Happy 2007!!

Hello all!

First of all, Belated Birthday Greetings to KC and Chey...how's life on the other side of 25?? ;)

Just got back from a 3-week holiday break, which I spent back home in Calgary, doing mostly nothing but hanging out at home and visiting friends, and of course, boxing week shopping! =) I meant to get some work done, but since I pretty much went straight from the field to Calgary, I felt that I deserved a much needed break! So, I brought all my data cards to Calgary for no reason at all. Oh, yeah, and did I mention I gained something like 5lbs because I just sat around for 3 weeks? Heee...8 months of fieldwork all negated by 3 weeks of vacation. Ah, well, that's life.

So, yeah, the last couple of weeks of fieldwork was busy...had to do all the things I've been putting off, mostly organizational stuff, but also some habitat mapping. I drove back to Halifax a few times...a couple of times because I had to be in grad seminar and give a presentation, but also once to see off all the MREMs that just finished and will be leaving the city soon. We celebrated Karen B.'s and Megan's birthday by having dinner at a Greek restaurant, then some pre-drinking at Sadie's and Pete's place, then dancing at the Lower Deck. It was fun, but a bit bittersweet, since the was probably the last time I would see some of these people.

I had a week left of fieldwork after that, before I had to fly out to Calgary. I guess technically, I could've worked longer, since the temperature wasn't exactly steady at below 0C and the hatchlings were still active during the warmer days...but I booked a flight already and at that time, I really only had about 3 hatchlings left, and they weren't moving too much. Still lots of work, though, and I spent a few late nights trying to get everything wrapped up before I left. But, all good, managed to get everything done, moved out of the field and into my room in Halifax and returned the rental car before my flight out.

So, since I've been back, I've mostly been working on entering the data. Working on the photodatabase first...840 field pics so far..who knows how many to go. Next up is the actual data entry...that's going to take a while as well, but if I work on it everyday, I'm hoping to finish by mid-Feb...hopefully. It's a bit worrying since I don't have a lot of time if I want to defend by August, but we'll see. Hopefully the analysis won't take that long. Managing to do some fun stuff, though. Just went to see a play downtown called The Love List..that was awesome, even though we had to line up for 30 minutes in the freezing cold. Worth it, esp. since I didn't have to pay very much. Also went out for Laura's birthday, and on Saturday is Italian dinner night at Ramsey's and Amanda's. And I'm taking Jazz Dance classes with DalDance on Sundays. Once the weather improves and I actually make it to the office during the weekdays, I'll probably start going to fitness classes again at the gym. They're not really offering the one I like, though, so I'll have to try out new ones.

That's pretty much it. Just work work work, grad seminar, and hopefully some fun evenings/weekends in between. So, if I don't update..probably because not much is going on!