'Bout time to get 2012 started....

Hello there....I have no particularly good excuse for neglecting you.  Sometimes I just can't figure out what to say, or don't have the energy to say anything at all.

With that, I'm just going to dive into some updates:

1. The furries are fine.  Zack, Haley, Sam and Cato continue to be the lowest maintenance "kids" and cheapest entertainment possible.  The only major changes are that A) it has become shedding season and B) we shaved Cato again...all over.  She was beginning to get mats again, and would beat the crap out of me when I tried to comb her (it's hard to gently comb out mats).  So I thought we'd try clipping again, only this time with some horse clippers which have a blade designed for pet fur.  Unfortunately, these clippers are also very loud, but much to my surprise she was pretty calm about the whole thing (remember, Cato is our feral-stock kitty!).  I really believe she thought it was just a big, loud, pet-fest.  She definitely prefers clipping over combing, and I'm not going to argue with that!  The job is far from perfect, but it's way better than the last one.  Plus she doesn't have knots and won't be contributing to the usual spring hair-tumble-weeds around the house.  Speaking of hair, Zack and Haley got baths this weekend and decided it was a good time to start blowing their coats.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, "blowing" a coat means the dog is basically shedding out chunks of hair.  We combed them before the baths, then collected tons of hair in the tub, then combed them again three hours later when they were dry, and they're still loosing hair in small chunks.  I don't know how they aren't balding, but they do this every year.  I mean, cattle dogs are neither big nor long-haired....you can see in the pictures on the right....but they are double-coated (meaning they have an outer guard-hair layer and a downy under-layer for insulation).  I wish I could show you the handfuls of fluff that comes of these guys....they made the entire living room carpet black.  Put our german vacuum to the test!  Yes, we have a german-engineer vacuum that is more valuable than my husband's truck....days like that remind me it was worth every cent.  And yes, I am the type of person who would buy a german vacuum but never spend the money on a german car.  I hate cleaning, so anything that makes it easier or even remotely fun - count me in.  Hating cleaning is a poor life choice when one has two hairy dogs, and two long-haired cats, and a dirty mt. biking hubby, and a dirty, hairy horse addiction, and...well, you get the idea.  Speaking of the dirty, hairy horse...

2. Dax is ensconced in her new farm and doing wonderfully.  I found a smaller, family owned and run place about 20 mins outside of town.  It's simple, the pastures are smaller and at least one is flatter (I have acknowledged that being in Blacksburg means there just isn't anywhere that's totally flat).  It's also much cheaper than the previous barn.  To be very blunt, the pastures have rocks, the grass is eaten down, there's a mix of fencing, the back pasture is half scrubby woods, the herd is a mix of mares and geldings with 8 total....and it's perfect for Dax.  She integrated into the herd with practically no squealing or bravado posturing, she's dropped a few extra pounds that she NEEDED to loose, and she's been listening to me a bit better - there's a couple more dominant mares that are reminding her that she isn't queen bee.  The woods also provide her with more shelter than she had before.  All around, she's in a better place to just be a happy horse.  The previous barn was perfect for a busy student who wanted to continue to ride regularly and have their horse cared for as an athlete....but fate decided to hand Dax and I different cards.  After getting her settled with hubby's help, we both agreed that this was making the best of a really shitty situation for Dax and for us financially.      

3. Went to California for a week in Jan - hubby was sent to a conference and I made it a good excuse to visit family and friends in sunny, 70* SoCal while it was snowing in Blacksburg.  It was rough.  I sat around and just absorbed time with my sis and her crazy family, my dear friend and cousins I hadn't seen in years.  It was so wonderful and all too brief - I want to ship them all to Blacksburg!!!

4. My lab made the move to the new building and I LOVE IT!!!  Clean, organized, well lit, no stinkbugs...did I mention the stinkbug problem in the old lab?  Anyway...it's awesome and I'm doing much less running around now that I'm located centrally on the vetmed campus.  After additional unexpected delays (biosafety hoods not certified so we couldn't do any work) I have cells growing and am planning exps for the end of this week, assuming the cells cooperate and grow quickly.  However, it is lonely...we're the only lab in the building for now and I don't think that's going to change much for months.  Well, it's not like I had a bunch of collaborators in the previous building, but there were other students that I'd had class with that I was at least on speaking terms with.  Yeah...I can't say the social scene has exactly brightened up. Still the same problem -  people are super nice, but they are not inclusive and they don't reach out.  I know, it's just up to me to start reaching out, making plans, inviting people to go hiking, etc.  I just kinda chafe at the idea because first, I'm the freakin' new person!  That's their damn job!  Secondly, I never know if, when someone says they can't do something, they actually want to and just have a conflict or if they're really not interested and just trying to be nice to the pitiful, lonely new girl.  Ugh.  Over-think much?

5. Classes are much simpler this semester...a decent bit of review, and, well...kinda boring.  I know they're going to pick up, and for now I'm enjoying having the mental free-time to focus on organizing our departmental seminar series!!  I was gently handed the simple task from the previous student and promptly came up with about 10 brilliant ideas for how to make it soooooo much better and, well, yeah.  I'm probably coming off as all kinds of pushy but c'mon! I'm trying to improve the academic environment of my department!  Oh never mind, even that sounded pushy.

More on classes soon, and I'll try to snap some pics of Cato, if nothing else than for comic relief.  Side note: someone sent me a Crozet calendar....I have no idea who.  It just arrived in the mail with no message, but was addressed to my new address so it wasn't random.  So if someone happens to read this and knows who it was...tell me!  I have it up on the wall next to my bench, and this month's image is an amazing sunset over the Blue Ridge right in Crozet *sniff*