This is what I will call my organizational blog... I need to think out what I have to do in the next couple days to prepare myself for the haunted shack research vacation.
Tonight: Figure out how to work this $50 headlamp I just bought- 8 modes, one button- question: anyone know the purpose of a strobe light on a headlamp???
Tomorrow: 9am- Crayfish checks. This is where I stand over 20 tubs and mark where crayfish are in the tubs- trust me its important and fascinating stuff.
9:45am- Trip out to the American river to capture 40 crayfish for the experiment. One of these days I am going to go out and catch then fur eatin'
11:45- Stop by Ace hardware and get 8 feet of PVC pipe.
12:00pm- Bring them back to the lab and measure and weigh each crayfish. Think that's boring just wait...
1:00- Cut PVC pipe into 3" segments. Still not the boring part...
2:00- Change the water on the tadpoles and count out the number of each. Then separate into groups of 10 and weigh them. Yeah, you guessed it- non stop excitement.
3:00- Another crayfish check.
3:20- Back to the tadpoles...
5:00- Call it a day- and head out for a concert at the zoo... I love free babysitting. THANKS Annie and Susie!
Wednesday: Just shoot me now.
8am- Tadpole check. This consists of checking the location and activity of tadpoles in 30 ten gallon aquaria. Trust me its important and fascinating stuff.
9am- Crayfish check.
10am- Tadpole check.
11am- Crayfish aggression assays- this is real science but actually what most boys would do with access to crayfish. This consists of dumping a piece of sardine into the afore mentioned tanks and recording every time the crayfish fight over it. So awesome...
12pm- Tadpole check.
12:40pm- Back to the crayfish
2:00pm- Tadpoles...
2:45- Realize I haven't eaten anything all day long.
3:00- Check email and beg for equipment to use.
4:00- Tadpoles again.
5:00 Wonder why I created the methods for the experiment this way.
6:00- Tadpoles again.
7:00- Call Rachel and reassure her that I am alive.
8:00pm- Last tadpole reading- thank god!
9:00pm- Crayfish check.
9:30pm- Head home.
10:00pm- Realize all the stuff I forgot to do.
10:30pm- Feed Lucas- the highlight of my day.
10:40- Put Lucas to bed, and wish I were going there too.
11:00pm- Review manuscript that was due 2 weeks ago.
5:00am- Wake up on the couch, and head for bed...

Thursday-
8:00am- Take final tadpole reading.
9:00am- Crayfish check.
9:30am- Begin takedown of experiment. Consists of emptying the 30 tanks of water, while collecting the tadpoles. Then weighing the tadpoles.
5:00pm- Curse the experiment for taking so long to take down.
5:30pm- Freak out about all the details I have forgotten to take care of. (obtaining a water quality meter, contacting the pesticide analysis lab, creating datasheets, packing up crayfish and tadpoles, finding the bubblers, finding the adaptor for the water filter, etc.)
8:00pm- Decide I will just go home and do the rest in the morning.

Friday-
Pack up and head out for Mendocino!
I am not even going to try and guess a time table with a 3 month old baby in the mix...

Hopefully I will remember and send another blog from the road. Cell phone blogs are cool...