Wet Kitten

I found a home for the kitten I found out by the trash in the rain on saturday! Well, not a home exactly, but a rescue organization who is willing to do all the shots and neutering and finding her a good home. And I thought all the rescue were full here in san diego... Well, apparently they are, but one of the women (who I spoke with) said she can take one more just because she is so cute!

Sam is really getting along with the kitten now, but I still am getting rid of her. My life is just too complicated to take on more responsibilities. Even if they are one pound of stinkin' cute fluff.

It's online!

My thesis is now online. Please excuse all of the "um"'s...

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/people/students/theses/fall2009/kieri_hutchin.html

There are really a lot of um's...

Do I really sound like that? I don't think it sounds like me at all. I have an annoying voice!

final 1

is today. leaving now

Application

I just applied for my first full time job. Woo-hoo!

Home Stretch

I presented my thesis yesterday! I can post a link to it on here later, once it is posted, maybe next week. It was pretty horrible. Maybe I wont post it. I know there were a lot of "um"s, as usual, and I relied on my notecards pretty heavily. Oh! and do you know what you get for presenting a thesis in the geology department? A beer cozy, ok maybe it's a "can" cozy for me, but everyone was calling it a beer cozy.


It says: We're not ROCKET scientists, we're ROCK scientists. Yup. Its funny. I'm going to find something to put in it and display it on my desk. It's like a little trophy. This can cozy says I graduated... Now for finding a job. Actually, Now for making it trough finals week. I've been working so hard on my presentation, I've gotten very behind on my studying.

Curlers the Irresponsible

We like to take Helo to the dog park in the city. We haven't had too many problems, other than chiwawa bites. So today started as a quick stop at the park, maybe half an hour just because we were going near there anyway.

We spotted a few friends and started hanging out with the usual people. There was this adorable border collie named Bandit that kept bringing me the ball and just wanted to case it forever. He looked something like this:



Which was pretty darn cute. So I threw the ball around with him because his owner was rather elderly. And he just loved chasing that thing. In fact... he didnt stop chasing the ball for two hours. And now you might be saying, but Kieri... weren't you only there for 30 minutes?

I should probably explain that the woman who owned Bandit looked like this:



Yes. She was older and had curlers in her hair. Big Curlers... At the dog park... She was talking to a friend of mine who always brings her 5 month old baby to the park with her (Helo always licks her feet when she makes any kind of noise.) So I said hello and asked about Bandit. The lady excused herself, saying she was going to try to find a bathroom. I have no clue where the bathrooms are, so I kindof dismissed it, thinking they were close.

Well my friend left and twenty minutes passed by. I'm still throwing the ball for Bandit and I'm starting to wonder where those bathrooms are. I let the dog wander off with a guy who was playing ball with his dog because Helo is laying down half asleep already and Russell is ready to go. I look for the owner, but there are no curlers to be seen. So I told Russell the situation and realized, this woman was asking me to watch her dog when she went to the bathroom, even if she didn't actually ask.

These other very nice fellows (one of whom's dog would not stop humping helo) over heard the story and had some opinions of their own. I had been duped.

And hour and a half after sitting at this park and we are still wondering what we should do. All five of us now involved just siting at the park laughing about what had happened. Was she lost? Senile? Dumping her dog on a nice young couple? Was I senile? Did she really not exist? Until I saw an ambulance drive by. What would an ambulence be doing in the park? Unless Curlers had a heart attack on the pot! That is why she has yet to return for her dog!

The guilt set in. And the time crunch. Russell had work in a few hours. I wouldnt be able to stay that long, at which point I would need to call animal control to pick up the pooch.

Two hours at the park and I am still waiting and watching for Curlers. Helo was so tired he was just letting that dog hump him. I had Russell look up the number for the park rangers. I had typed it into my phone when I saw another pink shirt in the distance. I had seen a few false alarms now, so I didnt really think it was her, and everyone else was convinced she didn't exist. Then I saw the curlers, it was her! I was upset and relieved. She headed over to us and said "rin-tin-tin"! (which is what she had been calling helo)

Then she left.

We left too.

She didnt address me or say thanks for watching my dog for two hours. Nope. So as we were all walking out, she said she had gone to the bathroom, but didnt think it was very safe, so she DROVE HOME to go. Without her dog. Nor anyone "officially" doing so. She didnt even think I had been watching him. Grrr.

Crazy irresponsible Curlers.

Cha cha cha Chia

This is so funny. I saw the comercial for the first time today. Just had to put it up here.


The Newest Thing from Chia Pets...



Thats right... Obama the chia. Gee I wonder why they haven't done this to a president before? Dont you think the Chia Bush would have sold?

So there are lots of opinions on this. One is that they never thought to make another presidential Chia. Its harmless fun and a marketing ploy. Another is that this is a racist attack on the woolly nature of black hair growth. Some stores like walgreens are already pulling this product from shelves.

What do you think. Harmless or racist?

Pictures from my phone.

This summer, I ended up getting a new phone. So I had to email all of my pictures to myself. Now I thought i would share all the best ones with you.

Getting a kitten sortof coicided with getting my first ever camera phone, so I took a lot of kitten photos. Here are a few favorites.


He was so tiny. We were still bottle feeding him when we brought him home. Man its a lot of work to bottle feed a kitten every three hours.





Just a few...

And then we got our adorable puppy. We hadn't settled on a name for the kitten yet when we drove an hour inland to pick up Jessica's new puppy.


So as we drove away, "Hey there delila" came on the radio.


Rem was leaving for (it think it was) boot camp just two days after we got Laila, so the song held a certain significance for Jess. We decided on Sampson and Delila for the pet's names.



They were best buddies, although Sam always had a mean streak. They used to cuddle like that. Then they would fight and fall asleep.


This is one of my favorite pictures because these two were fighting for the "sunny spot" in the room. And just fell asleep while fighting. But they look so peaceful and buddy-buddy in the photo.

Things are different now. They basicly hate each other and it has been at least a year since they have voluntarily cuddled. Mostly after Sam's accident, everything changed.


Poor Sam got run over by a car in the early hours of the morning. It awoke in him a sort of defense mechanism, "even though I am hurt, I am still top dog." Where Laila would have some gnarly battle scars and Sam just kept on lunging for her. It's cooled down a little, but Laila always has at least one scratch on her belly.

Anyhow...

It was only last summer that we drove south to pick up Helo.




That was his first night, when Russell was still being strict with the "no dogs on the bed" rule. Pfft... That lasted about a week.




He was our little bear cub, so we call him helobear

or helocopter

or helomonster...



He loved the car!



He would whimper like a baby til we hit 45mph.



But he's not a baby anymore. But as I look at those pictures side by side, he still has that same "look".


So that is what I take pictures of on my phone. Does it surprise you? Oh, there were no people pictures? Yes, I think someone was in one of those photos... No? Oh, ummmm here's one...


What, there's a cat blocking his face?

Hrmmm... I didn't want to post this one but you leave me no choice...



There. The only picture on my phone with no pet in it. It was just too good not to keep :)

Good Food

I mad this recipe last night and it was heaven. Probably a little calorific, but it was gooood. So I thought I would share it. I found it here But I didnt think to take a picture last night. We made pasta on the side and poured the alfredo sauce the chicken was baked in right on top.

Alfredo Crumbed Chicken


Serving: 6
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 70 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
6 Chicken breasts
2 egg wash
1 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
olive oil
vegetable spray
6 slices ozzarella cheese
large can mushrooms, drained
jar Five Brothers Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup white wine
garlic powder, to taste
parsley

DIRECTIONS:
1. Dip chicken breast in egg wash and then in Italian bread crumbs coating completely. Lightly brown on both sides in olive oil over med high heat. Remove from skillet and place in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish that has been coated with vegetable spray.

2. Top each breast with a slice of mozzarella cheese, you can use shredded, and a large can of mushrooms which has been drained.

3. To a jar of Five Brothers Alfredo sauce, add 1/2 cup white wine and a teaspoon or less of garlic powder to taste and some parsley. Stir to blend well.

4. Pour over chicken breasts and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is light golden.

Our "Day Off"

The Fourth (maybe fifth?) day was our "day off" so to speak. I think we got more done on our day off than any other day we were there (mostly due to rain). We saw a bunch of road cuts, hiked through the Bishop Tuff, stopped by Mammoth ski resort, hiked two craters and toured Mono Lake.


The Bishop Tuff was deposited when a volcano erupted creating Long Valley Caldera. It covers 2,200 square kilometers of area, which is a big bada boom.


We hiked down this really long road (yes paved road, leading to water treatment plant I think)



The tuff is really cool because it is very colorful (making it easy to identify) and we found this columnar jointing. This happens at a certain specific temperature and pressure thresh hold creating hexagonal columns in the tuff. The most famous example being the Devil's Postpile.

Mammoth was a bummer. We were supposed to take a gondola ride to see everything, but the resort was closed. So this is the only picture we got.


A two hour drive for a statue of a mammoth. Excellent.

Then we went to Two Craters on the way down from Mammoth, all discouraged, but happy we didnt have to pay $30 to take the ride (I know more than a few classmates were planning to skip it).



The lovely Nicole with one of the two craters behind her.



It wouldn't be worth seeing if we didnt have to hike to get there.



Or crutch to get there.



Here is everybody looking out at the lake at the bottom. It was a very peculiar shade of green. After a while, we started throwing rocks at it to see whose could splash the most. Geologists will be geologists after all...

I will save Mono Lake for its own post because it is just that cool. And come to think of it, maybe we didn't do all that in one day. That would just have been crazy for a day off :)

A trip I took a while ago.

That is my advanced field class our second day.

It dawned on me today that I never shared pictures of my advanced field trip with you. The trip was spectacular, by the way, even without showers or running water. Well there are soooo many pictures I can only share a few. In segments.



We went to the Poleta folds behind the White Mountains to map. We didn't get too many pictures though because it rained so much (also we were too tired to care). But here are a few from the first days when it didn't pour.


A big panorama of the field site.


This is called rattlesnake ravine. between everyone we saw two rattlesnakes and ten possible rattlesnakes. I ran too fast from the sound I heard to even check, lol.


This spot was called Hell Hole. Mostly because it is hard to map, I still don't think I was able to figure everything out.


Oh, and this guy is Chris also known as crutchy. He did the whole week on crutches! They lost their rubber soles and he tied socks around the arm gaurds by the end of he week. What a trooper!


And our other capable TA Jon, looking at his bunny friend. They were tremendous help with everyone so spread out across the mapping area.


Lunch on the first day, with everyone eating together.


Lunch on the third day, my little group of three found DK (Dr. Kimbrough)to eat lunch with and check our map stuff, but other than that we would have no clue where anyone was. If not for our walkies that is. Oh, and to illustrate my point, that red circle is Jon way out in the distance.

I may have to many pictures for this post already, but here is one last picture of the White Mts.

Its been a while

Hey, it has been some time since I last wrote, and really I don't have time to write much. Maybe after finals and then two weeks after that I will have some more interesting stuff for you. Until then I am knee deep in discovering the legal intricacies of this ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/dmg/pubs/sp/Sp42.pdf and thinking my little brain to overload about this:

To write much of anything.

So adieu and wish me luck!

Can you guess?

I just thought this was an amusing story about Russell's work. Russell's manager/co-manager at work is VERY into theater. Russell found this out by singing some phantom to his kids while teaching, and W started singing along, lol. So every monday, wednesday and saturday, Russell comes to work with a new song from a musical. He sings part of the song to W, and W will guess the musical. He has tried every musical he knows, Into the Woods, Wicked, Fantastiks, even Paint your Wagon! So I started filling his brain with some of my musicals (which is probably where he got the previous ones too). Russell didn't know many of the songs, but he liked one enough to remember it, and guess what? W couldn't guess it! I thought it would be an easy one too. So let's see if you can guess it...

Lyrics are "Strong men crumble. Proud men humble. I'm the King of New York!"

Great, now I have it stuck in my head...

I no longer enjoy being a girl

Nope, no longer. I'm over this having an extra layer of fat thing. I've been doing the same if not better than russell at this whole "new lifestyle" thing. I take Helo hiking, I eat salad, I go to the Gym! He loses 20 lbs, I GAIN 2. I was good all week. The only thing I can keep clinging to is, it's muscle, it's not fat. But, I still haven't lost the fat either, just gained some muscle. sigh. Why do girls have to work so much harder to lose?

And then...

I dreamed about it all night long. Shells upon shells. And I would pick them out of the sand with tweezers and name them some sort of gobbledigook. Just some gibberish names. It actually woke me up. I woke up mulitiple times saying to myself, dream about anything else! I would rather have a scary nightmare than pick more shells!

What I did today...

I think I am going to start a new on going post about the events that happened in my day...

I woke up an hour early to get to school to print a paper. Yes, I have a printer, but my computer was broken. Yes, I tried to set it up to my laptop, but it is so old, it is only compatible with XP. Anyway, I tried one last time to start it up, and YAY! It did! So I had an extra hour of this:



It was a nice surprise.

So, when I did head out to school, I sat through another lecture about this:


And then another lecture about this:


Then back to geobio AKA Paleontology for some of this:



And This:



And picking out this:




It was excruciating. Hours and hours of picking shells out of sand. Microscopic shells. And THEN we had to look through some thick textbooks to identify all the taxons we just found. And guess which detail oriented, good with small things person was really good at it? Me. Its a bad thing, trust me. I had to stay on the scope for, well, I started at one and ended at five. Four hours of diatoms and forams is painful.

Well, I went home. And made something like this:



And now I am getting ready for this:


Goodnight everyone!



Well that isn't very nice...