Beautiful Boone

I don't know what the weather is like in Wisconsin but it is hella nice in Raleigh! I can fully enjoy a sunny 80 degrees in early October! The only problem is that I am stuck inside doing my duty as a TA. How about a lecture outside? I'm pretty sure the students would like that. I mean, it is a plant pathology class after all so let's go sit by some fungi!

So, as y'all can imagine I've been in the grind of research. No guys, I literally mean in the grind. After processing the ears, I have to grind each sample and then do all the prep work for toxin analysis. Well, unfortunately not enough supplies were ordered so I could only run toxin analysis on 50 plots. But that's okay because now I can catch up on archiving other cultures for my labmate's portion of the project. Also, I've had to dilute all my samples because aflatoxin contamination was super high. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that this year's data results line up with last year's results so I have something solid to discuss at the Master's Symposium in late November!!

MMM....made my day better :)

On a way more fun note, I was in Boone this past weekend for Hound Ears! Dane, Patrick, and I drove out Friday afternoon, registered, and gathered our swag. We watched a movie called "Asgard Project" which made me very happy I wasn't there. Anyways, we set up camp and went to bed. Then Saturday morning came around. That was a cold morning (thanks mom for the jacket!). Anyways, I had Cheerios for breakfast (which was delicious by the way!), then bundled up and waited in line for the buses to transport us to the actual boulder grounds. Well, we got there, found Dane's crashpad and sat there freezing. Sat some more and froze some more. By the time we were allowed to go climb and compete, it was 11am. So Patrick, Dane, Geoff, Kate, and I meandered to the boulder we wanted to start out. Well, it turns out that 20 other people also wanted that boulder and were not very friendly about it. Oh, I'm sorry that I was about to climb and reaching out to the starting holds! Why don't you just wedge yourself between me and the rock and innocently look at me and say 'oh I didn't see you' and continue to climb. Mmm mmm mmm. That is a sure-fire way to get me mad and lose psyche. But, now I can say that I discovered I do not like climbing with a bunch of people and I like small groups way better. So thank you, mean girl, for bringing me to this realization.

What a great welcome to the NC mountains

This is were it got cold and rained at night and I FORGOT MY PILLOW ONCE AGAIN!!! I need a tent like Aaron's

Anyways, after the comp was filled with not-the-best-chili-I've-ever-had, beer, finding crashpads, crashpad stacking competition, awards, and hanging out with friends who shall be named - Peter, Alex, Pinney, Kate, Geoff, Dane, Patrick, some random dude in a Peru hat, and some other chick. But yeah, that night was really really cold. Then we packed up in the morning, at breakfast at a bagel place, took a tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway and then made our way back to Raleigh. Monday came and back to the swing of research and all those joyful things. 

Bah! So pretty. Why don't I live in Boone?

My climbing buddies!

Anyways, I need to go climb. Climbing makes me happy.