A Saturday canoe through the Everglades

Lately we have been spending our weekends house hunting.  This is not nearly as fun as I think it should be and sucks up so much of our precious free time.  Suffice it to say, we haven’t found “the one” yet.  This past weekend, we took a break from looking at houses to escape civilization for a few hours and canoe a trail in Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, which is a part of the Everglades.  It was relaxing and a nice change of pace.  And it turns out that Dave is a canoeing pro, and so we made great canoeing partners.  Along the trail, we saw many different types of birds, from egrets to herons to hawks, fish, and of course gators.  I recently got a new lens for my fancy camera, and was happy as ever to get a chance to test it out.  Check out the results below.  Enjoy!

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Dying: there’s an app for that

Seriously!?

Moonrise kingdom

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I am so excited!  Here is the trailer for the new movie by my absolute favorite director, Wes Anderson.  Can’t wait till this comes out!!!!!!!!!!

Can fracking cause earthquakes?

On New Year’s Eve day, there was a 4.0 earthquake in my hometown, Youngstown, OH.  The curious part is that this region is not known to be seismically active…. i.e. earthquakes are not supposed to happen there.  Youngstown is exposed to a variety of other natural disasters, such as tornadoes and blizzards (not to mention the constantly, depressing gray skies), but adding earthquakes to the list may just push residents over the edge.  I got a call from both my sister and mom about the quake.  They both felt the house shaking and my mom described it as feeling like a car had crashed into her house.  Scary.

Anyhow, you may be wondering what caused this earthquake.  Well, it looks like we did.  “Recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” of natural gas, according to geological experts“.  This is happening in other places too, like Oklahoma and England.  This is extremely frightening, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard much of a public outcry over it.  Maybe people are getting complacent about how we are ruining our planet…hopefully not.

“working” from home

I started my new job Dec. 12th, the Monday after graduation.  And I had actually started writing a grant for my new position before I graduated.  So basically, I had an overlap in between the end of grad school and the beginning of my new job.  This was great because it gave me  jump start in my new lab and guaranteed me a continuous paycheck.  And I am acutely aware that I am lucky to have a job lined up at all.  Although, I will admit, I think I could’ve used a tiny buffer period.

 

Starting a new job in December is tricky.  You don’t really have any vacation days available, and you don’t really want to start off a new job taking vacation anyhow, but everyone wants a few days off for the holidays (and my brain needed it).  The place I work is closed very few days since it is not as strictly tied to the university’s semesterly schedule, so I was sure I would get no break.  As it turned out, everyone in the lab was taking vacation, and since I am still in the “watching and learning” phase and not the “touching anything” phase, I was able to spend a week working from home.  I got a lot done but was still able to recharge my battery like I needed.  Yay!

 

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!  Happy new year!

Trying on wedding dresses

Ever since I started thinking about getting married and weddings, long before Dave was in the picture, I imagined myself on a beach on some remote island.  Just me and my husband-to-be.  No one else.  No fancy decorations, seating, aisle to walk down, or extravagant dress.  Luckily, my family seems pretty cool with my elopement idea.  Although my mom is definitely  a little disappointed to miss out on all the dress shopping and wedding planning.  While she was visiting for my graduation, we decided to go play dress-up at a local bridal store.  That way, we get to have the experience together without all the pressure.  It ended up being sort of fun.  Below are the 3 dresses we liked best….#3 was my favorite (in fairy tale land where I actually want to wear a wedding dress).

 

I have to say, playing dress-up or not, there is something really weird about seeing yourself in a big, fluffy wedding dress…

 

 

Looked out the window

and saw a double rainbow!

 

It was awesome, but this guy REALLY thinks double rainbows are awesome…

Graduation weekend…..

…..was AWESOME!

As I mentioned, some of my family came down for my graduation celebration.  It was super fun and action packed!  We shopped, we ate, we had a beach party, had a dinner party, and overall just enjoyed each others company.  Here are some highlights from the weekend.  Thank you to everyone who made it down!

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Not a student anymore

Hi everyone!

So after a short blogging hiatus, I am back to share my exciting news.

In October I defended my dissertation (and passed!), and a little over a week ago, I graduated with my doctorate from FAU.  Many of my family members came down from Ohio for the celebration (pictures to follow soon).  We had a blast!

Last week I started my new job as a postdoctoral research at the University of Miami.  I am working in a chemical senses laboratory looking at the taste system.  The taste system looks and functions quite similarly to the olfactory system (which I studied for my doctorate).  Even though much of what I learned about the olfactory system will still apply when I investigate the taste system, I will be researching mammals now instead of sharks and learning some really cool, sophisticated techniques.  This job will show me a very different aspect of research, teach me new techniques that will make me a more marketable job candidate in the future, and help me hone my professional goals further.

I have already started to learn the basics of growing cells in culture….. a far cry from my previous research!  Wish me luck!  It will be an exciting journey.

“Science” programming

I am loving this comic!  Remember when Shark Week used to actually educate people about the biology and ecology of sharks?!?!