it's not my fault though! they have columnaris disease, which is a common bacterial thing for farm-raised catfish (which they are) and is usually induced by travel stress (which they had). the fuckers just won't stop dying though! we're treating them with an antibiotic, but it isn't really helping. it's so sad...
let's just say i've gotten really familiar with the fish grinder in the back lab recently.
that's really about the extent of excitement for me at the lab right now. i can't run any experiments because the only ones i should be doing use the catfish. so i spend all day reading literature and taking care of the poor fishies. (and surfing the web for various semi-relevant topics, including evolution, GMOs and veganism, shhhhh, don't tell anyone)
the fiscal year at the lab ends on september 30, so the month of september is a bit crazy for most of the scientists. they have lots of papers to write and budgets to calculate and projects to finish/start. last thursday was september 30, everyone was in a procrastination-induced tizzy trying to wrap up everything. therefore, about half of the aquatics people took vacation on friday, and the rest had left by 1 pm. i was literally the only person in the aquatics lab on friday afternoon! it was like a ghost town.
this last weekend was quite enjoyable though! a couple of us went to the (probably) only non-chain restaurant in oak ridge. it's called mediterranean delight, it's more of a carry out place and has semi-authentic middle eastern cuisine. i got a falafel wrap which was quite tasty.
we also took some of sami's water-activities-ginity. laura and sami and i went to mark's house, which mark's been trying to get me to do ever since i got here. we canoed around the lake he lives on for a while, sami's first time ever being in a canoe and first time ever paddling! then, mark and his son joined us and we went on the lake in their boat. sami's first time ever being on a boat! very exciting. laura and mark's son and i went tubing, which i've never done before. it was superbly fun, but my obliques and arms are still sore from hauling my fat ass us onto the tubes.
that was on saturday. then on saturday night we had a little social gathering and most of the interns came. it was a good time all around.
it's all of a sudden gotten a bit cold here though. the temp has dropped like crazy and i might be getting a cold because of it, fuuuuuck. das okay, i think it will pass soon.
i have been learning how to cook (sort of) finally! i've sort of experimented with how to cook different vegetables and use spices and combine foods. lin is my inspiration, she's a bomb ass cook. i've been eating so many fruits and vegetables lately, i think my diet has gotten much better. we also get some of our food locally, at a farmer's market they have in oak ridge every saturday. i feel so much better buying locally.
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