Kendra, PhD

@dnakendra

Queer scientist mom r nerd gardner she/her. Officially unemployed! Open to consulting (bioinformatics/stats/workshops).

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Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 20d

I've wanted to visit Little Manitou Lake in the summer for decades. Time change means my brain work up a few hours before the rest of the family, so i took a solo stroll to the lake. Just me and my halophilic little friend in the water.

A small (>1 cm) insets in very clear water. Blurry feet and gravel in the background.

Clear, calm lake with shallow bluffs in the background.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 26d

We are eating our way through Winnipeg. Yesterday lunch at the forks and dinner at Gojo. Dinner was the best not too spicy Ethiopian I've ever had. The kids ate absolutely everything.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 27d

We're out of the smoke! Now I'm back to actively trying to ignore my souvenirs from Pukaskwa's smaller inhabitants.

A foot resting on a dash with a lot of big bites. Out of focus in the background is a road winding through a pine forest.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 28d

We didn't stop to see Ouimet Canyon since the smoke was bad. But at least I got to see an arctic plant in Pukaskwa.

Livelong saxifrag on a grey lichen speckled rock.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 28d

Fires are now impacting our trip. We were going to stay in Thunder Bay to do a little exploring but the town/hotel is packed with people evacuated from the fires up north and the air quality is bad enough that I don't want to stick around any longer than necessary and take up a room.

Cool looking bridge over what I'm guessing was an impressive river that we couldn't see because of the smoke. Pic taken from car.

Pic from car showing how smokey it was. The hills less than 1km away are very hazy.

Picture of an impressive table like hill in Thunder Bay. Stores in the forground.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· 28d

Decided we need to make a sticker bumper of all the parks we visit. Unfortunately, decided this after Sault Ste Marie canal and locks. Will have to order a sticker for later. May do that for the Maritime and Newfie parks we visited last year too.

Picture of a white minivan with a rainbow pride Canadian Parks sticker and a Pukaskwa park sticker.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jul 12

I appreciate good color coding. Here's an international bridge with the spans colored to show which country they belong to. Click on image to see full span.

A bridge at night. The left side span has red and blue lights (maybe white in the middle). The right side is red and white.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jul 10

My little paleontologist found more fossils. I'm guessing some sort of fan coral? Pulled off a beach on eastern Lake Michigan.

Close up of a hand holding a dark and light grey stone approximately 3x4inches. The lighter grey areas are likely fossils with honeycomb pattern. The fossil hunter is a child ,out of focus in the background.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jul 9

So many fireflies! Only 1030 and the kids are asleep, its a camping miracle.

Photo of planted pine forest at dusk with lots of dots of light from fire flies.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jul 7

Theory of the day. Canadian playgrounds are cooler than american because Canadian parents are less risk adverse because of universal healthcare.

Two kids on a long heavy multikid rope swing. Front child is standing and propelling the swing while back child is laying on their stomach hanging on for dear life. Just after taking this picture, the parental unit realized back child was not shrieking with joy but fear and rescued back child. Front child then offered rides to any adult who passed.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jul 6

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum was pretty cool.

Photo inside a large hanger with a demonstration partially restored yellow antique plane in the foreground. An Avro jet from the 1950s in the background. Flags hang from many rafters.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jun 14

This is the image every park has advertising the passes. It's not till you click through to the usgs store that you see the ugly pic.

Screen shot of america the beautiful passes. The passes are stacked, the only visible picture is the big horn sheep on the senior pass.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jun 13

Just in time for our adventure. Got my pretty new passport! I've been Canadian so long i needed a new one.

A white hand holding a Canadian passport open so you can see both front and back. The back has a large embossed maple leaf and a cluster of red maple leaves.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jun 1

Never let the "You never finish projects" haters get you down. Just used the baby snaps (that i bought 15 years ago to make kid1 diapers) to make snap in sleeping bag liners for kid2 and kid3.

Teal and light blue sleeping bag with Lego construction worker sheets snapped into it.

Pile of sleeping bags. The small pink and medium teal bags both have lego construction worker sheets snapped into the bag as liners.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· May 27

Second week in a row to have rain literally just above the soccer fields. Blue sky just a few blocks away.

Panoramic photo of a sky. It's blue on both ends with a dark rain cloud overhead.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· May 19

Queer Science! 1 day *free* conference for high school students. Participate in science and engineering activities, see UConn labs, hang out with queer scientists. June 6 at Storrs. Registration tinyurl.com/QueerScience...

Poster with 3 people in lab coats holding petri dishes, a beaker over a bunson burner, and a crystal. There are pride flag colors in many elements.
Text:
Queer Science
Calling _all queer & trans teens in CT!
On Saturday, June 6,2026 UConn is hosting a free in- person summer program where you can meet LGBTQIA+ scientists & engineers:
Free breakfast and lunch will be provided
More information about the Queer Science conference can be found on our website at: https://vergnano.institute.uconn.edu/programs- opportunities/queer-science/

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· May 18

It was 90 today. I'm melting. Tried this chickpea, tuna, and broccoli salad. 2 kids refused, wife and i and the baby liked it. I added more lemon and broccoli and some mayo. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1227...

Salad of green, red, and tan in a white bowl.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Apr 25

Around 1am!

Picture from the inside of a UConn greenhouse. The very large corpse flower's base is light green on the outside, deep maroon, with a tall pink to tan to greenish spike. Reportedly, the entire greenhouse stunk.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Apr 13

Kid1 had never fried rice. Today we remedied that and they made me a delicious lunch.

Kimchi fried rice in a white bowl on a messy grey counter.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Apr 1

Kid1 and I at a shuttle launch 15ish years ago. It was one of the cooler things ive witnessed. Watching this lauch on tv with the kids makes me want to get middle kid to a live launch.

A white woman holding a baby with the exhaust trail of the space shuttle behind.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Mar 12

16 years ago. In between waves of nausea (cause i was 2 months pregnant), i filtered some water. In defense of choosing to go on a cruise 2m pregnant. I'd had an ultrasound and knew it wasn't ectopic. Plus hadn't been seasick or morning sick before.

Person in a black hoodie and orange foul weather bibs standing next to 50L carboys with lots of tubing coming out the tops. The tubing runs through peristaltic pumps on crowded lab bench.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Mar 8

Was is an ultra wide macro? That's what makes me feel tiny. This is 9mm on my micro4/3.

Closeup or macro picture of a bog with sundew, pitcher plants, grasses, and mosses.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Mar 4

Club layouts are wild. Here's the one in my town. It's most of the 2nd floor of an old factory now toy and model store. We were at the store Sunday and the layout was open to the public.

1/4 of the Manchester model railroad layout. The model fills most of an old factory room.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Mar 2

Round 2 came out a bit better. They are delicious. Not sure they're worth the effort.

Slightly better empanadas on a sheet pan.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Mar 1

Empanadas. I only had a 4.5" or 6" cutter so they're tiny. Also. Need to work on my folding technique. Or just get empanadas from empanada shops.

Small, sort of messy empanadas on a sheet pan on a stone counter.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Feb 27

Pretty sunset tonight.

Picture of main street with snow on the ground, and pink, yellow, orange, and grey clouds.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Feb 25

Excellent bendy icicles today.

Bent clear and white icicles hanging off the roof of a brick building. Blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Feb 23

I think we're are roughly 8" this morning.

Pole with little weather station in a snowy yard. 3 bands of red are visible above the snow. Those bands mark 12", 18", and 24"

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Feb 22

Snow guage prepped. Bottom of the bottom red tape is roughly current snow level. Top of the rest of the tapes in 6", 12", 18", 24". Current nws forecast is 11-19"

A post with red tape at fairly evenly spaced. The ground is covered withe dirty snow. There is a plastic greenhouse, garden beds, bushes and houses in the background.

Kendra, PhD@dnakendra· Jan 27

My teen is taking their first collece class-blueprint reading. Their final was to draw an object they had to also measure. The kid choose a p1000 tip. So proud of this kid working really hard on their handwriting and drafting skills for this class.