Yeah, I'm still alive.  I'm having a hard time convincing myself that anyone still reads this thing and/or cares about what's going on.  Anyway, enough of that.  I'm putting off sorting my samples, so I guess that means it's time to update!

I'm a master!!!  It's been this ongoing process of little advances (thesis written, defended, edits, more edits, etc.) but I finally got the email from the graduate school that everything is complete and I should be expecting my diploma and bound thesis in the mail within the next month or so.  Now: more edits!  I'm getting ready to submit my thesis to a journal for publication, so that will take a little more tweaking before it's ready to go. 

Field work went well even though my summer tech was lacking a sense of personal safety that made things a bit too stressful.  I spent a week in Lander (near the Wind River Range) in Sinks and Red Canyons...most of this work was in collaboration with a larger project but I did collect some of my own data as well.  The nice thing is that I should be on lots of papers because of this project!  And I met some more great graduate students and professors in my field.  The field sites were full of rattlesnakes and I had to take my tech to the ER after he had a run-in with a cattle grate while on roller skis...but those were really the only low points.  I’ve been asked to visit the crew in Syracuse this spring and give a talk on some of work as well.  Not bad, eh?

The Tetons were amazing again, of course.  It’s great to go back each year and seeing old friends at the research station.  I did a lot of 24-hour sampling which left me very tired by the end of the month, but hopefully I'll have some interesting data to talk about and start thinking about my Ph.D. project this year.  I'm heading back to the Tetons with Robin tomorrow for  the last bit of my summer research.  Turns out I'll also be heading down to the Grand Canyon this September for a research float trip down the Colorado River!  I've been hoping for the chance to work on this project, so I'm super-excited about this opportunity.  Even if it does mean I'll miss 2 1/2 weeks of classes. 

So I just got back from the ESA (Ecological Society of America) Conference in San Jose, CA.  It was great to go to a non-aquatic meeting, and I couldn't believe how many people I ran into from old research projects at Emory, in Costa Rica, the IES FEE course, etc.  That was really cool.  I also got to run up to San Francisco to visit Kile - he was training with a dance company out there for the summer. 

As for other trips this fall: I'll be back in the Ridge to party hard the first weekend in November.  Thanksgiving will be in Madison, WI this year with Robin's family (his brother is a graduate student there).  And of course I'll be back for Xmas/NYEE/NYE goodness in TN!  I also have a $400 airline voucher to spend within the year (I opted to crash in Salt Lake City the other night on my way back from CA instead of driving up to Laramie at 2am thanks to cancelled, late and oversold flights) so I'm trying to think of where else I need to visit...any ideas?