CA gray whale watercolor

My parents are coming down for a visit tomorrow! They are going to be here for my graduation -- I just picked up my regalia this morning. The gown is pretty cool (but HUGE). It is black with dark black velvet stripes. I am really excited to get my hood on Thursday and to become a doctor!

Anyway, I told my mom that her Mother's Day present is waiting for her here in Miami and that I would scan it and put it up here so that she could have a little preview. I painted one of her favorite whales: the California gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus). I like how this little guy turned out -- he has lots of little barnacles all over. Happy Mother's Day mom!

Busy week & MOO cards (part deux)

Last week was really busy, but full of accomplishments. My biggest accomplishment was turning in the final printed copies and forms for my dissertation. It has been completely approved by the graduate school, all of my credits were checked for completion, and I am finally (officially) a Ph.D.! It will take a while (mid-June at the earliest) to get my diploma in the mail, but with all the paperwork completed, I am now a doctor!

In other exciting news, I received my second batch of MOO mini-cards in the mail on Thursday. I ordered my first MOO mini business cards last year before attending the ATBC 2009 conference in Germany. They were very popular and successful so I though I would order some updated cards with my new credentials on them for the Frugivory and Seed Dispersal 2010 conference. I chose 25 different designs for the fronts of the cards (100 cards total = 4 of each design) and the back of each card has my information (name, e-mail address, website, etc.). I blurred my info on the back to protect the innocent. I love that the backs of the cards can also hold a picture -- I have an agouti there of course!

Super Mario Bros. 3 cross-stitch II

Here are another couple of photos of my Super Mario Bros. 3 cross-stitch of world 5. I haven't stitched in a while, but here you can see some progress being made on the map.

Asian snacks -- Chocolate biscuit

More Asian snacks from December! These were chocolate-filled little crunchy biscuits. I mostly bought them because I like the box with the woodland scene and cute little squirrels, but the treats inside were pretty tasty too!

These were small crunchy biscuits filled with hardened milk chocolate and they made nice snacks -- I would definitely eat them again. Chocolate biscuits -- the food of choice for small woodland creatures!

Asian snacks -- Almond Pocky

Digging around in my photos a little more, I found lots of Asian snack foods that I ate in Washington, but never got around to posting. Now that my dissertation is nearing its final completion, I am going to try and post more on my blog -- I've been neglecting it a little bit.

Here is Almond Pocky! I love Pocky: biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate. These Almond Pocky tasted mostly like milk chocolate with very little discernible almond flavor. They were good, but not really what I was expecting. I will stick to the dark chocolate-covered Men's Pocky!

Cactaceae fruits

I was looking through some of my old photos the other day and I found some of a couple cactus fruits that Carlos and I had a few months ago. The first fruit is a pitahaya (or red dragon fruit, Hylocereus undatus). We found this growing in the arboretum and I was surprised that no one else had found it first. I was a little let down by the taste, it wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be -- especially compared to pitahaya ice cream that I've eaten in Costa Rica (made from another species of pitahaya: Hylocereus costaricensis)!

The other cactus fruit is a prickly pear from genus Opuntia. These are sweet fruits and I especially like prickly pear syrup in lemonade! When you eat these, they really are a bit prickly so watch out for little minuscule spines on the outside.

Washington D.C.-bound

So, the cool news that I hinted at in one of my earlier posts is official now -- Carlos and I will be moving to Washington D.C. this summer! We are both super excited about this new development. Carlos received a prestigious fellowship from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and will be working there for a while. I don't have a post-doc lined up quite yet, but I am working on it (especially by going to the Frugivory and Seed Dispersal conference in France this June!).

This summer will be really busy with packing, moving, and a couple of travels here and there. My parents are coming down to Miami for graduation in June and after that we are driving north to Orlando for a vacation in Walt Disney World. After that, my mom, her friend Judy, and I are going to France for the aforementioned frugivory conference and some post-conference travels. It is a little hectic planning all of this stuff and finishing up the written portion of my dissertation, but it is all coming together and it is really exciting to be leaving Miami soon for the coolness that is D.C.!

Dissertation defense party

Well, it's been a little over a week (I defended last Wednesday) and things are starting to get back to normal around here. I thought I would post a nice picture of me with my committee at the little party we had in the arboretum after my presentation/defense. It was really nice to be surrounded by friends, fellow grad students, and faculty on this day!

In the picture of me with my committee, my advisor is on the far left. We all had a fun time and I was really glad to be done with my defense!

Done!

Well, it's been a super-busy week here, but it is over and I have successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation! It is a great feeling to be through the hardest part of this degree and now all I have left to do is polish it up, incorporate some suggestions made by my committee, and fill out my paperwork before graduation in May! It is also cool that now I get to call myself "doctor." Haha.

Carlos also successfully defended and we are on our way, planning the next step, which I can't reveal quite yet, but we have good options. Now I can REALLY start getting excited about our trip to Orlando and my trip to France!!

Busy week!

This week has been really busy, but also full of getting things done! I turned in my complete dissertation (100 pages of text + random front matter) on Monday. This means that I don't have to look at it anymore until after my defense (when I have to revise it according to recommendations from my committee). The final copies aren't due until 12 May, but I will definitely have it finished before that.

Now that the writing is done (for now), I am working on my defense presentation. This is a 50 minute-long talk open to the public and basically showing everyone what I did for my dissertation research. I need to get this talk done before Tuesday because I am presenting it to my lab group on Tuesday morning. I am not too worried about the talk because I've given so many talks about my research that I've lost count! It will still be nerve-wracking to give (that never changes no matter how much practice you have), but I know it will run smoothly. I give my defense talk in 2 weeks! Immediately after my talk, the defense begins. Basically, your committee barrages you with questions about your research and you have to defend your work and written dissertation. I don't really know what to expect for this, but I know my stuff so it will be fine.

Phew, Carlos and I have also been making plans for our getaway after graduation in May. We've decided to visit Walt Disney World for a few days -- they are having really good deals for Florida residents. It will be relaxing and fun to get out of Miami for a week! I can't wait for my defense to be over so that I can get back to more planning for my France trip too!