Visitors and baby tortoises

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This weekend one of my best friends from high school came to visit, which was super lovely! On Friday, after picking her up from the airport, we ate food and then promptly went to the pool. Later that evening we went into Vegas. I figured that there were at least a few things she should experience. So, we went to Bellagio, and she saw the r-diculousness that is that hotel, with its indoor gardens, etc. Then we watched the fountains. Beautiful, as before. However, this time, I wouldn't help but laugh at the irony of the songs they played. For the first one we saw, the fountains were going in time to "Proud to be an American". Ironic cause I'm standing there looking at this insane water display, in the desert, thinking how NOT proud I am of being an American. But the second song they played, as we were making our way to the Mirage, totally beat the first. Are you ready? For the second fountain show, they played... "Simple Gifts". Could it BE anymore ironic? I think not. I nearly died from laughter. The kind of sad hopeless laughter though. Ah well. Moving on. We walked down to the Mirage, so on the way she got to see the expansiveness that is Caesar's Palace, among other things. Once at the Mirage, we had some time until the Volcano would go off and so we decided to try and go into Revolution Lounge briefly. Sadly, we were not allowed entrance, due to improper attire. Which I found slightly amusing. Since last time Gloria and I were wearing jeans and t-shirts. But, we had heals on then. Which I guess made all the difference. This time we were all clad in skirts (or jean shorts in Jess's case) and flip flops. And that was apparently unacceptable. Bummer. Especially since we learned that the free drinks from 10-midnight thing is only on Friday nights. So our plan to come back the next night was slightly foiled. Ah well. We just headed outside, saw the Volcano erupt and then walked back to the car. After this Vegas experience, Jess understood why I don't go there very often. It is so incredibly loud and bright and flashy and insane. Lovely.

On Saturday morning Jess braved the heat for a walk to Walmart in order to get groceries for the weekend. It actually wasn't too bad, since it was morning. Only in the low to mid 90s. 😊 She survived quite well in fact. Upon our return, we immediately went to the pool, which was quite enjoyable, as always. Lunch break and then some card games and more pool time. Made Falafels for lunch, and a delicious stir-fry for dinner. Jess had the brilliant idea of having mango in the stir-fry and ohmygoodness it was heavenly. 😊 Jess wasnt desperate to go into Vegas again (understandable. although I do wish she could have experienced the awesomeness of the Revolution tables) so we just hung out in the apartment. Watched Rain Man (finally!). I enjoyed it very much. Although a lot of my time was spent hating Tom Cruise's character and wishing he would fall down a flight of stairs. hehe.

Sunday we spent the morning at the pool one last time. Then joined Gloria and Ignacio on a journey to the movie theater. Took a cab there, cause we didn't want to walk the 3 miles this time. Cab was like $10 (gah) but with 4 people, that wasn't too bad. Went to see Inglorious Bastards, my first Quentin Tarantino film experience. I liked it. Didn't love it. But it was good. I just had to look away at a few parts. I'm not a big fan of unnecessary violence. And there was quite a bit of that. But the performances were incredible. Especially the guy who played Hans Landa. He was amazing. So yeah. After that we had to wait for a cab back. Ate food and then Jess's flight was delayed an hour and a half so we had some time to kill. Played some more cards and watched a few episodes of The Office. Then it was time to say bye. Sad. But it was really great getting to see her. 😊 Later that night I went grocery shopping and did some other semi-productive things.

This week I have basically been with the baby tortoises! Which has been really lovely. Monday and Tuesday I drove by myself up to CSI, where some of the babies are for a study they are doing. I was just there to check on them and make sure they were all still alive. And they were! yay! There was one that was flipped over and I was concerned, but I flipped it back over and it seemed to be okay, so that was a relief. In the afternoons I was back in the office, doing data entry stuff. I'm really not a fan of that, but I can't really complain, since I have hardly had to do any of that, and I know it is an important part of the scientific process. Albeit much less exciting. Today I actually went to the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, which I had never been to before. There we were weighing and measuring some of the newborn babies and putting floy tags on them. They are so so cute. Only a few weeks old. So tiny! 😊 Back in the office in the afternoon. Did a bit of data entry, and then got to leave around 3pm, cause we have an early day tomorrow. Luckily, my schedule changed a bit. Instead of having to be at the office at 4:30am, I have to be there at 5:30 and I am going with Gloria back to the desert tortoise conservation center to put some of the hatchlings into bins. Yay! Then we are going to join all the others at CSI to help measure and weigh the babies there. Should be good times. Doing similar stuff on Friday I believe. And then all of us interns are heading to Sequoia National Park for labor day weekend! Yay! Expect an entry on all of that upon our return. 😊

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Photos

The Volcano outside Mirage
waiting for it to start

Scale
tiny baby tortoise