It didn't snow the entire time I was in Illinois. 9 days of weather pretty similar to what I came from, though less rain I'm sure. I'm disappointed.
No hoodie with a scarf under a peacoat with gloves and a hat. Instead it was run-outside-really-quick-in-your-tee-shirt-and-no-shoes to move the car weather.
Oh well. I shopped on State Street, saw the Marshall Field's/Macy's windows and the Bean, practiced my South Side Chicago accent, and celebrated Kerry's Christmas Eve birthday all the while enjoying family and friends... etc etc. We had a take off of peking duck for Christmas Eve dinner and lasagna for Christmas day dinner. Very a-traditional and very delicious.
It was my last night sleeping with Judy (my parents dog), and she decided to be even more of a bedhog than usual. She comes into the room late, usually when I'm already asleep and last night was no different. In the middle of the night I had this uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't put my legs together. I woke up and discovered Judy curled in a ball between them. She's such a slow and difficult mover when she's half asleep. When I got up to go to the bathroom I discovered she had moved, even though I had just shoved her to the perfect spot, and was now positioned exactly where I wanted to be. Like, the central point. Frustrating things to deal with when you want a living space heater to sleep with you.
On the way here, I had a layover in Denver. Luckily it was the day before the blizzard hit, so I had no problem with it, though apparently Aspen was snowed under as the flights across from me were incredibly delayed. As they boarded, the woman on the loudspeaker said "If the plane can't land, it's coming back" and everyone groaned. I flew into Rockford, amazingly, and ended up in a very small airport very late at night with no one there but the people getting off the plane and the people waiting for them. Seriously, I really don't even remember workers there.
I leave for O'Hare at 5 PM this evening and have a direct flight to Oakland. Which means I'll have a movie on the plane! Lately I've discovered that I get a little motion sickness on planes and I can't read on them. I need the movie to distract me, since my iPod is breaking down and the battery only lasts a couple hours at the most (but I got a new one so this will no longer be a problem after this flight).
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
ThroatLand Security
I've decided that my hypochondria should have levels like the terror alerts the White House has. Green for everything's fine, I don't think I have a disease or terminal illness; Yellow for maybe have a cold coming or something bigger but nothing terminal or life threatening; Orange for not dying but something's bad; and Red for I have something terminal and awful and debilitating.
Right now I'm at red because I've decided I have throat cancer. Yes, there is a tumor in my throat and I'm probably dying from it. Hopefully soon I will go to the doctor (and they will probably tell me I'm crazy and I just have plaque buildup or something lame), but until then, I will continue to worry.
Right now I'm at red because I've decided I have throat cancer. Yes, there is a tumor in my throat and I'm probably dying from it. Hopefully soon I will go to the doctor (and they will probably tell me I'm crazy and I just have plaque buildup or something lame), but until then, I will continue to worry.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
way too much news
This week was a big mix of coho salmon related fantastic-ness. It was also super busy.
The storm Saturday night brought the flows high enough for the coho salmon to jump up the pools at the Inkwells, which I think I already wrote about.
So anyway, to continue, I suppose, the salmon run is really hot. Heidi and I have been going out a lot this past week to both look at fish and just check out the area and also do some surveying. Tuesday we took a video camera to Roy's Pools (a series of pools built so that spawners could migrate upstream, though it's a migration barrier to smolts migrating back to the ocean) to watch them jumping up the pools.
Unfortunately, by the time we got there in the afternoon they were no longer jumping every minute, but more like every 10-15 minutes. I tried to get a picture with my camera phone, but everytime they'd jump it'd be a surprise and by the time I got over the "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT!!!" moment, the jump would be done. But we did catch at least one fantastic, perfect leap on the video camera.
Marjorie, the law intern, had her last day on Friday. It was sad - so on Tuesday (or possibly Mon or Wed, can't really remember) Heidi and I took her around to see the salmon, and indeed we saw lots. Marjorie works on the Sea Turtle Restoration Project/GotMercury.org project, so she doesn't have these requisite "hey we're gonna check out Lagunitas Creek today" excursions. It's so exciting - these huge fish in these streams! Their behavior is so clear - it's really easy to humanize them and get excited about what they're doing and what their objectives are while you watch them.
We went out later in the week with one of our volunteers (and because we were possibly going to do a CBS interview - didn't happen) and saw a salmon missing it's nose. It had gotten stuck while jumping through the Inkwells (a series of pools at the confluence of Lagunitas and San Geronimo Creeks) and ended up not making it - and staying in the larger creek. And he lost his nose in the process!
So, other office-y news:
Megan, our lead naturalist (who occasionally brings us delicious homemade food ever since she discovered that we were on food stamps) called into a show on NPR and mentioned our creekwalks on Tuesday, so every since then the phone's been ringing off the hooks. Heidi and I come back from outdoor excursions and we have billions of messages. I ended up hooking up with one of the creekwalks today, after our habitat restoration in the morning, because I signed up a friend of mine (yes, I have A friend in San Francisco) and his roommates. It was so packed! And we saw coho and possibly a chum salmon, so it was quite a success.
The storm Saturday night brought the flows high enough for the coho salmon to jump up the pools at the Inkwells, which I think I already wrote about.
So anyway, to continue, I suppose, the salmon run is really hot. Heidi and I have been going out a lot this past week to both look at fish and just check out the area and also do some surveying. Tuesday we took a video camera to Roy's Pools (a series of pools built so that spawners could migrate upstream, though it's a migration barrier to smolts migrating back to the ocean) to watch them jumping up the pools.
Unfortunately, by the time we got there in the afternoon they were no longer jumping every minute, but more like every 10-15 minutes. I tried to get a picture with my camera phone, but everytime they'd jump it'd be a surprise and by the time I got over the "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT!!!" moment, the jump would be done. But we did catch at least one fantastic, perfect leap on the video camera.
Marjorie, the law intern, had her last day on Friday. It was sad - so on Tuesday (or possibly Mon or Wed, can't really remember) Heidi and I took her around to see the salmon, and indeed we saw lots. Marjorie works on the Sea Turtle Restoration Project/GotMercury.org project, so she doesn't have these requisite "hey we're gonna check out Lagunitas Creek today" excursions. It's so exciting - these huge fish in these streams! Their behavior is so clear - it's really easy to humanize them and get excited about what they're doing and what their objectives are while you watch them.
We went out later in the week with one of our volunteers (and because we were possibly going to do a CBS interview - didn't happen) and saw a salmon missing it's nose. It had gotten stuck while jumping through the Inkwells (a series of pools at the confluence of Lagunitas and San Geronimo Creeks) and ended up not making it - and staying in the larger creek. And he lost his nose in the process!
So, other office-y news:
Megan, our lead naturalist (who occasionally brings us delicious homemade food ever since she discovered that we were on food stamps) called into a show on NPR and mentioned our creekwalks on Tuesday, so every since then the phone's been ringing off the hooks. Heidi and I come back from outdoor excursions and we have billions of messages. I ended up hooking up with one of the creekwalks today, after our habitat restoration in the morning, because I signed up a friend of mine (yes, I have A friend in San Francisco) and his roommates. It was so packed! And we saw coho and possibly a chum salmon, so it was quite a success.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
I need to go to bed:
So this will be short.
The coho salmon are spawning!
Monday Heidi and I took Marjorie (the law intern who is leaving to go back to Wisconsin and her parents while she awaits the bar exam) to an area to see them - we watched males fighting, females building redds (nests), amazing.
Yesterday Heidi and I watched them leap through Roy's Pools (a series of pools that allow the salmon migrate through in high flows and, in lower flows, act as a dam. The dam that was there before was too high for the salmon to get over)!!!
Today Paola took Heidi and I on a spawner survey - so we got decked out in our chest waders and went in the stream, walking upstream (out of the stream as much as possible) in a tiny tiny creek (literally 2-10 ft wide) for 2.5 hours looking for salmon building redds and males hanging around waiting for their gals or fighting with other males.
The coho salmon are spawning!
Monday Heidi and I took Marjorie (the law intern who is leaving to go back to Wisconsin and her parents while she awaits the bar exam) to an area to see them - we watched males fighting, females building redds (nests), amazing.
Yesterday Heidi and I watched them leap through Roy's Pools (a series of pools that allow the salmon migrate through in high flows and, in lower flows, act as a dam. The dam that was there before was too high for the salmon to get over)!!!
Today Paola took Heidi and I on a spawner survey - so we got decked out in our chest waders and went in the stream, walking upstream (out of the stream as much as possible) in a tiny tiny creek (literally 2-10 ft wide) for 2.5 hours looking for salmon building redds and males hanging around waiting for their gals or fighting with other males.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
holidays are coming
so here's my address in case you want to send me a card or a present (gift certificates are nice: walgreens, safeway, target, or just cash):
PO Box 400
Forest Knolls, CA 94933
And you will not get anything in return! Because I'm poor and lazy.
PO Box 400
Forest Knolls, CA 94933
And you will not get anything in return! Because I'm poor and lazy.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
San Francisco
My pet peeve with San Francisco is that there's no highway that runs straight through it. So even though I live about 30-40 minutes from the city, once I cross the Golden Gate Bridge it still takes another 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. Hwy 101 immediately turns into a really heavily lighted road - imagine trying to get from the north side of Chicago to the south side taking Halstead the entire way.
Heidi and I went to the SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) yesterday after we had a school group of fifth graders come plant willow in the morning. So yes, we skipped out on work early. Being the first Tuesday of the month, the museum was free (parking, however, was not - $9, yuck).
Even though we only spent an hour and a half or less there (since it took longer to get to the downtown area of SF than we expected - thank you absence of an express route), it was still great to get out and just see something beyond the North Bay. They had some really neat pieces - a room of Paul Klee and some sweet Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Marcel DuChamp pieces. They also had a room dedicated to the art of design. Something I know Jess would like, but something in particular Jason would've loved. They had Charles and Ray Eames furniture, a whole bunch of ESPRIT stuff, including explaining the transition to using more natural and recycled paper (with very high post-consumer %s - since the term "recycled" is sort of a catch-all), as well as typewriters, citrus presses, and a series of concert/show posters done by two design firms (one had done a series for the Pixies reunion tour, and two recent Bowie shows. Recent as in 10 years ago, but not in the 80s. Recent enough).
The museum closed a little early and we just walked a little. It appeared that we were right in the downtown - people were leaving work and businesses were getting to close around 7. Heidi was going to see the Blood Brothers & Trail of Dead show, so she had to wait for a friend arriving via BART (bay area rail transit or something). I, on the other hand, was missing both that show as well as The Faint, which I would have really liked to see, but definitely not alone.
Today we had another school group come, more fifth graders, and we put them to work. Yesterday the group that came got too social and didn't do as much as we would've liked. I realize it's about their experience too, but they can chatter away about video games any other time. So today we really made them work. They took all the redwoods and oaks out of the shade house and organized them by species - a lot of work for Heidi and I, but really quick for 18 kids. Then we split them into 4 groups - 2 planting acorns, 1 propagating snowberries (separating the seeds from the berry) and 1 collecting acorns. A lot of work for Heidi and I done in so much less time - it was great to have them.
Tomorrow is... something. Returning the calls we didn't return today, I suppose. And Friday is another school group - home schoolers that are going to help us plant more willow! We've had these kids before, they're hard workers.
It's not this year, but it's still our creek and a Coho salmon jumping.
Heidi and I went to the SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) yesterday after we had a school group of fifth graders come plant willow in the morning. So yes, we skipped out on work early. Being the first Tuesday of the month, the museum was free (parking, however, was not - $9, yuck).
Even though we only spent an hour and a half or less there (since it took longer to get to the downtown area of SF than we expected - thank you absence of an express route), it was still great to get out and just see something beyond the North Bay. They had some really neat pieces - a room of Paul Klee and some sweet Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Marcel DuChamp pieces. They also had a room dedicated to the art of design. Something I know Jess would like, but something in particular Jason would've loved. They had Charles and Ray Eames furniture, a whole bunch of ESPRIT stuff, including explaining the transition to using more natural and recycled paper (with very high post-consumer %s - since the term "recycled" is sort of a catch-all), as well as typewriters, citrus presses, and a series of concert/show posters done by two design firms (one had done a series for the Pixies reunion tour, and two recent Bowie shows. Recent as in 10 years ago, but not in the 80s. Recent enough).
The museum closed a little early and we just walked a little. It appeared that we were right in the downtown - people were leaving work and businesses were getting to close around 7. Heidi was going to see the Blood Brothers & Trail of Dead show, so she had to wait for a friend arriving via BART (bay area rail transit or something). I, on the other hand, was missing both that show as well as The Faint, which I would have really liked to see, but definitely not alone.
Today we had another school group come, more fifth graders, and we put them to work. Yesterday the group that came got too social and didn't do as much as we would've liked. I realize it's about their experience too, but they can chatter away about video games any other time. So today we really made them work. They took all the redwoods and oaks out of the shade house and organized them by species - a lot of work for Heidi and I, but really quick for 18 kids. Then we split them into 4 groups - 2 planting acorns, 1 propagating snowberries (separating the seeds from the berry) and 1 collecting acorns. A lot of work for Heidi and I done in so much less time - it was great to have them.
Tomorrow is... something. Returning the calls we didn't return today, I suppose. And Friday is another school group - home schoolers that are going to help us plant more willow! We've had these kids before, they're hard workers.
It's not this year, but it's still our creek and a Coho salmon jumping.Sunday, December 03, 2006
FINALLY
I saw my first salmon on Friday! We took the morning at work to go on a hunt where some had reportedly been spotted earlier that week. Paola, Todd, Megan, Heidi and I piled into Megan's car and we were off!
Amidst wet toes (I was wearing sneakers) we hiked along the side of the road and nearer the creek, spotting around 5 Chinook (really big, also known as King) and 2 Coho (smaller, redder, and federally endangered). We watched this massive Chinook building a redd (the nest) - she looked like a shark. She'd flip on her side, showing herself and digging the gravel with her tail and then disappear underwater, until she'd appear again digging. It was amazing.
I can't wait until the run really gets going - I'm afraid I might be in Illinois for most of it though. Hopefully it will wait for my return. (I'll be home Dec. 19th - 28th with sometime spent in Glen Ellyn and Chicago in addition to Paw Paw).
Amidst wet toes (I was wearing sneakers) we hiked along the side of the road and nearer the creek, spotting around 5 Chinook (really big, also known as King) and 2 Coho (smaller, redder, and federally endangered). We watched this massive Chinook building a redd (the nest) - she looked like a shark. She'd flip on her side, showing herself and digging the gravel with her tail and then disappear underwater, until she'd appear again digging. It was amazing.
I can't wait until the run really gets going - I'm afraid I might be in Illinois for most of it though. Hopefully it will wait for my return. (I'll be home Dec. 19th - 28th with sometime spent in Glen Ellyn and Chicago in addition to Paw Paw).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
