I'm on it this year!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is seeing a tree completely loaded with gorgeously wrapped presents underneath. And wow, am I on top of things this year. I've finished my holiday shopping! I've wrapped everything! I'm mailing stuff out today!
There is, however, one problem. You see, all those lovely presents under my little pink tree are for other people. Not one present is for me! So what gives, homies? Where are my presents??? Let's get with it, people! Time to show me some love...

Fun Fun Update!

I love my life soooo much sometimes. In the past month or so, I've shelled out $700 for Teddy's medical bills, $550 for a new alternator for my car, and now this. Here's what I came home to on Friday:

Supposedly, the drywall guys will be in Monday to repair the ceiling and wall and paint. Hopefully they can get it done in one day and I'll be through with this mess!

P.S. - On Saturday, my apartment complex informed me that they'll be raising my rent $60-$100 per month in February. Can you believe that they have the nerve to raise my rent when my ceiling isn't even fixed??? They clearly have not seen my needlepoint skills (see several blogs previous). I don't need to be paying nearly $1000 per month for this ghetto. I think I'll be outta here in February...

Seriously, like I really need this too.

I totally live in the ghetto, where your ceiling leaks, collapses, and the "emergency maintenance" person never returns your pages that you've been sending him for the past 48 hours. Take a look at the fun fun fun progression of events!



Wednesday morning - after a small rain, my ceiling started looking ugly and began dripping. I tried paging maintenance two times the evening prior, and once in the morning.





Wednesday evening - supposedly, the plumber fixed a leaky pipe in the attic. The ceiling was still leaking when I got home, but later stopped. A nice crack developed. The office attendant said it would "take a while" to get the ceiling repaired and painted.


Thursday evening - the cracks are getting bigger! I've heard nothing about the status of the ceiling repair.


Thursday evening, five minutes later - holy ghetto, batman! My ceiling collapsed, and there's crap everywhere. I tried paging the maintenance person again (nothing), then called the security company, who said they would contact the apartment manager. That was at least an hour ago and I've heard nothing.


Just a fraction of the rubble I get to clean up - soggy drywall, paint, cardboard, insulation, solder shards from the pipe, a valve handle, and a wet rag, all of which fell out of the ceiling. Teddy Bear is having a blast sniffing various bits and pieces and dragging them around the apartment.

Sigh...

Dia de Los Muertos!

I love Halloween - it's undoubtedly one of my favorite holidays. Unfortunately for Teddy Bear, it's one of his least favorite holidays because 1) he's not allowed to eat any candy, and 2) I get to dress him up in fun costumes. This year, he participated as Darth Teddy. It was either that, or I cover up his cone and the rest of his body with aluminum foil so that he could enjoy the holiday as a satellite dish. I figured he'd disagree with the former idea a little less, so we went with that one (by the way, Teddy just got his stitches out and is now cone-free). I managed to cobble together a pretty decent pirate costume together at the last minute, mostly from pieces gathered from my closet (hmmmm...). I wore it to work - about ten or so people dressed up for Halloween, and everyone else just laughed and pointed fingers. Oh well - I had fun. We also got a TON of trick-or-treaters - hardly any candy left at all!!! Which means that I won't feel *too* guilty finishing off the leftovers. I hope you had a great All Hallows too!

My Dog Is From Outer Space!!!

Yes, my dog is wearing a cone. He feels humiliated, shamed, less than canine. The tragedy of it all! It started a few days ago when I took Teddy to the groomer. He's an older pup - 13 1/2 years old - so he has a few lumps and bumps and assorted nuggets as older dogs tend to have. I highlighted these for the groomer (literally, in bright blue) so that she could avoid them when she shaved him, but alas - I think she nicked the cantankerous growth that has existed like a second head on Teddy's ear. Last night it was all pussed up and a complete mess - yuck! So, today I took him to the vet (he loved it, oh yes, loved the muzzle they put on him - what fun!) who said that the angry nugget should be removed - in surgery - tomorrow! Boo hoo! So, like a car going in for a tune-up, Teddy will be going in for surgery to get the growth removed and his teeth cleaned (let us not forget the deworming medication for his tapeworm infestation, too). All for a pretty penny, which I will be charging, of course. The good thing is that I get to make fun of him for having to wear a cone for the next two weeks. The cats are kind of scared of it, and Teddy is having a hard time not banging in to things when he's wearing it. Anyway, here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

A cool day at the Wild Animal Park!

Yes, it does actually get cool at the Wild Animal Park. I went there today with Mark, where we visited Lion Camp and saw two of the lion cubs (cute!), saw a tiger, walked around Mombasa Lagoon, visited the deer in the petting kraal, and fed the rainbow lorikeets. Here are some of the pictures!

I am a domestic goddess...

Yes, Roseanne would be so proud. Clearly I still need to iron this little treasure, and pop it into a nice little frame to sit on my desk. It's my first domestic project in a while - I don't know what's wrong with me! Last week I even listed a sewing machine on my Amazon wishlist (see link to the right!!!). And this weekend I baked banana bread and jambalaya. This may not be a big deal to most of you, but when you're the type of person whose cooking skills mostly include being able to preheat a toaster oven to 450 F and open the box that contains your frozen pizza, cooking jambalaya is a bit of a stretch. But I'm not dead yet from food poisoning, so I guess it came out ok.

What is wrong with this picture???

There ARE some good things about my job...

It's good that I can get outside every once in a while. You know, away from my desk, my computer, my office without a window...

Today I got to hike around Lake Calavera in reviewing the City's trails program. It was such a nice day out - sunny, not too hot, a nice breeze. There were about ten of us on the hike and about eight of us walked over this poor little guy without realizing that he was even there (and to tell you the truth, there were so many dog and coyote turds all over the trail, my eye probably dismissed this baby rattler as a dog dump. But don't tell him that!).

Hhhiiiisssssssssssssssss!!! (Translation: don't tread on me!)

It's a good thing Teddy Bear is so cute...

...or else he'd probably be living in Tijuana as a dog scrounging around for scraps of crack or whatever he could find. Yes, TB is very cute. These pictures were taken by a friend of my mom's during a recent visit to the dog park. Aside from being cute, TB can be pretty annoying - but I've been told that it's probably because of his breed and not simply a personality defect that makes him incredibly needy, whiney, insistent, and demanding, not to mention having bad breath.

I'm just joking around (kind of!). I love the little guy, personality defects and all. He's loyal, a great watch dog, and does a great job of cleaning up any little bits of food that might fall on the floor, saving me the trouble from having to do it myself.

Labor Day (Under the Tucson Sun)

Wow - you're probably thinking to yourself, incredible! Two new blogs from Marci??? Amazing! Well, don't get too used to it. Like I said earlier, I'm busy! Now bug off and continue reading about my fabulous weekend trip to Tucson.

I planned a four-day weekend so that Mark (the new boy in my life, in case you were wondering) and I could drive back to Tucson - I wanted to see his house, meet his mom, and experience the insanity of Tucson drivers for myself. It's only a 6.5 hour trip if you average about 85 mph - it was a long trip going out Thursday after work, but nice that I could spend Friday just relaxing instead of driving. Most of Friday and Saturday Mark and I just hung out at his house - a very nice house indeed - watching movies and not doing too much. On Sunday, his mom drove out from Pierce and we went to the Sonora Desert Museum, which is kind of like a little Wild Animal Park full of all sorts of desert animals. Did you know that Javalinas are little pigs that run around the desert and snort and rub each others' butts to mark their territories? And actually, they're not pigs at all, but collared peccaries. The museum was really amazing - I had fun tracking down all these stamp stations that you got to stamp in a little book about animal tracks. Woo hoo! After that we drove back into town for dinner at P.F. Chang's (I'd never been there before), and then a private viewing of Ronin back at Mark's house. Today we drove back to San Diego, and well, there you have it. It was a good weekend!

Ah Portland - the Sister City I Never Had...

I know it has been a very long time since I've posted anything on my blog. Well, I've been busy, ok??? I mean, I've got a real job now, an apartment, two cats and a dog to feed, you know - actual responsibilities. So, blogging, sadly, has gotten moved down on my priority list. But don't worry - I haven't completely forgotten that all you folks out there need a little Marci fix every once in a while. So, here's the latest.

Mom and I flew up to Portland, Oregon, during the weekend of my brother Paul's birthday - he turned 31 (shoot - I thought he was turning 15) on August 19. Anne is a power-house crafting dynamo, sewing and baking and being fit and all that crazy stuff that I can only dream of. Their cats are insane, but cute. And their house...ok, I must say I am a bit jealous. Well, sniff, I used to own a house, sniff, and maybe, sniff, if I work real hard, sniff sniff, some day I'll, sniff, own one again. We went into Portland a couple of times for shopping dinner, and good times, good times. My Uncle Tom and Aunt Tje also stopped in - Paul and Anne's one bathroom was working overtime, but managed the job well considering the circumstances. I had a great time - Portland is a cool little town, and it had been too long since seeing the bro. I'd like to get up there again soon (hee hee - look out, Bosco, watch your back!).

It's Like Christmas in June!!!

Ok, so I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging. Some of you may know that I've recently moved - I'm finally out of my mom's place (leaving 50% of the animals behind, thank goodness), and into my own little apartment. Unfortunately, I had to move the day before I had to travel to Denver, which I will write about in the next blog. Not having very much time, I hired movers to get my stuff out of my storage unit and into my new place - it was a little pricey, but they sure didn't just sit on their asses, complain about how heavy all my boxes of books were, and demand pizza and beer. They were actually very quick, and got all my stuff up to my 2nd floor apartment in under four hours! And so far, I don't think anything is broken or missing. So it was a good deal for me. I still had a bunch of stuff left at Mom's house to take over, but I dealt with that when I got back from my trip the following weekend.

Here are some pictures - the first one is the outside of my apartment - 2nd floor, big balcony. It's a small apartment, and I'm appalled that for the same money, I could rent TWO apartments of this size in Colorado. But I'm paying a lot less living in Escondido compared to Carlsbad (where I work), which is really outrageous. Even though it's just a regular place, it's all my own, and my things are out of storage! Woo hoo!!! And, there are some nice features - vaulted ceilings, a huge walk-in closet, a good sized storage closet on my balcony, a pool/hot tub, and I even get a free gym membership (anyone want to take bets on whether or not I'll actually ever use that membership?). It's a nice neighborhood too - lots of greenery, with a creek running through the back, and it doesn't feel too ghetto. So I guess I made a good find. The second picture features just a small fraction of the boxes that were waiting for me when I returned from Denver. I think Santa left them there for me!

There's no fish in the desert...

It's true. There are no fish in the desert, especially here in Southern California. I know this because I've looked. Well, there are desert pupfish, but not in the area that I was in.

I have a lot to catch up on! I've been very busy, with training in Sacramento and Denver and moving and field work, but back to the desert. In late May, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend three days out in the desert near Palm Springs searching for the endangered Coachella Fringe-Toed Lizard. I didn't see any of those, but I did see a ton of zebra-tailed lizards, desert iguana, desert horned lizards, and even a long-nosed leopard lizard (which was absolutely gorgeous, by the way). We were surveying in a few areas, including the valley that has hundreds of windmills. There's a reason why they chose that area for windmills, too. You know why? Because it's frickin' windy! I think I saw a few lizards fly by, but I mostly just found abandoned shoes and rubber hoses in those plots. And it was global safety day - I was busted by some workers for not having a hard-hat and safety goggles, who warned me that propellers fall off the windmills all the time (my response: "gee - if one of those huge blades fall off and hit me on the head, do you really think a hard-hat will help me out?").

I sure do miss the desert - it wasn't as beautiful as Utah or Arizona, but it was still good being out there in the dry air and hot hot temperatures. Good times! Here are a few pictures I took - there's the horned lizard and desert iguana, in case you were wondering (alas, the leopard lizard ran away before I could get my camera out - boo hoo!).

Nothing to report, really.

Yeah, yeah - I know I haven't written anything in a while. Well, that's just because I don't have anything particularly exciting to write about. I'm still here though - still working, trying to catch up on sleep, trying to survive the mayhem of all the animals in one tiny, tiny space...

Actually, work is going a little better - I'm starting to get a better feel for how things work, and can at least "act" competent around everyone except for my supervisor. Isn't that the luck? And, more good news - I move into my own place in the beginning of June (the 10th). It's no place special, still in Escondido, and rather small. But it's cute, and it will save me several hundred dollars a month as opposed to renting in Carlsbad near work. So hopefully, I'll be able to pay off some debt in the next year or two, then maybe I'll move to a better place. Don't get me wrong - it's not bad, not in the ghetto or anything, it's just your typical apartment in your typical apartment complex. But there's a pool, hot tub, vaulted ceilings, and a huge walk-in closet. And best of all, it will be my own space, with only three (officially two, so don't tell anyone) pets.

But that's all for now. I just didn't want you all to worry. I'm still alive and twitching.

Job update: it's all about...Acting!

Remember Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live? He did a sketch about Acting, and it was so true. The first couple of weeks of my new job were pretty crazy because I was (and still am) intimidated by all these smart biologist types. And even though I'm supposed to be one of them, I'm still scared of making a complete ass of myself. So, I've told myself it's all about Acting. Oddly enough, I've been having some success with this little mind trick: pretend you're a smart biologist - how would a smart biologist react in this situation? What would a smart biologist do in this situation? And it's great because I can become another person, one with a little more confidence and moxie. So far so good.

The job has been getting a little better. I realize that the learning curve there is pretty darn steep, and I've absorbed a lot in the past 2 1/2 weeks. Stuff I'd never thought I'd know before. I can see where this job would be very cool once you kind of figure things out, but for now, I'm still baffled and apparently I will be for a while (at least that's what everyone says). However, I still believe that it is an important job, a necessary job, and one that I can learn to do. Don't know how long I'll want to do it, but for now, I'm happy with...Acting!

What did we see when we went whale watching???

We saw lots of things...but no whales! Matt and Alyssa, for the second week in a row, failed to see any whales. So that settles it - clearly they are bad luck, and next time I go I will not be going with them! But I had a good time anyway - we saw a sea lion, a couple of dolphin, lots of kelp, and actually - we did see the spray from a whale but it was kind of far away and by the time we got there the whale had disappeared. No worries though - it's the end of the season, but the whales will be migrating back in December and I have a pass for two to go again. So here are some photos of our adventure, even though there were no whales, it was a good time!

Here's a seagull that was following us for quite a way.

Here's the view of San Diego from ten miles out to sea.

Oh, the excitement of it all...

Didn't think I'd actually do it, did you?

Random Acts of Kindness...or...Internet Stalking?

So something kind of odd happened to me last weekend. I came home to find an Amazon.com package sitting on my doorstep, which I thought was strange considering that I hadn't ordered anything in a while, yet the package was addressed to me. And when I opened it, there were six CD's in it that I had on my Amazon music wishlist. Apparently, the CD's were a gift order from someone in Florida who appreciated a review I wrote for Amazon, and the CD's were a "thanks for participating" gesture. In fact, the note on the packing list read "Hi Marci. You don't know me, but I appreciate your reviews on amazon.com. This is just a "thank you" gift for your participation - Jim". Kind of weird, huh? I mean, I only wrote one review, for a product that cost about $40. And the CD's he sent totalled about $65, not including shipping. But, he picked out some good CD's from my wishlist - a couple of Prince's earlier albums that I didn't have, the latest Black Eyed Peas, K.T. Tunstall, and the soundtracks to 50 First Dates and Napoleon Dynamite. Sweet! I've popped a little thank-you note in the mail for the CD's, but am still a little perplexed.

So what gives? Is this a genuinely nice person who randomly does cool things to brighten complete strangers' days? If so, that's awesome. I aspire to be similar in nature. Or is this an Internet stalker who was attracted to my exquisite taste in movies and music, as defined by my Amazon wishlists? I'm not difficult to locate, on the Internet or otherwise. He could be reading this RIGHT NOW. Anyone have some insight? Anyone? Anyone???

P.S. - If you'd like to see for yourself how exquisite my taste in movies and music actually is, there's a link to my Amazon wishlists to the right. And speaking of easy to find on the Internet, I just opened a MySpace account, also linked at right (yes, I finally caved under peer-pressure!).

Wow - I even have my own cave...er, I mean, office!

Yesterday I started my job as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Woo hoo! At this point, I'm a little overwhelmed by everything - there will be a lot to learn, and I'm not just talking about the names of the 53,000 people I met yesterday. The lingo, the accronyms, the inside jokes, the important serious regulatory stuff...

But, everyone seems very nice, and I even have my own office. Ok, so it doesn't have any windows, which makes it more like a cave, but it is my own space. Yesterday I spent some time moving furniture around in an effort to not have my office configured "totally evil" according to Feng Shui standards. I'm slowly but surely bringing in odd little fun objects (e.g., my leopard-spotted devil ducky from my CLC job), but am trying to go about this process in a way that won't scare my co-workers. And I'm scouring the internet for free wildlife posters to put up on my white white white walls (with some success - the EPA is a great source!). When I get a check from my consulting job I'll be going to Target to pick out some spiffy office supply things and maybe a plant or something three-dimensional to break up the cube-like feeling of my cave (I mean office).

Today they had me accompany another biologist on a trip to a local site that currently contains an endangered plant species. The site had been mowed and disced which had damaged a lot of the plants, so everyone is trying to figure out what to do in terms of righting the situation (I can't really say anything more about this). Anyway, it feels really great knowing that I'll be contributing to preserving endangered species - I have a feeling that this will be a really rewarding, fulfilling job! It will also be challenging - I have A LOT to learn, and I'll admit I'm kind of intimidated by all the smart biologists working in the department. Perhaps eventually I'll be one of them though! Something to shoot for, I guess...

As an alternate, you can't just yell out "GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!!!"

Previous to last week, the only experience I've had with jury duty revolved around how to get out of it. However, seeing as how I'm kind of in-between jobs I decided what they hell, I might as well see what the whole jury duty hype is all about. I was summoned, so I went.

On Monday, I sat around in the jury lounge for a while until it was revealed I had been randomly selected as one of 35 potential jurors for a short trial. So I continue to sit around until 1:30, when we were all finally called up to the court room for jury selection. It was kind of interesting - out of the 35 of us, 18 were called for questioning about what their jobs were and what their past experience with police was. The judge reminded me of Jerry Springer. Finally, 12 jurors were finally decided upon by both attorneys...and then...and then...and then...

Yup, they needed and alternate. Which was when my name was called. So picture this - I get all the responsibilities of being an actual juror (taking notes, paying attention, not falling asleep), but none of the glory of actually deciding upon the verdict. It's ok though - I'm not working, and it will still be kind of interesting seeing the process. Which it was, I guess.

The case was not complicated - we had a day of witnesses; the defendent was pretty much charged with trying to prevent a police officer from doing his job. Basically, the guy was stopped for not wearing a seatbelt and the cop found out that he had a suspended license and an arrest warrant, so in the process of being arrested, the defendent started fighting the cop then ran off. He was finally found in a trailor park and it took four cops to restrain him. His defense was that the cops were using "excessive and unreasonable force" during the process, which was total crap. As soon as deliberations began (around 11:30 on Thursday), they kicked me out and I had to wait in the jury lounge (because, as the alternate, I couldn't participate in the deliberating). At 2:30 they called me back up to the courtroom and I was all excited because I was sure the case was over - it seemed pretty straight-forward so I wasn't expecting it to take a long time.

However, my hopes were quickly dashed because the jury apparently wanted three hours of the court reporter's notes read back to them, which I did have to be present for. Anyway, that carried over through Friday morning, and THEN the jury finally decided on a verdict. Guilty as charged! Woo hoo!

It was kind of interesting, but man, if you ever find yourself up for jury duty for a case that is going to be long and complicated, don't ever allow yourself to be the alternate. I suggest that you start twitching uncontrollably and mumbling about how you hate cops (talking to yourself, in general, will keep you out of trouble) near the beginning of the jury selection process to avoid the pitfalls involved with becoming an alternate juror.

Justice man, she's a saucy manx!

Arrrr...Iron Mary Flint be my Swash-Bucklin' Pirate Name!

My pirate name is:

Iron Mary Flint

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

You know that scene from Alice in Wonderland?

You know, with the door mouse, the March hare, and the mad hatter? That's right, Alice was celebrating her un-birthday at that crazy tea party, but I got to celebrate my 32nd birthday in style at the Courtyard Cafe and Tea Room in Fallbrook, CA. It was smashing good fun, too - each of us had a pot of tea (ginger peach for me, thanks), fresh-baked scones with Devonshire cream and jam (not clotted cream, thank goodness), and an assortment of finger sandwiches, quiche, salad, and fruit. And for dessert: lemon cheesecake - a triumph! It was all very good, and the tea room was really cute - a little bit country cottage, a little bit rock and roll (well, much more contry cottage than rock and roll, but I thought I'd throw that in for fun). Nik and Jackie were kind enough to arrange the entire event; I'd never had a full tea service before, and at thirty-two years of age, I'd say it was about time!

I'll let you figure out which of us were Alice, the March hare, the door mouse, and the mad hatter. Hee hee hee! :)

Another chapter ends...and I've listened to my last recorded phone call!

Friday was my last day as a temp at CLC. Which was sad, because I grew to really like everyone that I worked with. But it is also good, because I have a new job to start, and new adventures on my horizon. It was a nice send-off though; they decorated my cube for my birthday, got a "Happy Birthday and Good Luck" cake, and even bought me some essential letterboxing supplies. Out of all the temp jobs I've ever worked, this one was definitely the most fun - not because of the work but because the people were so awesome. I will miss them, and hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with at least a couple of the friends I made there.

Here's a picture of everyone, each with their own personalized rubber ducky. From left-to-right, we have Alyssa, Matt, Tricia, Tom, Peter, and Russ in the back row; and Erica, Joan, Marci, and Raquel in the front row. Sadly, Marnie was out sick on Friday but that's her pink duck I'm holding.


Click here to get down and funky with a farewell dance for Marci!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, today is my birthday, but I'll tell you that the last few days have all been good. This post will concern the events of Thursday, which was the day...

...insert drumroll here, please...

...that will be marked as...

...the day when...

...are you ready yet?...

...the U.S. government decided I was worthy of being put on their payroll!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!

Yes, I have finally been offered my first real job, as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based right here in Carlsbad, CA. I interviewed with them about a week ago and they called me Thursday to offer me the position, and you can bet I snatched that right up. I'm happy to report that I will have a comfortable salary, complete with the satisfaction of knowing that I'm doing something that will utilize my education AND allow me to contribute to a good cause. In a nutshell, my position will be mostly regulatory - I'll be reviewing development proposals and making sure that they are in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. I start my job on March 20, which gives me some free time to do a small consulting project and then kick back for a couple of weeks (and serve jury duty, but that will be another blog entry). I'm going to probably start apartment hunting during that time, and maybe even go to Mexico (or at least somewhere) for a little fun. Sound good? I'm pretty excited about the whole thing!

Anyway, I have some pictures to post but that will have to happen tomorrow (at the earliest). I'm off to play with my Sims, who have been neglected for the past few months. Cheers!

Fine. I didn't want that job anyway!

Like, whatever! I didn't get the Educator Guide position at the Wild Animal Park, but I was going to turn it down anyway. I think the main issue I had was that first, the hours were REALLY variable - between 4 and 20 per week, with no set scheduling, which would make it hard to plan other work. Additionally, the job announcement wasn't really accurate - I wouldn't be handling animals, giving animal presentations, or VIP tours. The main duty was helping out with programs for REALLY little kids - as young as 2 - and I'm sorry, but I'm not a babysitter. So there. I think I probably didn't get the position because I don't have experience working with such little kids, nor do I want to have that experience. So it's for the best.

In other exciting events, all of you out there should TOTALLY CALL MY CELL PHONE!!! I've got custom rings programmed for all you guys, so when you call, instead of boring ringing you (yes, YOU, not me) will hear other fun things. So you should call me and find out what ring I set up for you! Hee hee hee!