Gopher, Everett?

Crom got me roses for Valentine's Day.  Not a dozen longstems, but an actual rose bush.  The only way for us to enjoy flowers is to plant them in the yard because our genius cats will eat them if they are inside.  After 2 years of locking roses in the bathroom after receiving them as gifts, we finally just purchased a climbing plant.  Here is the first bloom.  Enjoy!

RoseIII

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Been working my ass off in the field lately.  Spring semester is over, lots of new undergrads helping us in the field.  It's stressful breaking new people in, some of which are only volunteering for that line on the CV.  Crom and I had friends in for a solid week from AR.  Was so good to see them.  Wish they could have stayed longer.  Got a provisional acceptance on a manuscript.  Dearest advisor gave me the morning off from the field so I could work on getting it revised for resubmission.  First morning I've had off in a while--feels sort of weird.

Good news....finally found an active cardinal nest.  After finding hundreds of old ones, active vireo, cuckoo, dove, and thrasher nests, I finally stumbled upon a cardinal nest that will have eggs laid in it soon.  It may seem not a big deal to most (and in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't), but after 2 months of searching and enduring

KentuckywarblernestlingsII

four zillion briar scratches on my arms, legs, back and face (yes, face), finally finding a damn nest that is worth something felt fantastic.  Here is a pic of a Kentucky warbler nest we found a week ago.  Got to see the little guys hatching.  Very cool.  Until next time. 

While out nest searching today at my field site, we stumbled across this cardinal fledgling.  By the look of it, this little guy probably took the plunge out of the nest yesterday or today.  So tiny.  Also found the dove nestling sitting in its nest.  As I approached, the mom flew off and carried on as if she was wounded.  I wasn't aware that doves did that.  Enjoy!

Ok, as if we all need another meme to waste our time on.  I have been tagged to reveal 8 random facts about myself that I'm sure all of the world is dying to know.  So, without further ado...

1.  Fingernail polish makes my nails feel as though they are suffocating.  I never wear it.   

2.  I recently cut my hair the shortest it has ever been.  It is now a chin-length bob.  Definitely cooler during those long days in the field.

3.  I hate asking for advice.  Past authority figures beat it into my head that asking for advice is admitting you can't figure out the answer.  Damn them. 

4.  If I finish this doctorate, I have asked for a Tempurpedic bed as a graduation gift. 

5.  My first date with Crom was the result of a bet. 

6.  I am painfully shy around most people.  If I am ever outgoing, it's either because I have to be or I've had too much to drink.

7.  Which brings me to my favorite alcoholic beverages:  Beer = New Castle, Mixed Drinks = Either a girlie martini or gin and tonic.  Depends on the bar. 

8.  I have been told that I have "carnie hands."  They are small, but strong.  However, I don't think they smell like cabbage...

You know, sometimes life just sucks.  It beats you down and you get in this perpetual funk where nothing seems to bring you any joy, just some things are less painful than others.  I had a bit of a bad week and that about sums up my mental state.  But then, life lets you see this and suddently, things are looking up.  I'd never seen one of these birds alive and certainly never held one. Today was my lucky day.  Feast your eyes upon the painted bunting. 

Got a couple of days off from the field to work on this friggin' grant proposal.  So much work for a 1/1,000,000,000,000 chance of being selected to receive like $1000.  Damn the hoops.

But, I did get to see that all of this crap does pay off sometimes.  I got my page proofs in for my first publication over the weekend.  Pretty cool stuff.  I'm staring at all of the scholarly (and I use that term loosely) journal articles on my kitchen table at the moment and realize that mine looks just like theirs from afar.  Kinda cool. 

Off to treat myself to a haircut.  That's right--a  haircut.  Haven't had one since January and the south is just too friggin' hot for long, thick hair.  Toodles. 

Oh, give Crom a shout out if you will.  He had his first tooth crowned today and he doesn't handle the dentist well.  He was also forced to sit down and read my article aloud for two hours last night to look for errors.  He's not so bad sometimes : ) 

Gorgeous bird of the week goes to....the indigo bunting.  Caught this little male this morning and took a couple of decent pics.  First time for me to hold one in hand, so it was a treat.  Enjoy!

Ok, well, I'm tired of being pestering by Crom for not posting something, so I figured the time was right to pull my head out of my anus and oblige.  I don't have any cool pics at the moment because field work has largely consisted of mapping territories and nest searching.  We have handled a few birds the past couple of weeks, but not many.  Let's see, noteworthy news....I'm thisclose to being given permission to write my doctoral proposal.  Scary stuff.  Still have a few things to bang out concerning methods, timeline, etc.  Got some preliminary work done that I was interested in doing and it worked, so that's always good.  We know where about a dozen territories are at our field site and I've started jogging again (few miles a day).  Spring is definitely here.  The trees are leafing out and birds are singing.  We heard a blue-headed vireo on the field site over the weekend and the cardinals are singing their heads off. 

A recent social outing brought some disturbing news to my attention.  I'm losing social skills.  Big time.  I can't talk about anything but work.  Hell, even my blog reflects it.  The one creative outlet I have that does not have to be work related is filled with reminders of the field, from school, etc.  I started this blog to have a place to post mindless dribble to my heart's content and it has been infiltrated with work-related commentary.  Well, I'm just going to have to change that.  There was a time in the not-so-distant past when I was fun.  I had friends, played sports, and laughed on occasion.  I miss that and I'm pissed that I let myself get this far gone.  So, a first step towards reclaiming part of that joy is to 'cleanup' my blog.  The few fans of my bird pics, please do not worry.  I will still post good ones from time to time.  I just need to take a little hiatus from it for a while and think about something else besides school. 

I've been parked on the sofa for nearly 24 hours and I hate every minute of it.  So worthless.  Head stopped up, nose running, slight fever.  Such a bummer.  I had just started getting back into decent physical shape and getting papers churned out.  The neurons in my brain feel as though they are trying to fire through snot.  And, folks are coming over to my house tomorrow.  Crom is just as sick as I am.  Hope they don't expect much in terms of hospitality.