Leaving BFLO
Seven years ago today, at some ungodly hour of the morning (Eastern Daylight Time), I departed Buffalo for my trek to Seattle to begin graduate school. I arrived in town four days later - Labor Day morning, a little before noon.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Is it getting drafty in here?
Draft one of the thesis is complete! (Well, the text portion is, at least.) The next few days will be devoted to me making my little laptop cry while trying to do complex image manipulation in Photoshop and Illustrator, and then of course I still have to properly reference and footnote all the prior work that enabled me to do my own research.
The writing is sure to be butchered alive by my adviser, but that's why it's not the final submission...
Verdict: Slowdown
The thesis rolls along, slowly but surely toward a finish line.
As predicted, updates here have essentially ground to a halt, since I'm not procrastinating from boring lab work and instead am throwing down rambling semi-coherent sentences instead. I'm happy to look back and see that I managed a full month of daily updates as I intended to do, and I will continue with Caturday updates even if nothing comes between them, although I do have many things to post - mostly I'm just trying to limit my distractions to get the real work done first.
Oh, and if you're looking to hire a geneticist let me know - I come quite reasonably priced.
Caturday: Lofty Cats
Two of the former foster cats - Percy (L) and Django (R), dozing in the loft in the spare room - Mar 23, 2007
Random thought of the day
Whoever thought "Stumble It!" was a good marketing phrase for use on news articles and blog entries to promote using StumbleUpon's social bookmarking site is a moron.
Caturday: Morning at the Korova Milk Bar
Mishka (mom), Sabine, and Griffin - Aug 18, 2007
(yes, I know those wasn't their names in the last post. I've given up on editing it to denote further changes.)
Just call them Jasperina and mini-Jasperina
Meet the new foster cats. Here is Sabine (left) and her mother, Tipsy (right). Tipsy came pre-named (though by the time you read this, it will probably have been changed.) They were surrendered at the Seattle Animal Shelter by their prior humans due to "moving out of state".
Update: Replace all instances of 'Tipsy' in the current article with 'Majka' (pronounced 'Majka'.)
If you took Tipsy Majka, added a white spot on her nose, performed a sex change, and added about another Tipsy Majka's worth of mass, she would be Jasper. Sabine will probably look similar when grown up, although her colors might be lighter.
This is Sabine's tuxedo-cat brother, Sebastian. (Another new name. The two of them were recorded at the shelter as 'kitten-F' and 'kitten-M'.)
Sabine again, this time without mother-cat-interference. These are essentially the only shots we got of the kittens that aren't a blur of fur. We may need to invest in strobes and high-speed film.
Their mission for the next few weeks is to plump up a bit, get snip-snipped, and then act cute and fuzzy to potential new humans. I think we'll be successful.
Rustlers
This morning while I was making my breakfast, Jasper started meowling excitedly at the back door and a mysterious chirping noise came from outside. I looked out in time to see a Steller's Jay rummaging around in my potted herbs, presumably digging for grubs or seeds. I've seen a few of them roosting in the nearby pines and madrona trees, screaming their harsh, crackly squawk out at all hours, but this was the closest to the door that I had seen any of them.
Unfortunately, on this shot the flash went off and startled the bird, sending him up to a nearby tree screaming at me the entire time.
Taken from the house, Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington - Aug 14, 2007.
Caturday: So long, farewell, auf widersehen, good-bye
It was the monthly foster cat adoption event today, and much to our delight (and probably hers as well), Suki was adopted!
Slate-grey skies
A reward is available to anyone who has information leading to the whereabouts of our summer or those who apparently kidnapped it and added it to the rest of the country's ongoing heat wave.
