Meet Tink 2!

Tink 2 on the highway (yes, I took the shot while driving Maggie - bad Julie)

Wellll - with jobs all lined up and a more regular cash flow we were finally able to buy a new car! Remember that we have been using Maggie, my 1998 Mazda out here and Jay's truck was recalled back in November 08 when we came home. He bikes to work, so we have been getting by on one car. But with all these commutes happening for me right now and in the future, we needed to get a car that would not be old and rusty, even though we love Maggie the Mazda. So, we got a new car!! Meet Tink 2, named in honor of the lovely van we lived in while in New Zealand (remember Tinkerbell?). Don't worry, Maggie will remain in the family as the "local" car whenever it is needed, but Tink (2009 Toyota Matrix) will become our main car.

It ain't called the BIG leaf maple fer nothin'

Other news - I've been working in the field again for Lummi Nation - out in the intertidal. And now I'm working to help them ID all their inverts in the samples, that will really get busy after July 4th. June is the month of visitors and we have been busy having FUN when they come. Katie, an old friend of mine from Alaska, came to visit this weekend. We spent a great day out in the woods right in Anacortes. I love that we live in a town where we can hike for HOURS - and it is a bike ride or short drive to the trails (or, in our case, a short walk from the house). Awesome. We walked for around 5 hours with Katie, up Mt. Erie and around Whistle Lake. I am super excited about swimming in Whistle Lake; Jay is even going to come with me! On Sunday, I had to work so Jay and Katie headed out on an epic mountain biking trip, again right from our house! Good times.

Katie and Whistle Lake

Julie and Katie - old crab buddies

Tiger lily

My shot

Hey - have you heard of "My Shot" with National Geographic?
I recently submitted this photo from Myanmar to see if it sparked any interest. I was pretty excited (hence the blog) to find that I made it to the daily dozen, where the editor picks the best 12 pics of the week. Here is the link - scroll to June - Week 1 and then click on the right arrow until you see the picture. You can even vote on the pictures!! Vote for me! Ha! I sound like a politician. Anyhoo - neat stuff. I'm going to try and submit more!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/daily-dozen
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/voting-machine

Puppeteers in Mandalay

Jobby job!

Well - the big news is that I was offered a "part-time" position to teach Intro Biology classes at a community college in Everett. I decided to take the job. I put "part-time" in quotes because it isn't really part-time (it's more like full-time), it just means I'm not a tenured or tenure-track faculty member. I will be teaching two classes (same subject) and that will totally occupy my life for the fall. Classes start 2 days after we get back from our honeymoon. This means I'll spend the month of August prepping. I admit that I'm dreading the loss of life that usually comes with teaching and prep work. But, we need a new car and I like teaching - so I really want to give this a chance. The community college, (EvCC or Everett Community College) is quite nice! Super shiny new buildings and great faculty in the Biology department. Nice labs. If I had normal hours, which I won't, I could commute by bus. I am trying to think of ways to use that bus!!

Other news - we are going to try and get another car in the next couple weeks. Maggie (my car) is still doing fine. But she is old and rusty and the west coast mechanics all freak out when they see her rust (they don't salt roads here). Stay tuned!

And finally - here are some photos from our visit with Jay's dad, Buz, and his partner Charlotte. They were here last week and spoiled us rotten. It was wonderful to spend time with them!

Jay and Charlotte on Orcas Island

All of us at Deception Pass State Park

Some unidentified wildflower, I'll figure it out soon when I have time. I'm super busy right now with three part-time science-ish jobs! Yahhh!

That's some big piece of seaweed

The busy fun life (with some funny cat video at the bottom)

I was super busy last week with the intertidal sampling and then coming home and trying to keep up with the ecology class I'm teaching online for Northeastern University. Then, to make everything more FUN an old friend and her main man visited! Ali and Bob came over from Victoria (Vancouver Island) and spent Friday and Saturday night with us. Remember wayyyy back when I was the 1999 Our-World Underwater Scholar? Well, Ali was the 2000 scholar. So, we share much common ground and it was GREAT fun to see her and Bob again.
We met them in Bellingham and headed out to the Boundary Bay Brewing Company, the best brewery north of Anacortes that we have found. Back home I treated them to my favorite Indonesian dessert - black sticky rice with mangoes. Yum.

Bob, Jay (showing off how much he likes chocolate bars) and Ali

On Saturday we walked to the Anacortes Farmers Market. I was hoping to get some local produce and perhaps even some eggs. So I was pretty surprised to see how high all the prices were. And most of the stands were selling stuff that really catered to tourists (??) coming through town on their way to the islands. Nevertheless, I plan on heading back to try again when the farms might be producing more and maybe the prices will be lower. But, I won't need to search for local produce much longer, our CSA (community supported agriculture) farm starts next week and goes through November! Yeah for local farms!

After our lovely walk in the sun (everyone fried a nice crisp red) we had a tasty lunch and headed out toward Mt.Erie. I think readers have probably seen photos of other visitors at the top of Mt. Erie. You can drive up - but we wanted to walk up this time and earn that view! It was a great walk with loads of wildflowers, good conversation, and nice cedar trees.
Finally, tradition holds, we headed over the Deception Pass with a bottle of wine. Ali and Bob brought some nice brie along too! We settled down on a nice log on the beach and munched on our brie and sipped a nice deep red zinfandel. Good stuff.


Oh - and Jay went to the Olympic Peninsula to help his boss with some of the undergraduates at his lab. They had unreal weather! These are a few of his shots below....

River otter in the intertidal!

Top of Hurricane Ridge

And finally - did we ever mention to anyone that Lester, our tuxedo cat, is nutzo? Darwin and Lester are the same age (we think) but Lester still acts like such a crazy kitten. We laugh and laugh at him, and managed to get these tid-bits on tape! Enjoy!! (if you only have time to watch one, the second one is a riot)

After Jay stopped recording, Lester actually DID manage to turn off the lights. We can't believe we missed getting that on film!!