Don't know much biology

It seems that a former biology teacher I had in high school has been named the top teacher in Burlington County. Kate DeSantis (who was Ms. Zalinski when I had her for Biology in '90 - '91) is a teacher that I do remember fondly. The one thing that I remember most strongly is her explanation of why animals - humans in particular - have most of their senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing) in one place. Her explanation was that way they could only risk a small portion of themselves in order to ascertain whether there was a danger. As an example, she pretended that there was a fire in the hallway and demonstrated how by just sticking her head out the door she could tell what was going on and what the threat might be.

It's a pretty minor factoid - but one that had always stuck with me. I mean, of all the information that I was exposed to in high school, piled on by all the info that I was exposed to in college and grad school, there's only so much that is going to stick. There are classes that I can't remember at all (I couldn't remember the name of my teacher or any single event from my Creative Drama class to save my soul) so when something sticks, you have to acknowledge the teacher's role!

Yeah Ms Zalinski, errrr Mrs. DeSantis. Congratulations!

You go in the boat, boat goes in the water. Shark's in the water, our shark.

So I had to read a funny little news story about one of the RHIBs (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats) from NOAA's HI'IALAKAI being attacked by a Tiger Shark off the coast of Hawaii on Fark.com. Here's the article describing what happened.

I think that the shark would do a lot more damage to my stability ball, though.

And you thought that I was unstable before!

This weekend I bought a giant stability ball to bring into the office to sit on while I work. It really is giant - 30 inches high. I've blown it up to test it out at home... and I am having such a ball (groan... I'm sorry). It's really fun to bounce on, and while I think that the one that I got is actually a couple of inches too big for me to be ideal, I can really feel my calf and back muscles getting a workout from balancing on it.

Let's see how long this fad lasts...

Celebrate summer with easy recipes

In honor of the unofficial beginning of summer, I thought that I would post a few of my favorite light and easy meal ideas!

Corn & Black Bean Salad (I just made this tonight)
1 Can corn
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/2 large bell pepper, diced
handful of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 red onion, diced
Couple of squirts of lime juice
Couple of splashes of olive oil (extra virgin - best quality you can find)
Couple of splashes of red wine vinegar
A palmful of fresh cilantro
salt, pepper, assorted herbs

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.

Italian Pasta Salad (in honor of Ciccio)
Interesting cooked pasta, like farfalle or penne
Super-fresh, super-ripe tomatoes
Fresh Mozzarella (buffalo mozzarella if you can find it - but it has to be fresh - soaking in salt water variety)
Fresh Basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (again, best quality you can find)

Mix all ingredients and enjoy. This works super well when the pasta is still warm, melting the cheese a bit.

Assorted pasta salad ideas, using cool multicolored pastas with spinach, tomato, etc in them, should be dressed with a high quality extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, herbs like basil and oregano (fresh or dried). Stir in grilled veggies like peppers, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and yellow squash or raw veggies like peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cooked small salad shrimp.

Yummy Couscous salads could have couscous, cucumbers, onions, black olives, diced red bell pepper, and feta cheese. Don't forget your seasonings and olive oil!

Feel free to add your own ideas.

MMMmmmm. Now I'm hungry.

And I'm gone again!

Yeah! New trip. DH is interviewing in Florida for a temporary position and I am going to join him for a little weekend trip to Palm Beach! Hurray! It will be nice to be in the heat again - hopefully the weather will cooperate. And I'll get to visit a whole bunch of my childhood haunts when I visited my grandparents: the Banana Boat, the Sea Mist, the Boynton Inlet, Gulfstream Park (pictured above). I'm so excited I could cry!

More travel for me! Yeah!

I'm back!

Well, I’m back from vacation and not lovin’ it. It’s so cold here… it’s ridiculous. Luckily, there might be a short weekend trip to Florida in my near future, which will give me a chance to refuel on my heat needs.

For those wondering… here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on “hydrophobia.”

Now all I have to do is plan my next vacation. I’ve several I’m considering right now:

A Fall long weekend trip to Maine, San Francisco, or the Cayman Islands
A next Spring/early Summer week+ long trip to London & Paris.

Now if only the budget will cooperate.

P.S. This is post #200! Woot

Almost there...

So, after a day at work where I ran around like a rabid chicken with its head cut off, I think that I might actually almost be ready to leave at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Nevermind the fact that I still want to: pick up a pair of shoes and get an underwater camera that has a flash, two things that I have been singularly unable to do thus far.

I am breathing slowly, yoga-like breaths, trying to relax enough to get out of the office with as much grace and dignity as I can muster, and enjoy my train ride home.

In through the nose. Out through the nose. Mountain pose. Tree pose.

This is going to be much more relaxing with a rum punch in my hand and a spot on the beach.

Oh happy day

Lucky lucky me. I basically submitted my passport for renewal at the last possible moment before this trip and today I got it back! Yeah! Of course, the picture looks worse than I remember, the font is all different, and I lost all my stamps. But oh well, I got my old passport back as a keepsake.

Hoorah! Heck, I even had three days to spare.

4 days to go. All day meetings tomorrow and Thursday are going to make it bearable, I think.

A little fun...

It’s a little known fact that Mexicans love mayonnaise. I guess they put it on their burritos or something, like chipotle mayonnaise, but for some reason they have always really been into mayonnaise.

Historically speaking, mayonnaise comes from England (I think that they call it salad dressing, but whatever). In fact, the largest known shipment of mayonnaise in history was a shipment of mayonnaise from England to Mexico; a shipment unfortunately aboard the ill-fated Titanic.

The Titanic disaster caused huge shortages of mayonnaise in Mexico, riots and street protests broke out. Once regular mayonnaise shipments resumed, the Mexican leader decreed that a special celebration would be held every year to remember the great tragedy of the Titanic and its effect on their mayonnaise supply.

That celebration, my friends, is known as “Sinko de Mayo.”

Eliza - hunting cat?

So we had the back door open tonight, and all of a sudden Eliza jumped from the couch and ran over to the door. Turns out - we had a visitor.

Our backyard is a regular zoo. We've had opossums, bunnies, chipmunks, fox, and our neighbors had a deer in their yard (we have a 6 foot fence). Tonight we had a raccoon!

Thank goodness the kitties were inside and their rabies shots are up to date. I can't figure out how or where he got into the yard. Spooky!

He was a big mofo too... he totally would have eaten Henry. Eliza would have just tried to make friends.

Let's get physical

Single digits! Yeah! There are only nine days left before we leave for vacation - and I am celebrating by getting a physical. I called my doctor for a medical clearance for my SCUBA certification dives, and he requested that I get a physical before he signs off. That's just great.. I have to have blood taken (eeew - I don't do well with needles) and all kinds of areas poked and prodded.

Eh. What are you going to do?

I get to miss a morning of work, which is a nice side benefit.

In the news and on the 'net

There have been a bunch of articles that have caught my eye in the past few days.

First... a hilarious (because it's true) link from Fark.com to a "Girlspeak to English" translation aid. I particularly love the translation of "I don't want to talk about it." in Girlspeak to the English "Go away, I'm still building up evidence against you." and "We need to talk" in Girlspeak to "I need to complain." I must admit I'm guilty!

Next, an interesting article on CNN that discusses the heinous debt that most college students face when they graduate; debt that forces them into job and life choices that they might not otherwise choose. As someone with about $60k of school debt from grad school and undergrad - I feel the pain. I don't know whether having this much debt has made me choose a different life path - but I have also been fortunate enough to have married someone whose job allows me to lead the lifestyle I want and pay my debts. Of course, some might see that as a life choice in and of itself; that I married DH so I could have the lifestyle I wanted despite my enormous debt burden.

Actually, being married to DH added to my debt now that I think about it. If it weren't for the security he provided I might not have gone to grad school and added about $48k to my debt load. He's responsible! It's all his fault.

Finally, an article in the Washington Post talks about the impending doom that the retirement of the baby boomers means for the Federal Government. They are apparently going to try a whole bunch of advertising campaigns to attract younger workers to the Federal workforce and whatnot. I think they are putting the cart before the horse a bit here though. First you have to fix the arduous hiring systems - with the impossible to complete KSAs and months long process for applying and interviewing. Younger generations have too much competition out there to wait around for a government job.

Another thing that needs to be fixed is the abysmal state of government managers. Most managers are there because they are well versed on policy matters, not because they are good at managing people. People apply for jobs because of the description, but they leave/stay at jobs long term when they are well managed. This is a real weak link in the government right now, and the massive retirement of the baby boomer middle management ranks without some kind of strucutred approach to training people to manage (or developing two career ladders - one for policy experts and one for people experts) is going to frustrate any attempts to bring younger generations on board for the long term.

Lots of good stuff out there for those of us who have the time to read it.

Kitties have a new friend

This is so weird, but for the past month or so we have had a cat visiting our front step. He just likes to sit there in the sunshine and I guess hang out. Of course, this drives our kitties nut. We've had puffy tails and bloodcurdling yowls and all kinds of pacing from window to door to window in excitement.

So this afternoon I notice both kitties looking intently out the front door, in virtually identical positions. And there's the visiting cat - sitting on the end of the driveway. I ran to find the digital camera - so I could post a pic of the cuteness, but naturally I couldn't find it in time to capture the moment. So I offer this artists rendition of what a confrontation between kitties would look like.

Silly kitties.