Well, I am finishing up week 2 at my new job. I have taken a few photos of my gallery and some procedures I have assisted in. However, I need to double check that I can post them online.

My gallery is quarantine. I have 2 rooms on the second floor of the aquarium where we house the sick and new fish. Between these rooms is the Marine Theatre. Here live 2 California sea lions. Four times a day, the sea lions put on a show for the general public. It makes is hard for me though because I cannot cut through the theatre like I normally do during the day. The room where I spend most of my time is on the far side, so I have to go through the main floor and to access the room. But all the stairs are getting me into shape.

Since I have started, we have done a lot of procedures on the fish. A few of our fish have had extra air in their eye balls. This occasionally happens in fish. SO we have to aspirate their eyes with a needle and syringe. This morning we did a physical on a 4 foot sand tiger shark named Marley. We took several morphometric measurements and his weight. The veterinarians also drew some blood because he is anemic. We also have had 2 post-op exams of a cow-nose ray who has stitches on her ventral side. During this time, we have to intubate her with running water so we can take her out of the tank and look at her belly.

The vets here are great to work with! They have many different experiences in aquatics and are really progressive when it comes to treating the fish and invertebrates.

I survived my first week at work! It was tough, but all my co-workers were great. My work week is Tuesday to Saturday, so I had today off. I have been working on my abstract for the Brisbane sea turtle conference. I am also unpacking some kitchen stuff and re-organizing that. Finally, I bought a real bike from a Mystic bike shop. My new bike is a blue Trek 820. There was a more expensive Trek hybrid that was amazing to ride, but $150 more expensive. Since I have tomorrow off, I thought I would try riding to Mystic and time my journey. By car the trip is 9 miles, but by bike it will be 12. Seeing as I haven't exercised regularly since my pre-mono days, it should be interesting. Then I have softball tomorrow night in Westerly. Go Clydesdales!

I also hope to take some photos to post of my new digs tomorrow. Stay tuned!