Laboratory Marathon. We go hard.

Let's research the marsh, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's collect juncus, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find canopy height, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's measure elevation, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find water nutrients, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find salinity, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the density, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the percent cover, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's separate live and dead plant matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's study the soil organic matter, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

Let's find the biomass, they said.
It'll be fun, they said.

The "they" stated above is me and my research project group.  The "they" is also synonymous with "crazies," "over-achievers," "people who rather not have lives," or "juncus-haters."

Juncus.  It's really a compound word.  It's a pile of junk (junc) and makes you want to cuss (cus). Alright... Maybe I've overstated that, just a little.  But WE ARE RIDICULOUS.  Today was supposed to be study day.  But no.  I woke up, ate, and got to work with Anna on the project.  At 4:30pm, we were done with that crap.  Not done as in accomplished/finished.  We wished.  Done as in fed-up. And we're only taking a quick break for dinner.  We went back to work right away and left the lab just a little over 9pm.  So it was a long day, to say the least.  At least 8 hours doing lab work.  We go hard. But good news... WE'RE FREAKIN DONE!  With this step anyways... Soil Organic Matter is COMPLETELY DONE!!! Weeeeeee!! And our plants are sorted and ready for 48 hours in the dryer and then oven time this weekend.  It was super important for us to finish today though because our Botany class is leaving for a trip tomorrow morning at 6am, so we have zero time for our project the next couple of days.  Accomplishment! Such a lovely word.

Oh!  And just a fun fact for you all: Anna is an animal killer.  First she viciously stomps a dragonfly to death, and then she runs over nutrias.  It's either "natural selection" because they were too dumb to get out of her way or she's a "botany saver" because nutria endanger local wetlands and she rids the world of them.  Just a heads up to all you wildlife out there: Stay away from Anna!!