bike love

Cyclerpillar by Rebecca Wessels

Purchased by Adam at ARTCRANK for the baby's room.
I LOVE IT.

baby einstein

The books all say, "Sing to your baby!"

(even in utero)

I'm guessing they have in mind something like nursery rhymes and gentle Burt Bacharach crooning.

Instead, I've had The Whole Damn Thing by Those Darlins clanging around in my brain for the past three days, the chorus of which goes a little something like this:

I got drunk and I ate a chicken.

I ate a chicken I found in my kitchen.

Not just a leg and not just a wing.

I'd like to let you know that I ate the whole damn thing.

If you swap out 'hungry' for 'drunk', then it kind of seems like a suitable pregnancy song, if you ask me. Maybe we'll stick with that kid-friendly version once he's out of the womb.

getting on the bandwagon

1. It turns out that working from home everyday turns me into a really boring person. A boring person with nothing to blog about except my pets and I try, I really do try, to keep that in check.

So, hence the silence of late.

2. If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. that is why I have refrained from complaining publicly about why I have had to sort of stop reading a few of the "big" blogs that I used to follow. Most of it has to do with things getting stale, and/or everyone wanting their blog to be everything all at once. I am business person/writer/mom/designer/cook/blogger! (not that I never fall prey to that! glass houses!)

3. I fear the bandwagon to the point that it makes me annoyingly scornful. Sometimes. A lot. It is one of my character flaws. Raise your hand if you are judgmental out of deep buried insecurities!

All of that just as lead up to this, my main point. This lady over here, she does lots of things that are inspiring lots of people to go out and do their own inspiring things. It is all so optimistic and cheery & funded by advertisers that the jaded black shriveled wretch that is my insides wants to hate it all. Except this one part where every week she takes time to toast a few, small bits of wonderful.

Because the thing is, despite all my big talk, I love the little things to. They are what get me through the day. Vegetables inadvertently chopped in rainbow order! Being trapped in a doorway during a downpour. Full ice cube trays.

So, I am thinking that, in an attempt to Focus On the Positive! I shall join in the movement and give some sort of regular thanks.

Today?

Today I am fueled by grey t-shirts & pierogies.

happy 3pm on a thursday!

landlocked

This is where I am from:

Do you notice how there is water EVERYWHERE?

In hot summery weather like we're having now it is so hard to be so far away from home, a place where people just keep their bathing suits in the car, because chances are you're going to drive by water at some point in time during the day, so why not stop for a quick dip?

I also used to live here for a long time:

That there's the ocean.

And for a while we lived here:

Or, more specifically, here:

It was grand. I saw the ocean from my back door.

This is where I live now:

There are tons of great things about living in St. Louis, but proximity to large bodies of water is not one of them. And no, the rivers don't count.

I think I miss the smell of water as much as I miss seeing it. But I miss being in it most of all.

mine. backoff.

Standing to drink is so exhausting.

******

Oh, come on. You LOVE it when I post pictures of my pets.

a different kind of summer

Less of this...

& more of this...

(ok, well, I'll be drinking rootbeer)

.

As it turns out, I am still waiting to hear about the big grant that I applied for last Nov. The one that I had hoped would fund my last field season this summer. Data collection for what would potentially be my final chapter.

In the world of federal grants for scientific research, No News is not really Good News, and it is probably either Bad News or On The Fence news. On the fence meaning that maybe the panel is still trying to find some last scraps of money to fund it, so it hasn't been kicked to the curb yet, but things aren't looking good.

At first I was getting pretty bummed out about this, as I had submitted what I felt was a killer proposal that fit the guidelines to a T. But, you never know who the reviewers are going to be, and the topic I'm dealing with can be a little... well, not controversial, but it makes some people a little bit touchy. Going against dogma makes reviewers nervous. Especially when you are a graduate student.

By now I've wrapped my head around the fact that it's probably not going to happen this year. I'm in the good position of only needing one more summer of fieldwork, but I have two more summers to go, so I can always reapply for next year and get a ton of work done analyzing and writing my other chapters in the mean time. And that whole growing a baby thing. That too.

In a weird twist of fate I am also not scheduled for any summer fieldwork for my Research Assistantship either.

So this all leaves me in the incredible position of having NO FIELDWORK all summer, for probably the first summer since college. It is a bitter pill, really, as fieldwork is my favorite part of this job. But the side benefit of all of it is that I will be around home the whole summer! My garden might actually make it all the way through! I might get to actually participate in fun summertime activities! No leaving Adam to attend bbq's and festivals alone! I might have a chance to actually get out of the city once and a while and go exploring. And I will have time for all of the baby-relating nesting that is coming down the pike (painting, making, buying, fussing).

Oh, and also-- not being alone in the desert in June while 5 months pregnant is a probably a nice thing too. It probably would have taken me twice as long to collect all of my samples...

Point being: if I am going to make this whole plan to reapply next year and still graduate on schedule work, then I am going to have to keep my nose to the grindstone this summer. I have two manuscripts in the hopper, and data from last summer that I haven't even looked at since last fall. And an overdue grant report too!

WRITING WRITING WRITING!!! ANALYSIS ANALYSIS ANALYSIS!!

An in between all that work???

SUMMER!!!

please take my survey

Remember this, from way back in Feb?

Now we're looking more like this:

But even better, really, because all the dishes are back in the new cabinets, the trim is (mostly) done, floors are finished, etc. etc.

All we are waiting on is countertops. We've been waffling on countertops since before we even started this project, and now here we are--- everything else is done and we STILL cannot decide.

So, I am putting it to you. I'll spare you my ramblings about how I much I hate granite, but also seem to hate everything else too, and resale value, blah blah, industrial processing of composites v. mining something that's shipped halfway around the world.

Our choices right now are these:

1. Buy recycled product from BIGBOXSTORE

2. Buy non-renewable resource (granite) from LocalIndependentBusiness

OR,

3. Buy also non-renewable, but really the whole earth is covered in this stuff so it's not going anywhere (quartz) from LocalIndependentBusiness

Support the little guy or support the globe?

it was a colorful sunday