Well, I was not fortunate enough to spot a live muskrat today, but I was able to identify a long-deceased most unfortunate individual on a gravel road. At the second or third pond we stopped at, everyone was rather dispersed observing various features of the aquatic habitat, and one of the professors and a group of students stopped to observe a roadkill. "Anyone taking systematics of mammals?" he inquired. I scrambled to inspect it. The skull was still completely intact and it certainly screamed muskrat to me (no pun intended). Plus there was still some fur left and a bit of the tail, and it just looked more muskraty than nutriay. Fortunately I was correct, I would hate to misidentify a nutria for my favorite creature. The field trip in general was pretty neat, due to the fact that I freaking got off campus which is a rarity, and we saw a nice abundance of critters. A large and brightly colored garter snake, two smaller garter snakes, adorable caterpillars not unlike wooly bears with the exception of random white fur in addition to black and orange, a great blue heron, redtailed hawk, turkey vultures, tons of geese, rough skinned newts, catfish, and guppy-like mosquito fish. Also lots of beaver and vole evidence. Our group is pondering doing something with bullfrogs, or perhaps snakes. I'm definitely thinking snakes because it would require less equipment and would be interesting to see if we could get any species besides garters, but the rest of the group is leaning towards bullfrogs (they seriously are enthused about killing them to examine stomach content - yeah they're nonnative and consume sensitive native species but STILL!). Anyway, I hope we can come up with a solid plan next week. Luckily no rain today. Sheesh that is a long class. I guess we're going to need the time though.

This morning I again overslept somehow (I just had to wait up to see what would happen on ebay)..but managed to get dishes done in a reasonable time frame. There is a reason I set my alarm..I must learn to obey it. Well, this weekend roommates and I are going bowling. Sunday Jasmine and I are cooking spaghetti again. I suggested we actually sorta make the sauce ourselves but we opted for frozen meatballs, which prompted an internet search and discovery of articles regarding harmful bacteria and glass shards in such products. Well, that was in Canada and the New England area, respectively.