A Nice, Relaxing Weekend

So, an update. This weekend was nice - too short, but very chill. Got to make cake pops with Jenn and her grandma, do some shopping for necessities (and a few non-necessities, whee buy-2-get-1 at gamestop), eat a whole lot of really good food (I had forgotten what real food tasted like!), and watch the animated version of The Hobbit. Oh yeah and I swam in a pool - something that isn't the ocean for once! So I am nice and recharged and ready for the week.

...Which is good. Because it's going to be a hectic one. One of my trailer-mates is going to be putting her project up, which is going to be involved. Essentially, we'll be setting up 40 large (compared to mine, anyway - really only about half a meter squared) cages by digging up a chunk of the marsh, lining the underlying mud with some mesh to keep stuff from digging in, plopping the marsh back in, putting the cage on top, and filling it up with snails. This may be getting done in a day.

My own main project (pending some details from my adviser tomorrow morning) will also be going up this week, which will be less involved but still quite involved. I'm thinking we'll be setting up my little tube cages with a grid around them (hopefully not more bamboo.. maybe we could even use a gridded quadrat - fancy science speak for a big square used to look at stuff within a set area) in the mud to take positions of where the data is all coming from. Distance stuff, to look at the spatial aspects of my study. So that'll involve finding plots for it, laying all that out (easier than my trailer-mate's project), gathering up 50+ crabs, and trying as well to get that done in a day so that everything starts off at the same time and on a level playing field.

All that for 24 plots or so. Data collection is going to take forever, but it'll be worth it if it pays off. Which it should! Like I said, the initial data from the second mini project is looking pretty good. Some nuances, but they'll average out over time.

But yeah, busy week. And it's been really hot out since the storms passed. So wish me luck, both in getting this all set up, and in not getting a heat stroke! I will keep y'all posted with pictures and day to day descriptions.