Yup, I'm still breathing.

Ok, so I know it's been ages since I posted. What can I say? Life's been busy.

ESA went well, all in all. Didn't muster up the gumption to talk to as many prof's as I had intended to, but I did listen to a lot of their talks and talks given by their students. I also picked up a couple of new names to look at for grad advisers. The more enjoyable part of the conference was meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in ages (at least a year for some of them), to catch up on stories and adventures, as well as meeting their labmates and friends. Also, there was a fantastic book store - I barely escaped with only 6 books, feeling rather accomplished.

All last week, Bait was here visiting - it was awesome! Hadn't seen her since the end of May, eek. These long stretches suck. We had a good week though - hanging out, playing in/around the lake, going for walks, checking out some crazy birds, eating meals cooked in a tiny kitchen, watching the summer Olympics, and such. I took some time off from research, and felt no guilt about it (I felt justified, since I worked M/T, and none of my labmates returned from ESA until at least Wednesday... that and I was between grants last week, so I wasn't getting paid). When I did work, I pushed forward on my manuscript. Making definite headway, for sure. Discovering a new database system opened up a wealth of relevant papers I hadn't come across before. This was both exciting and frightening, as many of the pieces of my own rather original project have apparently been studied in isolation already. Time to get this baby out the door!!!

After taking Bait to the airport this morning, I packed up all of my stuff and moved to a temporary graduate student house just about a mile from the academic buildings here. It's a lot cheaper than where I was staying, and I have to pay for my housing now. It's going to take some adjusting to though - no TV (who cares), but also no internet!!! Gasp. I'm going to feel like I'm missing an arm or two. I forsee spending a lot more time here in the lab working in the evenings and such... Maybe this will increase my productivity. I'm hoping the lack of internet at my place will be a good thing - it opens the possibility of reading more books, writing some snail mail and such. I guess time will tell. Mostly I think I'll miss chatting with my friends in the evenings on aim.

More things to say, but I'm getting hungry after a very busy day, and I still have to unpack and organize all of my belongings back at this new house... time to hit the road I guess.

Take it easy out there people.