) before work, followed by some quiet time in the crate while I shower and get ready for work, breakfast and then head out the door. I'm hoping not only that this will help tire her out, but it'll get her used to her crate again, so those few days when I can't take her (like when I have to go to Orono), she'll be okay and not too anxious at home.

It'll take time, and i'm sure some modifications, but hopefully we'll get there together. A 2 mile a day run is not going to hurt me, that's for sure!

In other news - on the 30th of June my work visa runs out, so i'm stuck here in the US until my green card comes through (who knows) or I break down and trek to Canada to renew my visa. The later i'm not excited about. And I had a big proposal rejected on friday. Which means poo poo to house buying this year and time to start applying for jobs again. I'm really not excited about that. I'm still writing proposals like crazy though, I definitely want to stay, just need a lot more luck than i've been having lately to make that happen. So luck fairy, if you want to show your head, now is the time.....

Better photo....

I unpacked the camera for this one. While I was on the phone she gathered her possessions on her bed and is right now snoring away. She's such a sweet girl, and i'm so happy to have her in my life!

She's here!

Here is Miss Barkley (sorry for the poor quality photos - they're from my phone, need to unpack my camera!). She arrived on Saturday and has just about settled in, i'm loving having her around already.

I'm back!

I'm back! I got back on wednesday and it's been a bit of a blur since I got back. I hope you all were following the work blog, we had some fantastic contributions by our science party, and then I wrote some too....:0) I'll do a good catch up soon I promise, but today is an exciting day. I'm going to pick up Barkley from her flight to Boston, so i've got to scoot. She's been in Oregon for a week and all went well on the flight from Hawaii, so in just a few hours, she'll be an east coaster! I'm excited, best birthday present ever!

Until then the above photo sums up things nicely from the cruise - incredibly hectic, twinged with a fun group and some good humour. Having fun catching up with all your blogs!

R
xx

In Chile

I love flying over southern Chile when the sun is shining! Got in late last night, no major issues (slight delay in Miami) and all the bags made it. The sun came out for some of the flight so we did get to see some of the spectacular Andes, with the long snaking glaciers, high mountains and deep fjords. It's probably my favorite flight on this planet when you can see out. 

Today Laura and myself are headed down to the ship to get our Extreme Cold Weather gear and start to think about this cruise! 

Getting ready for sea....

Getting ready to get back to sea - in less than 2 weeks i'll be flying south for the summer.....yes, I know that's not quite the right direction! Spring has most definitely sprung here too, so it's going to be quite hard to leave it behind and head back into the depths of winter. It'll be good to finally get down there and throw off the bow lines, be away from land, and the hassles that go with land, for a while. I love going to sea, it's an enormous sense of satisfaction to see a project go from an idea in your brain to proposal, to funded and finally to reality. See the samples we only dreamt we'd get and the secrets of the sea they hold. Of course it doesn't always go the way you first planned, but there's not been a single cruise i've been on where I haven't learnt something new, and that's exciting in itself.

This last week has been hectic, lots of things going on (from proposals, reports and green card paperwork) and it's not going to stop until I get on that bus to Boston on the 2nd. I had hoped to get out in my tent for a night before I left, but it rained last weekend, and this weekend looks the same, so it's a no go, it'll just have to wait until I get back!

Check out the cruise blog if you have the time and let me know what you think!

Beavers!

So the government did not go into shutdown, and a big sigh of relief was heard from over here. Of course we can't speak too soon, as although no shutdown is good, they have agreed to some massive budget cuts, and at the moment, no-one knows where those cuts are coming from. We'll find out soon I guess.....

This weekend has been amazingly productive and lazy at the same time. Despite being highly jet lagged all week and having a tough time pulling myself out of bed, this weekend i've woken up at 5.30am on both days....argh! But I have managed to reorganize my "living room", as much as I can right now without shelves, couch etc., which are just going to have to wait until I get back from the Antarctic and have a few more paychecks under my belt. 

I tidied the spare bedroom, as with the potential for Kathy to come visit, and hopefully Diane visiting shortly after I get back in June, I bit the bullet and ordered a bed for that room - the mattress has arrived, the bed should get here sometime next week. I did also manage to make a decision and order myself a dresser, which is much needed to get the piles of clothes that cannot be hung off my floor. I always seem to move from house with lots of shelves to a house with lots of hanging, and that is true here, there is very little storage compared to my little place in Hawaii, which is amazing really. But I finally feel like i'm almost organized enough I can find most things and won't drive myself crazy when I come back from the Antarctic staring at boxes. 

I also did a little drive around houses for sale this weekend too, there's a bunch on the market right now, and although i'm not quite ready yet (esp as i'm headed out for 2 months really soon!), it is fun to look, and it's good to drive around. The snow has mostly melted (though i'm told more is on the cards) so everything looks different, it feels like i'm discovering for the first time again. It's been a gloriously sunny few days as well, the kind of days that made me fall in love with New England way back when. Ahh. Why am I headed back to winter in Chile? 

And, I had a first today too. I went to check on Chris and Gabby's house (they're on vacation) which is just up the road and drove past a pond and saw this little fella. So cute! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Watching and waiting

A little pre-flight lunch with the girls - Jenny and little Hannah pictured, and Laura and Sue too! 

I've been back for 4 days now. Even though my life is far from organized, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I had the relaxed and calm feeling of being "at home" pretty much as soon as I walked through the door. Which considering I had such a fantastic visit to Hawaii was nice. I didn't make many "good friends" out there (the kind you hang onto forever), but this trip really reminded me of how much I miss those people. Despite that, Maine is home, and it feels good to be home. Even if only for a few short weeks before I head south on my Antarctic cruise (and man what a bear the organization of that is turning out to be.....but i'm going to spare you there....).

The big news here of course is that the government could go into shut-down mode tonight if they don't come to a budget consensus soon. I'm not a federally funded employee, so i'm not worried about not being paid, but the majority of my research grants are federal, not to mention the several I have in review right now, that will be in stasis until this gets figured out. Our cruise to the Antarctic is federally funded, and though we think we're all okay, impacts are not quite certain right now. The biggest impact is with my collaborators - Kathy from Woods Hole, who works for USGS and Bob in Alaska, who works for NOAA could well be in limbo next week, without pay. If the government goes into shut down, they're not just told not to work, they are physically locked out of their buildings, out of their email, out of their phones - they are literally not allowed to work.

So i'm in two minds. Kathy and I have dreamed up a scheme that if this really happens she's going to truck up to Maine next week and come and hang out up here. We'll work on some "non-USGS" things together, and it'd be great to see her. I even went out and bought a bed and bedding tonight for my spare room just in case (so that pretty much guarantees it's not going to happen....). On the other hand though, Bob being locked out of his office means our live corals have no-one to look after them, all that hard work put into collecting them could go to waste. They're doing well so far too, but the big plankton bloom has just begun up there, meaning the water gets thick and sludgy, clogging up the corals - in the past this is the time of year the live corals suffer and often die if not looked after carefully. So we're concerned.

All this talk of government cut-backs included a large cut to science spending in the US, but it seems right now as if the government has conceded on most things except funding for Planned Parenthood - an organization here in the US that provides reproductive health care for low income families. This is the most stupid debate to me, coming from the UK, where both healthcare and contraceptives are free, as they should be. You should never have to decide between contraceptives and food in my opinion (~$10-$20 a month for the cheaper ones, with insurance), but many do, which is why Planned Parenthood, who charge less, is so important. Why is this even an arguing point? The Tea Party stresses it doesn't want federal funding to go to abortions and that is why it is not conceding, yet abortions provided by Planned Parenthood are not subsidized by federal money, those are charged at cost, so it's not even a true statement. What's more, if funding were increased for Planned Parenthood, to a level where contraceptives could be made free to those on low incomes, we would save a considerable amount of federal money not supporting single unemployed mothers and their children, likely more savings than shutting down the service. But we don't want to encourage people to have sex do we. That wouldn't be very republican. I love being in this country, but some things drive me nuts, this week has been full of them. Let's hope Obama doesn't back down on this one.

So in the end what's happening with science spending? I guess we'll find out soon. I hope I haven't just found my lot in life to have to give it up because science funding has tanked.....

Last day

Last day in Hawaii, boy 5 days really goes fast. I tied up all my loose work ends and Jackie successfully defended her Ph.D. on friday. So that left today to be a day off, and a grand one it was. It started with little Hannah's birthday party on the beach and continued with friend Laura going around a few bars sampling the Mai Tai's, sitting on the beach and going for a swim. Was much needed. Tomorrow we have plans for a nice breakfast, a little shopping and a nice lunch before I get on the long plane ride back to Maine. 

It's still unclear if I have to shoot up to Canada to get a new work visa in the next 3 weeks before I head to the Antarctic, i'm sincerely hoping not, but nothing like the International Office to mess up plans to do some decent lab work before heading out. 

Congratulations Dr. Jackie! 

The first on the midday bar crawl - the Pink Palace (Royal Hawaiian), the oldest hotel in Waikiki and serves the best Mai Tai's right on the beach. 

The halls of the Palace, and for $600 a night you too can stay here.....! 

The last stop, the Hula Grill and a nice Lava Flow.