I am terribly excited...

...about my new vacuum cleaner. It is possibly the best vacuum cleaner IN THE WORLD. I really needed a good one, as the one that came with the flat, though brand-spankin' new, was definitely not up to the task of cleaning a carpet covered in dog hair, Emily hair, and all the dirt I rather freely track in. So I ordered a refurbished Dyson Animal upright vacuum cleaner, and today it arrived, in all its lightweight, easy-to-use, purple-and-grey glory. So far the results have been phenomenal. I sucked up THREE chambers full of gunk already (it doesn't have a bag, but rather a tube-like chamber). WOW. and that was just my living room and hallway. It is even more amazing because I had just vacuumed with my old one a couple of days ago, and thought I had done a pretty good job! The house doesn't even have that just-vacuumed smell, thanks to the HEPA filter. Well, I could go on. Maybe I'll put up a photo later.

Dead catfish...

...for lack of a better title.

Hmm, its been awhile since the last update, mainly the long delay is due to my going home for vacation, which was AWESOME, despite what some may say about word misuse. But, if you are reading this, you are probably well aware of what I did at home. So let's not dwell on the AWESOMENESS of it :D

Back here in the UK, it is cold and wet as usual. The other day, at 6pm, I could see my breath. Easily. ITS MID-JULY!! Apparently, while I was gone, it rained almost every day, and all the rivers were flooded. Its been continuing to rain, I've only gotten one day of fieldwork in, with my new helper. She was great at catching crayfish, and doesn't seem to have any annoying personal habits.

I've finally found a way to stay warm. OMG, you say, IT IS JULY. Yes, it resembles Ohio's March. so, I, uh, liberated, a big fake fur coat. I'm wearing it right now. and do you know what? I AM WARM! do you know what else? It just started downpouring outside. yeehaw.

In other news, I managed to lock myself out, again. I gotta get a key copy to leave hidden outside...people keep giving me strange looks as I break in to my own house.

Lastly, I finally got a seat cover for Carl. It is actually just a sheepskin. It is nice and cozy and protective. Carl gives it two struts up.

So I went to Ireland...

I went to Ireland a couple days ago, to go crayfishing with a student at Queen's university in Belfast. One of my labmates went too. Here is a photo-synopsis of the trip.

Like all good trips to Ireland, this one started with an exciting discovery of the most disgusting toilet facilities, possibly on the planet, which existed in a previously unknown state on my labmate's rental property. Here they are. Unfortunately you can't see the truly horrid, ancient, moist, off-color toilet paper over in the box to the right. Yeah, I took the x-files figures on the trip. It was kindof an accident, they were in Carl's glovebox when we left.


Off we went and drove the 5 hours from Leeds to Stranraer in Scotland. There we got a 1.5 hour ferry to Belfast. On the ferry, I had to drive up a crazy ramp that made it look like a rollercoaster lift slope. There were yobs on the stairs. I drew a picture of a crayfish catching humans for my host student. No photo, sorry. We checked into the youth hostel, where we saw this:


What is wrong with the above picture? What ISN'T wrong with it? There is a human cage in the disabled parking spot. Let's not think about that too much... instead look at this, the best car paint job EVER. And its for sale? So, why don't I now own this car? I couldn't say.


We spent one whole day crayfish sampling with our unnamed host student and unnamed technician. Actually, they both had names. But let's not get into that. No photos of the actual fieldwork, at least none I can post here. That's classified!

The next day we had most of the day free, so labmate (also unnamed, how mysterious!) and I drove up to the Giant's Causeway, which was reportedly AMAZING. So we went, it took about 2 hours to drive.

and here it is! These fantastically-hexagonal stones exist in clumps around this point on the coast. They are also on the cliff faces. Very interesting. Not interesting enough to actually read the literature and find out how they formed, though, it would seem.


We looked in the tidal pools for awhile. There were lots of little crabs, and shed crab exoskeletons. Some of us had more fun at the tide pools than others:


Another view of the causeway, covered in humans:

Can you see the shrimp in this picture of a tide pool?


Neither can I! But there WAS one there when I snapped the photo...
And here we have a small tide pool that was mysteriously PINK. It was almost opaque. There was a bit of an odor as well. I let Mulder and Scully investigate THAT one.

Mulder: "Aliens. Obviously."
Scully: *walks away*

Here's an interesting bit of rock on the cliff over the causeway.
More aliens, right, Mulder?


Here's me, proof that I am, in fact, still alive. Notice the interesting curved rock columns up to the right of the photo. That's what I'm *supposed* to be pointing at.
There were cows. Labmate fed them and petted them and had words with them. I was busy with a snail that I had picked up. Cows = inferior, snail = superior. They were lovely cows though, some of them were quite pretty. They were yearlings heifers, I believe.

This next photo is really a testament to how bored one can become when sitting in construction traffic. That is the airhose for the crayfish, not alien guts. Really.


Mulder: "You, uh, want some help there?"
Scully: "If you must."

Well, that evening we picked up the crayfish and caught an overnight ferry from Belfast to Liverpool. No one threw up. Here's an interesting building we encountered when leaving the ferry port the next day. Notice on the left side of the building the bricks are a different color - it appears that it collapsed on that side at one time and was later rebuilt.


Overall the trip was a great success: no one died, everyone had a good time, the crayfish sampling was accomplished, and we ate alot. Also Carl behaved perfectly.

Lifeformers

Greetings Blog Readers!
No new photos this time, so here is an old cartoon drawing I made of The Pie for you to look at.

Here's the latest on the various life-forms associated with me:
Tasha - almost completely healed, can now run and leap about freely. We had our first PAT assignment, and it went well. Tomarrow we will attend a dinner together.

Crayfish - the crayfish are active! I've been helping my labmate with fieldwork, and working on a big presentation which I just gave today. It went smashingly, as usual. I really enjoy presenting. Next week labmate and I will travel to Belfast, Ireland to meet another crayfish student and sample some Irish crayfish (I mean collect, not EAT). Should be an AWESOME time.

Other life forms - I have some new pets...someone didn't want their stick insects anymore, so now I have them. The first order of business was to clean out their cage/tank thing. I tried putting them in this big plastic box while I cleaned it out. Somenow they ended up ON MY LEGS. It was difficult to remove them without betraying my cool exterior. Also, I have a toad. We found it on a footpath when out crayfish sampling. It looked like someone might have stepped on its arm (swollen). So far it is pretty boring. I made it a large terrarium. Really. I made it out of plexiglass at 2am one night. Crazy! Also, a friend at work has some snails that recently hatched, so I'll be giving a couple of them a home too. And I got some wee bean plants, and the pumpkin seeds I planted came up, and of course the peas as well. Oh, and we now have an algae eater (plecostamus) fish for the guppy tank at work, named Ralph, just like my last one. Who currently lives in Missouri.

Oh yeah, and I'm fine. :D

just another update, now with new improved less gross photo but still pretty gross description

So, its been a week since PieMaster's injury. She is healing well enough the vet says. (begin gross part) Since they removed the drains the punctures have still been seeping, alot, but today they were mostly dry. Its creepy that you can just look in and see the muscle underneath. (end gross part) She's feeling much better, today she wanted to play for the first time.

Also today we took a walk in the park for the first time since the incident. There were LOADS of people at the park! The weather has been t-shirt weather for the past three days, and it being Saturday, everyone and their brother, cousin, roommate, etc converged in the park. People were even playing FRISBEE. Delicious. The back gardens have also been one long party and sunbathing session the past few days. Pretty awesome. We're hoping to have a BBQ one night with the neighbors.

Obligatory photo of Pie's butt:

pUpdate

Well, Pie went to see the vet today, but they say the drains will have to stay in another two days, so we'll go back on wednesday morning. She is doing okay. Every now and then she will get up suddenly and trot all over the house directionlessly, then lie back down. Otherwise she just lies there. She is probably bored.

Warning: graphic photos of wound

Right, so here's some pics of Pie's injury. First we have here what I found when I got home with her. As you can see there is so much hair, it is difficult to see the extent of the wound. You can also see that it isn't actually bleeding much, which is why it was very hard to find. I actually found it because I could SMELL blood. and that is creepy. It looked to be about 1.5x1inch. When I saw this I knew i would have to take her to the vet for stitches, the next day.


Here is the Pie now, we just got back from the vet a little while ago. She had been there most of the day, they had to anesthetize her of course. Yeah, wound is a lot bigger than it looked like at first! And I asked them to shave extra and on the other side to look for more wounds, they found one more puncture. It was basically one large bite. here you can see they put drainage tubes in around the stitches. Those will be removed tomarrow if all goes well. It obviously hurts alot, she was wimpering and she doesn't ever do that. So they gave her 'another painkiller shot'. Now she's zonked out.
And here's a close up view of the wound. Yes, look at it, you know you want to.
The vet said it should heal in about ten days...just in time for her first Therapy dog assignment. Did I mention she was certified as a therapy dog a while back? Well, she was.