First field day of the season

Today was great. Sure, it started out with some pretty slow and boring computer work, but since I have the luxury of having a lap top, I was able to move from our windowless gradstudent office to the multi-windowed lobby. Then, around 2:00, we (Amanda, Josh, Jhonathan, Doug, and me) decided to go out and seign for shiners so the larger fish in the tank could have some more substantial meals. Okay, so the main reason was just to get us out of the lab and into some waders. But the fish (well, not the shiners) will appreciate it none-the-less.

It was so good to get outside in the sunshine and play in the water. There were two teams seigning--Amanda and me and then Doug and Josh. Jhonathan got the task of running between us with the bucket to get the shiners we caught. I think Amanda and I outdid the boys, but thats just because we rock so much. Then Jhonathan fell in face first. We thought all the fish we caught were gone, but he's such a good ecologist that he managed to save the catch. We were catching Shad and Shiners, but we only wanted the shiners, so the shad were all throwbacks. However, Amanda and I discovered that if you flung the seign just right, the shad would FLY. It was so much fun. Then Jhonathan started to try to catch the flying fish that had the misfortune to find themselves in our seign. And then I fell in. It was grrrreat, and I mean that with all seriousness. I was soaked, but it was warm enough that I wasn't cold. It was just so much fun to be out in the field again. And Amanda's waders had a nicely placed leak so that when she took them off, it appeared that she had taken a massive leak herself. Needless to say, the day produced a lot of laughs, and when combined with the warm sunshine, we were left in very high spirits.

Then I came home and fixed an awesome Mom-quality dinner. I was quite pleased with myself. I think I'm actually starting to get the hang of this cooking thing.

Anyway, I'm off to kick back for the evening. The windows are open, MASH is on, and Killian's is at hand. Its spring and the field season is upon us. Yep, life is good.