Bleed Days, tracking, babies, and a return to vegas

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Following the wonderful adventures in Sequoia, we ended up back in Barstow. Met up with everyone else from work on Tuesday morning. Which meant I got to get up slightly later than if we had gone back to Henderson and had to drive back down with them. aka, got up around 5:30am. ha. Little did I know that would be the latest I would get up all week. Anywho, bleed week (or days, rather) went quite well. I was with Alison and Felicia for Tuesday morning. We bled some tortoises that I had never bled before so that was kinda cool. Got to see a female tortoise with crazy long nails. (for digging). Were able to work longer than I expected. It was about 12:30pm when it got over 95 degrees and we had to stop. Had a few hours back at the house before going back out around 5:30pm so each group could just get a few more tortoises. Alison and I got 2 tortoises that I had never even been to before. Meaning that now I have been to them all! Or at least, to all of the plots. These two are referred to as the monastery tortoises because they are near a monastery that is out in the desert. That didn't take too long, although it was a bit of a drive. Got back and had dinner around 8pm. Next day we had to leave the house at 5am. Headed out to plot 2 with Alison. Got to go up to the mountain tortoise once again (formerly known as DRDH). It was quite windy up there. Anyway, didn't take us long to get all those tortoises. Were done around 9:30am. And so was everyone else so we got to head back to the house. Cleaned up, packed, and left around noon. Returned stuff to the office and then went back to the apartment.

On Thursday, I had to be at the office at 5am, so I was up a little after 4. Started getting more and more difficult to get up. Waited around the office for a while for one of the staff to show up, but eventually decided we'd just leave a car for him, and the rest of us drove there in one car. Headed out to Halfway. Desert spot I had only been to once before. It is part of the study on how tortoises use burned habitat as compared to unburned habitat. We got there around 6:45am. We were out there to take GPS loggers off the tortoises. Split up after the first one. Felicia and I hiked out a ways to one tortoise and then had to walk all the way back to the road. So we definitely got our exercise. Luckily it was partly cloudy and there was some wind so it wasn't too hot. We think that we probably walked about 3 or 4km total. Then drove a bit to the next tortoise. That one was in a caliche cave, and a bit difficult to get out. I tried to tap him out without much luck. Felicia tried for a while and eventually got him out. Were able to get the logger off, but the temperature was already 98 degrees, so we had to stop after that tortoise. It wasn't even 10am yet! Craaziness. Made a stop at the taco truck on the way home. Back at work, only had to get ready for the next days plans. Got to leave around 1:30pm. Back at the apartment I had lunch and just kinda hung around. Worked on figuring out what to do after the internship is done. After dinner, I went with Julia and Gloria and walked over to Felicia's place. She lives very close to us. Walked there in a few minutes. It was a very nice place. And was super nice to get out of our apartment for a change. Played with their gecko for a bit. She was so cute! Her name was Zero (like the dog from Nightmare before christmas!). Bryant from work also came over and brought popcorn, tiramisu, and ice cream (cookies and cream!). It was awesome! All of us, and Felicia's friend and roommate Brant, watched Finding Neverland. Yay! None of them had seen it before. Think they all liked it. 😊 It was really nice seeing it again. It had been a while. I really do like that one a lot. By the time we were done it was already 10pm so we walked home (had to roll under the gates of her complex, because there was no other way to get out. it was amusing). s

Friday, I had to be at the office at 4:30. Which was really rough. I got up around 3:45am. We left the office shortly after 4:30. Headed out to CSI, where the baby tortoises are. Spent the morning to trying to get them all out. There were some that haven't been seen for a few weeks. We didnt have much luck finding them. Think we only found 2, and one was dead. 😞 After searching for a while, we watered the pens. Had to have each of us stationed by 4 pens. Had to make sure the pens didnt start having standing water, particularly in the burrows, because we didn't want to drown any of the tortoises we couldn't find. Once and watering was done, we searched a bit more, with no luck, and then put all the tortoises back. Back at the office, cleaned up a bit from what we had done that day and then got to go home! Had lunch and had plans to take a nap. But that didn't happen. Instead, Gloria and I decided to check out the gym in the apartment complex. It was actually decent. And they had elipticals. So I worked out for a little over a half an hour. Immediately after jumped into the pool and hung out in and out of the pool for a while. Then made a run to the grocery store. Back, had dinner, showered and got dressed up for a night out. Gloria and I headed out a bit before 8pm. Felicia had told us about a free orchestra concert in Henderson. We want to go to Revolution Lounge but decided to stop at the concert first. I wish we could have done both. But I'm glad we at least got to see part of the concert. It was great. It was the Henderson Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart. Outside in a pavillion. For free! =) Quite enjoyable. There for about a half an hour. Then drove on to Vegas. (Julia was super nice and lent us her car). Parked at the Mirage and went straight to Revolution Lounge. It was just as wonderful as I had remembered. Got to enjoy lovely beatles music for nearly an hour. And had lots of fun with the tables. ;-) Then, around 10pm it became more club-like. But as before, the music was better than any other club I've been to out here. Had free drinks again so we enjoyed those and the music for a few hours. Left a little after midnight. Wandered around the strip for a bit. Took some pics outside, tried to go into the Rockhouse for some dancing but it wasn't free this time so we didn't do that. Ended up at a McDonald's where gloria had some coffee and food and felt up to driving. Walked back to the car and then I gave her directions and she drove us home. It was a truly marvelous night. Was a bit exhausted though, as we didn't get back til about 3am. I was nearly up for 24 hours! Craziness.

For whatever reason, I woke up around 10:30am. Fell back asleep a bit more but not much. Spent the day basically lazing around. I was so so tired. Was able to talk to my cousins and tell them that I had successfully booked flights! So I get to go visit them for a few days, which I am very excited about. Was going to go over to Brian's house, cause he invited all of us for some poker and general hanging out. But Alex left while I was still eating, and I wasn't ready. So I ended up not going. Kinda bummed about that but oh well. Can't do it all, much as I may try. Went to bed early. And as it turned out, I slept forever. lol. Over 12hours. Guess I needed it, eh? 😊 Have basically just relaxed today. The plan is to cook a house dinner tonight.. eggplant parm. Hopefully it'll be good! 😊

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