Post-Louisiana catch-up

Upon return, I've been as busy catching up on what I missed as when I was getting things squared away for being away.

On this past Tuesday, I met up with the LSU folks and went to the Shelby Forest boat ramp on the Mississippi River and met up with Darrell and the Sea Arc. As Darrell put the boat in, he mentioned that he was concerned about one of the engines. Sure enough, when he got the boat into the water, the engine didn't work, and the boat had to be immediately loaded back up.

I apologized profusely to the LSU guys that had driven up from Baton Rouge to do this field work. They did seem to appreciate that it was not my fault if Darrell suspected that the boat engine might have a problem and failed to inspect/ repair the issue during the month's notice he was given for this trip. At any rate, it was a day's field work totally lost, in a most embarrassing fashion.

I sent in my first conference abstract last week for a poster at the National SWS conference in Salt Lake City at the end of June. I am hopeful that it will be accepted. I also did a little write-up about the visit by the Japanese for the Biology department newsletter.

On Friday, we went to Alice in Wonderland, my first 3D movie. Saturday morning, Madison had a closing event for her 6-wk painting classes at Memphis College of Art, which was really awesome. Afterwards, Maddie and I went to Melissa's baby shower at Katie Nichols' house. Madison and Reyna, Melissa's oldest daughter, helped entertain Iris and Rose, Katie and Sam's 5 year old and 18 month old. All of we ladies had a lovely time.

The other night, Andrew used tweezers to remove more than 15 thorns stuck in my butt from falling into a bramble thicket while in Louisiana.

This week is Spring Break for UofM, which has consisted of going to the Mississippi River field sites (no boat required for these sites, thanks goodness) to take DBH and of going to the National Sedimentation lab in Oxford to grind plants. The rest of the week looks like it will be more of the same.

We're going to Kentucky this weekend. Madison will go to her dad's, and we will get to see Carter, Rachel, and Noah. All three of us will stop through Grandma's on our way back to Memphis. It should be fun.