Best surprise ever!

   Granny's 80th birthday weekend was all that we had hoped for!

      She got tipsy and had her own "stripper"-all in the company of 18 family members. In all she had 3 surprises. The first one was with Jeannie, Andy, and Heather. The all showed up at her door Thursday evening, the night before her birthday. Then, the next morning, they all went out to eat at Denny's and Uncle Eddy was sitting at one of the tables. In the few moments after sitting at the table, they were all surprised when Aunt Joni showed up holding menus. They all took Granny and Papa to the Beachcomber Hotel in Pompano Beach. They had no idea that Granny's sister and nieces and nephews were also in the hotel and had checked in on Thursday or early Friday. I got in around 3 pm, went home for a bit, picked up the cakes, and then made it the Beachcomber at around 6:30. I snuck into the Villa where much the family was already waiting for the surprise. We placed balloons around, passed around noisemakers, and opened up the cakes. Uncle Eddy went over to the beach bar to round up Granny and Papa. Granny had a few Vodka Collins so she came in ready to party. Uncle Eddy opened the door, and we all screamed "Happy Birthday". After hugging my Dad, she moved towards the door and stood at the doorway with a look of shock that lasted 30 seconds. I was so happy for her and it brought me to tears to see her reaction. :)

Weekend Highlights

   The weather was perfect for the beach! The food was great and very tasty -we definitely ate very well this weekend! 2 hotel breakfasts, pizza night, and the Cheesecake factory take-out! Delicious! It was a very quick weekend-but the memories will last forever.

    It was kinda hard for me to get back into the swing of things coming back to work on Tuesday, but I'm settled now and have lots to look forward to-finishing up my project, my Dad coming to visit me at the end of the internship and going to the Grand Canyon with him, spending some time home with family, moving back to school, and seeing my friends again.

   I'm just continuing with my data-taking. Down to the last two weeks of data-taking and analysis. Hopefully, I'll find some trend or have something to write about! The poster session is August 9th-pretty much just around the corner. My time here has flown by-I know I have some time to go, but the past weeks have gone by so quickly. My advisor and I weren't able to meet this week so next week we have lots to look at. I'll be analyzing my hyperspectral images (Images taken from an agricultural camera that show how the green roof plants are responding to changing weather conditions by looking at green they are-or what they are emitting in the infrared spectrum). I'll also be looking at the relationship between soil moisture and temperature. Does more soil moisture lead to a significant decrease in soil temperate. Naturally, you would expect that there is a relationship and we do expect it to be true.  But we're checking if the change is significant and trying to determine what is the minimal amount of water needed for plant success and low temperatures. Wish me luck!

San Diego Trip

Hey Guys!


    Yesterday, I had to spend quite some time outside with the green roofs and tour so I couldn't find time to write a post, but today has been a little bit of a lighter work day. The weekend was so much fun! We left around 11:30 Friday morning and made it to San Diego around 10pm. We stopped quite a bit along the way which made the trip quite longer. In Dateland, AZ we stopped for some date milkshakes and lunch. This place is kind of an oasis in the desert-you see desert for miles and miles and then suddenly you come across a bunch of date palms. Pretty interesting to see and the date milkshakes were great! By 5pm, we made it to Carlos's house in Imperial, CA where we met his family for dinner. His parents graciously made all of us dinner and lent us beach towels and bedding for the weekend. After leaving their home around 8:30, we drove over the mountains and arrived in San Diego around 10pm.

Driving past Joni's house, I saw that the light was on, a ladder was in the living room and a car was parked in the drive way. The tenant was still there. I went over to speak to her and fortunately she was really nice. I helped her gather some things and talked to her about her move. She was out within 30 min which worked out well. But unfortunately, she had left the carpet a complete mess with wet paint spots and left behind a smell of fresh paint and cigarette smoke. It was quite funny to see everyone's expressions after entering the house (or the campsite as we called it). After sweeping the carpet and placing our large blankets on the floor, the space didn't look too bad. I think everyone slept pretty well and was grateful to have a place to stay for 3 nights free.

In the morning, we ate a few snacks and picked grapefruits from Joni's tree. Joni and Jeannie came by to check out the house and gave us some more blankets and boogie boards. After meeting with them, we  headed to Pacific Beach (PB). Parking was terrible-we ended up parking close to Mission Bay and then walked about 25 min to the beach. But it was worth it! The weather was great! Tons of sun! And we ended up a bit South of the pier which wasn't crowded at all. I spent quite a bit of time boogie boarding. I don't think that I've done it in years-I had forgotten how much I liked it. I caught quite a few waves all the way to shore. We stayed at PB for a couple of hours and then walked down the boardwalk for lunch. After grabbing some food, we went to Black's Beach. It was a beautiful walk down a paved trail that took us down the hill to the beach. We were surrounded by beautiful homes on the cliffs overlooking the water.

Some of the group (From left to right: Pin, Caitlin, Fiona, Noah, and Kelly)

Blacks Beach

      That evening we went out for sushi and went to the Ichiban on Garnet St. It was fabulous and I got so much food for only $10. Later on that evening, we went out for Gelato and then found a Redbox and rented  "It's kind of a funny story". It ended up being a pretty good movie and we stayed up until 2 to watch it. The next morning we slept until about 9:30 and then went down to the beach for some shopping. The group split up and I went to Henry's market to find Nick a b-day card and ended up finding a funny card for him, flowers for Uncle Ed and Aunt Sue and a lavender plant and pretty pot for Joni. At around 3pm, I left the group and took one of the rental cars to Shogun, a habachi restaurant where Nick was having his birthday dinner. Jeannie, Joni, his parents and his girlfriend were all there. Joni and I split a meal-shrimp and scallops-that was terrific!

  

   I went back with the family to Uncle Ed's where we spent some time chatting. Joni taught me how to play the guitar a little bit while we watched an Eric Clapton concert in Uncle Ed's movie theater. It was really fun-I really liked playing and I was impressed by Joni's ability to rock out! I spent the night and then left around 7am to join back up with the group. Joni woke up to see me off. I made it back to Joni's house and visited the old bike path and creek that she used to take me to as a kid. It pretty looked the way I had remembered it. We left around 9 am and made it back to the Biosphere at 3:30. We unloaded our things and then got ready to go to Mitch's BBQ. We ended up getting hit by a really big thunderstorm so we ate inside. It was great to meet his family and the food was great. He made pulled pork, baked beans, and cole slaw. Over all it was a great weekend! Off to take some green roof readings!

Freaky Weather

Last Week

It's been a busy time here! On Monday, I visited the landscape architecture department here at the U of A. I met with the director and a collaborator with the green roof project. I felt extremely welcomed and was impressed by their projects and the department's strong environmental mission. In every class, they stress more sustainable practices and water-conserving techniques (but they kind of have to here). It seems like they have a strong program, and many graduates have found good jobs. I really liked the feel of the department and the faculty-just the arid climate that I'm uncertain about. But graduate school is temporary at the same time.

Some pics from the department

     On Tuesday, I joined Fiona for a full day a field work. It gave me time to get out of Biosphere and lend a hand. It was enjoyable to work with her and Luzia, a PhD student, but we were out in the middle of desert, and the heat made the work very uncomfortable. Fiona's project deals with looking at infiltration rates near a certain type of desert bush. On Wednesday-Friday, I worked with the green roofs. On one of the days, Mitch and I were filmed. He was first interviewed and then the camera crews filmed me taking measurements and talking to him. Sometime in August, I'll get a chance to see what they made it into. It's nothing big-just some university clip on current research. The week did start getting very hectic when Mitch and I realized that an abstract for the Sustainable Water Management Conference was due that Friday, the 24th. I mentioned that the abstract was due the next day, and we got to work immediately. He sent me over some of his old abstracts, and I was able to reword some of his things and add my own twist to create my abstract. He edited the abstract for me on Thursday night, and I was ready to send it out Friday. We'll have to wait and see if my abstract is accepted. It will be in Portland, OR during March 18th-21st.

One thing exciting did happen when I was taking measurements. The green roof experimental plots are at the back of the Biosphere and near a small paved road. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, looked up, and saw a bobcat crossing the street heading from the Biosphere to the desert. I walked near it with my camera and got some nice shots. Poor thing-it looked hungry, thirsty, tired, and skinny.

Big Cat at the Biosphere

 

 Biosphere Deer-they are everywhere!

   On Friday, we drove in Tuscon to check out the Dia de San Juan festival. It was a small festival, but we were able to listen to a mariachi band and try some Mexican pastries. I tried this one that was wrapped in a flour-tortilla-like thing that was doused with Cinnamon and filled with a pudding or like Bavarian cream filling. So good! It didn't cross my mind to take a picture..I was just so ready to eat it! On Saturday, we went to a graduate school symposium from 8am-noon. It was informative but painfully early! During the first session, a panel of graduate students spoke about the demands of research projects, and then someone spoke about funding for graduate research. Next, we were joined by a couple of faculty members, and they answered our questions about applying to graduate school and what they expect from grad students. The whole thing was worthwhile and really made me realize that I need to really know for sure what I want to do before delving into a graduate program. It's much more of a time commitment and investment. I'm thinking more and more about taking a year to work if I'm undecided but will probably still apply to grad programs and differ. Who knows? I might have a decision in 6 months, have some funding/assistance, and feel ready to go. Always good to have options.

Off to more green roof data this week and hopefully a trip to San Diego for the 4th of July! More to come about that :)

Saturday's visit to the Desert Museum

   I went to a fantastic zoo, botanical garden, and museum just out of Tuscon called the Desert Museum. The group and I rode through Gates Pass, an exciting, windy, and hilly road that hugs the side of a very steep sloping hill. At, some times, the hills were short and sudden so it felt like a roller coaster. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we had lots of hairpin turns and stayed to the left to avoid going over the cliff!


Pictures from the scenic overlook at Gate's Pass.

The treacherous part of the road is located at the craggy hill that is in the middle of the picture.

 

    We made it at the Desert Museum at 5:00pm for the special Saturday night "The Desert comes alive" special. We started by touring the museum with the reptile and amphibian exhibits and explored their man-made cave. I got to try out a very large pair of bat ears!



   And checkout some fascinating crystals that can all be found in Arizona! Mom would have loved this place because after the crystal exhibit, they have an area of "mine waste". You can spend time picking through the rocks to find some with crystals and neat colors. Don't worry, I grabbed a few.

After touring the indoor exhibits, I toured the trails of the desert and checked out the animals. I saw a coyote, mountain lion, ocelot, bear, bobcat, fox, javelinas, ground hogs, a screech owl, and a wolf.

You can always count on a beautiful sunset out here

We stayed until 9:30 to listen to an enthobotany lecture all about edible native plants. After that we headed to Lindy's on 4th, a small restaurant known for its burgers and was featured on the Man vs. Food tv show. We didn't eat one of the challenge burgers, but we had some delicious unique burgers. Mine was called the Hawaiian. It had swiss cheese, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, onion, lettuce and tomato. Delicious!