Whirlwind

What a whirlwind the last week has been (or maybe it was the last month...or perhaps the last year). Last weekend, I flew down to Washington D.C. to go to the wedding of my college friend Amy (top) and spend time with my four closest friends (from left: Erin, Tanja, me, Amy, Martha).

One of the highlights of the wedding was the cupcakes, mousses, and mini treats they served for dessert. Beautiful and delicious!

It's always hard to know when the 5 of us will be able to all get together - the last time was when the girls flew out to California in May of 2006 to meet the newest baby, our little Caden. Now the next baby is on the way - Tanja is due in December! And the day we all left D.C., Tanja flew out that night for her new home in central Africa (Burkina Faso).

When I got back to Mass., we had just about 2 days to regroup and pack for our summer field season in California. Along with work deadlines and house maintenance projects (including some fairly major demolition in the attic), we slept about 3 hours the night before we left!

When we arrived at our old home of Sonoma County and our base at the marine lab, we had to really hit the ground running in terms of getting research supplies together and experiments started. All of a sudden, my schedule of working 9 hrs and sewing 2-3 hrs per day shifted to working 13 hr days. Even though it was a bit of a shock to the system, it's nice to be back to fieldwork after 10 months of primarily computer work. Here I am cable tyeing 'plates' (PVC tiles) to 'racks' (hardware shelves) which were later hung from the sides of the dock to attract little larvae settlers. Caden 'helped' :)

After 4 days of looking longingly at my crate of crafting supplies (bringing the bare minimum took up 1/3 to 1/2 of my luggage), I finally opened it up during a free hour this morning. I'm looking forward to spending the summer doing some little projects, including appliques and hand embroidery.
Now I'm off to bed at a record time of 10:50 pm - 2 hrs earlier than our usual in Mass. Matt is getting up at 5 am for fieldwork, so I think I'll get up with him and do some morning sewing. Me, sewing in the morning? Revolutionary!