Must. Focus.

I have mentioned before about how I cannot seem to get myself to just work hard all the time. I just do not want to. And by work hard, I am talking about work-work. After being away from home 11 to 12 hours a day during the week, I do not want to do work at night. A few hours each day on the weekend (dispersed over the course of the day usually) is all I usually do unless I have a hard deadline approaching. Actually the number of hours I work-work dramatically increases when I have a hard deadline (probably not unusual). This is not because I do not work towards that deadline ahead of time, but rather 50 to 60 hours a week of work-work is not enough time for me to do my own research, commute, deal with my undergrad, in theory read (I am really bad at reading publications like I should), and finish a grant application or paper manuscript (as these are usually the two ongoing things I have needed to do over the past six months). Then you add planned vacations into the mix and I put in longer hours when I get back to do work-work and resent the vacation.

BUT if you talk about home-work, I am all over that. I do not know if it is because it is not work-work or if I really do like cleaning, weeding, laundry (minus the folding and putting away), etc. Yesterday CF had (the longest ever) volleyball tournament. He wanted me to come with him but, 1) I do not do volleyball (I will go hiking or swimming any day though. I do not like physical activities I am not good at.), 2) I did not want to spend money I do not have on food and beer at a bar volleyball tourny, and 3) my boss comes back Tuesday and wants a full draft of a manuscript (not going to happen). I ended up having 12 hours by myself at his house, and because the tournament went so late we ended up not having people over for a bonfire (sad because I was looking forward to a s'more). I managed to finish some counting I have been working on for months for work-work (BORING) that should have taken me only a couple of hours. That is all I did though.

In between I cut down some little trees that had grown in front of his picture window, weeded and put grass clippings around the tomatoes/parsley/chives he has out back, built the bonfire we ended up not burning, got gas, went to the grocery store, wasted a ton of time on FB/farmville, thought about writing this post (and did not), made dinner, made hummingbird food (and one came and ate after not having the food up for a few weeks!). I found this beautiful moth when I was tending the tomato plants. My grad school friend has a butterfly garden, so I asked him if also does moths - this one is a Virgin Tiger Moth.

I also finally figured out what a weed is that I remember eating at my grandparents' house growing up. It is always in gardens and my Grandma cooked it and added lots of butter and salt. It is called purslane and there are lots of ways you can cook with it! CF had some spaetzle I had bought and then found out he did not like, so I used it to make a pasta salad with purslane, carrots, red pepper, salami, leeks, and a creamy italian dressing. It was quite tasty and CF liked it (when he got home at 11:30 p.m. and had some).

And all of this is to say that I should actually be working right now but am a pro at finding other distractions. I am in lab and have some stuff going, but should really FOCUS and do some reading and writing. It is in the high 80s and sunny out, so I actually do not mind being in the air conditioning...if only I could use the time a little more productively...

Pleasure reading

I obviously do not read often enough before bed.
 
Yes, that is cat hair held in place by cobwebs.

Apparently it is also time to do a thorough cleaning of my apartment.

EWWWWW - when I just looked at the post and zoomed in, there's also a spider on the bottom of the book. Going to clean it right now...

Heat-free cooking

It is in the high 80s, humid, and sunny. That means I do not want to use my stove top or oven. Tonight, I had something that only required a quick 75 seconds in the microwave. Tortilla, refried beans, cheese, avacado, cilantro (from my garden!), chives (from my garden!), greens (from my garden!), and a bit of salsa. I had to have some tequila and OJ to go with it, of course.

Fun times

I am ready for some regular old weeks and weekends after having toooo much fun the past month?! With only a couple of weeks between my vacation and a mini-vaca this past weekend, there's been lots going on!

We were heading out to Portland, OR for my brother's wedding. He and his former girlfriend-turned-fiancee-turned-wife really are married now too. It is FB-official.

Even though our weekend was cut short, it was still a lot of fun. It was as great of a wedding as they get! I loved meeting all the other wonderful people in my new sister-in-law's life. She and my brother have surrounded themselves with funny, loving, nice, fun people. They had a ceremony that was perfect for them.

I will start at the beginning though. This is how CF and I started our trip. For the record, it was 11:30 a.m. our time, which is basically lunch time for me. We were at the airport bar during our layover, and really I took the picture because of the glass of dum-dums in the back. The oatmeal stout I had on the left was pretty darn good too.

We met up with a grad school friend, her hubby, and their almost-2-year-old at the zoo and then headed to the Rose Gardens in PDX. I have been to the rose garden before, so I did not take many photos. You cannot not take a photo though, so here is one from this trip.

At the wedding, we had home-made flowers for our dresses.

Succulents for the bouquets.

CF and I then met up with the grad school friend and her family for a hike and picnic at Mt. Hood and Mirror Lake. I think I have posted photos of Mt. Hood before too, but you can never have too many.

You could also see Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Jefferson from where we were, but my photos are only good enough to document that fact and not necessarily to share.

Oh. CF and I went to see these guys a while back too. They were AWESOME!

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out
It was a beautiful day
A beautiful day
Don't let it get away

Today I spent doing laundry, running errands, and reading a manuscript that CF has to send to his advisor. I suppose I should do a bit of my own work before I head to bed!

100 things: 81 - 90. Define this!

I don't know how well I fit into a two-party political mold. My guess is that few people do.

81. I support women's rights.

82. I support gay rights.

83. I believe in social safety nets to help people.

84. I do not believe a social safety net equals a free ride in life. You should not get public assistance if you are not helping yourself to earn money, be healthy, or otherwise contribute to society.

85. I love how diverse this country is and how non-U.S. citizens still want to be here even though many of us citizens think it is so awful. I do think you should be able to communicate in English to get a Green Card or citizenship. Especially citizenship.

86. I would probably be considered somewhat fiscally conservative, but see #83 above. I do think that paying taxes is crucial to the country's well-being. Also, I still don't understand quite the rationale behind tax breaks = increased jobs. Anyone have a good explanation?

87. I think our troops and the sacrifices they and their families make are incredible. We owe them a lot.

88. I think a lot about what I can do personally to make where I live better - plant flowers? do something for the schools? conserve energy and water?

89. I have no problem requiring people to have health insurance. My understanding is that one problem with the health care system is uninsured people being treated in ERs and hospitals trying to recover those costs, for example. In fact, if you are on unemployment, you should automatically be enrolled in an insurance plan that is deducted from your unemployment check. That is how it works when you have a job!

90. I do not understand how it is legal for new political leaders to finagle ways to break union contracts. I have a lot of issues with my perception of how unions actually run (not the early intents of why unions happened). But, dude. Aren't contracts legally binding? If not, what's the point of having contracts?!

Hmmmm...maybe it is not so difficult to sorta pigeon-hole me into a political category. However, many of my liberal leanings come with a strong dose of people-should-be-good-people or how-do-we-make-sure-people-don't-take-advantage-of-our-system.

And I wait

I resubmitted an application for a training grant this past spring. The original reviews were generally quite positive about my research plan, and the negative comments were about either research that I have now completed or my mediocre undergraduate grades from ten years ago.

My supervisor is optimistic about the resubmission because of the new data I have and the changes in the proposed research.

I am cautiously optimistic.

The grant applications were reviewed last week, so of course I am obsessively checking the status to get the score and feedback to have an idea about whether they felt the application was improved, and hopefully fundable. Every time I log in, my stomach does a little somersault.

It would be nice to know this before I head out for a long weekend Thursday morning so I can stop worrying.