I got a roomie

Friday was another early morning, 6 AM. Candice, Julian, and I drove out to a clear cut area (buntings like open, brushy habitats) and unfurled the nets we set up the previous afternoon. We caught a male and Julian showed us some more techniques, weighing and measuring and such. He poked the brachial vein and demonstrated how to hold and wiggle the capillary tube so it sucks up the blood. We sprinkled a bit of quick stop powder to make sure he clotted, then let him go. By then, Julian had to go on watering duty, so we drove back to station and Candice and I hopped in my car to drive back out and catch some more birds. We set up the Ipod at the other of the 2 nets and caught a male. We were having serious issues getting his wings untangled, so we had to snip the net a bit. I tried my hand at bleeding, and got a full capillary tube on the first try! Yay me! However, he wouldn't stop bleeding afterward, so we used the quick stop powder, which did the trick.

We headed back over to the first net with the Ipod, but decided the bunting that wouldn't quite fly into the net was the one we caught before and he got smart. So we played the prairie warbler song instead, since those might also be of interest, and we got one. He was a somewhat smaller and a little easier to remove, but quite feisty. Candice's turn to bleed, but when I was getting the needle out for her I bled myself instead. Oops. Fortunately it was before we stuck the bird, so I won't get bird AIDS or something. With a new needle, Candice wasn't terribly successful at the bleeding, probably for several reasons. The warbler was smaller, she didn't poke deep enough, and she held the capillary tube so the blood flowed right back out onto the bird. She'll learn, I hope.

Meanwhile, we were constantly hearing guns go off, since we were right next to an area where they test weapons. I sure hope they don't miscalculate their ranges. We returned to station, Candice drove home to GA to figure out car stuff, I hung around in the office a bit, went to the grocery store, then went home. Talked to Beck, and then who knows what I did until Matt arrived around 11. I was super tired so I went to bed instead of helping or socializing.

Woke up, made pancakes, and read or something til Matt woke up, then we had a more formal introduction. We talked awhile and I think we'll get along just fine this summer. A lot of the same interests, hobbies, etc. His personality is a bit more adventurous than mine, and sometimes the things he plans to do seem totally random to me. I almost feel boring. I probably am.

Anyway, he went on a run and I Skyped, then we went out shopping. We stopped at Goodwill, then searched for what we thought was going to be an organic grocery store, which part of it was, but it also had a bunch of random crap and a book section. Figures, with a name like "The Curiosity Shop." Highlight of the day: finding a can labeled "Spotted Dick." Not joking. It appeared to be some kind of sponge pudding?... right. We stopped at Kroeger, then went home.

I Skyped with Beck some more after he had watched Anchorman for the first time. And once again, I have no recollection of what I did besides dinner until I went to bed.

Sunday was kinda crappy. Matt went to check out the climbing gym in Columbia, but I didn't because I needed to work on a presentation of my project to show the other people on the Corridor Project. Think I got anything done? Not a thing. I did email I few people I needed to and checked out airfare to the Netherlands. Then I proceeded to Skype with Beck for roughly 4 hours. Half of that was us paying more attention to something online and making an occasional comment. We need to get better at this.

It was nearing ultimate frisbee time at 6, so I said goodbye and got ready. To find no one there. I somehow missed the memo that nobody was playing this weekend? Because I forgot to write about it like I said I would, last Sunday was fun. Only 3 on 3, but I layed out twice and felt pretty good about it all. This Sunday was totally lame. So I ran for about 15 minutes when I got home, just to get some negative energy out. Showered, blogged, ate gumbo (Matt likes to cook), and maybe I'll work on this presentation before I go to bed. Ha. I still got tomorrow...