I’ve tried to describe my job and workplace to strangers a few times. Most often, these attempts have been met with looks of concern for an obviously unwell man. Is this a common experience for other folks working in UX, museums, zoos and aquariums?

A friend of mine in Orlando reported via Facebook yesterday that she spent part of her shift scrubbing a horseshoe crab with a toothbrush. How do you work that into a conversation? When the eye-tracking systems arrive early next year, I myself may stop and wonder if I’m actually just standing at a bus stop somewhere, making people very nervous. However, I am genuinely interested in how we respond to the question “What do you do?” Please comment.

Here’s an update on Ursula and our new octopus from Jordan, our senior aquarist. It seems Ursula’s situation and its attendant considerations have changed since I last discussed it here:

“As many of you know Ursula has begun expelling eggs and has been very inactive the past few weeks; even taking the unexpected step of barricading herself in her corner with the curtain. She continued by pulling rocks and PVC pipe around her to make a cave. Ursula has also been receiving live Dungeness crabs the last two weeks as well, instead of her normal fish and squid. This is to better acclimate her to a wild setting should she be released.  If anyone can donate more live Dungeness it would be greatly appreciated.

In the West Wing our new octopus has been eating voraciously and has quite the feisty personality. During her Sunday morning feeding she was shooting water at us with her siphon, which as you can imagine was very surprising. She greedily her mackerel in under 3 minutes. Once quarantined, she should be a wonderful addition to the Visitor Center.

The past few weeks have been filled with heavy cleaning, de-leeching, and of course finals. Coming out of this last term, I think that I speak for the entire husbandry team when I say that we are looking forward to winter break. With more free time available, you can expect us to be around even more over the next month. Our goal is to have the Visitor Center looking immaculate entering the New Year.

Happy Holidays from the HMSC Husbandry Team”