See Hear Speak No Evil

When you are a parent, you sometimes do stuff you do not want to do.

Clean snot off walls.
Wash poopy underwear. (not your own)
Give your children quarters for the silly rides in the entrances of stores. (those quarters were for slot machines damn it!)
Carry a screaming child through Wal-mart. (wishing you could spank them)

You know what I mean.

Then there is the FUN PARK.

http://www.cachevalleyfunpark.com/index.php

Yeah, it not only eats up your quarters, it eats your checkbook up too. You have to have pizza, drinks, games, toys, and EVERYTHING. I try to avoid this place. The germs alone should scare you into becoming OCD.

Anyways, I am now poor. /sigh

But I would like to wish Happy Birthday to my son’s classmate that had a B-day party there tonight. My son loved it. My daughter and my checkbook did too. I on the other hand… need a drink.

alright! alright! so jess brought my usage of effect and affect into question for yesterday’s post and what do you know? the c&j graduate is right (as always- i’m horrible at stuff like that). as scientists, it’s nice if we know which one to use and when but honestly, we pay people to correct our usage. we know what we mean. maybe this is why many scientists have difficulty communicating with everyone else. I’ll be the first to admit that we’re a bit on the socially inept side of things. anyway, that’s not what i wanted to talk about and i apologize for not putting a picture up. that’s what happens when all your photos are stolen so maybe bridge will be nice enough to put one up (but not one of the last ones…)

today was a gorgeous day here in albuquerque and i was lucky enough to spend it in the field. sure, there was a bit of sitting around waiting to take measurements but the company was great, the scenery beautiful (if you don’t count the 3 fences topped with razor wire) and the weather was phenomenal.
ok- you guessed it. i made jess and bridge promise to keep my secret but it looks like i let the cat out of the bag. i’m writing my portion of the blog from jail (hence the 3 fences with razor wire). so what if i groped a police officer during a routine traffic stop. it’s not MY fault he played for the other team and wasn’t flattered. that’s just my luck, anyway. to get thrown in jail for fondling an officer of the law. how freaking lame is that? i guess it makes for a good story but i have to get out of jail first. otherwise, these ladies in here would rather have me fondling them.
/sigh.
if only i liked fondling ladies it would be great.
so instead, i volunteer to go out and do field work for cheap labor. it means i get to be outside away from the lusty eyes of wanton women who want to take my lesbian experience flower.
oops- gotta run. i think my 5 mintues is up and i don’t want to get into trouble, or i owe the wardon some favors! not how i pictured spending my friday night.

i am thirty. and i continue to have acne. i am growing my hair out and it is butt ugly right now. thank god i get a cut and color very soon. my nose is big and i have no jawline. just a fleshy region that resembles a double chin. not only will i celebrate my 60th birthday in 30 years (math success!) but i believe i will celebrate my 60th chin as well. i hope i don’t burn all my chins on those 60 wax-dipped strings on my cake.

i have nice hands and nice little wrists. everyone says i have great legs. i have beautifully painted toenails. (thanks, B! you know who you are!)

do most people feel as hideous on the outside as i do? am i normal?

moms don’t shield their kids from me at the grocery store and people don’t tend to jump to the other side of the sidewalk to let me pass, so i must be ok… i think i am just having an ugly day.

hopefully you can relate without thinking i have bad self esteem. i don’t. my life is great and even though i might not look like i wish i did on the outside, i have lots of good stuff inside.

i’d show you, but guts are gross.

author edit * * * as an afterthought, i have included a photo. the point is, i ain’t ugly… just was having a bad hair day or something.

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I’m a talk radio addict. And I mean ADDICT! I podcast various different talk radio shows from Democracy Now! to Science Friday. There’s been a lot of talk, on Science Friday, Here on Earth, Living on Earth, etc. about this E. coli outbreak from spinach.
I also know that there has been talk about some of the spinach being organic, which leads to discussion about how organic foods may be more prone to bacteria, etc. I must say PHOEY! I’m not just saying this because much of the food I eat is organic but because bacteria such as E. coli do not effect only organically grown foods.
From all I’ve heard, the cause of the bacterial contamination, in this specific instance, is not yet known. However, there are only a few sources of E. coli. The main one of which is cattle feces (I chose to use the more technical term over jess’s ‘poo’). If you’ve ever lived anywhere where there’s a dairy near some sort of water source, you know that when it rains, manure runs into the water contaminating the water with whatever sort of bacteria, parasite, etc. that is in the manure.
Because most of the produce we get in the US comes from California (and the Governator), if the irrigation water the farmers use has been contaminated by manure, the produce grown using this irrigation water also becomes contaminated. This happens regardless of whether the produce is grown by ‘conventional (i.e., pesticides, herbicides)’ manner or organically.
Sure you can decrease your chances of getting the bacteria by not purchasing the contaminated food. But, here’s something interested I learned, the store with possible contaminated foods on their shelves are NOT required to remove those foods. The recall is totally voluntary. This is the case regardless of whether the contaminated food product is meat or plant.
You can also wash your produce, cook it, keep it refigerated or purchase it from someone locally. Buying produce and products from local sellers doesn’t necessarily exempt you from getting contaminated products but you can see (if you so choose) the irrigation water being used to grow the plants. You can see manure running from the containment pond into the water source and you actually know the people growing your food. It’s in their best interest to retain you as a customer (because they don’t have that many). Therefore, you might actually be able to effect the way they produce their produce (hooray for the English language).
Honestly, I miss living in a place where I can grow my own food. So, I compromise by hitting the Farmer’s Market every Saturday Morning and let me tell you, I get loads of awesome, freshly picked produce for cheap. I know not everyone has this option but I’ll wager there are more options available to you than you think.
I’m getting off my soapbox now but just thought I’d jump in on the E. coli bandwagon and put in my 2 cents worth and maybe spread a bit of information (NOT manure!)

ps- Thanks for reading

HAHAHA. After sending out a mass emailing to all my friends about my new blog… I realize what I posted last. Um, sorry. HAHAHA. When you signed up to be my friend I guess you didn’t realize what it entailed. Now you are in for it.

The value of friendship is great. I really do appreciate ALL of my friends. Every single one of you. Yes… I am talking to YOU. (This is when everyone is confused, but I really am just talking to all of you.)

Anyways, I just wanted to apologize for being myself. Now that THAT is out of the way… I would just like to let you all know that I will NOT change. HAHA. Get that apology out of the way so I can try to offend you all again. I know I will.

/wink

Anyways, now I am going to start a contest. This is SELF PORTRAIT CHALLENGE. I guess they are supposed to go on Tuesdays… there is a site that does these, but I’ll try it on a Thursday for fun. Next week I’ll try a REAL one.

CRAPPY MY SPACE ANGLE SELF PORTRAIT

Today was… not so good of a day.

I have yet to ever wake up and say, “Golly, I am soooo glad I am going to vist the Gynecologist today! I love sitting there half naked with my feet in stirrups with a woman feeling my crotch.”

Okay… Um… NO COMMENT!

My doctor is great. She is really good at putting me at ease. She sits there and just gabs the entire time. GABS. About random odd things too. Today we were talking about her personal trainer. Last time it was a family reunion. Next time it could be the Westmister Dog Show. WHO KNOWS?

At least she didn’t say she wanted fish tacos for lunch.

On another note! Here is a fun picture of me, Loralee, and Chelle! This would be Loralee’s car. It is a total chick magnet. As you can see.

Visit either of their blogs at:

http://loraleeslooneytunes.blogspot.com/

http://www.michellehopes.blogspot.com/

so i go to a meeting this afternoon and when i get back to my desk i have this email from a colleague at another office who happens to supply many of our sampling instruments.
basically, he was yelling at me for some damage to an instrument. of course i feel bad but let me tell you what happened and you can make the decision for yourself.

Friday, late morning.
My job, to get depth to water from 9 wells.
Usual time spent, 2 hours (not including driving time because the site is out in BFE).
I get to the site and pull the water level indicator (wli) from my car and get everything ready to drop that baby 300 ft down the first well. What do you know, the tape does not roll down the well very easily. Being a scientist and inevitable problem solver, I check out the wli to see what the hold up is.
turns out the front cover is coming off the instrument and the only way for me to fix it is to unroll all 500 ft of tape, put the cover back on, and re-roll the tape. so, that’s what i do. remember, we’re talking about 500 ft of material here. i was left with a huge pile of tangled tape to re-roll.

an analogy- picture what happens to your christmas lights or an extension cord or your garden hose… you get the gist.

as i begin to re-roll and untangle the boat-load of tape, i realize that somehow the 390 ft tape is tangled with the 87 ft tape. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? needless to say, i spent 2 (that’s right, two) hours untangling and re-rolling the tape. by the time i was done, I was so upset and in need of a beer that i almost couldn’t see straight.

i finished tagging my wells (with an AF mind you- boy that was a poor joke) and came back to work. I sent the wli back to it’s warehouse and sent the gentleman an email about the incessant beeping the wli was making. i suggested that maybe it was the batteries.
today after many emails about batteries and front covers almost off, etc. i get the yelling email.

was i in the wrong, partially. i should have told him about the front cover being off from the get go but i got the tape wound back up and mostly minus kinks. he seems to think there are too many kinks and the tape in unfixable and so the wli may be ruined. i guess it’s his job to know these kinds of things. but it’s also his job to send me stuff in good working condition. the screws not being tight had nothing to do with our shipping company or that i packed the wli in my trunk. it was something from him or the previous user.
thanks, now i feel better.