Greg and Kat's blog

I haven’t blogged for a week, but there isn’t really much to say. But, here goes anyways.

We’ve been working on getting the log cabin neat and tidy and Sunday we had incentive. We had the Sockman and Burmeister labs over for dinner. Actually, is was only half the Burmeister lab as 2 of the women are in Panama doing fieldwork, and their tech and her husband couldn’t make it. Lucky for us, as I’m not sure there’s enough room for both full labs. Anyways, Greg made salmon with onions, dill, and lemon; garlic mashed potatoes; steamed green beans and strawberry-blueberry compote to go over ice cream. All went well, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. They also all seem to like the quirkiness that is my new home, so that’s nice.

Speaking of the new home, the pictures of the fully furnished log cabin are now up in the gallery. I’m still working out (with Suyoko) what the color scheme should be, so the sky blue futon cover will soon be gone, and all three of the white bookcases will have fabric hanging in front of them. Just have to figure out what kind of fabric. It’s slightly difficult to “design” the log cabin because all of the furniture was handed down to us from the people we subletted our old place from or found near (but not in!) dumpsters. So, of course, nothing matches. But, I’m working on that.

On the science side, I’m working on my NIH proposal to get funding for the rest of my post-doc. If I don’t get any $$ in this round, I may be coming home sooner than expected! Last year I was running around frantically trying to get reference letters because one of my committee members was on vacation and didn’t leave a letter before he left, and the other had written a letter but didn’t inform me that she had sent it, and then promptly left for a conference where she was incommunicado for a week. Luckily both Jim and Francois (old members of the Williams lab who now have spectacular positions at Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) wrote me letters at the last minute. This year I was prepared. I wrote to people early. Unfortunately I again missed Norbert, who again went to Germany. But, no worries, it was still early enough to contact Jim and Marilyn (one of my undergraduate project supervisors) to write me letters. Whew! Everyone had sent their letters out. I was calm. But that didn’t last long. To date, I have only received 3 of the 4 letters. The remaining one is Tony’s, my PhD supervisor, making this letter the most important one! Funnily enough, he was the first one to mail his letter on July 11. It is now August 1, and I still don’t have his letter. So, yet again, I was freaking out over reference letters getting in on time. This year, Oliver and Emily are the lifesavers as they are FexExing me a copy of the letter. Craziness! At least there’s still time for FedEx!

Catching birds is also not going well. I think for some reason there are no more HOFIs in Chapel Hill. Well, at least none around my traps! So, I’ve packed up my feeders at the one site I’ve been catching at and will move them to the original site that is closer to the department. Today is Adam’s last day, so I won’t have anyone to help me haul the traps out. So, being closer to the department will mean that I can still try to catch on my own until mid-August. But, the birds I do have are doing well. The conjunctivitis ones are getting better, and no new cases have developed. Yea!

New bites: 10 (including another one on my face which I think I got from a mosquito in my office). Total summer bite count: 63.

Keith got back from the field today. I was expecting a gaggle of field assistants to be back with him, but I guess they all went to their respective homes for a break after a summer of tenting it in Colorado. Keith brought back about 60 Lincoln Sparrows: ~20 adults, ~20 first years that can feed themselves and ~20 young first years that Adam is currently feeding every 2 hours. So glad I’m not a tech or a grad student. Keith seems to think that kind of work doesn’t fall into the realm of what a post-doc should have to do (at least one that’s not going to be working on the LISPs anyways, so I don’t have to do it! Yippee! They’re pretty cute (kinda small and round and fat). I’ll get pictures up of them being fed soon.

So to prep for the arrival of these new birds, I had to move my birds inside and clean/disinfect the aviary cages. I thought that would be a 1-day job: move birds in the morning, clean flight cages in the afternoon. Nope, it took 1 whole day to move the birds. Mostly because I didn’t want to net them as they were probably already stressed from being in captivity, and I didn’t want any more to develop the eye-swelling thing that HOFIs are prone to. So, instead we set the traps that we usually catch with inside the cages, and when the birds decided they wanted to eat, they got caught and the moved. Well, apparently some of them weren’t really hungry, and didn’t go into the traps until after 4:00. So it was a whole day of checking the aviary every 15 minutes.

The next day (yesterday) was spent cleaning out the aviary cages. It had rained heavily the night before and earlier that morning, so everything was damp. I know the last couple of days it’s been scorching in Vancouver. Picture that, plus torrential rain on top of it and humidity like you’ve never felt before, and that was what Adam and I got to work in. But, we were able to get everything washed out, scrubbed, and disinfected by noon. Luckily there was a break in the rain during the time we were actually out there or else we’ve have been soaked though. As it was, everything from the kneed down was soaked, and the water wasn’t too clean. This is the life I chose.

A couple highlights from the day:

1. Greg picked me up from work because it was POURING down rain around the time I wanted to go home, and I had already gotten soaked on my walk in to school that morning by passing cars. This may not seem like much, but Greg doesn’t really like to pick me up from work when I can just as easily walk.

2. On our way out to the old place to pick up the last of our stuff and pack up some of the old tenants stuff for her movers, we drove by what apparently was a low-lying area. There were firemen off to one side clearing out what looked to be a clogged drainage pond. But then I saw a news van and thought, hmmm… this place isn’t that starved for news that this would be a big deal. Then I looked across the street from where the firemen were, and in a parking lot, there were 5-6 cars submerged in flood water with only about the top 6″ poking up out of the muddy water. I guess it really did rain hard!

3. Greg and I went to this Mexican restaurant that he had wanted to try. This place is right behind where day laborers congregate in the mornings to get picked up for work. People drive up in their trucks or vans, call out how many workers they want and what the job is, and guys pile in, do the job, and then get dropped back off at the end of the job/day. At least this is how it works in Los Angeles. I’m pretty sure it’s about the same here. Anyways, Greg figured that it was probably a good place to eat because I guess he saw some of the day laborers go in or come out of this restaurant. If it’s good enough for them, it’s probably authentic! So, we decided to get take-out. We walked in, and it was more of a diner/small convenience store/meat counter (I think – that part was empty). The menu was all in Spanish, and the people didn’t seem to speak English. So, with a bit of broken Spanish (I know stuff like “apple” and “Pedro has a dog. The dog’s name is Spot” from elementary school Spanish!), some pointing, and giggles from both us and the woman helping us, we ended up with 3 chicken tacos, a special platter (fixin’s for 5 tacos: chicken, beef, shrimp, rice, beans, lettuce, tomato, jalapeno peppers), a bag of sweet bread, and a bag of chicharone (fried pork skins – Mexican as well as Filipino delicacy!). Forgot to take a picture, but it was REALLY good. I think we may try to go back and mime ourselves more good food. In any case, we got a good meal, and the woman helping us has a good story!

Yup! I saved a turtle this past weekend! We were on our way out to the SuperWalmart in Hillsborough when we came across a small turtle on the road. I was worried that the little thing would get run over. So, Greg turned around and pulled off to the side of the road, and I hopped out scooped up the turtle, who tried to make a break for it, and put it in the grass at the side of the road. I don’t think it was actually trying to cross the road. I think it was just sunning itself on the asphalt. Not sure what kind of turtle it was, and unfortunately we didn’t have our camera. It was a little reddish all over. We then proceded to Taco Bell for a good hand-washing and then lunch!

There are bugs everywhere.

Firstly, there always seems to be at least one or two mosquitoes buzzing around the lab or my office. I think the last three bites I’ve received have actually been while I was sitting at my desk! How sad is that. Summer bite count: 53 (including 1 on my forehead).
Secondly, I signed for a package today for a neighboring lab. Apparently that is common here, so I figured I should. Next time I should just keep my door closed. It was a box of crickets for the reptile lab (another reason I will never work with reptiles – they eat bugs, so you have to also care for bugs!). Well, there was a small hole in the box. There are probably about 20 crickets loose in my office. I’ve left the door open, so hopefully they will go out into the hall and away from me. At least they’re not chirping!

Finally, while we were out trying to catch birds today (didn’t catch anything, but I think it’s just a lull between broods) my little foldable camping stool broke. I don’t think it’s supposed to be used on a daily basis. Anyways, there’s a ledge that Adam sometimes sits on where you can still see the traps. I sat up there. We had previously noticed spiderwebs in the corners of the ledge but have never actually seen a spider. Adam said that he thought they were black widow webs because they were kinda messy. Well, today I saw the spider. Luckily I noticed the LARGE legs first, and then the spider slowly crawled out from the crevice in the corner to sit on its web. It was a FREAKIN’ HUGE BLACK WIDOW. So, naturally I jumped down off of the ledge as fast as I could. Needless to say, I stood for the rest of my trap-watching shift. Must go and buy a new stool or chair tomorrow because there’s no way either of us is sitting up on the ledge ever again.

So, for someone who absolutely hates bugs, I’m sure being inundated with them.

As I sit here eating a bowl of less-than-tasty teriyaki chicken from the cafeteria, I’m noticing that I am sitting in a small pool of sweat. I’ve marvelled lately about this phenomenon. Everytime I go outside for more than a minute and then come back inside (or even stand in the shade), I’m soaked. But I don’t really sweat while I’m walking around outside. Just right after I come inside. Now, this is not a “glowing” type of sweat. It’s a pour-out-of-your-pores-in-streams, no, -rivers kind of sweat. It’s pretty gross and a little annoying because I have to walk outside and come back inside about 10 times a day. I think I have to bring a towel to school.

I’m not used to being this kind of hot. I grew up in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, which was often the hottest part of LA, so I’m not afraid of the heat. But that was dry heat. The humidity is killing me. When I leave the house before 7, the humidity is already stifling. I think it’s the humidity that’s preventing me from sweating while I’m out in the sun, and then once I get into the shade (most recently, the covered part of our aviary) or inside where there’s air conditioning, something like condensation occurs and all of the sweat comes out all at once. People who have grown up in humid places – is this normal, or do I have a sweat gland problem that I should see someone about?

After catching a record 9 juvies on Sunday with Greg and his parents (his dad was thrilled!), Adam and I went out to see whether we could do the same on Monday. Not only did we not catch anything, but the birds that were around my traps almost became lunch to a passing hawk. There I was, watching as the one finch that showed any interest in my traps the whole morning was about to hop into a trap, and then whoosh, birds flying everywhere. I looked up from my binoculars, and a small- to medium-sized hawk landed near my traps scaring everything off, and then immediately took off. I’m pretty sure nothing was actually caught – there were a bunch of sparrows around where the hawk landed. I think it may have been a Merlin. It was bigger than a kestral and had blue on its wings (Oli, help!) Anyways, it couldn’t have waited the 2 seconds my finch needed to convince itself that it really wanted to go into the trap. No…. it HAD to attack just in time for my bird to turn around and fly out. Dammit! Anyways, it was pretty cool to see a predation attempt.

Monday was not a good bird day at all. When I got home, Adam called from school and said that some of the juvies that we had previously caught had conjunctivitis. Apparently House Finches are prone to getting this eye infection because they get these external parasites that make their eyes swell up. I ended up going back to school and catching all of the ones with puffy eyes (5 of them), and isolating them so we can treat and monitor them. Crappiness. Anyways, they seem to be doing better (I hope it’s not just my imagination). Luckily it seems to have only struck in one of the large flight cages, but we’re keeping a close eye on everyone.

Caught 2 more birds today though. Yay!

Over the last week I’ve received another 7 bug bites (including 1 on my face!). Total bite count: 50.

Yesterday was July 4th, American Independence Day. It was the first one Greg has celebrated while in the states. We started off the day working (yes I put him to work) cutting pine branches for my birds to perch on. But then we went to the July 4th celebration in the Carrboro Town Commons. Carrboro is a pretty small town, a suburb of Chapel Hill, which itself is pretty small. So the “celebration” included 1) lots of kids stuff (a bouncy room, a ball room, some kids’ arts and crafts tables, sack races, balloon tosses, etc.), which we didn’t participate in because we don’t have a kid, 2) a stage where there was local music (think old people local music, not good local music), and 3) a row of concession tables/trailers selling carnival food. So, the celebration for us consisted of eating corn dogs, a deep fried Snickers bar, and a funnel cake. I love carnival food. Then we went home and had naps. The end.

Since we got here in early May I have been looking for a nice large teapot. Nothing fancy. I think the one I have in Vancouver is from the Bay. I just wanted it to be big (like 6 cups) and functional. I drink a lot of tea. We looked everywhere here – Target, Walmart, Pottery Barn, Pier 1, etc. Everywhere! Nothing! It’s as if people don’t drink tea here. That can’t be though – they drink sweet tea! And there’s tea in the supermarkets. So I had all but given up, and figured I’d order a teapot online.

Then the other day we went to a store called “A Southern Season.” It’s similar to Gourmet Warehouse, but a lot bigger and not as expensive. They had a huge loose tea section, so I set off on a search for a teapot. I rounded a corner, and there it was. A whole wall of teapots! Apparently they all live together in one store! So, I am now a proud owner of a large, 6-cup green teapot. I almost bought the orange one, but since my new place is all orange-brown woods, I though it would be too orangy.

Now, I know, buying a teapot generally would not be blog worthy, but think of it as a happy ending to a long and kind of confusing quest. I wonder if everyone here knows to buy their teapot at this store?

A Souther Season also had a HUGE chocolate section. Almost half of the store! They had large cooled cabinets with Godiva, Moonstruck, Neuhaus (yes Suyoko, you don’t have to go all the way to Belgium, you can just come and visit me!), and a few other companies. Then they had countless shelves of different types of chocolates. As we always do when the opportunity presents itself, Greg and I conducted a little industrial espionage. Our friend Kelly is a chocolatier (www.badgirlchocolates.com), and sells yummy truffles, jellies and covered almonds. So whenever we can, we try other companies’ chocolates and scope out their chocolate molds to get new ideas that we then pass on to Kelly. This time we tried Moonstruck chocolate “cones”. These were ice cream cone shaped chocolate shells filled with thick flavored cremes. Greg had a peanut butter cone and I had a razzleberry cone. The tops were dipped in chocolate and then decorated (pics up in the gallery in the NC Food album). So, A Southern Season is my new favorite store!

Pics of the new log cabin apartment are up too!

Greg and I like food. Not in a “we need food in order to live” kinda way. More like we’re foodies. We enjoy trying different kinds of food. So, since we’re in BBQ country, we’ve decided to immerse ourselves in the local BBQ culture. For Greg, this means selectively falling off of the pseudo-veggie wagon every so often. But hey, we’re only here for a couple years, and really, he’s only here for a couple months! We’re taking pictures of all of the interesting places we eat. They’re in the gallery under 2006 – NC Restaurants.

NC BBQ 101
Keith had explained to us that BBQ in North Carolina can be a point of contention. You see, there are two styles of BBQ in NC. The Eastern style, which is vinegar based, and Western style, which is vinegar and tomato sauce based. Chapel Hill is right on the border of the two, but most of the BBQ places here serve Eastern style. BBQ here is pork. Specifically, pulled pork shoulder, or slices of pork shoulder (I think it’s shoulder. Greg or Kelly, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).
Adam is from Lexington, NC, which is west of here. Lexington is apparently the Western style BBQ capital of NC. It hosts a yearly BBQ festival, and the town with a population of about 25,000 people swells to hold 150,000 people on the weekend of the festival. I’m hoping that I can convince someone to go with me this fall. Anyways, Adam has told me that while there are a few places that serve Western style BBQ around here, they’re not very good, and we should drive west to taste “the best BBQ”.

Country Kitchen
I think Greg has already blogged about this little diner that’s around the corner from our apartment. It’s the little diner that is only open for breakfast and lunch, and is run by an Asian couple who serve “Southern diner food,” i.e., biscuits, grits, greens, fatback (not really sure what that is), fried okra, etc. I think the picture is in the “Tour of Chapel Hill” gallery folder.

Mama Dip’s
The second local place we ate at was Mama Dip’s. It was recommended to us by Ted, a grad student in Biology, and his wife (Andrea? Can’t remember now). They’re from Alberta, and Ted was one of the grad students I had lunch with when I visited last year. Mama Dip’s serves “Southern home cooking”. We’ve gone twice now (haven’t taken a picture yet though) and have had pretty good food. The puller pork was pretty vinegar-y, but still good. It didn’t taste very BBQ-y though. I realized later, that’s probably because it’s not BBQ-ed. I think it’s stewed, or pressure cooked, or something. Interestingly, it actually tasted a lot like Filippino pork adobo, but with a little more vinegar and a little less soy! So, here I was in the South, eating what felt like Filippino home cooking. Greg had chicken and dumplings the first time – also good. The second time I had fried chicken and gravy (chicken is smothered in gravy). Good, but difficult to eat because you can’t pick it up like regular fried chicken – too slippery. For some reason Greg ordered salmon the second time we were there. The hushpuppies (fried cornmeal and onion balls) and fried okra were really good too.

Allen & Son BBQ
This BBQ place was one of the places suggested by Emily from something she had read about the food around Chapel Hill. The decor inside was definitely interesting – sort of a mix between country-kitch and hunting lodge. They had a mounted deer head, a stuffed fox, and all sorts of other things that I don’t remember. We were hoping to take a picture of the inside, but it was too dark and the flash would have gone off. This place was an actual BBQ place. We had the pulled pork plate (with potato salad and coleslaw) and fried catfish plate (with hushpuppies, fries, and coleslaw). The BBQ was really good. Only slightly vinegar-y, but with a nice smokey taste. The potato salad around here has a lot of relish in it, and so is very acidic. We’ll have to remember to not order it anymore if there are other sides available.

The Waffle House
This is part of a chain that serves fried chicken and waffles, hashbrowns that you can add stuff like onions, mushrooms, and peppers to, and other diner food. They all have jukeboxes that have songs about the Waffle House on them. We didn’t actually order waffles at the Waffle House. Greg said it was too late in the day for waffles. I’m not convinced there is actually a time of day for waffles, but whatever. We each had the bacon, egg and cheese plate with hashbrowns. Me on toast, Greg in a wrap. mmmmm… yummy, greasy diner food.
The problem with sampling all of these places is that it’s really fatty food – almost everything with the exception of the BBQ itself is deep fried or greasy. Yummy, but not so good for the waistline or the heart! Have to eat more salads when not sampling the local cuisine!

On Wednesday I was walking to the University Employee Clinic to give them a copy of my immunization records (I need it to get a swipe card for the hospital where I’m learning HPLC). I was walking along in the 90ËšC heat, when I came across a gravelly section. No problem, I’ve walked through gravel millions of times in my life. Well, this gravel had some bigger pieces in it. Still, it’s gravel! NOPE! Some of it was gravel, some of it was embedded rock jutting out of the ground, resembling gravel! So, as I saw and stepped over a large-ish piece of “gravel” with my right foot, I must have dragged my left foot a bit too close, and the pointy rock clipped the inside of my pinky toe and wrenched it outwards. If it was gravel, my toe would have probably still been stubbed. But it wasn’t it was a freakin’ rock, a boulder even! So, the inside of my pinky toe was purple and the toe was swollen. Unfortunately, with all the pain and annoyance, I forgot to take a picture. But trust me, it was a very dark purple.

The worst part was that I still had to walk to the clinic and back. So, on my way back, I saw a bus. I figured I should take this bus instead of walking all of the way back (it was probably the distance from Cornerstone to the West Mall complex, and it was stinkin’ hot). So, I get on the bus and ask the guy on it (driver was not there) whether this bus went in the direction I wanted to go. He said yes. The bus took off, and nope, it didn’t. It brought me back to the Clinic, and the closest stop was actually past the clinic! @(#*&(#*%)($^!!! So I trudged back to Biology in the heat, soaked the shirt I was wearing, and that’s when discovered my toe had turned purple and swollen. Crappiness! At least Greg was around, so he drove by and picked me up so I didn’t have to take the bus. Luckily, it’s not broken, just really bruised.

As for science, we caught 5 juveniles yesterday, but none today. We did catch an Eastern Towhee, a female Cardinal, and a bunny (pics posted soon)! Adam actually caught the bunny by running after it and scooping it us in order to move it away from the street and into the woods so it wouldn’t get run over. The bunny was really cute. Loud, but cute!