Salmon Watch!

This last Friday Dani & I taught some kids about water quality, and in the process learned a lot ourselves. Sounds pretty cheesy I know, but up until Friday afternoon I was under the impression that nearly all teenagers, especially in a classroom setting, are devil's spawn. This impression came from two sources: 1. I was once myself devil's spawn, particularly toward substitute teachers, and I remember how much I would push the envelope of mischief on field trips, and 2. My last experience trying to control the chaos I once fostered in a classroom was at an alternative school in Macomb, IL. This experience left me with the firm belief that the vast minority of teenagers are decent people, and even though most grow up and become okay adults, during the teen years they should not be trusted. Basically: let your guard down and one of them will shank you.

Naturally, my expectation of a of leading eighth-graders into the woods was to end up floating face down in the river with them throwing rocks at my bloated corpse. But, here I am without scars from stone or shiv and a new feeling that teens are not all that bad.

The program that we participated in was "Salmon Watch!" which is put on by a client of mine, that describes their efforts as conservation 2.0. This idea takes the best parts of conservation: quick, effective action toward actually conserving and does away with much of the b-s surrounding conservation: particularly bureaucratic inaction and politically motivated finger-pointing. Rather, they focus on improving water quality by working with people that have an interest in water (really all of us) like farmers, fishermen and power companies. The vast majority of their funding comes from private contributions and volunteer's time. The piece that we were working on was educating the next generation on the importance of the clean water, not just for the sake of salmon, but for the sake of jobs, power and quality of life.

So besides learning a lot about the intricacies of ecosystems, the strange behaviors (and smells) of eighth-graders and that they are not all evil, we got to hang out on the Salmon River on a beautiful fall day!

Allergies

From New Album 9/14/09 10:02 PM

We came across this 'dog' in Stevenson, WA and I thought how it would be a good dog for me with my allergies. But it is a juniper and, you guessed it, I am also allergic to the pollen of this sculpt-able shrubbery. I guess the only pet we can have without claritin booster shots is a human child; I think I may be allergic to their feces.

Hello from the inside!

Here is the link to the stills from baby's first photo shoot!!

Ultra Baby

The baby was super cooperative for the photo shoot, posing just so, so that the radiologist was able to measure the different parts of the brain, see the chambers of the heart, and see other organs and take other measurements. The baby only squirmed a little (it was 7:30AM - usually the baby starts kicking around 9:30 in the morn), but aside from seeing the baby itself, those movements were the most endearing. A little flicker of a grasp - as you'll see in the second video, moving hands, lips, and feet in other shots. The ultrasound took quite a while, and we soon learned that the radiologist was taking time to study the baby's heart because she had just returned from a conference on neonatal vascular radiology (in Sydney, Australia!) where she learned new ways of viewing the different parts of the heart. She said that she would use our baby's photos to teach the rest of the radiology staff what angles to take (after exclaiming how perfect our baby was for letting her capture some great shots!). The baby has a normal heart rate - 147 beats per minute, is 13cm long, and weighs 9oz give or take an ounce, which is consistent with my doctor's previous declaration of 18.5 weeks (rather than 20 weeks). Alex will post some still shots on Picasa to link here soon - but for now, enjoy these videos of our little baby G!

Rats!

Last night Alex and I headed over to my Mom's condo to drop off some food, since she was going to be arriving late, and would probably be hungry by the time she got to her home away from home. We hadn't been there in a couple months, and when we opened the door the first thing we spotted was a mass of fur and droppings on the otherwise white bedsheet. There were other droppings on the floor. The biggest mess was in the bathroom where the toilet was black and crusty with a big spatter on the floor next to it. Putting the pieces together we determined that there had been a rat in the condo. The water in the toilet had evaporated in those couple months (I guess we did have some really hot days), which revealed an inviting tunnel from the underworld. A rat that had come up through the sewer, had nested in a pillow on the bed, had searched the condo and found no food, and then had returned to the sewer. We were completely grossed out and a little traumatized. We searched the whole place for the creature (with a shriek ready to escape our throats at the slightest sign), but it was no where to be found (thankfully!). After flushing the toilet a couple times, and setting a couple traps from Fred Meyer (with some of the cheese that we had intended to leave for my Mom), we closed the door on that mess and picked my Mom up from the airport later that night. Needless to say, she is staying at our place for now, and will probably spend the day trying to find a cleaner to come and sanitize (dear god, just burn it!) the place. Aside from that drama, the ultrasound is tomorrow, and I'm glad my Mom will be here to witness it. If possible, we will capture some video to post here, but at the very least we'll post pictures. The radiologist told me to arrive tomorrow with a full bladder. Little does she know that I will have no trouble avoiding toilets, now that I know what can surface from beneath!

Not just gas!

Felt a little flick of a kick... at a loss for words.