The house is quiet

Well, work hasn't changed much, but it was a very busy week otherwise.

Last wednesday we made the hard choice to put Cali down. She had stopped eating for nearly a week, wasn't herself, and was losing weight fast. She was 16, and had a good life. We wanted to be there when it ended, and not simply abandon her. Now the house simply feels very quiet, and I have yet to break the habit of looking at the chair where she would normally sleep. Eventually I won't have to remind myself that she's no longer around.

Then it was off to Indiana, where two big Thanksgiving meals were had. It was wonderful to see the family again, and things seem to be going well for everyone. Ethan sang us songs, and Isaac is practicing standing up a lot, and probably will be walking soon.

Then, when we got home, I worked on Sunday. Not a big deal, but perhaps I shouldn't have, since yesterday (Monday) I got to work feeling fine, but two hours later, wasn't feeling too good.
The funny part about this was, Monday morning, our garage door broke, with my car (and Mom's) stuck inside, so Dad had to give me a ride to work, and Mom had planned to pick me up when my shift was over (and the door was fixed). However, I was not about to stay at work with how my stomach was feeling (and later was told that a 24 hour flu was making its way around work pretty quick, and few people were not catching it). So, I ended up having to call Steve for a ride home. This worked fine, seeing as I got home, then the garage door guy came and fixed it, and I promptly went to bed and slept for...a very long time, waking up only when the pain killer wore off so I could take more.

Now, things are much better. I slept in late, no longer have a fever, and in general feel fine, other than being very hungry.

PocketMod

This is pretty neat! A simple piece of paper, turned into your own personal organizer!
www.pocketmod.com


Now I need to finally get my laptop connected to my printer.

Year-Round

So it's not entirely official yet, but I'm probably going to get a part-time position at the zoo in the insectarium. So then I'll work all year, but only 30 hours a week without benefits. At least it's a job, right?

Because Kevin asked me to

here is a post.
Yup.
Updates: Not much new, really. I redid the Extatosoma display today. Yesterday we caught some cave crickets in the children's zoo, and today I got to give some silkworms to the birds.
Sorry, I'm really tired, and I think I'll go to bed soon as I finish checking my email.

Ahh, Monday. It wasn't too bad. I did, however, wish I had taken my camera. One of the orchids that has never bloomed before in the butterfly dome chose to bloom overnight, and then at lunch I watched some peacock mating behavior. It was cool. And on the radio this morning, I found out Switchfoot will be in town for the 4th of July for a free concert. I have no idea what the details are.

Pay Day!!!

I have money! *does a money dance* It's not much yet, but I'm hoping it will add up and allow me to travel some later on. That's it for now. My weekend ends tonight, so tomorrow is "Monday" for me!

Are you oriented?

I got asked that a lot today, since I finally had my official "orientation" class. It wasn't tremendously exciting, but they managed to keep it from being boring at least. Since orientation took so long, though, I didn't do very much real work. I was in the dome for an hour, mostly by myself, but I talked to Fred and his new girl a bit (Fred is our resident Red-legged Honeycreeper, who has a new girlfriend since his old mate died, but she's still in a Hello cage for today). I also was called "beautiful" by a little girl, and that pretty much made my day. It wasn't bad for a "Friday". I just hope my "weekend" is as good.

Another full day in the insectarium. We weren't too busy today, which was nice, and visitors were much kinder than they were yesterday (holiday weekends + summer somehow makes people very irritable and rather mean). I had a brush with an assassin bug in the back room, though, which was a bit frightening, since they are highly venomous, but Dan took care of it. Later I got surprised by Steve showing up after lunch, so he got a tour of the back room, and the insectarium.

Tomorrow is an earlier day, because I have my orientation finally. However, it means I get to leave earlier as well, which is nice since it's my "Friday".

Not much of an expert...

But I have been working for almost two weeks now. I've learned a lot, and hopefully this can start to be a daily (or at least almost-daily) updating of what's going on in the Insectarium. For now, I'm sadly too tired to write much.

~ Rebecca, your friendly insect keeper

American burying beetle expert

Coming soon, this blog will feature one of the world's premier experts on the American burying beetle, a fascinating endangered insect. She will also conduct virtual zoo tours and tell you all about what to do in the event of a bumblebee sting!