Snow...

Driving from Alabama to Texas shouldn't involve 7 hours of snow.  From crossing into Mississippi, through Tennesse and Mousori (had to drop off the falcons), and until about 45 minutes east of Little Rock the snow was falling, in some areas quite heavily.  Dumas got to ride in the cab for most of it..  After a brief discussion about proper behavior for the regal hunting dog he is he did ok.  All that snow added hours to the drive so I finally arrived around 0430.

Often on these long drives I think about some really random things.  This time I was thinking about ways to document my life in some sort of non boring fashion.  My grandpa (he turns 96 next week) told me to write down a few sentences each day about what I did, so that way when I'm as old as he is I can read them and remember the fun.  I guess he's been doing this for decades...  Being a wildlife biologist though I thought it would be more amusing to sample myself at random times like we would doing a natural history study.  So each day I will record what I'm doing during 4 random 15 minute time periods during the day.  Because my sleeping habits are so weird I've decided to sample across 24 hours, not restrict myself to an 18hr stretch or something like that.  As such, some days the random points could be pretty boring...  I will also summarize the day with 3 things- a 5 sentence description of the day, my lunch/dinner menu, and some random fact I learned.  Should be at least moderately interesting I hope.

1043: sleeping.  Quite soundly.

1609: talking to Ira.  Apparently I have to grow up and become a productive member of society sometime, and I should start looking at the jobs out there now to get an idea on how to do it.  My post PhD future was a hot topic all day today. Apparently passing prelims causes this.

1738: putting leafhopper specimens to be returned to The (don't forget the "The" or they get upset) Ohio State University insect collection in unit trays, counting each specimen (over 1000...) and making sure the datebase matched reality.

2102: eating dinner at Bostons with Eric.  Probably talking about diesel trucks.

Nice to be back where I belong, AKA College Station.  Being I slept until noon, not much productive got done today, although I figured out why my database count didn't match reality and fixed it.  This means the OSU loan can get shipped back to OSU, and I can cross another loan off the list.  I need to start thinking more seriously about my plan for the real world.  Post docing in a conservation genetics lab seems like a good idea, and would keep options open for applying for jobs that are more conservation/wildlife oriented or more phylogenetics oriented.

Lunch- Dixie Chicken- Freddy burger on toast, with cheese, tomatoes, and mustard (they forgot the pickles and put lettuce on instead).  Cheese  Fries.  Dr. Pepper.  This meal is heaven on earth, and they were playing a good mix of Texas Country, College Station country, and country.  With Maria, sat on the porch, near where our names our carved.

Dinner- Boston's with Eric.  Had a pepperoni pizza, a shiner, and a Pepsi.  Funny how chordate anatomy resulted in multiple long term friendships.  What an amazing class.

Random fact: American alligators have unidirectional airflow in the parabronchi.  Previously only birds were thought to have unidirectional airflow (making avian respiration completely different from other verts).