After travelling all night and trying to jump back into work yesterday, I might still be a touch grumpy, which is the usual state upon return to Mexico after visiting M. in California. We had a few great days together with a lot of birdwatching around Lake Tahoe and in the Bay area. This time, I took my camera so that we could have dueling zoom lenses; although it isn’t much of a contest considering how much better his camera is than mine, which was his camera and zoom lens until he upgraded both. Well, maybe the zoom lens upgrade was forced by me hogging the lens down here, but seriously, how could I go see the butterflies or Isla Isabel without a big lens? Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I have plenty of good photos, even considering my disadvantaged circumstances. I am still planning on using a (large) part of my resettlement allowance, which I receive upon finishing PC service, on a new camera.

The missing bird species are coming. There are quite a few types of jays and little brown birds, and of course Google has decided that my computer is sending automated queries and will not process my requests. No Captcha or anything, just computer says no. No bird species searches for you. Ah, so great to be back.

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The birds are the majority of the photos from the trip, but I will post a few others over the next week. Work is crazy busy, mostly in a good way, but I also have Mid-Service Training next week. Although the instinctual feeling is dread, actually only one day on the schedule looks brutal. All the others might actually be useful and interesting. Still, I would rather be multi-tasking then falling asleep. Sigh. I’m definitely grumpy. I have stayed positive on MST for the most part, or at least private. I’m helping organize a community development session, so I’m optimistic about that session and day because we are going to be talking with one of the women’s group in a community from the solar stove project. Now, back to finishing the efficient cookstove grant, organizing the solar stove data, and working on the amaranth group’s database. oof.