Last gasp for 2010

Yup. No matter how much I try to pretend it's not true, another year has passed. 2010 is over! And here I am again, blogging on New Year's Eve. Even though I haven't blogged since September.

The back half of this year has been tough . . . since September. Maybe I shouldn't be introspective this year. Maa. If not on New Year's Eve, when, ne?

*sigh* Where to begin . . .

I was re-reading my last New Year's Eve blog, in which I was talking about the meeting with my boss to discuss my goals for the year. Well, that meeting did not go well. In fact it went so not-well it was like a personal attack on me, and that was so 180 degrees from all my previous goal meetings that I was . . . I guess 'shocked' would best describe my feelings after that meeting. But I also knew my boss was under serious stress herself, so I blew off the meeting as just her stress. After the meeting she didn't initially act any differently toward me, but things got more and more tense between us.

At any rate, she was unhappy enough that she has since left. She took a new position out east and left in September. That was great with me except for one thing. Before she left she did her damnedest to destroy my career. Yup. That also came almost totally out of the blue. There was tension, but I never expected she'd tell the department chair that I was not promote-able and send a letter recommending that I couldn't do my job and should look for another one elsewhere. To say that I was dumb-founded would be putting it mildly. And of course, this is the year I should be up for promotion to full Professor.

Luckily, it doesn't look like she's done me any harm in the long run, but it's been a tough Fall. My ex-boss antagonized enough people in the department before she left that people were willing to believe that she was not correct in her assessment of me. Plus, I have a lot of support in the department from other people I work with, who know my work ethic and my work in general. I have support from all over the US from colleagues at other universities and hospitals who I work with. So the department is putting me up for promotion, on the recommendations of the Chair and other professors in the department. The hardest part of the whole nonsense, once I got past the sense of betrayal, is that my new boss doesn't know me and only has the letter from my previous boss to go by. So I've had to spend a lot of extra energy proving myself to the new boss. I'm glad the year is over. Now we'll see if the University Promotion and Tenure Committee will accept everything even without a recommendation by the person who was my immediate boss.

Okay, enough of that! That's the old year. The new year is about to start, things are back on track and moving forward.

I got elected to the board of directors of my national organization this Fall, so good things have happened too. It's a three year term and should be fun, although a lot of work. I was also asked to chair the editorial board of a new blog that another of my national organizations is starting. Let's see, what else . . . I just returned a manuscript to my coauthor for a special edition of Biochimica Biophysica Acta, and I have a book manuscript that should be ready to go in within the next two weeks.

For a couple of months this Fall I was bringing work home every evening and weekend because a chemistry instructor in the med tech program quit and I picked up and finished teaching that class. I didn't have time to prepare for it at work, so I broke one of my cardinal rules . . that work stays at work. It couldn't be helped. I'm pretty well caught up now, so I shouldn't have to do that too often any more.

I'd have to say that despite a rough Fall, 2010 has been a good year for me. I've done a lot, learned a lot, survived a lot. I'm going as strong as ever and have a lot of new things coming up. Yesterday two new instruments arrived in the lab, so after the New Year we'll be validating and evaluating. These are the instruments I mentioned in last year's New Year's Eve blog that I needed to convince the powers that be that we needed. It took me a year, but we got them. Also, the positions that I was blogging about needing to be created are now created and filled. So despite everything, it's been a good year. If the promotion doesn't go through, it'll go through next year.

My family is doing well this year too, with two new additions, both grand-nieces. Coraline was born in May to my nephew and his wife, and in October Libby made her entrance to my other nephew and his wife. They're beautiful and we're all blessed. I spent Christmas in Colorado and got to see Julia and Coraline, then came home to Texas and Libby was here from Virginia. Of course they were with their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles. Yup, I'd say the family is growing. And I did more family-oriented stuff than is usual for me, but the Holidays are good times to remember how important family is.

All the stuff that happened this past Fall has kind of over-shadowed the year for me, but it really has been a good year. The Utah trip with Monica was outstanding. We saw some really incredible things, like a fog rainbow that was more of a multi-colored fog halo, and the condors at Zion which are shown in the picture to the right, and the Shiprock formation looking like an actual ship floating because of low lying fog, and a really awesome sunset in northern New Mexico which is in the picture from earlier in the blog, etc, etc. The weather was absolutely perfect, we were there during a full moon so the moon was gorgeous every night and the stars are beyond beautiful when you can see them without city light interference. The hikes were wonderful, the shopping was fun . . . it was just a really great trip.

Another plus is that I got to go to Grenada twice this year. I went back in October and we played some more.

So all in all I'd have to say I don't have much to complain about . . . *laughing* even though I spent the first half of this blog doing just that. Oh well. I'll blame it on the New Year's Eve introspection / retrospection. And I think I'll stop now.

Have a great New Year!!!

Yard Work

Yup. I've been doing yard work. Labor Day I worked at it for five hours. Amazing, huh? Remember those yaupons at either end of my house in the front, the ones that were uprooted by the February snow? All of a sudden I got tired of always trying to trim them reaching up over my head to do it (yes, they're back to hitting the roof . . . or were). I got my hand saw and started sawing off branches. Now they're both about chest high on me. Of course, the vast majority of the growth was above that, so it now looks like I have nice bare sticks coming up out of the ground at both ends of the house. Maa. As fast as they grow, they should fill back in fairly quickly. Plus they'll be easy to trim now as long as I keep up with it and don't let them get tall again. It did take me five hours though, to cut all the limbs off and them cut them up into trash-able sizes. I was going to take m electric shears/trimmers/whatever they're called to the rest of my shrubs, but after 5 hours, I was over it. I figured I'd do them the next day.

Of course, it rained continuously the next two days. And then I went back to work. So I got back to the shrubs this morning. I went out, mowed the lawn, weed-whacked and then took the trimmer to the shrubbery. Dekita! I'm done trimming and cleaning it up now for the year, except for I notice the rosebush needs trimming up. I was back out there working for about 3 hours this morning, so I think I've done my quota of yard work for the week now. Everything's neat and tidy . . . and I'm tired!

It's in the low 90s today and overcast, so the work wasn't horrifically unpleasant. I'm just not usually a physical labor type, except for weekly lawn mowing, so it tires me out when I do more than usual. I feel it most in my hands though, and in my right wrist. It's swollen again, but not as bad as it was when I cut up shrubbery in February, so I guess it's slowly getting better.

I did call the plumbers back for the leaking faucet in the back yard and they fixed it. It feels like everything is neat and functional now. I still think the little peach may not survive, but I'm pulling for it. We'll see. I think the two days of heavy rain may have actually helped a little, but it's hard to tell at this point. The Bermuda in my back yard continues to spread and thrive and the St. Augustine continues to struggle and die. I really like how the yard looks right after I mow it though. You can't tell how much of the back is weeds! :D Plus Zoe can't eat the black seed heads on the weeds and come in and throw them up. Sadly, that's one of the primary reasons I keep my lawn mowed short.

Anyway, I'm gonna chill now. I know I still need to do a post about vacation, but it'll have to wait until I have more energy. Here's a picture of Addy chilling in my newly-mowed lawn.

Around the House

Hello there! I've missed a whole summer . . . blogging-wise. Maa. I get around to it, or I don't. This summer, that's been a definite "don't".

Since I've been home I've been puttering around and getting some house stuff done. I found another swampy spot in my lawn and called the plumbers out to deal with it. Of course this morning I notice that my outside faucet in back won't completely shut off. It drips slowly and constantly. So after Labor Day I'll have to call the plumbers back out.

I've almost got all my camping gear cleaned up and put away. I'll blog at another time about the trip (which was fantastic). This blog is about house puttering. So besides the leaking plumbing issues, I've also cleaned out my closet, putting many, many clothes items into bags to be given away. Despite the fact that I'm exercising regularly now and beginning to drop some weight, I just have to accept that there are some things I'll never get into again. I've also been doing some minor re-arranging and general cleaning out of things. And of course basic lazy reading.

One big thing I had done on Friday was tree work. Over the summer my peach tree went from lushly overgrown to dying. Remember the pictures from early June with Zoe hiding in the peach-laden branches? Well, one over-laden branch broke and I cut it down and removed it. The first picture in this blog is the tree missing that branch. Now check it against the next picture down with the dying branches turned all yellow-brown. Granted some of those dead branches are other ones that broke from the weight of the peaches, but many of them were not broken, just dying. So I called a tree-trimming-removal service to come out and work on it.

I also had the tree guys do a bunch of other work while they were here, namely cut back the neighbor's trees to the fence-line on both sides of my house. One neighbor tree, a big elm, has been hanging over and interfering with the growth and health of the peach tree. And on the other side a Mulberry in the neighbor's side of the fench, wrapped by a huge vine (base as big around as my leg) growing on my side of the fence were both rubbing on my roof. So the tree guys cut back the elm and the mulberry to the fence lines and removed the vine completely. They also trimmed and cleaned up the tree out by my mailbox so that the lowest limbs are up at 6 feet, rather than down at three feet, causing me to have to struggle under them to mow and causing the mail carrier to have to drive through them to reach the mailbox. The tree guys did an OUTSTANDING job. Not only does that front tree look wonderful, and the neighbor trees are back out of the way, they cleaned up and hauled off all the stuff they cut. PLUS, they fixed my broken fence gate and fixed my half-knocked-over mailbox! Really! I was so surprised and delighted. Sometimes companies really do give you that little extra "After Service" that just basically makes your day. This company was Hallmark Tree Solutions out of Kennedale, TX, and they were wonderful.

And of course, they cut all the dead limbs off the peach tree. The last picture is what's left of the little peach. It's hard to see against the elm behind it, but there is a top section left, which shows just slightly brighter green than the elm, and the limb that projects toward us. I'm not sure if it will survive. I've decided I'll wait until it goes dormant (if it lives that long), then call the tree guys back and have them cut it way back. Then I'll just wait and see if it comes back in the Spring. Poor little thing. I don't know what got it, but it's seriously struggling to live.

I've had kind of a bad year for keeping things alive it seems. I've also lost pretty much all the St. Augustine in my back yard to "chinch bugs". The Bermuda is making a comeback in big patches where the St. Augustine has died out, and the rest of the yard is weeds. Bermuda in general doesn't do as well in the heat, and it's been a hot summer, but the Bermuda is happily ignoring whatever is taking out the St. Augustine. The Bermuda may take over the whole lawn eventually, especially given that the few patches of St. Augustine that are left look pretty sickly. The areas have been treated for chinch bugs, but I'm told it may take a while for it to recover. In this picture you can also see the dead lawn where the grass has died. The bright green in the fence corner is a small struggling patch of St. Augustine. The blue-green area in the bottom left corner of the picture is Bermuda thriving happily against the dead area.

So that's mostly what I've been doing for the last week. I'd like to get all the house-related stuff done before I dive back into work, so I'm probably going to be trimming shrubbery around the front of the house for the next several days. That should keep me out of trouble . . . maybe.

HOT!

It's really hot outside. The temperature did hit 101 yesterday, but I got my grass mowed while it was still in the low 90s. The paper this morning said it would be cooler today because of overcast skies. True to typical weatherman-form though, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's a gorgeous brilliant blue with the sun beating down and the temp sitting at about 95 currently. I'm thinking it will hit 100 again. It's a interesting thing that I consider it cool to mow the lawn in if it's less than about 95. I've mowed in 103, but it was miserable . . . to put it mildly.

As you can see from this picture (maybe), Zoe is in her favorite place, hiding under the peach tree waiting to rush unsuspecting birds. Mostly she just lays under there though. You can see the little peaches fairly clearly too. They seem to be doing okay this year. I took these three picture a little while ago. This first one is with Zoe pretty well hidden. Then farther down the post on the right, her peaking out at me when she heard me step outside. Lastly, at the bottom of the post, her proximity to the birdbath that she watches over so carefully.

The two pair of birds working on their respective nests out front are back this morning. Remember how I said it gets really HOT on that porch in the afternoon? Both bird pairs disappeared about mid-afternoon yesterday, but both were back about sun up this morning. The swallows are working really hard and making a fine mess of my front porch, although I don't see much structure to their efforts yet. Just lots of mud. The female finch seems to be adding padding to the old swallow nest. She brings things in and fusses with them in the nest and hunkers down in it and gets up and rearranges. Repeat. Repeat. She's not working as hard as the swallows, but she's definitely trying to get that nest to suit her.

I'm doing my usual Sunday chores today and loading music into i-tunes. My old desktop computer died, so I lost my i-tunes and have been restoring it slowly in my new computer. In the process I've realized that I need a bigger version of i-pod to hold it all, since currently my biggest i-pod is 16 gigs. I've restored 17.68 gigs so far and don't have all my music in yet. Luckily you can charge an i-pod without syncing it. I really like taking i-pods with me when I travel. They're invaluable for planes, airports and hotels, and of course when I drive long distances. I used to take boxes full of CDs when I drove to Utah or Colorado. A couple of i-pods beats that all to hell.

I really enjoy days like this, staying in, puttering around the house. Work has been . . .somewhat stressful lately, so I really appreciate the time away from work these days. Sadly, it's not the work itself, it's a few of the people at work who are stressing me. I keep reminding myself that I've ridden the waves of a LOT of changes at that place in the last 20 years. I can ride these waves too. But I do like my quiet, puttering weekends.

The next two weekends will be fairly busy, which is also probably why I'm enjoying this one. I don't expect to get any posts in for a couple of weeks either, so I decided to do another one today. Next weekend, I'll be visiting with my sister, and the weekend after is a party for a friend who both gradated for nursing school and turned 30. It'll be loads of fun, but won't make for a quiet weekend. At least I'm not traveling this month. July, August and September are the months I'll probably be traveling. August-September will be my usual three week vacation. I'll no doubt be seriously needing it by then.

I suppose that's all for the day. The swallows are still at it but I expect them to quit soon and go wherever they go to beat the heat. The thermometer in the shade on my back porch is reading 101. Beating the heat sounds like a great idea.

Two Interesting Things

I've learned two interesting things this morning. Two things related to my little bird friends around my house.

One thing I've learned is the reason the swallows built their nest on top of the twig nest from last year. Those boxes I put up are too slippery for them otherwise! Huh. Who knew?

My baby swallows are gone, although I see one or two around occasionally. So the parents have apparently decided to try raising another brood. I've been watching them this morning struggling to build a new nest on top of the left-hand box. And struggling is the correct word. The mud won't stick to it, and the swallows themselves slip when trying to stand on it. So before I mowed my lawn this morning, I wired a small piece of mesh up on top of the box, then went and mowed my lawn. I was a little afraid to do it for fear that me messing with the box would scare them away. Not so much. Instead they flew around scolding me for getting in their way.

Anyway, the two swallows are now incredibly busy flying back and forth with mud and twigs, so hopefully they'll successfully build on that mesh. I'm not too sure about them raising a second brood though. It's soooooo hot on the front porch in the afternoon. It faces west and the temps have been high 90s for the last couple of weeks. It's supposed to be over 100 for the next four days and probably won't be much cooler the rest of the summer. I've seen swallows do a late brood one other year. It only had one chick and the chick didn't survive. Maa, they successfully raised four chicks in the first brood, so if they want to try again I'll help with a little piece of mesh.

The other interesting thing I learned is that it may not have been a sparrow that built the twig nest last year. This morning a pair of house finches was checking out the now-empty swallow nest in the right-hand box. They flew in and out and checked it out several times this morning. I don't expect they'll nest there with the swallows nesting so close, but it was interesting to see them. I didn't realize the males are such a bright purple-red. This picture gives you an idea of the difference between the sexes. At first glance I thought it was a cardinal in the nest, until I realized how much smaller he was than a cardinal and his feathers are more purple-red than cardinal red. Still he was much more red than this picture, probably because it's that mating colors time of year.

After I mowed the lawn the cats went outside. Zoe is currently hiding under the tree and rushing any unsuspecting birds who try to use her birdbath. She's not quick enough to catch any, but she's enjoying herself completely. I imagine she'll wander in as it gets hotter. Addy's already back in, but her black coat makes it too hot for her much faster. There are blue jays and morning doves wanting to use the birdbath, so they'll be happy when Zoe gives up and comes inside.

Hmmmmmm. The female house finch is back making herself comfortable in the empty swallow nest. Guess I'll have to see how this plays out. O.O They don't seem to care! The swallows are still busily building on top of the left hand box, while the pair of finches sit in the nest in the right hand box. Maybe I'll have two new broods out there. I'll probably spend all weekend, randomly checking on the two pair out there. Fun!

Swallow report

It's Memorial Day Weekend, so I have a three-day weekend, which I am incredibly grateful for. Last week was a long, busy, stressful week, and I'm ready for a little break. I don't have any plans this weekend, other than shopping. And of course that's not any different from any weekend, except that I have more time to do it this weekend. I also have more time to clean things up around the house. Robovac is working as I type this.

I thought I'd give a baby swallow report. Those babies grow up so fast!!! Let's see. My last post and pictures were from the May 16th. The babies were probably just hatched, within a day or so. Today is the 30th and the little guys started flying on the 27th. So 10-12 days between hatching and flying. That's just incredible!

It turns out that there are four baby swallows in this brood rather than the three I first thought. The pictures in this post are a progression from the last post. The first one on the left above was taken on 5/21 and you can see they're already pretty well fledged five days after the first picture, although they still have some of the fuzzy, downy feathers sticking out in all directions. The next picture on the right was taken on 5/23, about four days before they started flying. At that point they were already looking pretty adult-like in color and size. And also for the most part doing a great job of hiding whenever I opened the door to try to take pictures. There really are four in that nest.

The last picture below was taken yesterday morning before the four of them left the nest for their daily excursions. They actually held still briefly for this shot. You can tell them from the adults when they're sitting still like this because they have yellow beaks. The adults have black beaks. In flight they're easy to tell apart because they still do a fair amount of clumsy fluttering, totally un-swallow-like. Plus their wing feathers and tail feathers are considerably shorter still. They don't yet have the noticeable scissor-tail the adults have.

They'll probably hang around and return to the nest every night now for a couple weeks, I guess until the baby swallows are more adept at flying and fending for themselves. Then they'll go on their way, and I'll be able to thoroughly clean my front porch. That's the only down-side to having them nest there . . . messy! But it's soooooo cool to get to watch them grow up. Totally worth the mess.

Anyway, just a short post today with a baby swallow report.

Swallows and peaches

What an interesting week it's been! It's even been "interesting" at work, but I'm totally not going to go there today. It's Sunday and it's currently pretty and cool outside, and I've mostly finished my Sunday chores even though it's only10:00 am-ish. So I'm in a good mood. No use ruining it by thinking about work.

Friday it rained quite a bit and it was supposed to rain all weekend. They even had flash flood warnings for the area (lakes are past full), but yesterday afternoon it cleared out and it's been gorgeous. Right now it's about 70 degrees and beautifully sunny, although I'm sure it will heat up as the day goes on and be muggy after the rain. Still, much as I like it like this, I wasn't unhappy to see the rain. The lakes may be full, but my yard needed the water. I actually watered the lawn Thursday because it was so dry.

One of the things that have made this an interesting week is the hatching of swallow babies. My baby swallows are so cute. You can see the tops of two little fuzzy heads in this picture. I've seen three little heads, and I'm pretty sure there are just the three of them in there. I took this shot through my glass front door so I wouldn't disturb them too much. The parents get kind of frantic even when I'm out front mowing the lawn, so I keep off the front porch as much as possible. In this picture you can also see my jerry-rigging to get that 'box' up there. Looking at it, it's really amazing that the swallows decided to come back and nest there. I just felt so bad about the siding closing off their little ledge that I had to try putting something up there. For whatever reason, it worked. I'll try to get more pictures as the little guys get bigger.

The other major event that happened this week was on Thursday. I took the day off to sit at home and wait for the insurance adjuster. I'm going to be having some repair work done on my roof. Anyway, about 7:30 am I looked out back, and guess what? A limb had snapped on my peach tree! And of course, it wasn't one of the dead limbs on the back side of the tree, but one of the live limbs, covered in small growing peaches! It's been really windy here this last week, so I imagine it was a combination of the wind and the weight of the peaches. So instead of sitting around and waiting on Thursday, I spent five hours cutting the limb down, along with the three major dead limbs from the back of the tree. Then I cut them all up into the size of pieces the trash guys will haul off, and bagged up all the foliage and baby peaches. Lest you think I whipped through this with a chain saw, I did it all with a hand saw. I don't own a chain saw. Anyway, I have a gap in the living side of the tree now, which you can kind of see in this picture. The limbs from the dead back side are now nicely cleared out. Interestingly, those three big limbs were full of carpenter ants. I don't know if they're responsible for the dead side of the tree, or they moved in when those limbs died. Anyway, it's significantly easier to mow under the peach tree now, which I know because I also mowed my lawn Thursday as long as I was outside doing yard work. The part of the tree that's living is doing well ... too many baby peaches, but it looks good.

The cats are continuing to enjoy being outside, although the black demon has put in a couple of appearances. Luckily, he hasn't appeared awhile they've been out there, so they continue to go out there and lounge or explore. They very helpfully laid on the patio and watched me work on Thursday while I was sawing and hacking.

So that was my interesting week.