It’s been a month, I know

The thing is, I haven’t felt like writing much lately. Over the last several months, really.

I don’t know why–good things are happening, bad things are happening, mediocre things are happening–but my first instinct isn’t to write them up any more. Maybe because my first instinct now is to say or do things with the people around me. The truth is, I’m far more comfortable in my own skin, with my own life, right here, right now, than I think I ever have been before. That’s a good thing, a very good thing. But I wonder if it’s part of the reason I’m not feeling the need to blog–to bitch, to complain, to lament, to celebrate, or to just say whatever is on my mind.

I dunno, but I do sort of miss it occasionally. I meant to start writing during NaNoBloPoMo, but November 1st came and went, with only a fleeting thought of “if I’m going to do this, I need to start today”.

But the lovely Laura posted a comment awhile ago asking how I was and said she was waiting to hear travel stories. And I did promise travel stories, didn’t I? So I’m going to try. I hope some of you are still out there to read them!

So, starting tomorrow (hopefully), get ready for Australia and Papua New Guinea!

Publication!

Yes, I know I promised trip stories, and they’re in the works, but I had to first take care of a ton of stuff upon arriving home–mail to sort, scuba classes to deal with, birthdays of friends to attend (gee, tough, that one!), getting stuff together for this festival I’ve been invited to attend in a month or so, getting things at work back up and running. You get the point.

But I do have a good excuse for why I didn’t start yet.

Because last night, I was celebrating! My first paper about some of my PhD work was accepted, after a round of editing and then a round of rebuttals about extra experiments. But accepted nonetheless! For publication! By me!

Huzzah!

There was champagne, and this morning was a little fuzzy.

It was lovely.

But yes, the stories will start soon.

Home again, home again

We’re home. We actually have been since Sunday.

But Sunday was filled with arriving home and showering and immediately going to James F’s birthday party and catching up with all our friends there and then collapsing at the end of a 44 hour day.

And Monday was filled with doing laundry and restocking the fridge and arguing over who had to open the gear bags and avoiding the smell coming from the gear bags and then washing everything in the gear bags.

And today was filled with work. Le sigh.

But we’re back, and eventually it won’t feel like we’re going to bed at 5pm instead of midnight, or getting up at 1am instead of 8am. And eventually I’ll be caught up at work, and have figured out some stuff for this conference in November, and have sorted through 9 bajillion emails.

And then?

Then, my dears, oh I have stories! It was a TRUE adventure!

Vacation time!

I’m officially off tomorrow for some rest and relaxation, some sun and sand, some great company (not just John, but some other great people, including Vince and Daphne, who we haven’t seen in a year or so but have traveled with before!) and awesome diving.

Two and a half weeks in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Four plane rides, a two-hour bus ride, and a boat ride, and then we’ll be at the end of the world, in the middle of nowhere, having the time of our lives.

Of course, if I don’t come home, it’s because I either loved it so much I stayed, or because I died from some horrible disease or a falling coconut. (And yes, that is where we’re going–or at least the last airport town we travel through.)

I’ll have stories and pictures for you all when I get back, but in the mean time, stay safe and sane.

See you all in October!

Labor Day weekend

We’re officially on vacation in less than two days, and I can barely wait. Luckily, we had a three-day weekend to get us in the mindset!

We did a lot of errands, some packing, a lot of prepping, and although we’re not nearly ready at all, we’ll get there.

Saturday was spent lounging, packing a bit, then dinner out at a Japanese restaurant with Elizabeth and Mark. Ramen noodles from a plastic package may be super tasty when you’re sick or need comfort food, but real ramen? Sooooo gooood!

Sunday, a bit of work (oh well, no weekend is perfect), some errands, then John went out for a night with the boys while I had a night to myself. Shelly and Cara were both out of town, so no girl’s night, but I had a pretty relaxing evening just me.

Our Labor Day did not involve BBQs or beaches or anything else normal, but it was by far one of the best days I’ve had recently.

Mostly because it was spent gearing up for hockey season with my two best guy friends–John and James. We had a relaxing morning, then a fantastic lunch out, and I had a Philly cheesesteak for the first time ever. I have no idea how I’d never had one before, but they’re delicious! Two excellent restaurant finds in one weekend!

Then!

Then we went to the Prospects game between the Sharks and the Ducks. It’s basically a game for all the guys looking to get invited to attend training camp in order to try out for the team.

We kept joking it was prospect night for everyone–prospect announcers when they couldn’t quite get the sound system going, prospect zamboni drivers when they missed a spot or two, prospect jeerers when they couldn’t come up with creative taunts but still put in effort. All in all, pretty entertaining.

The Sharks, honestly, had some pretty awesome players. My favorite was a little scrappy 5′6” guy who liked tiny compared to a bunch of the other players. And he was fast. Damn fast. Speedy Gonzalez fast. And he could handle the puck–I was pretty impressed.

There were two other players, also pretty short, who were equally scrappy and good. One of them checked a Duck pretty damn hard, and then was totally willing to throw down the gloves and go at it with him. I don’t think the Shark guy got in more than a punch or two, as the Duck player had probably 6 inches on him, but it was impressive to see him not back down.

We scored in the first period, and had some really good penalty kills. We also had some good power plays–no goals, but they sure shot like they wanted one, which I think sometimes the big Sharks have a problem with. During the power plays, we did the mini Shark bite, since the players were baby Sharks. Fun times.

The second period was pretty dull, and the third one started out so. The Ducks scored, and then not much happened. Just as we started commenting that there hadn’t been any fights, BAM! A couple really good ones. First a decent one, then the scrappy small guy, then another decent one. Always entertaining to watch.

Eventually, we went into overtime, where the Sharks killed off a 4-on-3 two minute penalty, which was impressive. They were really good at clearing the puck, though they needed to work on not icing it!

And then?

Shoot-out!

Their guy missed, so did ours.
Their guy made it, ours didn’t.
Their guy missed…

And who do they send out for that all important shot? A do-or-die shot? Little #70, the 5′6” guy. We started chanting “Ru-dy!” and got a good chunk of the crowd into it.

And he scored!

The! Crowd! Goes! Wild!

All in all, the shoot-out went to 9 rounds, which was impressive–though clearly it went that far because some of these guys weren’t too good at the shoot-out. But also because our goalie was damn impressive. I suppose there’s was too.

And in the 9th round, they sent out scrappy player #2, he of the fight (I think), and he scored the winning goal.

It was a pretty awesome game overall, and a good intro to the upcoming season, which will start right around the time we get home. I can’t wait.

At least I have an awesome vacation to fill some of the time between now and then, right?

Things have a way of working out

I had my day all planned, and theoretically was going to be able to leave right after a meeting with my boss. I was going to go run an errand or two, then go to the gym.

Things never go as planned, do they? Especially in the life of a scientist. Especially one who is cloning.

*insert heavy sigh here*

But!

The good thing was, when I went to go move my car around 7:15 or so, who should I run into by Sydney!

She was also leaving work, and gave me a ride. We chatted and caught up–she’s been on three vacations lately, to Florida, New York and Puerto Rico, and has been pulling a lot of shifts at the hospital in-between to make up for it. So she’d kind of disappeared off the face of the earth.

Of course, we’re about to leave and disappear for awhile, but it was still nice.

And we’re definitely getting together when we’re all back in town.

So, things at work ended up working (just taking 3-4 extra hours), and I unexpectedly ran into a friend! Not a bad outcome, I’d say.

Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend!!

Peace and quiet

Yesterday, I can home to a wonderful thing:

No neighbor.

Huzzah!

Two years ago, a new guy moved into the apartment that we share a bedroom wall with. We had several problems with this.

The first came from sharing a bedroom wall. His girlfriend was… rather much. I’m sure you get the picture (or, you know, the sound track for it). Ick! I’m sorry, no one is that good for that long. She’s overly loud, or she fakes it. I’m betting on the second.

The second was that he (and she) were just super loud in general. When they’d talk, we’d be part of their conversation, like eavesdropping, only we could never avoid it. He’d spend a lot of time on his cell phone in the backyard having random conversations, all of it drifting over into our yard and into our house and into my peace and quiet.

This was especially super bad when they would come home drunk from the bars around 2:15, with absolutely no sound control whatsoever. And bring friends. And stay up and continue partying until 3 or 4 or 5am. On weeknights.

The third was he smoked. All the time. And while I think it’s unhealthy, I’ll admit he can do whatever he wants to his body. I just didn’t appreciate all that smoke drifting over into our apartment and house, especially our bedroom when I was trying to fall asleep.

We complained to our apartment manager about the noise level, since the city here is nice enough to have sound ordinances and curfews after 10pm. We never mentioned the smoking, since it was his life.

But now?

He’s gone, and our lives are blessedly quiet and smoke-free.

Maybe we can once again reclaim our backyard. Having been avoiding close(r) proximity to him, and therefore using our backyard at all for about two years, it’d be really nice to get back into the habit of sitting on the porch in the evenings, or grilling for dinner and eating out there.

Or just enjoying the peace and quiet.

*contented sigh*

Baseball

It may be the “best game ever played”, but even those who love it clearly harbor secret feelings suggesting otherwise!

One-ish month until hockey starts!

Two-ish months until basketball starts!

‘Tis the season for two fun things!

Fun thing one: Birthdays!

We’re entering that time of year when the birthdays pile up. Greg was a week ago, Rae and Cara were this past weekend, and upcoming over the next two-three months are Amy, Ella (who will go from my favorite 1-year old to my favorite 2-year old!), Nate, Shelly, John and all sorts of other people.

Makes sense when you think about it–9 months after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day!!

We had dinner at Greg’s sister’s house for his birthday last Monday night.

Saturday was Rae’s party, with a private catered chef and vodka infusions and everything. Super classy, and tons of fun, though it always reminds me when we hang out with her and Aaron about things like that that John and I are definitely in a lower tax bracket. Still, nice to enjoy it for an evening, and mixed berry vodka infusion is amazingly good!

Cara’s party was Sunday, with sushi followed by seeing a local cover band at a local bar. The two guys in the bad were really good, and really funny. They’ll be playing at James and Cara’s wedding, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again. Not quite in the same league as Rae’s party, but Cara’s was very familiar and fun.

Now I’m trying to come up with some fun things to send Amy for her birthday this Friday, other than what she’s asked for. It’s always nice to have some surprises, don’t you think? Any ideas on small, light weight stuff that a person living on their own for the first time could use?

Fun thing two: Vacations!

Man, tons of people are taking vacations at this time of year. Elizabeth and Matt went off on their honeymoon (well, yes, more than a vacation, but still), and Sydney and her boy went to New York and Puerto Rico–I didn’t even get to see her in between her trips, but I’m hoping to catch up with her before we leave soon! James and Cara were up in the Pacific Northwest, and Nate and Shelly are about to head off to Greece.

And where are John and I going? Well, two weeks from Thursday, we leave for 2-3 weeks involving sun, sand, and diving. Here’s a hint: We’re not going to Australia, but we’ll have two 24-hour layovers in Brisbane on the way there and back. Any suggestions for places to eat, things to do, sights to see?

From there we’re off to Papua New Guinea–the last frontier in diving, theoretically. Everyone we’ve ever talked to has said it’s the best diving we’ll ever do. We’ll be at a very remote resort for a handful of days, then 11 days on a luxurious live aboard, diving to our heart’s content. At the resort, we’ll have access to the world’s best “muck diving”–diving to see all the little creatures that live in the silt at the bottom–plus skull caves, amazing hikes, and all sorts of cool birds and animals and fish. My goals, above water, to see a bird of paradise and an echidna–my dad has never even met anyone who’s seen a PNG echidna, so I want to try!

It should be an amazing vacation, full of as much relaxation or as much go-go-go diving as we want it to be. I can’t wait, and there’s still more than two weeks to go!!

Oh well, I’ve got some birthdays between now and then to tide me over.

Scuba diver

The diving community lost a member yesterday. He was apparently a very experienced diver, but was doing an extra deep dive, down to 250 feet, where many things could have gone wrong.

I really feel for his family and friends, and I hope nothing like this ever happens to me, John, our friends, or any of our students, past or present.

EDIT: The name didn’t immediately ring a bell, but according to John, I had met this guy several times, and had even dove in a group of people that he was part of. Doubly sad.