Melanie update

Luckily my household has escaped Kalena's stomach flu. I have noticed how Jennifer likes to get everyone together when her children have some nasty bug. I hope Kalena is feeling better and no one else gets it.

I just got done doing a little late winter cleaning of the flower beds in this beautiful sunny weather. I have finally got down to cutting out all the dead vegetation from last year and was happy to find all sorts of new growth starting to poke through the surface. It seems like the plants are getting busy very early this year. My roses, lilacs and evergreen clematis are all budding out. The black eyed susans and mums are sprouting new growth. It was fairly windy last night(60mph gusts) but I slept through it. The power went off again last night but was on this morning.

I spent most of last week at a really boring conference (NWHA- northwest hydroelectric association). Normally when I go to conferences it is a bunch of biologist that are fairly causal in their dress (jeans and a fleece). But when I get to the NWHA conference it is a bunch of lawyer/manager types dressed in suits and ties. I was a tad bit underdressed the first day in my jeans and sneakers that I wore. I got out my new wool blazer for day two and felt rather stylish. My boss was somewhat surprised when he saw me and said "wow, I like your hair". He normally sees the ponytail I wear when working on top of the wind swept dams. The curly blond hair kind of shocked him I think.

What else... I put a deer block out in the field. It looks like a salt block but consists of compressed grains. I have seen fresh deer poop and the block has been nibbled on so I think it is a success. I love to watch the deer and squirrels and birds. I got 100% on my GIS midterm. This seems like the easiest class I have ever taken. I don't know if that is because it really is or because I have been out in the real world and just compared to work it seems easy.

Hope everyone is getting outside and enjoying this beautiful weather.