Depending on grant money

Work is going ok, challenging though. The other technician in the lab is here for her last week and I am learning all of the dissections and experiments she does so I can take over. I am going to be really stressed out, possibly, when she is gone and I am doing the work of 1 1/2 people-2 people at times. We are finishing the project she is working on, but we are not quite done so I have to finish.

When the lab shrinks down a little more, we can get by with just one technician. But as it is, it's still just as big with 5 post-doc fellows. My boss got a few little grants so we are doing somewhat better, but he will still have to let more people go soon. The grants are too little to pay salaries, just buy supplies. I wish my boss would let me know the full picture, as it is I don't know who will be let go next.

Seattle

My favorite part of Seattle was the Seattle waterfront and aquarium. The octopus was fascinating. They gave it a jar with a fish in it and the octopus opened it and ate the fish.

As BB said, we go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium all the time, but they don't feed their fish by scuba diving with the fish. BB and I were watching this wondering if the small sharks (not in picture) ever bit too hard on the diver, mistaking him for fish???

BB hated this picture, but the seals were performing tricks for us and of course, this is not Sea World, so there wasn't bleachers or anything. You watched from behind the fence. I didn't know seals could be trained to jump up and touch a ball like a dolphin or orca.

Puget Sound has several pods of orcas that live there year-round, probably because of the extensive seal population there. We didn't see any orcas, but I got to ride a pretend one.

As BB said, I loved the market, mostly because of the gluten-free bakery that had fabulous muffins!!! But it was the most sensational farmers market I have ever imagined or seen. It was 6 city blocks long with some of the cheapest floral arrangements you will ever see!

I loved our waterfront cruise. BB and I were wondering why so many ocean fish lived there, then we found out it is mostly salt water, even though it's 80 miles from the ocean. How does that work???

I thought this was cool because I have never seen a policeman on a horse before. I asked BB where the poop went and who cleaned it up. The answer was apparent in a few feet. It laid there and no one was cleaning it up. Yuck! I am torn between the green aspect of saving the economy with the disgust of it. Absolutely, one fabulous weekend and too short.

Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge

Today, I went on a hike that we could never do as a family because Woogy can't handle a hike over 1.5-1.9 miles. I hiked 5 miles and I am quite sore, pushing Nibbles up rocky hills. I have heard about this hike and wanted to go so when BB and Woogy went to the church kickball tournament, I decided to head to Eagle Creek. It has very steep drop-offs so it's not very kid-friendly. And it was very rocky, but beautiful.

After a two and a half mile hike, you descended sharply to a gorge with the creek and waterfall. It was about 20 degrees cooler down there, but a nice place for lunch. Being only about 70 degrees with cold mountain water rushing by to a small waterfall, it wasn't the ideal place to get in the water. But Nibbles did try.

Nibbles loves playing in the water. We stayed at the bottom of the gorge for an hour and a half before she would leave.
They call this Punchbowl Falls. It was only a few hundred yards from where we ate lunch. People were jumping off it to the creek below, so it wasn't a huge waterfall. I stood on top of it to take this picture obviously.

The hike back finally reached ground level again and Nibbles played for another 45 minutes or so, this time where it was 90 degrees so the water was a little more enjoyable.

It is always nice to just hike with Nibbles without all of the complaining my son does. Maybe someday he will learn to love hiking as much as I do. Obviously, Nibbles loves to hike.