Bigger Girl's Summer

Bigger Girl is back at the reproductive research station this summer.

She is working with the cows. Part of her work is to have her hand up a cow's backside half the morning, helping do an ultrasound to check the cervix and ovaries as they harvest eggs. She enjoys it, and it has solidified her desire to be a zoo vet working with large hoof stock.

Some days they work with the horses instead. She has helped with hoof cleaning for the riding horses and mating of the ones kept just for breeding, two totally different aspects of their care.

Next week she gets to work with both the natural goats and the cloned goats. She likes the clones, they are very friendly from being handled all the time since birth. The others are not as nice.

Since last year, they have set up an automatic watering system for all of the animals, so no more having to risk the ire of an angry bull, or the crazy cow that hates everyone and tries to kill them, to get water to the troughs.

She also washes lab equipment, having a love/hate relationship with the cantankerous autoclave. Right now it is in the shop, hopefully having some of the tempermentalness kicked out of it.

She has gotten good at propping a book, inside a large clear plastic storage bag, over the sink while she is washing and rinsing.

This summer, she is also studying logic, working hard on her algebra, volunteering with the cat rescue, reading her next semester's chemistry textbook, and watching a series of Berkley lectures on biology on YouTube.

Yes, she still makes time to text her friends and visit them, and go have some fun, too. This is a kid who isn't afraid of work and likes to have something to do almost all of the time. Very unlike #2 Son, who only does as much work as he has to do in order to get by. You know the kind, the one who will spend more time avoiding the work than it would have taken to get it done in the first place. Ah, well, that's what makes kids different and interesting, i guess.

It's shaping up to be a great summer for her, and she is enjoying it.


Today is

Bunker Hill Day -- Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Dulcimer Days -- Coshocton, Ohio, US (through the 19th)

Eat All of Your Vegetables Day / Fresh Veggies Day

Father's Day -- El Salvador; Guatemala

Huck Finn's Jubilee -- Mojave Narrows Regional Park, Victorville, CA (come out for the old fashioned fun, through the 19th)

Independence Day/National Day -- Iceland

International Violin Day

Ludi Piscatari -- Ancient Roman Calendar, fishermen's festival

National Apple Struedel Day

Pirate Radio Day

Soviet Occupation Day -- Latvia

St. Herve's Day (patron of the blind)

Toadstool-Squatting begins -- Fairy Calendar, of the Leprechauns

Viking Festival -- Frederiksund, Denmark

Work @ Home Father's Day

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Zemla Intifada Day -- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic


Anniversaries Today

Orpheus marries the nymph Eurydice, Ancient Greek traditional date


Birthdays Today:

Mark Walker, 1999
Lee Ryan, 1983
Venus Williams, 1980
Dan Jansen, 1965
Joe Piscopo, 1951
Barry Manilow, 1946
Art Bell, 1945
Newt Gingrich, 1943
Gene De Paul, 1919
Ralph Bellamy, 1904
M.C. Escher, 1898
Igor Stravinsky, 1882


Today in History:

Vlad III the Impaler (a/k/a Vlad Dracul or Count Dracula) attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia, 1462
Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, 1565
Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England, 1579
Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth; her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal, 1631
The Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775
In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands, 1839
1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory, 1876
The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor, 1885
The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT, 1901
"Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres, 1919
Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic, 1944
The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opens; it is still open today, 1958
The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress, 1961
Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, 1972
With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct, 1987
The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth, 1991