Alcatraz and Vegas

I found some mushrooms at Salt Point:

My first matsutakes in good condition, a lion's mane in good condition, some hedgehogs and black trumpets. Not pictured are candy caps and yellowfoot chanterelles.  I took the hedgehogs and some of the yellowfeet over to Kevin and Emily's and we made a duck and mushroom pot pie with duck that Kevin shot that morning. It was gooooood. And so rich. The matsutake and lion's mane went into a stir fry, and the rest went into the dehydrator. I've become the person that people go to when they have a question like "do you have porcini powder?" I'm happy to say that yes, as a matter of fact I do have porcini powder - and you can definitely have some, as long as you share the duck jerky you are seasoning with it.  I think a lot of people make really good food in Davis because there is NOTHING ELSE TO DO. It's a matter of survival.

Anyway, I'm working this route called Alcatraz at Jailhouse that is harder than anything I've ever tried, or at least have committed to trying. But what the hell else are you going to do at your home crag in the winter? It's a good route, I've done the first crux, am making progress on the second, and am linking substantial portions. The nice thing about starting to try a route is that you make a lot of progress really early...then it gets heinous if you plateau and realize that you can't do it.  Hopefully this will not happen, but if it does, fuck it - I have a day job.

I want to go to Vegas for a week or so. Climbing with Crista and the "bitch pack" got me psyched to hang out there more and take advantage of the awesome ladies that call Vegas home. Of course, the semester is starting and I have no fucking clue what I'm doing in terms of teaching this class, and the smelt will start to spawn soon and I need to have an undergraduate up and running so that she can do a lot of the work (I won't have time, plus DNA extraction has "undergrad bitch work" written all over it). Oh yeah, and at some point I should finish my bloody PhD. My CDFG guy from Bishop has had the manuscript for a month and keeps telling me that he'll get it to me "tomorrow."

This blog is boring. If you are bored, don't read it.

Teaching is...interesting

I've been meaning to write down a few thoughts about my first-ever semester of teaching.  And since I'm beating the shit out of some whisky-flavored marshmallows and it takes about 20 minutes, I have time. Awesome.

So one of the things that I was surprised to realize is that the students pretty much make up 50% of the good and the bad of a class. When I was planning the course, since I had no idea what to expect, I imagined a group of automatons who would just sit there and listen, or students who would argue with me about evolution or grades or whatever. In other words, I expected the worst. However the students really made the experience fun. They were psyched, engaged, and I became fond of most of them. There were a few annoying folks, but I suppose that is to be expected. Even the annoying ones weren't so bad.

When I was giving the final and students were turning in their papers, several of them thanked me, wanted to shake my hand or even give me a hug. It was pretty awesome, and made it all seem worth it. They really did make the class what it was.

I also realized, as I was leaving the final and locking up the classroom for the last time this semester, that I almost always feel really good after teaching. Even if, on the drive from Davis to Carmichael I was dwelling on something or upset about something, I'd forget about it during class and just have fun interacting with the students. It was a pretty cool experience. It's also cool to think that now I have another marketable skill - teaching. I by no means think that I am a great teacher, but it's something that I can do if a job opportunity ever comes up, or I decide that I'd like to teach at a community college. It would be pretty awesome to have so many holidays, that's for sure!

Ok I'm back after a day. I had my first "Feast of the Seven fishes" at a friend's house. Dungeness, smoked salmon, smoked trout, lobster tails, shrimp and herring. Ok so that's six fishes, but who's counting? This is a good tradition (as long as you leave the religion out, which we did). The lobster was awesome! I naturally brought dessert - a vegan dark chocolate pomegranate cake. Apparently for folks with milk allergies, you can make ganache with soy milk and you'd never know the difference. Oh yeah and bourbon flavored marshmallows, which turned out really well.

Now I'm finishing up the best pecan pie recipe I've ever made (maple star-anise pecan pie) to take to the ranch. I feel a little guilty that my parents showed up yesterday and I chose to eat lobster rather than whatever weird food my weird aunt was going to serve...but fuck it-I'd always rather eat lobster.

Hueco memories + Neko Case

This song (the whole album in fact) reminds me of Hueco Tanks. I spent a month there about 7 years ago. My very good friend Kristina burned me the cd (back when we burned cds). We've been through a lot since then.

Off the album Blacklisted.

Still amazing, still makes me cry sometimes:

I suck at blogging

But it's because I'm really busy!

OK - I'm watching trashy tv - True Blood. It is gloriously trashy.

I just got back from Bishop last night, and had a great trip! Climbed with Crista and James...I LOVE climbing new things. I don't get to do that very much in the winter time...I'm chained to Jailhouse.

One of my students gave me pot fudge. I'd love to post this on FB, but it seems like a poor career move...so instead I'll put it on my blog which nobody reads.

I had a blitz of cookie making today - salted browned butter rice krispy treats, Christina Tosi's corn cookies, green tea shortbread, whisky caramel marshmallow and bacon bark, and gruyere and hazelnut crackers. It was a successful day all in all, and I hope the recipients enjoy everything!

I saw something new in the Bishop area - the red canyon and chidago petroglyphs. Plus I got to show Crista and James the pupfish - and they are still there, which is always a relief.

I'm hoping to go to Las Vegas for a week and a half after the New Year - I'm so excited about my new girl posse! Climbing with girls is the shit. I love it.

So that's the short version of the last month or so. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging regularly.

Order has been pepper-sprayed!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Spray It Forward
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Jon Stewart does a pretty thorough job of excoriating UC Davis and the recent pepper sprayers across the country.  Better than I anticipated, and I was expecting a lot!

Back to one

It's been a while since I've posted - longer than usual. Same old stuff is happening, work, cooking, climbing... Winter is so grim. It gets dark so early! Depressing.

This week kinda sucked. My visitor took off (which was sad but right), my laptop died, my fridge died, my guest lecturer for my Tuesday night bailed on Monday night and I didn't have time to come up with anything new (I'd squandered movie day the Saturday before...oops), and UC Davis is in the news for the pepper spray incident (which really doesn't affect me that much, but my reaction to it is a little disturbing).

So the first way that I got wind of the pepper spray incident was when the Chancellor wrote an email...I just skimmed it (hadn't watched the viral video yet, though I'd seen it posted a bunch). At first I was like "why didn't the students move when they asked them to?" But then I watched the video, and I still had the "why didn't they move" reaction... but watching the dude pepper spray I was thinking "why did they have to use pepper spray? This seems really fucked up!". But then I though a little more and I thought "why did they have to move in the first place?" The best forum for protest, no matter how stupid you think the issue is (as long as it's not harming anyone) is the University.

I don't know...I'm a little ashamed that at first I wasn't as appalled as I feel like I should have been. It makes me worry that I'm becoming apathetic or desensitized to these things. I really should have felt more initial outrage. One thing that my visitor taught me is that I take a very measured approach to feeling things if I don't have confidence that I know what's really going on. I suppose it's part of the science background, but probably other things too. Who knows.

Career-wise life is great...other than I'm not motivated to do any real work. I ended up canceling class Tuesday rather than busting my ass to come up with something. I know I should have rallied and dealt, but knowing that I'm the boss and I could cancel class and had an out...I guess I just didn't.

Oh yeah and now I have to figure out if I'm going to move out of my house or buy it from my parents. I have to decide by June, which is a lot of time to think about it. I waffle back and forth. I have no debt right now, and assuming debt, even if my parents sell me the house for the cost of the mortgage, is daunting. I'll probably be in Davis another year at least (post-docing, and teaching at the community college)...but then what? I have no idea. I get stressed thinking about it. Being an adult sucks.

Productivity slump

Back on my own for a few days, and trying to get things done. I seem to have fallen into a productivity slump, fueled by:

1. listening to this over and over, causing myself to spiral into a positive feedback vortex of sentimentality:


2. Having nothing but guest lecturers in my class, so not needing to actually prepare anything (though I do have to write an exam for Tuesday, and an exam review for Saturday...ugh.). I'm experiencing a serious lull in my interest in teaching this class. Semesters are SO LONG. Plus I feel like I have no grand plan for teaching the class...no general outline for the second half of the semester, and no idea what I want to actually teach. I feel like it's all a hodgepodge; I have no vision.

3. Downloading Ren and Stimpy digitally remastered classics (YES!)
Ren and Stimpy always reminds me of Traci, my sister. We both loved that show as kids. She even bought me themed bedroom slippers - one was Ren and one was Stimpy. I wish I still had them.

4. Getting jolted out of my routine by the stuff that I wrote about in the last post.  Indeed.

I wish I was a more adaptable person, or maybe I just need more shit that I HAVE to do RIGHT NOW.  My pupfish chapter is languishing in versions on my thumb drive. I've been reading papers to try to find a good "story" to tell...I just can't decide, but it needs to get done. I need to finish my PhD. I think I'm getting hung up on the details of the data analysis rather than thinking more broadly.

Is 3pm too early to start drinking?

Life revolution

Ok well revolution is probably a strong word, but a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks. I won't go into all of it here, as this is the internet and nothing is sacred, but I will say that things are good. I don't know how long it will stay good, but hopefully for more than another week.

I've been hanging out with someone who's given me some welcome new perspective on what I'm capable of, what I've been through, and what I want. I think he's probably in the same boat as me, which is good (you know, sharing a boat - makes paddling easier). We feel like we've been in an oxbow for the last week, but now it's probably time to get back into the current and move.

Ahh horrible metaphors - my special talent.

I've basically taken the last week off of work and gotten next to nothing done. So now I have some time to get my shit back together, but of course everything is different now. It's so much easier to stay in my little hobbit hole and not let anyone in - status quo is comfortable and easy. I have my list of things to rant about, my list of things that I do every week, every day. A not so subtle shift has kind of rocked my world.

And another note to say that I've realized that I have really protective friends, which is a good good feeling.  Considering my past taste in men has been...um...abysmal (and people just LOVE to tell me so; ha ha ha everyone), it's good for people to go out of their way to give me the thumbs up for a change.

Jane's Addiction is still making music?

Apparently they are. Perry Farrell looks straight out of the 90s in the video, but I do like the song.  The video kind of makes me laugh though.



My friend Kat also pointed me to this video:



I really like the song - the video is kind of annoying. When I first started watching it I was thinking "who is this annoying whiny guy and WHY is he assaulting my eyes with his nudity?" But now I've listed to the song (more than) a few times and I really like it, especially when Kimbra starts singing.  I'm probably projecting my own experiences, but as I see it:
whiny annoying guy was a dick, says he wasn't in to the girl, but is like "waaaah why won't you talk to me?"
girl is like "you were a dick, you blamed everything on me and are still making me feel like crap for not wanting to talk to you."
guy "wwaaaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhh"

Yeah that's pretty much it.

oh yeah and this song is awesome:

Squirrels are evil

I will always stand by my statement that "I don't like mammals."  Well, mostly I don't like mammals. I like birds, plants, fish, mushrooms, prokaryotes, insects and pretty much every other life form on this planet, but I'm really not nuts about mammals. Maybe it's the fur or something...or the teeth.

And now I dislike some of them even more: squirrels.

Squirrels are evil. Complete evil. They are NOT cute (neither are bunnies, which I know makes me strange, but don't we already know that I'm strange?)

The squirrels have been completely decimating the garden this summer. They are awful. I had 5 beautiful pumpkins on the vine and yesterday I went to the garden and discovered that they'd eaten all the ripe ones from the inside out. Nightmare. I was so so pissed. Am still pissed.

In the meantime they've eating the tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries and cucumbers. The only thing they haven't eaten are the habaneros, jalapenos and other hot chilis.  Is this all we can grow here now?  We need a herd of cats. A squadron of dogs.  100 little boys with bb guns. We can't poison them, and live traps probably aren't feasible since there are probably 500 squirrels in the garden.  It's enough to make you give up altogether and just buy your veggies.

Fucking squirrels.

On doing things you know are bad for you, and of course other random ramblings.

"Like eating the whole pint of ice cream" as Ethan would say, "and yet I do it over and over and over again."

This was a mundane example, but I'm speaking of more um...emotionally challenging examples.  I've been thinking about these things lately, and much more.

The 14th was the 10th anniversary of my sister's death. I didn't call my parents until the next day. The seem to be holding up rather well.

Teaching community college students has been an amazing experience so far. I'm not sure if it's something I'd like to do as my only profession. I think I'd feel stranded if my only community was other teachers and the students. Going to Seattle got me so fired up about science. I like teaching, but I think, like many things in my life, I could only be satisfied if it's a component of my life, and not my whole life.

I went to SF yesterday afternoon to hang out with Ethan, who's back for a couple of days. He had some crazy massage the day before, so he just hung out and belayed. What a guy! Then we got indian food at a restaurant in the Mission with a bunch of other people. It was awesome. I really like hanging out with his friends in SF. I'm a bit envious of his community there. Ethan is pretty young, but it's pretty impressive how mature he is in some ways. For example he's way better with people than I am. He can sit and chat with people in the gym, and be interested in what they have to say, far longer than I can tolerate.  Not to mention that given he's a famous climber, people are always stopping to talk to him.  His patience impresses me...it's never been something I've had in spades. I could learn a lot.

Got back around midnight and finally slept ok. It's been so warm at night that it's hard to sleep...the last couple of nights have been cooler, and I actually wake up refreshed, which is a nice feeling.

Going back to teaching, I'm learning so much about what makes people successful and what doesn't (at least in my small small world of school and academia). In generally I don't think of myself as particularly successful. Until I go and teach! Then I think "hey, I'm not doing so bad, and I know a thing or two."  It's a nice feeling.  That said, a lot of my students are really great. I think it's just that the general vibe is that people don't listen, have to ask things over and over, get confused easily, don't turn in things on time, show up late, or think I'm expecting too much. Sometimes it seems like some of them are just missing some basic life skills. It's not that they have a lack of knowledge, or are unable to learn, or don't know the right people - it's just that they don't know what to prioritize, be responsible or professional. I don't know. It's hard to put my finger on it.

The good news never stops

Two news articles of interest to me came through my reader feed today:

http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1/


and

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/10/3898211/federal-judge-halts-paiute-cutthroat.html


Wow. The news just doesn't get any better.  Soon we'll be left with rainbow trout and largemouth bass.

Barely making it...

So Cannibals...the new route I'm working. It's hard. A lot harder than hanging on to jugs for long enough to call it .12d. Yep - there's real rock climbing on it. Like with your feet and stuff. Anyway I went up there Friday afternoon and then this morning. I gave myself 2.5 hours to get home before I got picked up to go to the airport for a flight to Seattle. Unfortunately there was a massive accident on the portion where east-bound traffic is in the west-bound lane, and that was a huge clusterfuck and I wasn't sure if I'd catch my flight. I got home with half an hour to pack, eat, and not shower. So now I'm dirty from climbing.

I'm also looking at the program for the AFS conference in Seattle - I'm pretty excited and extremely overwhelmed. It is HUGE. I think there are hundreds of presenters, dozens of special symposia, and some interesting socials. Tonight I think I'll make it in time to go to this huge sustainable seafood welcome banquet. This NatGeo chef Barton Seaver is apparently spearheading a big to-do:

"Join us for a sustainable seafood extravaganza that reflects the variety and abundance of Pacific Northwest and Alaskan seafood, with menus reflecting the famed sustainable recipes of National Geographic Fellow, Chef Barton Seaver. Come for great food and beverages, lots of conversation with friends, and a fun-filled session of Swing Dance (including instructions!!). Why swing dancing?  Well, can you keep a secret? (((We’re preparing for a Wednesday night  AFS Swing Fish Flash Mob…aka Splash Mob… to be held at the Westlake Center PRIOR TO the Wednesday Night Social…shhhhhh)))  This Welcome Social isn’t one you’ll want to miss. It will be a fun way to dive straight into a fantastic AFS conference in Seattle."


I doubt I'll be swing-dancing. Unless J-Katz is there because he's so cute. But that's neither here nor there. Monday there are a few talks I'll go to, Tuesday morning some more, then I'm working the satellite info booth Tuesday afternoon (CV builder), and Tuesday night there are 2 big socials. The first one is the genetics subsection which my advisor will be at...so I kind of have to go. Also they are closing down the Seattle Aquarium for students only for 2 hours...should be awesome:

"The whole aquarium will be exclusively set for students only from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.  The Career Fair will be hosted from 5:30 to 7:30 for students and later at 7:30 to 8:30 for AFS general attendees.  This night is proudly co-hosted by the AFS Student Subsection and HTI.  Bring your appetite early in the evening for a free student-only dinner and freely tour Seattle’s world-class aquarium.  In the background, HTI will show real-time demos of the latest in acoustic telemetry and hydroacoustic echo sounding technology in the aquarium tanks to watch while everyone enjoys one great Seattle night.  Come for the connections, to hang out with fellow students, for the great food, the live local music, and to watch the diversity of aquatic life in the Pacific Northwest"


Wednesday there's an entire symposium on conservation genetics and genomics, and my collaborator on the delta smelt project is speaking...Wednesday afternoon I'm getting picked up by a friend of a friend to go to Little Si - never been there. Plus James managed to find out (how does he do that?) that I'm going so he'll be along as well. Jesus word travels fast in the climbing community.

Thursday I'm talking about Conservation Genetics of the Owens pupfish in a special symposium on using genetic tools to for conservation programs ...should be a fairly breezy talk, I've given most of it before and it's in pretty good shape. Plus everyone loves pupfish. I could probably show a bunch of pupfish photos and everyone would just lazily sit back with silly grins on their faces. I feel sorry for my roommate Mariah who has to talk about the extraordinarily political subject of reintroducing chinook to the San Joaquin River. Not jealous.

Then I fly home and spend Friday in bed not talking to anybody. These events completely overwhelm me. Just looking at the program has made me say "holy shit." and "oh my god" out loud to myself (in the airport) several times. This conference is gigantic. Totally high-rolling it at the Sheraton downtown as well. There are so many talks I wont' get a chance to see...talks that have less to do with my research and more to do with my personal interest, especially now that it's piqued by teaching my fisheries class. I want to hear about out addiction to stocking...how to keep teaching about fisheries exciting, another labmate's talk on analyzing the stomach contents of predatory fish to determine what they are eating, yet another guy who's been helping me out with fish sampling is also talking. Too bad I don't have the stomach to sit through talk after talk without getting extremely antsy.

I can say this - life will definitely calm down after the conference. I want to focus on my Great Basin projects and teaching, plus my ward is leaving so I'll be collecting delta smelt data by my onesie. Wonder when I'll get a real job.

How to teach evolution

I'm cruxing on the fact that a lot of my students clearly don't understand evolution and natural selection.  Those topics are particularly tough for several reasons:
1. It's political (which is dumb, but people are dumb, so it makes sense)
2. People think that they understand it when they really don't
3. It's a topic that needs to be "sat" with for a long time to really let it sink in
4. It's not something that you can see happen in an instant.

So I'm putting together a series of videos:

First one that I can't embed that is by far the most offensive, and hilarious:

http://youtu.be/KzF5aQ8X-hA

Next up:









Too bad I can't actually show all of this or I'd get fired. Being in a community of academic scientists in Davis has skewed my perception of the world and what people believe, understand, or care about. I try to remind myself of that every day, but I'm still actually surprised when people believe in Jesus and shit.  I can't let my students in on my disbelief and how much of a bubble I live in. It's hard.

I'm not required to teach evolution in my class. In fact I'm not required to teach anything since the class has never been taught before at American River. However on a personal note it's really important to me that people at least understand it, even if they don't believe it. Some of the students understand it, but since there are no prerequisites, a lot of folks have never had to learn evolution, or learned it so long ago that it's out of the window.  So many questions about what I should/can teach. I mean even a quick and dirty talk on evolution and natural selection could be a challenge - people get entire graduate degrees and base their whole careers on understanding it.

Basically this is all I'm thinking about right now. Such an eye-opener.

Pretty song + teaching doubts

My latest song obsession.

I'm in unfamiliar territory lately. What with my ward and my class, I'm not used to being in charge. I don't particularly like it. I'd rather just have a discussion group with people over beer, but instead I have to develop rubrics and grade people, and be a hardass about attendance, etc.  I don't make a very good policewoman.

My typical way of dealing with people is to sit back and observe and then decide how I'm going to act.  I'm not the greatest at asking for what I need. It seems strange that this would translate to a course, and that grading and all that crap would be easy, but it's not.

Another big challenge is my generally sensitive nature. One of the characteristics I like and dislike about myself is that I'm extremely sensitive. Sensitive to body language, expressions, comments, and innuendo.  Combine that with a very observant nature and I'm always trying to read the students for if they're getting it or not, or if they're enjoying themselves or bored or need a break or whatever.  I don't know what that line is of making sure they have a good time and getting the job done.

I can't be less sensitive - it's the nature of the beast. But perhaps I can find a way to cope with it. I accept that they're not all going to want to be there, they're not all going to attend, or participate, or even like me.  That I get...I just need to stop "collecting and analyzing data" when I look at their faces.  Or not stop, but do it less.

I'm so tired and overwhelmed right now.  Hopefully when I get back from my conference things will calm down a little bit.  I do appreciate the challenge and the novelty of teaching. It's apparent after 31 years that I need a lot of action and challenges to stay happy and engaged.  One thing I can say is that I'm definitely engaged right now. I'm so engaged in the work that I'm doing that normal things that I'd mull over just don't fit in after triage. Blessing or curse?

Damn it feels good

I mentioned that I did a couple of .12ds at Column recently, but I finished up a third at Donner today: Bronco.  The other ones were cool, but this one is a lot more meaningful. I worked it a bit last fall and fell at the top twice before it dumped snow.  Last Thursday I went to Donner for the first time since then, worked out the moves again, gave it another go, and vowed to come back.  Jackson and I were pretty lazy over the weekend (plus weekend crowds suck), so we went back up there today and I did it second go.

Total surprise, and it felt SO GOOD.  I haven't felt that good after a send in a long time!  Theres's something to be said for being attached to a route.  I was definitely attached to that one.

Another cool thing was that I did it in good style.  I fucked up a few things, hung in there, and then fired the crux.  It felt great.  And NOW (not after the sends at Column), I'm allowing myself to think "wow-I'm really fit right now."  Finally... a little bit of confidence.  I'll take it.  I'll also say this - endurance and ability to recover goes a long way.  I could completely get my heart rate down at every rest, and oh boy do I ever find rests.  Awesome.

New occurrences

So yesterday it occurred to me that I have three jobs. THREE. That's too many jobs. Granted, I don't have to work all three jobs every day, but at least every week.

1. Teaching (I had my first class Saturday)
2. Fish and Wildlife Service (winding down)
3. Graduate student/post-doctoral researcher.

Yes. I am busy. Hence the lack of blogging lately.

So far the teaching is going well, though of course it's too early to tell. The student seem excited and bright and engaged. I'm so informal that one thing I worry about is having them forget who's boss. Gotta be a bit more of a hard-ass I think.

Also I went into the field:

View Larger Map

Gmaps makes it difficult (or I haven't figured out how) to make the route go along dirt roads, but this is the general route.  It was AWESOME. I live for this shit. Meeting biologists and going to random out-of-the way places. Love love love.

Here are some photos:

 Hay Corral Spring on Lockes Ranch

 Crenichthys nevadae (Railroad Valley springfish)

 Lockes Ranch is adjacent to Black Rock Station (not the same as Black Rock City of Burning Man fame)

 Old ranch houses at Green Springs

 More Green Springs

 Railroad Valley springfish in tequila (I need to start bringing ethanol with me everywhere I go)

 We slaughter bass after they slaughter native fishes, then we inspect their stomachs to see what they are eating.

 Fish Creek Springs tui chub

 Shoshone Pond Natural Area, a reserve for the Pahrump poolfish.

 Catching the Pahrump poolfish in a tiny ditch.

Pahrump poolfish  - endangered.

In other news, for the required spray about rock climbing, I've finished two .12ds at Column of the Giants - Contortionist and Spin Doctor - in three weeks...hopefully the crag isn't soft and they are legit and I'm actually feeling fit.  We'll see. I started on a .13a called Hey Ladies that is pretty fun, but chossy and a bit scary (like most of the crag).  Just a couple more days up there, so hopefully I can finish it up before I start going to Donner to finish up some stuff.

Adorable!

I wrote my first email to my students and two have already responded. Check this out:

Wow I am so excited. I have always wanted to work with fish and help sustain them. I am 3 classes from graduation and I feel like I have been waiting my whole life to take this class. and another: Awesome!!! I'm so excited.  This is my first class that is actually toward my major and I'm oozing with enthusiasm. So cute, and it makes me pretty excited. I hope that I can be a good teacher! Oh yeah I sent my project. blah blah blah. I did it 2nd try 2nd day on, which just shows you that I was strong enough but totally botched it the previous like, 7 times.  wtf.

Column column column

I think this is probably one of my first summer sport-climbing seasons ever.  I've been going to Column of the Giants every weekend for the past month or so.  It's such a pile of choss.  It's a pile of choss sitting on a mountain of choss.  But it's OUR pile of choss, so that makes it fun!

It's even chossier than Jailhouse and Gold Wall.

I KNOW!

Damn the problem with not blogging very much is that a lot happens and I don't write about it.  Like my sampling trip to North Fork Cottonwood Creek.  And my very strange hookup with the random hippie guy in Mammoth.  And Ethan and Cuz staying over in Davis after going to a few grad school bbqs with me Thursday night.  They are both so adorable.  It's all good stuff and it's all worth a separate blog post.  Overall the trend has been fun + busy...which I'll take!

random hippie guy in NFCC

I seem to have a new optimism about the people I hang out with lately (and the people I'm meeting and people in general).  I hope that teaching my class (which starts the 20th!) doesn't bring me down.  I'm having fun riding this high as long as I can.

always looking for mushrooms. 

field clothes are so hot.

Now hopefully today I can send one of the three freakin' .12ds that I'm falling at the end of.  I need to finish some routes.

My minion is now my ward.

I've decided (with the help of Sunshie and Kristina) to change my jargon for my "minion" to my "ward". It seems far more appropriate.

Off to climb and go fishing!

Overload. Meltdown.

So rather than doing the productive things that I need to do, I am watching 6 Feet Under and playing Words with Friends.

For the first time in grad school I'm so overloaded that I feel a bit like I've shut down.  I'm trying to prepare for the class I'm teaching, which starts on Aug 23.  Then there's this whole slew of shit I have to do for that as well, like get a TB test, get a social security card, set up my email account and an online site for the course...

Then my minion apparently cannot be taught for some reason. I'm all out of ideas for why she can't do labwork.  She's been watched making reactions by several people, and still her results suck.  I'm completely vexed and out of ideas.

I had a job interview for a position in Las Vegas as a state biologist. It was over the phone but it went really well!  I have no idea what's going to happen, since I can't start until December of January due to teaching the class.

Forget about finishing my dissertation or the side project I've been trying to do....wow there was just a really moving scene in 6 Feet Under.  I'm so easily distracted.  I blame the internet.

Yeah...and there's the garden that needs to be watered, especially since my garden partner is in Mammoth for her field season.  Uuuggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so overloaded.

Time for some serious triage.  What to take care of first?

My friends are awesome

My friend Sunshie has bees, and gave me some honey she harvested.  How cool is that?  She's also an amazing artist and made the label. This is in between getting her PhD at Berkeley, teaching an ethnobotany course, taking care of Old Betty, making her own clothes, always looking adorable, and being a way more giving and patient friend than I could ever hope to be. Plus she's one of the best eaters of my pastry/jam/salsa/mushroom/ice cream obsessions.

oof it's been a while

So it's been a while since I've actually written. Probably because I'm very busy.  In a good way.

I'm loving this summer - the weather, picking fruit, foraging, cooking, baking, hanging out with friends, etc.  I've stopped to marvel a few times at how happy I feel right now.  Is it strange that it's strange?  I'll be biking around Davis in the heat and think "wow this is really nice. I LOVE this."  I sound like I'm high!

Anyway, my latest obsession has been picking fruit at this place called Impossible Acres just west of Davis. Most fruit is 1.99 a lb.  So cheap! So now I have a crapload of jam. Apricot, Bing cherry, marionberry, boisenberry...mulberry (which we gleaned from a tree in a park in Winters).  What is it about picking things that is so satisfying?  No clue. But my friends are the beneficiaries of this (strange? natural? primitive?) habit, so everyone wins.

I do have a canning injury now though. I was using jar grabbers to grab a jar out of boiling water and my finger touched the water. I jerked my hand back and flicked boiling water in my eye. Hurt like a bitch and I found some hydrocodone left over from my MS flare 3 years ago. It doesn't hurt now, but I look like I got punched in the face. Once again I have attained new heights of sexiness - it's truly a talent. It was EXXXTREME canning, if I do say so myself. I think the apricot jam is going to be really good.

Tonight I'm going to a pig roast at someone's house (they shot it). My friend is also way into foraging. We got some beta on where/how to find really big morels. Hopefully we'll make it up to the Sierra this weekend and score. I think I'm going to make more elderflower sherbet. That reminds me - gotta go out and get more elderberries.

I'm also starting to go to Column of the Giants. Pretty fun climbing - I like the angle of the stuff on the left side. It's a long drive, but I found a solid partner who I can meet in Jamestown, reducing behind-the-wheel time.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I got the teaching position at American River College. Class starts mid August so I have a lot of work to do. I've been attending this teaching seminar at Davis that's simultaneously given me a lot of ideas about how to teach and overwhelmed me with how much people think about teaching. Hint: it's a LOT. I'm not going to have time to think about this stuff! Between lecture and grading and organizing and all that stuff, how much time will I have to think about dualistic, multiplistic and relativistic learning? Not much I think.

Last night we packed up the moving van for Karrigan, who's relocating to Kansas after getting a PhD at Davis in Ecology and a law degree from Stanford. I'll be sorry to see him go. He's been a very good friend. On the bright side, he gave me his deep fryer, so now I can make donuts (without just using a dutch oven - temperature control of the oil is the hardest part).

In another new development, I have a minion at work, who I'm training in molecular techniques. It's interesting, and is an eye opener to how long I've worked here and how efficient I am (at least relative to a beginner). It's strange having someone report to me, and look to me to tell them what to do. Very weird. I actually have to have something for her to do...all the time, or else she doesn't know what to do with herself. On the bright side, she can generate a lot of data because she's not distracted by writing, doing rerun, organizing a class for fall semester, applying for grants, data analysis, rock climbing, canning and baking.  So that's good.

Back to Column Friday/Saturday.

Graduation photos!

Andrea's husband Brian took a bunch of photos of the graduation ceremony. They made me smile.

I wasn't all gung-ho about walking in the ceremony, but I'm so glad that I did. We all look so happy!

graduation

Heartbeats

and the original:

Mushroom sex!

Best day for morels yet! Found about a pound and a half, and I've realized that every time I find morels they are somewhere different. To find them you just have to get out and hoof it around disturbed areas. This time we found most of them in an area that had piles burned. The morels were IN the piles! We couldn't believe it. Now I'll know.

I'm excited because these are big enough to stuff (morels are hollow) and wrap in bacon and throw on the grill.  Stoked.

Plant sex!

Garden photos:

Lots of stuff, none of it climbing.

Okay it's June now. And it's like 60 degrees. Craziness.

Since I haven't been climbing due to my rotator cuff (it feels better though so hopefully it's been worth it), I've been doing domestic things like gardening and mushroom hunting and cooking and working.  And job interviewing.

People ask me if the job interview went well and I say that it's difficult to tell if it went well, but very easy to tell if it went horribly. Fortunately it didn't go horribly, so I'd tentatively like to say that it went well. I should find out in about a week if I'm accepted into the pool of adjunct faculty. Maybe I'll also find out if I am offered the job teaching the fish class.  I'm not even sure what I want. I haven't heard back from the Vegas job yet either. I might call the guy and bug him this week.

Instead I'd rather talk about mushrooms. It should be clear to everyone now who reads this (all 4 of you) that I'm obsessed. When the weather sucks or I'm injured, mushroom hunting is a great past time.  This past weekend I went with Ben, Summer and some other random chick to look for morels. We had an insider's tip to go up to Amador County where some controlled burns had been done at around 4000-5000 feet.  We didn't find much in the way of morels (below is all that I found).  However spring bolete season is upon us (we weren't expecting this), so we at least ended up with some nice Boletus. I'm the only one who found any black morels. Apparently I have a supernatural gift of spotting them on the roadside while we are driving. I kept yelling at Ben "stop the car", and then jumping out and running back down the road to grab a few.  People were astounded, and soon we were doing it American-style and trying to spot the mushrooms from the car.  Nobody was able to do this trick but me. Ha ha ha!!!

 Black morels and the lone blondie

Sunday Sarah and I worked on the garden. It's looking great!  Hopefully the cucurbits do well this summer (squash, melons, cucumbers etc.). Last summer in Davis they all got some disease and nobody got much. Our strawberries are amazing!  I can't even wait until they are at peak ripeness...I have to eat them now!

Sunday afternoon I went over to Bjorn and Lisa's bearing more foraged gifts. I made elderflower sherbet from elderflower syrup I made. It was amazing. I also made elderflower fritters. More like fried dough, but novel nonetheless. I mean, who doesn't like fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar?

Last night Kat and Emily came over and we made pizzas with the mushrooms I found Saturday. Emily brought over some taleggio and Kat brought over teleme cheese.  I caramelized some onions, then we sauteed the mushrooms, added kale, garlic and pancetta.  Here are the final results (pre-baked):

I realized this morning that I didn't get any after shots because we were too busy eating them!  The pizzas were amazing.  I can't wait to get out and find more shrooms.

Yet another endangered plant, and another photo of me in Europe!

First a picture of me in Ceuse that Keith Ladzinski gave me (after I begged; I know no shame):

I flashed this route! It's 7a+! Yay me!

Ok switching gears.

Kind of depressing and kind of cool to see another endangered plant. There are probably less than 200 of these guys in existence. They grow on random outcroppings in random places in Marin county.  This particular population may be one of the largest and we counted 46 plants.  The rock is in a field below a housing development in Bodega Bay.  Such a narrow range for a plant. Doesn't make for a good prognosis, though apparently they are easy to grow in a garden setting.  Behold the only yellow larkspur, Delphinium luteum:

Mushrooms!

I'm so excited about another mushroom season - this time morels.  I went up towards Marysville last weekend with Ben (of the pig-ass-shooting fame) and his wife Summer. We'd located a fire around some random lake in Yuba county. We found the fire ok and pulled over and got out of the car. Within the first half hour we found a really good flush of morels - which was great because none of us had ever found any before.  They were in a north-facing drainage.  After we collected the shrooms, we wandered around for another three hours or so and found nothing. The first flush gave us some false confidence I guess.

The first two nights I sauteed some with bacon and arugula and ate them over penne with some shaved parmesan. Man that was good.  Last night I decided to try something different, so I made "pizzettas":

I forgot to turn off the auto-white balance.  Whatever.  The pizzas were really good, and the dough was thin and crispy.

After we found the mushrooms, we stopped and bought some eggs from someone with very cute chickens.  Chickens are so great. I mean, look at them:

Great, right?  By the way, if you have any affection for chickens whatsoever you should watch the PBS documentary "The Natural History of Chickens."  It's hysterical and you won't regret it. It's all on youtube, but I can't embed.  Here's part 1/6. Just watch it. Trust.

Hmm...other than that, I'm trying to bribe/harass/cajole/beg my friend in El Portal to take me to the spot where he found a bunch of morels. If he doesn't, then all of the photos that he sent me via his phone of the morels he found will just make him a mean mean person.

Oh. right. rock climbing. Had a fucking great day at Gold Wall last Saturday - I feel fitter than ever...still. I wonder how long it will last. I'm going back with Addison again Friday. Hopefully I will send Golden Showers. It's a great route, but it hurts my shoulder a bit. You can see why here:

High gaston = shoulder distress

However, don't I look goooooooood?  Just kidding, but this photo is so funny:

Crazy times - me a professor?

So shit's been crazy lately. I've finally started to apply for jobs. So far I'm applying to teach a course on fisheries at American River College in the fall, and also a state wildlife biologist based in Las Vegas. I've been polling people on whether or not they would live in Vegas now. People tend to be either violently opposed to living in Vegas themselves (but happy to have me live there so they can come visit), or ambivalent.  I think only Brad was stoked on living in Vegas.  Beth mentioned that they have a great Whole Foods, Stanley mentioned that it would be awesome if the city burned down completely. Vegas tends to get some funny polar reactions from people. I'm into it.

The job in Vegas would be working with endangered aquatic species throughout southern Nevada, which would be perfect for me. Working at Fish and Wildlife has made it VERY clear that I do NOT want to sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Both the teaching job and the biologist job would surely involve moving around quite a bit. This is a good thing-crucial in fact.

Can you see me as a professor? NO WAY! Hard to believe. I get the willies thinking about it. Not to mention the hiring process for both jobs involves and interview (for the teaching position, I have to give a 10 minute talk to the recruitment committee - yikes!). Ugh. I should probably work on what few charming aspects I have...and maybe find some more.

There's so much going on with applying for jobs and getting labwork/writing done. So many projects. SO MANY PROJECTS!  I doubt I'll finish everything by September, but hopefully I'll at least have all the data collected.

Tomorrow Gold Wall! Yay! Super excited to climb there. Such an enjoyable crag.

Last few weeks

Since I've gotten back from Europe I've been adjusting back to a normal schedule. I'm almost there. I think that the measure I can go with is how much I'm thinking about all the shit I need to do - and I'm thinking about that a lot.  Getting back into the groove.

The last two weekends I've gone to Mammoth to climb with Shannon. This past weekend Tom Addison came with me, and we did 2 days in the gorge and a day at Granite Basin doing Hair Raiser buttress. It is a runout granite slab. I made him lead everything. I'm no hero.

Photos of Granite Basin:

Here are some photos of the Eldo Roof in the Gorge. Poor Peanut ran through a shitload of nettles and was suffering. I felt so bad.  John was suffering because he just had wrist surgery:

We picked some nettles and made some nettle pesto, which was super good.  I'd always wanted to eat them (I get a kick out of foraging).  So I just got some gloves, scissors and a plastic bag and loaded up.

Finally, a photo of the garden. We've done some summer planting already. The trick is going to be keeping up with the watering. But we still have a ton of chard (blah, sick of it already), and our strawberries are going off! I love picking strawberries and eating them. They never even make it home - I just eat them there.