Everything is bigger in Texas.

And pointier. And more poisonous. And hotter. And HUMID. Nobody mentioned humid! Temperatures in the hundreds (See how good I am getting at Fahrenheit? I mean of course high thirties or forties C) I could maybe even take, but HUMID??? I thought this place was supposed to be a semi-desert!

Also, around Austin everything was way too green and almost forested. I'm now up in northern Texas (spitting distance from Oklahoma, really) and it's much more what I pictured. It's still pretty green but the locals assure me that's temporary. There are plenty of cactus, mesquite, agave, and cattle, and lots of red dirt, so it's pretty much meeting the "Texas quotient." Also the roads are very nice. It probably helps that they don't have so much freeze-thaw to wreck them.

So far I have not seen any guns, but I'm sure they're out there.

For the most part people seem very friendly, and I am starting to get used to the accent. It's kinda fun to listen to, especially this old local historian dude who knows everything and can talk for hours. In some ways it reminds me of my grandparents' farms, except for the oil stuff and the shooting people. Don't get me wrong, there are shotguns on my Grandma's farm. They're chained to a rack in the diningroom behind the door, and once in a while my uncle does have to shoot a coyote (pronounced coyotee down here, except by one old lady who just says coyot like I would)

So---we flew down to Austin, dropped off specimens at the University to get scanned (check out www.digimorph.org and you will understand what I mean---that site gives me a geekgasm), picked up some supplies, and drove up here to Seymour and Archer counties. Apparently County is very important down here---much more cohesive than the rural municipalities back home, as far as I can tell. Bonus of being in Austin was getting to meet Saya (see picture), who's been a tribe buddy for years, in the flesh. We had a great time just wandering downtown (I think) Austin, caught some kind of street fair, and generally just chatted. It was luvurly. Only thing better would've been the chance to ATS together, but that wasn't happening. I also caught my first sunburn, because I was pasty winter white.

So far we've managed to traverse the state, catch up with some semi-local fossil hunters and a local fossil-hunter/historian, Jack Lufton, who was Romer's field assistant back in the day and knows everything there is to know about Archer County, Seymour County, and probably Texas in general. It did take a bit longer than we'd hoped, so we spent a couple of days at less-than-ideal sites waiting for everything to fall into place to visit the uber site of Permian Palaeontological heaven. Because we REALLY did not want to piss of any of the locals. Bad idea in Texas. But anyway, we made it out there today just in time for the brutally killer Texas heat, worked on my third sunburn (apparently three applications of 30 SPF sunscreen over a five hour period aren't enough., and found lots of cool stuff that we probably won't have a chance to really explore before we have to drive back to Austin on Sunday---but anyway, a good trip all around, if not without its kinks (like coming back to the hotel today and having no water---they were fixing the pumps---then, when it did come back on, it was red-rusty-orange.

Just like the dirt.

Ah well. At least I got to see lizards :)

Itchy fingers

I want to make something. Really, I want to sew. Something impressive and complicated, with a fabric that makes me wriggle just to touch it. Probaly something well beyond my somewhat limited sewing abilities. Maybe even something for (gasp) everyday wear.

It's not going to happen. I don't have the money to go hunting down fabrics for projects of questionable use, and I absolutely don't have the time.

I'm trying desperately to work my mind into a position where I can surrender it to my PhD---give that the kind of attention it needs. It's a bit like the onset of motherhood, actually---that intensive infancy where almost everything you are gets put on hold in favour of this other. The downside with the PhD is it doesn't scream if you ignore it. It's also not nearly as cute and cuddly and rewarding as the baby. However, it will be over a lot sooner than motherhood, one way or the other...

And in the meantime, my rebellious body wants to sew.

.... snow....

ugh. Honestly. Temperatures were in the upper teens (C) last weekend. I went through the kids' clothes and put away the fleecy pjs. The daycare lady and I were discussing the viability of runningshoes as outdoor footwear again.

And today? Snow.

It probably won't stick, but jeez.

Fun with Museum Specimens

A few months ago my supervisor gave me access to a fossil of an early not-quite-reptile to draw up and study. It was, apparently, collected by another researcher in the 80s, never described, and not part of any museum collection. Finally, today, I got around to starting to look at it, and spent a couple of hours drawing it under the camera lucida. Afterwards, I bopped up to my supervisor's office to dive through his old reprints for papers describing the genus we thought the specimen probably was. And sure enough, there's a paper from 1963 describing the genus.

And there's various drawings of the referred specimens. Including one of the exact specimen I'd just been drawing.

Ooopsie.

It appears that it was actually collected in about 1911, accessioned to a museum, and probably borrowed by the researcher we got it from---then at some point it lost its specimen number (put in the wrong tray, piece of paper falls off, who knows) and gets lumped in with (or possibly even switched with) that 1980s collection.

And this is how specimens disappear, folks...

So my supervisor called the museum it (according to the 1963 paper) is supposed to be at, to see if they can actually find the specimen (or what they think is the specimen)---to find out whether it's been switched or was just completely missing. I'm kinda hoping the former---because then I may get to see this phantom 1980s specimen---but anyway. It gives me hope (maybe) that some of the other specimens I'm looking for, which have been reported missing, may resurface.

Anyway, made for an exciting day, though a little disappointing I don't have a whole new specimen to describe.

Apparently...

my hometown is the most dangerous city in Canada!

which isn't actually a surprise... it's usually in the top three. /sigh.

blog.macleans.ca/2009/03/0...in-canada/

I want the cold back.

Do you know how many times I've gotten stuck since it warmed up? all that nice, hard-packed snow is now foot-deep MUSH. I got stuck trying to turn in to the kids school to drop them off this morning! (And stuck trying to leave my parking space at home yesterday morning) (thank god for the three ladies who hopped out of their cars by the school and helped push me out, within moments of me getting stuck... not to mention my sitter's husband who was walking back from dropping the kids off at school and helped out, too).

Darned Calgary winters.

sick bad... family doctor good. (including lengthly ramble on ADHD)

So, life sucked for a few days last week when my sore throat turned into "feels like razorblades every time I swallow" plus shakes and fever and an uvula so swollen it was resting on my tongue (creating a feeling of something stuck in your throat which really makes you want to swallow, which isn't fun when swallowing is as painful as mentioned...

Fortunately, on Tuesday somehow I managed to dial the number of one of the doctors on the "taking patients" list and make an appointment to see a new (real!) family Doctor for Friday (this was before the throat plague crippled me on Thursday) and I didn't even have a heart-attack when I dialed. I wish I didn't get myself worked up into such a fit of anxiety over dumb stuff. I've been putting this off for like a year, because I couldn't handle the thought of randomly dialing the number of a doctor I knew nothing about. Looking up physician reviews didn't help much since most of the doctors who are taking patients are new, either to the practice or to the country... but anyway. Accomplished! Yes, should not have been a big deal. Was.

So on Friday we slogged our way over to the far side of town. The clinic is in the Pacific Place mall, which specializes in Asian goods; I've shopped there before (got the cool fan in our bedroom from there) but it's a pretty trippy place to be. Mind you, I firmly believe it's good for the soul to be in the minority from time to time, so I'm not complaining. At least about that. The long wait in the super-crowded waiting room... now that did suck.

But ah, to finally see a doctor who's prepared to provide continuing care. In particular (aside from taking one look at my throat and writing me a scrip for some antibiotics) he dashed of dexedrine prescriptions for both Robin and Domini without blinking (or needing to write a letter to the old doctors first), which is amazing to me (we got in a crapload of trouble trying to get Robin help for his ADHD from someone who wasn't his family doctor in the past... apparently that's considered drug-seeking behaviour.)

So now I have a cupboard full of prescriptions (and some sticker shock, since Robin has no coverage right now), a referral to a gynecologist for me and a pediatrician who specializes in ADHD for Domini, so life may actually be pretty good. We gave Domini her first dose of dex (one of the eight-hour spansules) today, to give her a few days to get used to it before school starts. Then I made her do some homework/studying with me.

OMG.

This is the kid who can't read through a three-syllable word (much less a sentence) without me having to get her attention at least twice. This is the kid who you send to clean her room and go in to find her swinging monkey-bars under her loft bed. This is the kid who can't even finish a meal for getting distracted. But we read a book, sat down and went through her science book (all on rocks and minerals... yay! roughly equivalent to the first year geology course I used to TA), then started on the multiplication flash-cards. Three or four hours later, I gave up because my head was pounding (still kinda sick). She sat there and played with the flash-cards for probably another two hours, until we finally made her stop. Okay, maybe that's a bit over-focused, but having spent the last two weeks wondering how on earth she's going to pass gr. 3, I am not going to complain.

Downsides: she had a nasty tummy ache this morning (Possibly because of the large amount of chocolate she and her sister ate just after breakfast, but likely at least exacerbated by the dex). Also, aside from the chocolate, she didn't eat anything else until I made her have an orange and a piece of cheese, probably six hours later. I do worry about the eating (and the tummy aches)... but on the other hand she has barely been eating her lunch this whole year (a combination of inattention and stress, I think), and she gets stomach-aches all the time, mostly stress-related. So if the medication helps lower her stress---which I really think it will---we hopefully won't actually be any worse off than we would be otherwise. Also with any luck the side-effects will likely ease up in a week or so.

Anyway, I feel like a weight has lifted. There's still some stuff to do---getting medical information from the old doctors sent to the new one, getting a copy of her ADHD assessment in to her school file so she can get some help on that front---and I know it's not a miracle pill; it's not going to magically stuff all the info she's missed over the last two months into her head, by a long shot. But it's an improvement, and with any luck it'll help her pull it together.

Robin has described ADHD as being like having a shield around your brain that keeps information from getting in; everything bounces off. And that's certainly what it seems like, dealing with Domini normally. And she's smart and socially aware---she knows that she's not understanding what the other kids are understanding; she knows that she's the poorest reader in her class; she knows that everyone else finishes their work while she's still sitting there trying to figure out what she's supposed to do. It sucks. It sucks feeling like the more you try to help your child the more she just ends up feeling inadequate because she doesn't get it (and wanders off topic all the time).

So here's hoping this is a turning point, for her. Now all we need to do is get Robin working again...

What the heck am I thinking?

I'm signed up to do National Novel Writing Month again this year. Last year it made sense---I had a bit more time and not too much to do for my thesis yet.

This year.... it does not make sense. I am crazy busy. I have to start planning for my comprehensives. I have thesis work and lab work and volunteering at the kids' school. How the HELL am I going to do this?

Ah well. Worth reaching for, right?

My puppy (sad warning)

I just got an email from my mother that my dog is dying. Okay, her dog, but she wouldn't have him if it weren't for me. His name is Zeus, and he's a purebred Siberian Husky, silver coloration with brown eyes. He's sweet and rambunctious and stubborn and not terribly well trained, but he's ours. He turned 9 this month, so he's not young, but he's not ancient. He hasn't been eating well lately---a lot of throwing up and diarrhoea, to the point where he is getting quite weak. Mom took him to the vet and they said his lymph nodes are hugely enlarged; they did some tests which came back positive for lymphosarcoma... cancer of the lymph nodes. They gave him between two months and two years, but my mom isn't one to keep an animal suffering, so she's going to book the euthanasia. They're going to bury him out at my mom's boyfriend's river lot at Carlton, by his dog, Tina, who was a good friend of Zeus's. It's a beautiful place.

I didn't think I'd be quite this sad.