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sciencewoman | November 1, 2008
InaDWriMo did not get off to a good start. I had spent 3 hours working on my proposal on Friday afternoon. Before leaving for the weekend, I carefully backed it up into multiple places AND emailed the co-PI with the almost-complete draft. This afternoon, I opened up the file to fill in some of the remaining holes and made a maddening discovery. Somehow, I only had a pre-Friday draft. In multiple places. Including the co-PI's email box. All that work, down the tube. It's taken me all my stolen moments of work time today to get back to where I was at the end of yesterday. And now I don't like…
sciencewoman | October 29, 2008 It's one of those days where it is now almost 4 pm and I have yet to get working on tomorrow morning's lecture. I'm also going to miss a self-imposed deadline to get a draft out to a collaborator. Instead, I spent the morning getting flu shots for Minnow and I and working with a student on a proposal to get a particular dataset for use on his/her thesis. There's a student-only RFP available and we're about 2/3 the way through the proposal. One of the pieces I was helping with involved contacting some other people who might be interested in having the same dataset for their own projects, and…
sciencewoman | October 28, 2008Picking up on a meme for which I've been tagged by ScientistMother, I'm going to add my own little twist, and do six random facts along a common theme.
I chose geoscience in seventh grade because I needed a science fair project and I didn't want to do anything my parents knew something about. Between them, they had degrees or jobs in chemistry, biology, and computer science. Physics was a little daunting for a 12-year old, so geoscience it was.
By the time I was 17, I knew I wanted to be a particular geoscience subspecialty. My choice of colleges was influenced by the location of one of the…
sciencewoman | October 18, 2008It's late. I've been working on this piece of writing all evening, and I've got one more meaty sentence to finish. But I feel like Cinderella over-staying her curfew at the ball, because every time I try to write that last sentence, it turns into a pumpkin.
"A comparison of A & B would be interesting."
Interesting? Yes, I'd find it completely fascinating and I'd love to do the work. But a hanging "interesting" is hardly going to move the reviewers, so I know I need to come up with a more compelling argument for the work. But all I can muster is:
"A comparison of A & B would be…
sciencewoman | October 17, 2008It seems to me that sending off a big grant proposal should occasion a sigh of relief, a glass of wine, and a few minutes away from work. But when I submitted my proposal this afternoon, I barely even got up from my computer. Instead, I dove right into the next item on my to-do list. I'm seriously over-extended right now, and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be receding into the distance. I'd been holding today in my mind for the past few weeks, but now when I realistically evaluate things, I won't have a moment of rest until after the end of the semester. Hurried hallway…
sciencewoman | October 12, 2008I'm still sequestered somewhere away from Mystery City, working madly on grant proposals and spending some quality time with my family. How are these things co-existing? Not so well. But at least it's pretty here.
But anyways, I wanted to offer to send my dear blog readers a postcard from our mystery destination. Anyone who wants a postcard from our scenic destination just needs to drop me an email (science dot woman at google's mail service) by the end of the day on Monday.
I can't promise that postcards will actually be postmarked from the vacation (and they may even postdate the submittal…
sciencewoman | October 10, 2008Isis and Physioprof aren't the only ones who can cook, you know. I don't get to cook on a regular basis, but every couple of weeks there's some piece of produce just begging to be cooked into deliciousness. This past week, it was a batch of organic Italian plums that came with our produce delivery (my one indulgence).
I wasn't quite sure what to do with so many plums, so I consulted my shelf of cookbooks and decided upon a recipe from a 1950's book on freezing and canning for farm wives. I updated the techniques and downgraded the quantities a bit, and methods and results are below the fold…
sciencewoman | October 7, 2008This afternoon the Science family loaded up our car and headed off on an adventure. We'll be out of town for 8 (!) days, but I may have sporadic internet access, as this is a working vacation for me.
Below the fold, I've posted a photo of my packing list (and progress so far). Feel free to guess where we're going in the comments. Who knows, I may even tell you if you're right.
Click the link to go to Flickr page to embiggen.
It's actually a good thing I took the photo and posted it to Flickr, because Minnow decided to scribble all over the list partway through the packing process. I had to…
sciencewoman | September 27, 2008Domestic goddess, I am definitely not. But I do love to bake, though it is rare that I get the occasion. So when I saw a couple of bananas getting too brown on the counter, I seized the opportunity.
Banana bread is too much work for a busy scientist-mama, but banana oatmeal muffins can easily be in the oven 10 minutes after you start. Even if you don't have quite all the right ingredients. Recipe and a photo below the fold.
1.5 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
0.5 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
2 eggs
0.25 cup milk
Ingredients as written in my cookbook…
sciencewoman | September 21, 2008About 20 Science bloggers and readers met at the North Carolina Zoo yesterday for a day of animals and fun. Minnow was the youngest, but not the only, child in attendance. And I think she was quite happy to meet some other children-of-bloggers, particularly the 22-month-old son of James Hrynyshyn. They can have their own meet-up in a few years and commiserate.
Pictures and details below the below the fold.
The group with their backs to the gorillas, who had their backs to us.
The animal highlight of the day came at the elephant enclosure. We happened to arrive at feeding time and got to see…
sciencewoman | September 18, 2008 Money is on my mind a lot this semester. First, there's the grant writing marathon. And then there's the personal budgetary shortfall. Without a second income, we run a several hundred dollar per month shortfall. I've trimmed the fat from the budget and we're eating through the small amount of savings we had squirreled away. Soon it will be time to think about more drastic measures. And there's one big item looming large in my nightmares of financial ruin - the almost $1200 per month that I am paying for Minnow's truly excellent daycare where she is very happy and well cared for.
Why is…
sciencewoman | September 15, 2008
Very early one Saturday morning in October, Minnow and I will be congregating in the heart of Mystery City with thousands of other women and men, girls and boys. And many of us will be wearing pink. Then we'll run or walk five kilometers in honor of the 1 in 8 women who will be affected by breast cancer over the course of their lifetimes.
This issue has taken on a lot more personal dimension for me in the past few years, as my mom fought uterine cancer, an aunt continues to battle breast cancer, and a lovely neighbor BandanaLady is struggling with chemotherapy following a masectomy. My…
sciencewoman | August 29, 2008This post is for Scientiae's call to share what we did on our summer vacation. I've been fairly silent about my personal life the last few months, But I was hugely encouraged by all the wonderful comments that so many of you made in the getting to know you post a few weeks back, when you said that you were sticking around because you were interested in my story and want to hear how everything turns out for me. So I am feeling brave enough (or foolish enough) to let you have a bit of peek into what's going on in my life outside of the professional sphere.
I'm not really sure how to right this…
sciencewoman | August 22, 2008It's nearing ten p.m. on a Friday night. After putting my daughter to bed, I've washed the dishes, done the laundry, and boxed up some outgrown toys. Next I'm going to start writing up work plans for two independent studies I'm supervising this semester. Then I'm going to bed.
Tomorrow, I've got to take Minnow to the store and buy some diapers, wipes, milk, and chocolate. I'll take the dog for the first decent walk she's had all week. I'll supervise toddler playtime, mealtime, and bathtime. Hopefully during naptime, I'll get a chance to do battle with the invasive plant that's taking over our…
sciencewoman | August 11, 2008Thank you all so much for introducing yourselves and telling us why you read this blog. Its been incredibly reassuring (at a time when I'm feeling a bit insecure about my research output) to know that I have been doing *something* good with my time. In return for your sharing, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what I do in the real world.
I'm a geoscientist and I work at the intersection of three subfields. That's part of why I've gotten a kick out of calling myself an -ologist, because the unnamed prefix could change day-by-day depending on my mood. Working at an intersection…
sciencewoman | August 1, 2008Tonight marked another motherhood rite of passage. I'd been dreading this one, but it was truly time for it to happen.
I threw out the remainder of the breast milk in the freezer. It had been there five months and three weeks - dating to the period when Minnow had transitioned to the toddler room and I was trying to decrease my milk production enough to stop pumping during the work day. Shortly after that time, Minnow began refusing pumped breast milk at all, so all that lovely milk just sat in the freezer until it reached its expiration date. So I took the bottles out of the freezer and…
sciencewoman | July 28, 2008As Alice has reminded us, the theme for this month's Scientiae is "transitions." Seems like a totally appropriate thing to be contemplating as I gear up for the next academic year. A few months ago, I reflected on my lessons learned as a first year faculty member. I felt like I'd learned a lot but still had a ways to go before I really felt up to speed. Maybe it's optimism generated by a few months away from the classroom, but now I'm feeling much more comfortable in my role as a not-quite-so-new member of the department.
For one thing, classes start in about a month, and I actually know…
sciencewoman | July 28, 2008At long last, Minnow and I are back on terra firma in Mystery City. Fortunately, our trip home went much more smoothly than our travel to Midwest. Unfortunately, it's looking like I've got a good few days of email-box unclogging, grocery restocking, unpacking (home and field gear), bill paying, etc. before I can really settle into a productive routine again. But I'm really excited to be back to regular access to a computer and the internets again, because I've got a couple of posts in mind, and a bunch of linkies to pass along. But first, there's a stack of mail that's dangerously close to…
sciencewoman | July 18, 2008So I attended a pedagogy workshop this week and I brought Minnow along. For those not keeping track, she's now almost 18 months old and still going strong with the nursing (>= 2 x/day, >=2x/night). When I signed up for the workshop, I'd intended her to stay with my mom in Midwest, but in the end she came with me instead. The workshop organizers have been fantastically accommodating, and I want to give a shout-out to the other participants who have been super-friendly and helpful. (Especially, Kim. Thanks!)
But I still feel like a trouble maker. There are plenty of other moms here. Some…
sciencewoman | July 15, 2008This week I'm attending a workshop on pedagogy and I'm hearing lots of interesting ideas from people teaching really exciting and innovative courses. They are incorporating service learning, multi-week projects, location-centric courses, and intro courses for particular audiences (say, business majors). They are doing cool case studies, fun field activities, integrating current events, and designing real world applications. It's inspiring, and honestly, a little overwhelming. (And this is only the second day!)
Right now I'm contemplating revising my intro course, but I'm not sure when I'll be…