Tam's first attempt at being a Pirate

Okay . .. He needs to grow into the hat a bit . . . 

And we'll have to get him an uber-sexy eye patch . . .

And as soon as he can eat solids, we'll let him try gigantic turkey legs :-)

Terms of endearment...

So, the baby network I'm linked in gives us topics to blog about randomly.  This week it is "How do you say 'I love you' "?  I guess they are gearing up for valentine's day.  (A highly over-rated holiday that makes you feel guilty if you don't spend money on your significant other or makes you feel awful if you don't have a significant other. Bah-humbug)

Hmmm...Well, I say I love you. Duh.  But maybe that's because I'm not too inventive about this stuff, and neither is Brian.  We tell Tam that he's loved tons of time.  Plus, I know that Tam is so darn kissable that Brian and I are always smooching his cute baby head.  And we get a smile from him and tickled by his hair in return.  

I guess, we tell each other we love you by calling names :-)  I know that we both have pet names for each other and rarely use our proper names.  Currently, I am referred to as Dr. Momma, Hot Momma, Dr. Wifey, My love.  Brian is Daddy-o, Poppa, Lover, My Husband. 

And Tam has many nicknames already, such as Goober, Milk-Junky, Poo-Master, Squeaker, the Baby...etc.  My sister made the comment last weekend that poor Tam may never know his name because we are always calling him something different.  Eh...he'll get over it or go crazy later in life!

 In the end, as I look at Tam sleeping during his afternoon nap, I know that I feel very loved and very thankful...no matter if I put it in words or not.  Life IS GOOD.

Life in the classroom . . .

I teach a microbiology labs this term, and one lab is small with only 14 students. This week, they are receiving their unknown cultures of bacteria which they will have to identify over the next several lab periods. At the start of this project, I had told them that they want to avoid contamination because it will cost them points from their total if I have to give them new unknown cultures. To help with this, I reminded them that they may want to make additional cultures from their stock unknown just in case they do cause contamination, that way they won't have to ask me for new ones and lose the points.

Yesterday, we were in lab and I was helping a couple students look at fungi on the 'scope. Then, over everyone else's voice, I hear one of my seniors departing wisdom onto one of the sophomores...
"You f*king make new f*king cultures from the stock so if you f*k up, you aren't f*ked."

I respond to this with "Yes, dear student, . . . that is exactly what I said...just not quite as colorfully. " And, I, of course, begin to laugh. Said student turned bright red and apologized profusely. Needless to say, I think everyone in the lab will making new cultures!

Sheesh. I do think that is the most over-use of the f-word I've heard in a long time.

Feeling snarky toward the freshmen

Laugh for the day . . .

I totally was thinking this while giving an exam to my students today. Several of them would get stuck on a problem, stare at it for about 10 minutes, then come and ask me a question about it in the hopes that I would give them a clue for answering it.

PTHPPBBTHTHTBP to you, sir!
Study more next time!

Now go away or I will taunt you a second time!

Great discussion out of the blue

Today a random student wandered into my office and wanted to talk about evolution and religion. Heavy food for thought! And he wasn't even a biology or a science major (physics...poor sap)! We chatted on about Darwin's life and the prevalent thoughts of his time. I then told him about the basics of evolution theory and supporting evidence. At the center of evolution is the idea of natural selection or Survival of the Fittest. Organisms need to survive long enough to pass on their genes to their offspring. Genes coding for characteristics that are not beneficial, lead to the death of the organisms. And as one of my great past science teacher often said: "Dead things don't reproduce." In essence, organism populations are changing with each subsequent generation. Along with natural selection, is the idea that organisms share common ancestors. Then he wanted to know more about creation myths across different religions. And, surprisingly, this lead to a great discussion on how religions have "evolved" over time. Those religious beliefs that adapted to change in people's thoughts survived and are most supported today. In the same light many of these religions are related to each other at some point in their past...very similar to sharing a common ancestor. Interesting...
Then I happened to remember this quote from a favorite fiction writer:

"Oh, come on. Revelation was a mushroom dream that belonged in the Apocrypha. The New Testament is basically about what happened when God got religion."
-Terry Pratchett

Food for thought...now discuss amongst yourselves.

I'm a milk machine

Here's my odd ramblings for the day...

While at school, I have to pump my milk once or twice during the day.  I'm really glad I have an electric pump, but it still takes about 15minutes or so.  And with where my outlets are in my office, I'm tethered opposite my computer so I usually just sit and think or read or grade.  I realized today that I have some pretty weird thoughts while during this time. Yep, the mind tends to wander while I'm hooked to a machine to simulate my kid nursing.

Firstly I realized that I have definitely fondled my boobs way more in the past two months than I have in my entire life.  Maybe I should go into the porn industry to change this.  Now what would my porn name be? Maybe Kitty McScience? or is that too nerdy? Then that gets me thinking about biology and leads to  thinking "Damn, so that's what these things are for!" and "Sheesh...I'm a milk machine!" Which leads to thinking about science fair projects and my science mind kicks in. Now I'm totally fascinated with exactly how many mL are emanating from each one.  Then I find myself cheering for the total production..."go, go, go boob...make more milk!"  Way odd I admit, but it passes the minutes.  I'm totally glad Tam and I were able to nurse even if does produce weird thoughts :-)  And Brian just laughs at me when I share this with him :-)