March 24, 2012 - Posted by danielle- 3 Comments
This has been a really rollercoaster of a week.
Should I start with the lows? the highs? or just go back and forth in chronological order? goodness knows.
Well, you know me, chronological order tends to win out most of the time.
It was really great being back to school this week. I had my prep for my classes ready to go, so I didn’t feel as rushed for my lectures. Some of the students in my Genetics class (the ones who’d given me the balloon and chocolates) asked me how my birthday had gone. In general the first day was fun as we all exchanged “how was your Spring Break?” stories.
Band practice was really great. We basically stopped and ate supper during part of it, because the wife of our amazing lead guitarist just came back from a trip to Costa Rica, and she wanted to try to make some of that cuisine for us.
I’m singing lead on the Doobie Brothers’ song “Listen to the Music” (and playing tambourine, of course). It came together really fast!
Sounds like all highs, right?
Well, then Max was really, really still on Thursday morning. He hadn’t eaten all of his food and hay (like normal). He didn’t want to jump out of his cage, didn’t care when I fed him, AND didn’t care when I gave him cheerios. His left eye was sort of watery.
I really thought he might be dying of old age. Max is 7 and the lifespan of a rabbit is 8-10 years usually. (some say up to 12, some say as low as 7)
It was a rough day until I could get home and check on him again, and get him into a vet who sometimes does some teaching at school. Max was running a fever and might’ve had a respiratory infection. So, they gave him a shot of penicillin. He seems much better, but still sounds a bit wheezy, so I’m probably going to take him in for another shot today.
I had intended to use most of my day to write an exam for Genetics, but with the emergency situation with Max, that got pushed back to the evening. Which meant I had to skip my bible study group.
And THEN I hit Friday.
Lecture was great. Chapel was great. Discussions about rearranging the course schedule for the fall were all great.
Then I had an impromptu 45 min walk-through about chemicals and the way that they are stored in the lab. I basically “inherited” a nightmare of a situation with regards to the chemical storage. We have an EPA audit in April.
I don’t even know how to describe how awful the situation is, other than to say that A) it is going to cost 10s of thousands of dollars to get the chemicals that need to go disposed of properly and the ones that need to stay inventoried properly and B) hours and hours and hours of time.
I’m actually canceling my labs for Genetics this week in order to deal with it all.
THAT was a LOW LOW LOW point.
The one thing that offsets the awfulness of it all, is that the lead singer in my band is the one in charge of all of it, because he is the head of facilities. He inherited the situation too when he took this job. So, at least the person I’m working with on this is A) a good friend, B) someone I can call directly on a cell phone if needed, and C) is sticking up for me if needed.
The other highs?
I have been nominated for an endowed professorship (one year), which comes with a stipend of money that I can use for going to conferences or my research!!!! yay!
And last night when I was trying to unwind at my apartment complex by using the hot tub, my friend (neighbor) came by and asked if I wanted to go see the Hunger Games! She had 2 tickets that she’d purchased in advance, and the other person wasn’t going to be able to go after all. It was a GREAT movie!
I haven’t read the books. Texas Seestor and Trainwreck only have them on their Kindles, so there is no way for me to read them right now, unfortunately. But that is okay, for now, I REALLY enjoyed the movie. It was way cool.
Ok. I think I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do about Max and this second shot and all.
January 16, 2012 - Posted by danielle- 3 Comments
CK (lead singer in my (secular) band) has a dog who gave birth to a litter of puppies.
I took photos of them on Saturday in order to show my family the adorable puppies who want to have a home with us. “Us” is sort of like the royal “we,” in this case, my parents will be the ones who are most likely to get (a) dog(s).
Anyway, I noticed that my photostream and photos, especially the one of Missy up there at the top, had gotten a lot of hits yesterday and that my stats showed a lot of it was coming from tumblr. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of in the “WTF is tumblr?” boat.
I am still not entirely sure, but the photo of Missy was posted on Brandon’s site and as of this morning about 1600 people had “reblogged” it onto theirs. Hence the “she’s famous” title of this post.
Update: As of Tuesday at noon, the photo of Missy on Brandon’s Tumblr site has 4,394 notes!
That’s a lot of people looking at her photo.
I guess everyone loves puppies.
Another update: As of Saturday morning, the photo of Missy on Brandon’s Tumblr site has 10,094 notes! I haven’t even looked at any other Tumblr sites to see how many notes it has on any others.
Again, I think this just shows how a love of puppies is universal.
There have been 349 views of that photo (or of the adjusted version) on my Flickr site!
She IS adorable, isn’t she???
This one is my personal favorite:
If you want to oooo and awww over the cuteness, feel free to check out the set.
December 8, 2011 - Posted by danielle- 0 Comments
That is a photo I took last year of Max for my Christmas cards last year.
I’m going to be busy today and next week writing, giving, and grading finals (and calculating final grades), so I wanted something “Christmas-sy” at the top of my blog now.
I ran into a funny story on MSNBC when I was looking at the Animal Tracks on MSNBC. It was about a hopping competition for rabbits in Switzerland.
The photos were just too cute for words!
My rabbit, Max, is REALLY good at jumping high, and the high jump IS one of the competitions evidently, but somehow I don’t see him doing it on demand. He has to have a goal in mind. Like jumping high in order to grab some papers to chew on. Or jumping high in order to get on the couch and eat cheerios.
I just can’t see him jumping over a hurdle.
He also doesn’t have the focus for something this chaotic, I think!
Here is how the online story started, which made me laugh:
“Europe’s first-ever rabbit-hopping championship, also called Kaninhop, were held on Oct. 30, in Wollerau, Switzerland.”
“And by the looks of it, people are pretty serious about this latest trend to hit Central Europe.”
Isn’t that hilarious?! I still laugh at it.
very.
serious.
business.
Don’t you know?
Read the story here to see the rest. The bunnies are cute!
April 24, 2011 - Posted by danielle- 2 Comments
October 31, 2010 - Posted by danielle- 3 Comments
I know I haven’t blogged in forever, and the dearth of information is going to continue a bit longer.
But this one only needs a couple of sentences, so I thought I’d post it.
I entered this photo in a Biology Photo contest at school in the “plants/fungi” category. The photo had to have been taken this semester, which meant that I pretty much had to intentionally look for something to photograph. I happened upon this vase by pure accident.
I was at Mom and Dad’s new house, and after coming back from attempting to take a photo of the deer in the neighborhood (which didn’t really work), I spotted the vase as I was walking up the driveway! I ended up spending a while taking photos of it, and they looked better than anything else I’d taken, so I entered it, and I won the category! I was particularly excited, because while I didn’t get to see the other faculty entries, I know that one of the other profs takes beautiful flower photos.
They are getting matted and hung in one of our buildings, which is rather cool.
BTW: here is the only deer photo I got.
Obviously, not one that would work for a contest. But rather funny all the same. 
July 8, 2010 - Posted by danielle- 1 Comment
One of my favorite parts of MSNBC MSN online news is their category called “Animal Tracks.”
I don’t go to the MSNBC site everyday, so I often miss it, because they only have it every few weeks or so. But the good thing is that once you are on it, if you keep clicking previous, it will keep taking you back to older ones.
I was looking at it today, and some of the photos were reminding me of my family.
My older niece, M, usually bonks some part of her body at least once a day – I think she may average around 3 a day right now.
Texas Seestor is usually the one who consequently holds her and kisses it to make it better. So this photo reminded me of them.
Please don’t think that the appearance of either of them remotely resembles the orangutans!
Then I saw these photos, which reminds me of my younger niece (YN) when she is eating her mushy foods by spoon in her highchair.
Thank goodness there is just one of her! Can you imagine feeding triplets? or more?
This next one reminds me of playing blocks, playdough, or cartons with M. She just loves to make towers.
And this final one reminds me of my parents’ new home in TX.
There are a LOT of deer in their neighborhood. And when I say a LOT, I mean that the house right next to them had 3 deer in it the other week eating the grass. And one of the homes down the road had a whole herd of about 10! TEN deer!
crazy.
And since they live on a golf course, I wonder how many times the golfers end up seeing deer run across the course?
And did you notice those pants on that golfer???
too funny!
September 20, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 0 Comments
In my attempt to write short little updates, here goes a bit about yesterday.
Performing was a lot of fun. The crowd was small, but appreciative. The event was organized by a different church that invited us to perform and raised money for the local food shelf.
My solos went pretty well. There was one note that wasn’t ideal, but HB didn’t notice, so maybe no one else did either!
I played the tambourine some while I sang, which was also fun.
Some of us hung around to watch the other groups. The second group was another praise band from a church in the twin cities. It was interesting to hear their versions of some of the same songs that we sometimes sing (ones that we didn’t do that day).
I also loved the petting zoo. My camera battery ran out of power before I got any photos of the bunnies, unfortunately. One bunny let me pet him/her for quite a while. 
March 7, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 4 Comments
I set these flowers up in one of the Girlie’s favorite spots. This happens to be my usual spot for taking flower photos, but also happens to be one of her favorite places.
It was a little later in the day than she really liked, but the light was good for photos. So, it was a compromise.
January 9, 2009 - Posted by danielle- 5 Comments
The Girlie-girl was intently staring at the fireplace hearth last night after I had turned it on and it had warmed up. I decided to put her blanket on the hearth, since that is likely what she wanted. It took 30 sec (or less) for her to sniff it and decide it was a good place to be.
She was so adorable, all tucked in, that I took a few non-flash shots of her with my tripod.
Doesn’t it make you feel warm and cozy?
March 21, 2008 - Posted by danielle- 4 Comments
As per my usual photo-taking when I don’t use my lightbox, I set the flowers on the floor to get a wide shot.
And guess who came over to investigate?
Yes, the Girlie-girl had to get right in the center of things.
I actually had to herd her away to get that first shot, because she kept wanting to lie down in the sun. This made her tail, or some part of her, in the photo.
Finally, I shoo-ed her away and got a shot. But just one, because she was quickly back.
Close-ups will be here when I take the ones with my 70-210 mm lens with the Kenko extension tubes.
But here is a hint of some photos taken in the late afternoon sun with the lens that came with my camera.
