The holidays for me are complicated, to say the least. My brother's family and my in-laws are Jewish, I'm Wiccan, and everyone else is Christian. So, little bit celebrates Hannukah, Yule, and Christmas. I took a gamble. Iree is learning about different holidays in school, so I asked her teacher if they were going to teach about Yule as well. It turns out that she hadn't planned on it, but said that she'd try to fit it in this week. She didn't make a deal out of it at all and it was a non-issue. I am so pleased! I feel a little more mainstream. Yesterday, they read a story about Yule. I don't know what else they're going to do, what she's going to teach them, but it's something. When I was in school, I didn't know anyone who was Jewish or what Chanukah was. I knew there was a Jewish thing with candles in December, but that's about it. Now it's actively part of our lives.

I have a tree test today. 94 species of trees, including over a dozen species of pines and the hickories. I think I'll do alright. This tree is a Frasier Fir, Abies fraseri, and along with it's brother the Balsam Fir, is the best Yule tree. Spruces shed like crazy and I'm just not fond of pines. Both firs are native to Tennessee, but the Frasier is pretty much limited to East Tennessee. You can buy locally grown trees, and most of them sell firs and pines that are native to the area.

I don't post on this blog very often, but here's the low-down, quick and dirty:

I'm still in school, it eats my head. I had two non-flowering plants tests last week, lecture and lab. We are moving from algae and the algae that love them and on into amphibious plants like liverworts. If I'm lucky, we'll get to ferns before the end of the semester.
Only a couple more labs to teach and I don't have to do the GTA thing. Woot!

My mundane life has been pretty...mundane. I don't have time for drama, so there's no drama to be had. My car had issues this morning, but it may just be a loose or leaky hose. Our Cavalier is paid off - WOOT! That's a car payment's worth of money that we can use for other things!

My spiritual life is at a nice dynamic equilibrium. The Gods seem to be at the worst not hindering my efforts at going along in life and at the best, helping me along. I'm still doing research on the Nine Woods - very interesting stuff that I may get to later.

That's about all that's fit to print. My husband totally made lasagna today. He has been the domestic dynamo since I've been back to school. Competence is sexy.

No spark

An engine needs spark, fuel, and air to make all the little 'splodeys to make it be go. My brain isn't much different. I need spark, fuel, and air. Well, I'm doing alright in the air department, no worries there. I could use more fuel than I'm getting now. Try though I might, I just don't think I'm getting enough calories for how active I am right now. I'm below my acceptable range by about three pounds last time I checked.
And spark?
No spark.
I can get only so many neurons to fire over the course of the day and I think I've surpassed my daily limit. PPppppllllltttttttt...
Brain squishy now.

Good morning.

I am having a good morning so far. I slept well, got some spinning done at the bus stop, and when I got to school, I found a crow feather and the email address of an old friend (hi Alex!). I already have notes for teaching today and a good idea of what I need to do. Today is Dendrology, otherwise known as the "stomp around in the grass and look at trees" class. (sarcasm) Oh no. What ever shall I do. Not the stomp around and look at trees class, anything but that. (/sarcasm) You might as well throw me into a pile of hand-dyed merino.
I hope the rest of the day goes as well as my morning has. The good night's sleep really goes a long way toward improving my attitude about things.
Oh, today I'll be teaching about fermentation. Mmmmmm...fermentation. Bread, beer, mead, wine, more bread.

I'm tired. Really, really tired.

I just don't know it yet.

Four hours of sleep last night, one cup of coffee this morning and a second in progress. I ride to school, blood moving through my veins. "Just ride," I say, "When you are riding, just ride." Maybe my shoulders let loose for a moment or two, but then tense right back up again as though I've put a thick rubber band around them.

I'm cheerful and friendly and it's genuine. I really do want you to have a nice day and a good morning. Also, I'm at work. I'm working. When I'm working, everything else gets left at home. It's not a bad morning. I had cake for breakfast. I don't eat sweets much, but cake for breakfast is a nice treat. The bitter coffee offsets the sweet and it's better that way. Too much and I feel terrible, but a little is nice sometimes.

I like teaching when I'm in there and the kids (only a couple of whom are actually older than me) are responsive. I found a major flaw in my next lab I'm supposed to teach and I said something, so I get to do it my way. Uncharted territory for me, but not really. Yes, that's a sentence fragment.

Second cup is half done. I had better study.



Gleocapsa, means "gluey box." Microcystis, "small bladder."

Lovely little blue-green things, lit from beneath. Fischerella is my favorite, named for a man named Fischer.

Today, I came home from the grocery store with ZERO plastic bags. None, zippo, zero, zilch. HA-ha! And all the meat I bought was hormone free and, get this, I made a meal plan for dinners for the week and shopped accordingly. Woot!
A successful grocery trip is always a happy thing.
I've been fairly productive today. I got a few more rows done on my man-sweater (remind me to update A Lace Maze is in Jest), went to the store, filled out paperwork for little bit's after school program, prepared for class, and came up with some questions for the Butterfly Guy re: being his lab monkey and thesis research.
The little one made me smile the smile of a very proud mommy today. We're in the store and she asks for a treat if she's good. I say that it would be alright by me. She asks variously for chocolate milk or vitamin water and when I tell her she has to choose one or the other today, she chooses vitamin water. Then, at dinner, she asked for more broccoli as a treat for eating her rice.
I win at life.

Tired now.
My schedule is really kind of insane. I'm only taking two classes, but I teach four one day a week, two hour labs. My office hours, which I'm required to have, are all at gods' still havin' coffee in the morning because that's the only time I've got, really. Then I've got to find time to collect 50 or so species of trees (fortunately, they're relatively easy to catch compared to insects). Then there's the reading I've got to do and I've got to figure out this semester what my graduate project is to be.
I finally tracked down the butterfly guy and talked to him this afternoon and we had a little chat. So, this is progress.
This is not to mention household duties and other obligations.
Big deep breath... (inhales)
and out again - whoo!

I have discovered that many very smart PhD types exhibit varying degrees of confusion and awe when confronted with the fabric arts. "I could never do anything like that!" says a guy that can identify a species by common name, latin name, and what it's mamma calls it. "Wow, that's really hard!" says a guy that can amplify, chop up, and analyze DNA. Neither of these direct quotes, mind you, but it is interesting to see how scientists react when confronted with something completely out of their range of knowledge.
I'm not sure what kind of perspective this puts things into, but it's a different one.

I'm kind of feeling down today. I'm not discussing details here, but I could use some prayers for well-being. I start school tomorrow and that's part of the stress, but certainly not all of it.

Hey, guys!
Yeah, I've decided to move from LJ to Blogger - all my blogging needs in one convenient stop.
Yesterday was my birthday and I had a pretty fantastic day. The DH is out getting me presents as I type. Kadollan and I went out for lunch yesterday and then she went with me to the salon for many hairs cut.

Here are pictures.
Anyhow, after that (it took all afternoon) I went with big sweetie and little sweetie out to Plantation House for dinner with the Father-in-Law. MIL and Stepdad-in-Law didn't make it, but no wukkas. Here, then, is picspam of my birthday haircut. The lady in the picture is Theresa from The Catwalk salon (formerly Christenberry's, across from IHOP in the 'boro). The two feet or more of follicular goodness is being sent via snailmail to Locks of Love today. They need it more than I do. Despite my best efforts, I still ended up looking like my Mom. It can't be helped, really. She did contribute half my genetic information (I'm still way cuter, though).