The week that lasted a month.

Wow... This week has been really long! Fortunately that makes this long weekend seem even longer! Friday night Joey, Sam, Barney, Nick, and I all went to Fort Payne at around 12pm because we were bored and needed something to do, so the next morning all of us took a trip up to the national preserve for a good hike. It's times like this that really makes you appreciate living 10 minutes away from Little River Canyon and DeSoto State Park. This weekend has gone fairly well thus far--thank goodness I have another day so I can wrap up some of this homework.

Even with this week seeming so long, it's been a good one. My organic chem lab has about 7 people in it and here's the kicker--NO GROUP WORK! YES!! That's a good thing indeed. On top of that, my chem lab instructor is my group partner in my honors bio lab!! Score!
Oh! And I got a good teacher that actually teaches my math class too. Score again!
All of my instructors seem to be capable teachers, and that's definitely a good start.

I met with Stallsmith about the special topics class I'm taking. It seems Valarie, a girl that I went collecting with a few times, is also taking the class after I mentioned it to her while passing her in the hall the other day. It'll be nice to have a friend in on the deal. That makes 4 of us working together on the project. The plan is rather simple: Collect around 20-30 Telescope Shiners, Notropis telescopus, a month (starting February 2nd). Euthanize them, and remove the water from them by placing the specimens in various concentrations of alcohols over a few hour period, then remove the gonadal tissue from them and place it in parafin wax. The wax is then cut around 4 micrometers(!!!!) and mounted on a slide in order to be able to judge the specimen's gonadal development under a microscope. It's really tedious work, but it has other applications and will be a good learning experience. Oh, and I'm going to have my name and work published in a scientific journal!!!! We start this Friday!

Well, if this hasn't been enough excitement, I'm also done filling out my application for the marine biology class this summer at the Dauphin Island sea lab. I'm rather anxious to get Stallsmith's signature on it, and in the mail.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone for taking a moment to read about my life ;-)
I'm including some more pictures of the tank for you guys to look at.

Zoomed out, so you can see the volume I'm working with here.

So much coral growth!!!