dandelions

concrete. solid, heavy, trust-worthy, man-made foundation. supports much of the western world.
but i still find myself gazing at the little plants that find the cracks in the concrete, sprout, stubbornly grow through the weaknesses in something that makes up so much of our material world... something so small, green, and natural still manages to grow and blossom. be alive.
it's the little things like these that profess the power of our Creator in my world... we can construct all we want... He'll still find the cracks and let flowers grow...

whirlwind

i finished everything, except for my dissertation, which isn't due until september.. which means i'll start next week...
in the last two weeks i spent 8-15 hours a day in the computer lab, sat in a photo shoot for a friend, met a doctor from nyc and gave him my number (he never called), met a post-doc research jock from seattle (he did call), cleaned up lotsa popcorn, made a cake that looked like a ship, hosted a birthday/pirate party and watched pirates of the caribbean 1 and 2 back to back, had a friend (lexi) from macalester come over from france and we were tourists for a weekend, re-read the story of all the people whose faiths were undoubting, and they were healed, read "the time-traveler's wife", ate too much, got my last rabies shot, called my parents after they called me to make sure i was still alive, got a new roommate (she's irish), pondered the wonder of plants being able to break through concrete, and bought five bottles of ketchup for the cinema...
i need a nap...
but that's my life at the moment...
and i still love you all

007

there are some words that intimidate me, and they all start with the letter "m"...
marriage.
maturity.
motherhood.
mortgage.
they all scream commitment, which is probably why they are intimidating... i still have a commitment issue, but i really value loyalty... where is the line?

myotis daubentonii

i went bat hunting last night.

ok, not really, i helped with a bat survey for a university / regional conservation / consultation / information -- short of the long, scientists want to know more about these bats cuz that's what scientists do, for knowledge's sake and for consultation's sake...

so i got my rabies vaccination, got my hat, and got on the train... we set up a mist net under a bridge, set up echolocation detectors along the canal, got out the walkie-talkies and waited... talked about bats... computers... travel... north dakota cold...

we caught two, missed five, cuz the net doens't cover the whole passageway under the little stone bridge ("gotta give the little buggers a chance" - head researcher dude) but tagged both of them, put a radio tracker on one, and let them go... if you want to know the reasons for details, ask, cuz it gets science-y and i need to catch a train BUT it was cool...

i got to hold a bat and let her go...

i'm just amazed at the wild and beautiful world that we live in and how little we know about it all, despite how much we think we know...

ain't she cute? (and yes this is just an image from the web, not the bat we caught last night)

amazing...