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rebeccmeisterYesterday was busy enough that I never even turned on my computer. That made it a rare day, folks.
Before I get carried away with the recounting, though, here's a link to bike-related folderol for those interested. I'm enjoying this involvement in bike advocacy quite a bit, though writing stuff for the TBAG blog is diverting some of my writing energies.
Anyway, yesterday. Late in the week, I realized that I won't be able to go to the Downtown Phoenix Farmer's Market for a few weeks (next Saturday = regatta on the lake; Saturday after = trip to visit Bay Area peeps). So I determined that a trip was in order yesterday morning. I've been going to the farmer's market very early to be sure to get eggs because eggs laid by chickens that run around outside are so amazingly different and better than eggs laid by chickens allowed access to a patch of grass for a few brief hours every day. Also, they're beautifully multicolored--the pale blue and green ones are gorgeous. And also, I had other things to do after the market.
But let me not digress too far into rhapsodies on eggs. Ahem. I decided to do laundry beforehand, so I got up at 5:30 put things in the wash and eat breakfast, and left for the farmer's market at 7. I shopped just as the starting gong went off, and then headed back home at 8:15. I got home with just enough time to hang up my laundry to dry, and then headed over to campus to meet up with our lab's intrepid undergraduates to set up for the Sally Ride Science Festival, a festival to encourage middle-school girls to get into science. We've been preparing intensively for this thing over the past two weeks and were all quite excited about it. Set-up occurred without any serious hitches thanks to our preparedness, and then I spent the morning getting girls to do a One-Minute Experiment: How do ants communicate with each other? We had them test four modes of communication: vision (waving little flags at them), sound (clapping), touch (tapping the container), and smell (gently blowing on them). Many of the girls seemed fascinated by the whole thing, and it was so fun to explain how the nests worked and see their reactions. [My favorite question to ask: the leafcutter ants only eat fungus, a mushroom. How would you feel if that were the only food you ever ate? Lots of the girls would get these grossed-out expressions on their faces--so cute!]
So that was entertaining. After a while, we got tired out and decided to close up our booth (also, our promised lunches never manifested). Just as we were putting things away in the lab, our adviser appeared, so we all went out to lunch [Ethiopian food--YUM!]. And just as I got home from lunch, I realized it was 3:30 and almost time to head over to the lake to teach a couple of friends how to row.
It was a great afternoon to be out on the lake, pleasantly warm but not yet hot, and my friends R and J brought two kayaks so that we could alternate between rowing and kayaking. I always take one person at a time with me in a double when teaching folks how to row, so with more than one person present it helped to have a diversion while waiting turns. At the end, I hopped in the kayak for a minute, and it was strange to feel as though I was sitting in the water instead of on top of it. But I love being on the water in any form.
Subsequently, we went to Crazy Fish (Sushi 202) and had some delicious sushi (the Garden Roll was the most scrumptious sushi I've ever had, but that's not saying a whole lot--since I don't eat fish my sushi-eating is pretty limited), and then I briefly went to a party for a friend who is having knee surgery in a week.
With all of those happenings, though, I'm pretty peopled out. I had to talk all morning at the Science Festival, then talked all afternoon while teaching rowing, then talked a lot at the party, too. Incidentally,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sytharin, I met someone named Mary who was in a drawing class with you at B-ham. She doubts you'd remember her, though.
On top of all that, I have a bit of a cold. But so it goes. What a busy weekend.
Before I get carried away with the recounting, though, here's a link to bike-related folderol for those interested. I'm enjoying this involvement in bike advocacy quite a bit, though writing stuff for the TBAG blog is diverting some of my writing energies.
Anyway, yesterday. Late in the week, I realized that I won't be able to go to the Downtown Phoenix Farmer's Market for a few weeks (next Saturday = regatta on the lake; Saturday after = trip to visit Bay Area peeps). So I determined that a trip was in order yesterday morning. I've been going to the farmer's market very early to be sure to get eggs because eggs laid by chickens that run around outside are so amazingly different and better than eggs laid by chickens allowed access to a patch of grass for a few brief hours every day. Also, they're beautifully multicolored--the pale blue and green ones are gorgeous. And also, I had other things to do after the market.
But let me not digress too far into rhapsodies on eggs. Ahem. I decided to do laundry beforehand, so I got up at 5:30 put things in the wash and eat breakfast, and left for the farmer's market at 7. I shopped just as the starting gong went off, and then headed back home at 8:15. I got home with just enough time to hang up my laundry to dry, and then headed over to campus to meet up with our lab's intrepid undergraduates to set up for the Sally Ride Science Festival, a festival to encourage middle-school girls to get into science. We've been preparing intensively for this thing over the past two weeks and were all quite excited about it. Set-up occurred without any serious hitches thanks to our preparedness, and then I spent the morning getting girls to do a One-Minute Experiment: How do ants communicate with each other? We had them test four modes of communication: vision (waving little flags at them), sound (clapping), touch (tapping the container), and smell (gently blowing on them). Many of the girls seemed fascinated by the whole thing, and it was so fun to explain how the nests worked and see their reactions. [My favorite question to ask: the leafcutter ants only eat fungus, a mushroom. How would you feel if that were the only food you ever ate? Lots of the girls would get these grossed-out expressions on their faces--so cute!]
So that was entertaining. After a while, we got tired out and decided to close up our booth (also, our promised lunches never manifested). Just as we were putting things away in the lab, our adviser appeared, so we all went out to lunch [Ethiopian food--YUM!]. And just as I got home from lunch, I realized it was 3:30 and almost time to head over to the lake to teach a couple of friends how to row.
It was a great afternoon to be out on the lake, pleasantly warm but not yet hot, and my friends R and J brought two kayaks so that we could alternate between rowing and kayaking. I always take one person at a time with me in a double when teaching folks how to row, so with more than one person present it helped to have a diversion while waiting turns. At the end, I hopped in the kayak for a minute, and it was strange to feel as though I was sitting in the water instead of on top of it. But I love being on the water in any form.
Subsequently, we went to Crazy Fish (Sushi 202) and had some delicious sushi (the Garden Roll was the most scrumptious sushi I've ever had, but that's not saying a whole lot--since I don't eat fish my sushi-eating is pretty limited), and then I briefly went to a party for a friend who is having knee surgery in a week.
With all of those happenings, though, I'm pretty peopled out. I had to talk all morning at the Science Festival, then talked all afternoon while teaching rowing, then talked a lot at the party, too. Incidentally,
sytharin, I met someone named Mary who was in a drawing class with you at B-ham. She doubts you'd remember her, though.On top of all that, I have a bit of a cold. But so it goes. What a busy weekend.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 06:01 pm (UTC)(And I give up. Which way was it? The flags, clapping, tapping, or blowing?)