work, work, fun, work, not work...you get the point

OK, so just as I have predicted, not much has been going on the past few months. Mostly working...I finished the data entry, oh, about the end of Feb., so I'm about 2 weeks behind. So far. Well, actually, according to my "thesis proposal", I'm supposed to have started writing by beginning of April, so I'm actually way more behind than 2 weeks. But, what can you do? Work faster, you say? Hah! Hahah!

I do have a few excuses: 1) preparing for the Northeast Biology Graduate Students Conference in mid-February, which took about a week, 2) applying for one of the Parks Canada job openings, which took another week (no, I haven't heard yet..I'm not holding my breath, if I hear something, I'll consider myself extremely lucky), 3) preparing for my grad seminar presentation, which took about 2 weeks. So, that's a month right there! Beyond that, well, I've so far spent about a week procrastinating, mostly because I'm a bit lost right now...I need to go back and figure out what to do with my data, in terms of analysis and statistics. It doesn't help that my supervisor is currently on sabbatical, and won't be back until mid-May. So, I'm giving myself until the end of this week to figure out what to do, and if I can't, I'm moving on to other aspects of my thesis -- less science and math, and more management and policy. That way, I can keep moving forward...at least until May, and then I'll have to deal with the stats again. =P

Socially, there's been a bunch of dinners and parties and evenings out on the town. More notably: Thai dinner night hosted by yours truly (and my lovely housemates, of course), Lebanese feast prepared by Sana, Valentine's Day fondue party (chocolates, naturally), DalDance party at Bubbles, and of course the DalDance recital, going away potluck for Karen B., Sana's B-day weekend, Dal Theatre production of Moliere's "The Bourgeois Gentleman", bowling and curling nights organized by SRES...I'm sure there's some I'm missing, but you get the idea. Coming up: Lori's b-day and the SRES end of year party. Oh, and a family trip to LA and San Diego in May, followed immediately by a SAMPAA conference in Wolfville. And then: SUMMER! I'm still hoping to make it back to Keji for the Blanding's nesting season in June, but we'll see if that actually happens. Also waiting on word on funding for another field season of hatchling tracking -- I could certainly use the money! But mostly, it will be working on my thesis: mapping, data analysis, writing, and, at some point (not sure when yet), the defence!