Greg and Kat's blog

Last night we were sleeping quite soundly and peacefully. Then all of a sudden I felt something on my arm. In my sleep I swatted at it. Then I felt it again on another part of my arm. Again, still mostly aspeel, I swatted at it. Then when I felt it the third time, realization hit and I bolted up, more awake than I’ve ever been, swinging my arms around like a madwoman. I think I even let out a little scream, which woke Greg up. He thought I was having a nightmare. “There’s a bug!” I yelled. I think it’s on the floor. Greg, who was now half-awake had the brilliant idea of turning on the lights. I did, and we didn’t see anything. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something dart under the covers. “It’s in the bed!” I yelled. We threw back the covers, and there it was. A 2″-long cockroach! That’s what was on me!!!!!! GROSS!!!! Greg ended up getting a plastic bag, catching it, and squashing it. I say it was a near death experience because I almost had a heart attack. At first all I could picture was a black widow spider. Only now do I realize that if it had been a spider, I probably wouldn’t have felt it. Anyways, once Greg’s in Vancouver I’m carrying a can of Raid around the house with me. GROSS!!!!

All of this happened after we had already had a bug incident the evening before. I saw a roach- or beetle-like thing crawl under the desk. We think it was a cicada, but now after looking at pictures on the web, I’m not so sure. Anyways, Greg vacuumed it up, and taped the hose end shut so it wouldn’t get out. I think maybe whatever was in the vacuum may have been the cockroach that attacked me. It was probably pissed that we had vacuumed it and somehow got out and attacked me.

Anyways, that was my near-death experience. I’m happy to be alive.

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?