Chocolate from Germany

Yesterday my friend Ellen gave me a chocolate bar that she brought from Germany (she is also from Germany and studies bats here). This was very very nice of her and I have been nibbling on this tasty chocolate since yesterday -- it is very soft and rich. The bar is milk chocolate and filled with chocolate flavored nougat. German chocolate is definitely a bit fancier than the Hersheys I can get back home!

Miami pictures

Here are a few photos from my trip to Miami. I didn't go anywhere particularly exciting (mostly I just wandered around the University, arboretum, and the nearby neighborhood) but UM is pretty photogenic. The weather was really awesome during the time I was there -- a bit on the cool side with clear, crisp skies and sunny afternoons. I can understand why all the snowbirds come down to southern Florida during the winter!

I'm back!

Whew! I just got back to La Selva late last night after a VERY full day of traveling. I must say, it is great to be back in the rain forest. Miami was fun, but not as nice as here. I accomplished a lot while I was back in the states, but I am excited to get back to work in the field with my seeds and animals. I was super-busy in Miami, running around trying to get everything done in 6 days. I definitely enjoyed some junk food while I was there and I had some really tasty sushi (shrimp tempura roll is good!). I watched DVDs from the library at night and worked on data entry, manuscript revisions, and committee member meetings during the days. I also visited a mall, Whole Foods, Target, and Best Buy (using crappy Miami public transportation). It was a nice diversion and an easy way to renew my visa, but it is great to be back in Costa Rica. I will post some pictures from Miami in another post once I am organized and unpacked.

Leaving tomorrow

I leave for Miami tomorrow and that means that I won't be able to blog for a while. I am leaving my computer all locked-up and safe here so I don't have to worry about being robbed at the bus stations. Lots of people think that Costa Rica is super-safe, but it really is not. I am bringing a memory stick with me that contains copies of my dissertation, data, a manuscript, and a few papers to read. I will edit my manuscript, write more in the methods sections of my dissertation chapters, and enter some data while I am in Miami. I don't have any big plans...I will probably try to catch a movie (I think Cloverfield sounds good), eat out at one of my favorite restaurants: Lan Pan Asian Cuisine (conveniently located near Target!), and buy some more goodies and supplies to bring back to Costa Rica. I am not really excited to be back, but I will definitely make the most of my time there. I will post more on the bloggie when I get back in a week -- chau!

Campfire

I love camping and I love to make a campfire when camping (s'mores are the best!). Here is a little felt campfire that I made the other night while relaxing and watching Die Hard 3.

Miami -- again!

Well, I will soon be off for another trip to Miami...it seems like I was just there! This trip is another short one to renew my visa, meet with my advisor, give a presentation to our lab group -- basically the usual stuff I do each time I return to the states. I will be in Florida from 22 January until 29 January. I am looking forward to eating candy (jelly beans!), watching movies, and meeting up with a lot of friends that had been in the field the last time I was back. Sheesh, I am going to leave Costa Rica before I know it -- I need to plan out the rest of my week!

MoonSide

Last night the moon was really beautiful -- it was a bright Cheshire cat smile up in the dark purple sky with the trees silhouetted against it. Here is a picture:
What really struck me as I looked up into the sky last night was how similar this scene matched an image I painted back in high school of a palm-scape at night with a bright white moon:
The days and nights have been really amazing here -- I think we are finally entering the dry season!

My new watch

I just got a new watch! I ordered it online and had it sent to my friend Arietta in the states to bring down with her to La Selva. She arrived a couple days ago and gave me my radical new time-keeper! I really like it, even though I can't work all the functions yet. I still haven't read the gargantuan user's manual to figure out all the settings (and there are LOTS of things this watch can do -- it can even store names and phone numbers...crazy!). I thought to get a fluorescent pink watch so that it would be hard to misplace and easy to find if it falls off in the water or in the forest. I was without a watch for a couple of weeks after our vacation in Arenal where a hot spring ate my previous watch. Admittedly, that watch was in pretty sad shape before being devoured by bubbles, but it was really hard for me to be without a watch! What can I say, I'm a sucker for punctuality.

Animal house

Sheesh, things have been pretty crazy around here the past few days. Yesterday I gave two talks to school groups here (a welcome talk and a research talk) and managed to fit some work in between. The weather here has been really beautiful too -- no more floods! The sun has been out and the forest is really peaceful.

Last night was a little crazy -- our house was invaded by animals! I was sitting on the bed and I kept hearing a commotion on the roof near the little windows at the top of the room. At first I thought it was a crazy bat (and Carlos thought it might be a huge moth). It was really going crazy flapping around and hitting the wall and then we saw some yellow feathers and saw that it was a bird. The bird kept flapping loudly and hitting the windows but we thought it would eventually go away. It flapped again and -- hello! -- a little bird head came in through the roof! Before we knew it, the bird was inside the room flying all over the place! We eventually caught it with our mosquito net and put the little guy outside. It was quite exciting.

After that, Carlos saw a little dark mouse walking around the kitchen. I didn't see it and the mousie went outside after that. Man, what is going on? We will bring a sherman trap home tonight to try and catch it (these are live traps so don't worry, we won't hurt little Ratatouille).

Here are some pictures from the past few days:

100th post and return of the Mole!

Wow, happy one-hundredth post Rowdy Mouse blog! Cool, I can't believe that I have already written 100 posts -- it seems like I just started this blog a couple of months ago. Tempus fugit.

Yesterday I randomly read a little story about the TV show The Mole (which I have talked about on my blog before). This is the best reality show ever and the news story said that The Mole is coming back to TV (ABC) possibly this summer. I am so excited that I will get to see it because I should be back in the states by then! If you like The Mole too, here is a link to the official news story: link.

Transparent butterfly

A couple of days ago, Carlos found a little friend fluttering around his lab -- a transparent butterfly! I see these guys a lot in the forest understory and they are really amazing. Their wings are mostly transparent with some iridescence and color. This specimen also has a couple of eye-spots on its wings -- so cute.

Chumpy birthday

Hey, yesterday was Carlos' birthday! He wasn't very excited because he thinks he's getting old (well we all are, but he is still young!) but we had a nice day. In the morning he opened up the birthday presents I gave him. Since right now my limited funds all go toward my research, I made some little felt things for him. Here are some pictures:

The first felt thing is the beetle Cephaloleia costaricensis sitting on a leaf. This is a type of beetle similar to those that Carlos is studying for his dissertation. These beetles live in rolled leaves of plants from the order Zingiberales and they are really cool.

The second felt thing is the head of Doraemon -- the cosmic cat. If you have never seen this cartoon you should try to find it because it is hilarious. Doraemon is a robot cat from the 24th century who travels back in time to help his inventor's ancestor Nobita. Nobita always gets into trouble and Doraemon tries to help him with inventions from the future which he takes out of his magical pocket. Hilarity ensues.

We pretty much just took it easy yesterday, putting the finishing touches on a paper, and watching movies.

Photoshop is fun

Today has been a pretty slow day because of some intense rain here. The river has risen and the forest is, once again, closed. So, I have been holed up in my office entering data and doing boring, tedious office stuff. I've been playing around in Photoshop some more and decided to put up a new header for my bloggy. I think I might like the old white one better, but change is always good.

I am sure the road leading out of the station is now a river, so that means Carlos and I get to go home in a boat! Sheesh, and people think that Seattle is rainy -- they need to visit La Selva in the wet season!

Pizza!

I like pizza. Unfortunately, out here in the rain forests of Costa Rica, I don’t get to eat it very often. There was a pizza place (called Mr. Pizza) in Puerto Viejo that would actually deliver pizza to La Selva or our house, but after they messed up our pizzas for the 20th time (e.g. pizza the wrong kind, pizza too uncooked, pizza made with jalapeño sauce to burn my mouth -- why is this on a cheese pizza instead of tomato sauce? Are they trying to kill me?), we decided to not get pizza there anymore. Boo. So, I ate some delicious pizza in La Fortuna, but that was probably the last pizza I will eat for many months.

My favorite types of pizza are (with thin crust): plain cheese, ricotta, basil & tomato, onion, mushroom, and pineapple. Most of the pizzas I like the most are pretty simple with only one topping -- usually I am happy with just a simple cheese pizza. Hey you can’t go wrong with bread, sauce, and cheese!