So our Nephila project is complete!  What an intense week – initial presentations and discussions were monday, data collection was tuesday-friday, saturday was preparing for the symposium which was sunday, and the paper is due today (Monday) (in six hours).  And I am finally finished, though it was a bit reminiscent of pulling teeth.  Mostly because we are expected to know a great deal about past experiments and related literature, but we’ve had such a short amount of time to learn them that it has been like a complete brain overload.  I dream of Nephilas or spiders close to every night.  

    A few pictures of our favorite spiders.  As we spent about thirty minutes a day watching each one, we became quite aquainted with each.  The one with the numerous items in its web is Thomas Jefferson, named after my fav. president because he was the first spider of mine who actually did something right.  And there’s even some action shots!  Which we were basically required to have for our presentations, but regardless now you all know how I look when I do work. 

    On another note, we have turned as a group to a ping pong obsession.  And I’m actually not bad, surprisingly.  However, I need to learn how to spin the ball.  So if you can explain, please do.  I have a reputation to forge out of the fires of battle.  

    Pura Vida!