Wow. I kinda fell off the face of the Earth for a while huh? Let's see, last I posted anything was the 4th of July and here it is nearing the end of August. A little and a lot has happened since then.

Our friends Brittany and Tia made the long trek from Alabama to spend a few days with us. We were able to show them some of the cool stuff around town, taste some of they yummy food, and use the opportunity to be tourists ourselves. Although we have been here for six months, we really haven't ventured out very much. It was pretty neat to learn some of the history of this little town.

Other than our visitation adventures, it's pretty much been the same 'ol same 'ol 'round here. Most days I feel like I'm running around in circles with my project, but I know I'm doing it to myself. I'll be reading along, making headway and then BAM! I've got to see if there are any other articles about this topic. Next thing I know it's almost 5 and I've managed to download 20 more articles to read. Same thing the next day only it'll be, "what if I did this?" or "maybe I could run a chi-square test on this data" and next thing I know it's almost 5 and I've managed to give myself a huge headache and realize that everything I did was completely unnecessary. This week was, "let's cut birds with a distance greater than blah amount" and "let's do a third cut with a distance greater than this other amount", then "well, now I have to do corrected occupancy sheets for each of those", followed by "well I guess I just can't count so I need to recount the first list so I can correctly count the second and third lists." Hi, my name is Libby and I like to create more work for myself. Oh yea, and I can't count.

On the bright side of this week, Buddy had an interview and had a drug screen. Granted he is not sure how many people this company is looking to hire and there were multiple people interviewed, but we gotta hold on to hope.

This coming week I start my first classes as a grad student! I'm kinda stoked cause I'll get into a better and earlier routine. As the temperatures started getting higher I've been slacking on my walking and I can tell. I don't have as much energy as I did when I got back from field season and my clothes that were starting to get loose on me have now started to "shrink" again. It doesn't help that I pulled something in my back this past Friday (now a week ago) during my stressful tirade around campus trying to figure out why I was not "meeting requirements" for my financial aid that would be coming in the following Monday. I've been trying to take it easy, but that is not easy for me since I don't like to sit still. It's MUCH better than it was during the week! Getting up still hurts, but once I'm up and moving I'm ok. Hopefully with this new schedule (8am classes Tuesday and Thursday) I'll be able to get up earlier on the other days and get back to my hiking routine. I know Luna would be thankful.

I've also got to get back into blogging again. I've got some ideas floating around in my head such as "bird of the week" posts where I blog info about certain birds of interest, or even "animal of the week" with information on animals in the news, or some combination of the two. Also, I'm going to get a little more personal on here. Right now it's pretty black and white and there are a lot of things that I would like to share that weigh on my heart and that other people can relate to.

As per usual, here are some photos from the week...er month between posts. Blessed Be.

"We'll be ok. I do this all the time."

One of the many historical houses in Nacogdoches.
This one is also a B&B

The elusive yellow-billed cuckoo and I have developed a relationship.

Weekends are so hard here

leaf-footed bug in the rain

It only took 3 years, but they are so sweet to each other now!

Maybe because it isn't a "light" beer, but it's decent.

kitty model, Serenity

August sunset in Nacogdoches