The weekend sans Darin

On this past weekend while Darin was off on a 'boys trip', I got to spend some time with friends; eating, watching TV, going to the beach, and just relaxing.

Friday night, I volunteered and Darin headed off to Homosassa with some friends to go scallop hunting and fishing. Saturday I had to work for a bit, but met my friends Kucku and Anupama out for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants.

Free ice cream.
(Anu and Kucku's arms.)

Now I was supposed to go and visit Kucku up at UF (Gainesville), but there was a football game going on and there was no way that I was going to drive up there with all of those crazy football fans. No-sir-ee. So she came down here. Hurray!.

And then I made them go shopping. Not like twist-your-arm make, but pretty close to that. I found this fun little dog thing here. Cute and on sale!

Jake was a bit scared. He's wimpy.

Kucku stayed overnight - we had dinner (pizza!) and watch The West Wing. I love that show. Well, we both do. It's fun to be excited about watching a show you've seen over and over and over again!

Sunday we headed off to the beach. Again.

Are you getting sick of my pictures of the ocean?

We got some sunshine, had fresh grouper for lunch, and then headed home.

What a great way to spend the weekend!

The Ocean Sound

Every night before bed, we turn on our ocean-making radio/alarm clock to help us get a better night sleep. It works. Even Jake sleeps better.

Decided to share the real ocean with everyone - we went last weekend just for a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine and warm breezes.

Gross Nature

On Sunday on my way out to my car, I saw an interesting sight.

Two Polyphemus moths were mating on my car wheel.

Not very romantic guys.

Driver's back tire.

Now if you look closely, you will see two moths - the full one and then the folded up one perpendicular to the other. Shiver.

Here is a better picture.

I remember when I was little how I liked moths so much because I thought they were a unpopular version of a butterfly. And how they were beautiful in their own right.

Now I just think they're gross. And shouldn't be attached to my car wheel.

Yak.

I did call Darin out and he interrupted/rescued the moths from my tire and they are alive and well. And hopefully found a more private place to do there thing.

Flood Insurance?

So the labs where I work flooded today, Tuesday. I got into work about 9:15 am and nobody was around. Had no idea where they were... someone came in and was like, "you need to go back to the labs because they're flooded".

Yikes.

I guess one of our water purifiers broke and just spewed water everywhere all night long.

Thankfully nothing was damaged other than cardboard boxes and towels. It was pretty impressive to see all the water - the above pictures were taken about 2.5 hours after things were found out.

Everyone helped out. It was crazy. We were using anything to get the water off the floor! I was very impressed by how everyone worked together to get things cleaned up. Goes to show how great of a work environment I have.

Yikes. Biohazard galore.

Outside. We had so many cardboard boxes ruined.

Currently we have dryers everywhere in the labs - which is bad because we can't do lab work with things blowing all around us. Very un-sterile in case you didn't know. I guess I will just have to work at my desk today. Sigh. Will make for an interesting week...

The Pig

How did I forget about my pig sticker?
*Maybe it was because I didn't have a camera for a week. Oops.

On our way home from South Carolina, I saw this on the back of my car.

Sigh. And yes, that's painters tape.

It's from this store. I already have quite a lot pig paraphernalia. A squishy pig. A pig bag for groceries and other stuff (it zipps!), and now a pig sticker on my car.

I haven't taken it off yet. It's just too funny.

Thanks guys.

First day of class

As I had mentioned previously, I am taking a class in pottery making.

We walked in (a coworker and I) and realized we were late. I guess we both got the time wrong - don't you hate when that happens. Our teacher, Barbara, was already on the wheel centering the clay. This was (and will be, I presume) the hardest part of the whole clay pot making experience. She finished and everyone got to work.

And we were standing there looking stupid. Sigh. We got our giant amount of clay (25 pounds) and stared.

The clay.

Ended up starting with four balls of clay and tried to create something magnificent. I did succeed on one. Nice. At least we can use the 'dead' clay at a later time.

And...

I got a little dirty on the first day.

Pants. And shoes.

You should have seen my towel. I brought it home and Jake tried to roll all over it. I guess it smelled good a dirty.

Next time I'm wearing running shorts and flip flops. Take that dirt.

Why the love blossoms

Jake is definitely a man's dog. Now he loves me (I think) a lot and will search for me if I hide from him until he finds me, but with Darin it's a different kind of love.

Like hero-worship/bury myself-in-you type of love.

We often say that one day I'll wake up and Jake will be burrowed inside Darin's warm body. It's gross, but true.

And it's all because of this:

Man-dog wrestling

Darin plays with that dog all the time. He takes him for walks in the morning on Saturday when I don't want to get out of bed (I do it every weekday morning). He feeds him breakfast if I don't want to get out of bed. He rubs his tummy. Scratches his ears. Tugs (but not as well as Kerry tugged). And he wrestles.