Since you missed my housewarming party (ok, I didn’t have one), here are a few opportunities to make up for it. And just in time for my birthday and Christmas…

• the things I want
  
• and the books and movies I want

And used is even better than new. Hugs are even better than presents. Cookies are up there with hugs. I also want an algae eating fish, a goldfish, some pretty stones, and some more lucky bamboo. The fish will live in the bamboo. The stones will keep the bamboo from falling over. I’ve already got a big glass thing and some stones and one lonely lucky bamboo.

Since I’m still roommate-less and very very broke, you will all be receiving homemade soap, or perhaps a scarf. If you’re close by, I’d love to cook for you! And everyone is invited to my birthday party on the 21st. We will be baking gingerbread men and playing silly games, like apples to apples.

As of 6:30 this morning, my research proposal is finished. In case you haven’t been keeping track, that’s two this month. The first one was a description of what I was going to do with money I’d already been given. The second is an attempt to convince someone to give me money for what I want to do. I really hope I get it! I really want to do this project. And I need more paid hours in the lab next semester.

Assuming I get this grant, I’ll be working on two related projects involving pinyon pine and drought. Pinyon pine are a foundation species. Unlike the forests where I grew up, there aren’t a ton of tree species out here. Pinyon grow in pinyon-juniper woodlands. There are pinyon pine and juniper. No other trees at all. And the pinyon here are dying out very very quickly. It’s been getting dryer and hotter here since the 90s and most climate models say that trend is only going to continue. In some places 90% of the pinyon have died. We have sites that have experienced 85% mortality. My research will hopefully find better drought adapted pinyon populations and help predict where other drought adapted populations may be found.

So, I don’t really like turnips, but this recipe is fantastic, and easy too! I used extra butter – it got dry when I added the breadcrumbs. I also didn’t have any lemons, so I just added some lemon juice.

After working for 6 hours on a research proposal this morning, I decided to do something about my kitchen floor. Two and a half hours later, I had cleared the following patch with comet and a stiff brush:

Note that the bottom of the picture, which I didn’t get to today, has been mopped every week and scrubbed on my hands and knees every month since August. It looks vastly better than when I moved in.

The people who lived here when I moved in hadn’t cleaned much other than the dishes they ate off of for at least two years. One of those people is living here until December and I’m (frantically) trying to find someone to take his room. As one girl* put it on viewing his room/bathroom “how does he live like this?”

Needless to say, I am VERY excited about the free carpet cleaning in January.

*Other notable reactions: The girl who gagged and left quickly, the girl who refused to enter the room, and the girl who sympathetically asked “how do you live with him?”

This month:

• Calc test on stuff I actually have to work at to understand
• Research prospectus
• Research proposal
• Research presentation
• Botany class semester long lab project due
• Definite progress on the Goldwater application must be made
• I kicked my non-rent paying, non-cleaning, alcoholic roommate out and must find another one/work a gazillion hours to make rent.

I’m really glad November includes Veteran’s day and Thanksgiving. With a few days off, I might be able to actually accomplish all of this…

That said, I had a fantastic cookie baking party a few days ago, a friend of mine cleaned my really and truly disgusting stove, I’ve got some awesome roommate possibilities, I’m spending far too much time thinking about a crush (and why I shouldn’t have a crush on her), and while research is intimidating and sometimes overwhelming, I love it.

Saute chopped tomatoes and garlic in olive oil for a minute or two.  Toss in a couple spoonfuls of sliced black olives and a spoonful of capers and cook another minute or so. Mix in (cooked) angel hair pasta and a bunch of parmesan.  The end.

The current Iraqi government, which we put in charge, is brutally murdering people and stealing money.

Radhi recounted how one staff member “was gunned down with his seven-month-pregnant wife,” his security chief’s father was found dead on a meat hook and how the body of the father of another staff member was riddled with holes from a power drill. [link]

And then we have the audacity to wonder why the Arab world isn’t too fond us of.