So much going on ...

I know that my audience has been checking daily for updates about my exciting life .... and let me tell you, life has been busy!

But soon ... so very soon ... I will post about:

• 4th of July celebration in Buffalo
• Vegas, baby!!!!
• leaving the Little Town ...
• ... and moving to NJ!

So much fun in such a short amount of time!

Dick Dawk likes soup

The conference I went to in Brazil turned out to be really great!

Great stuff: Awesome famous keynote speaker (who likes soup a lot!); cute resort; great pool; caught up with lots of people I haven't seen in a while; lots of fun conversations with scientists; free alcohol at nearly every event; old labmate (DancingFish) gave a great talk in a little competition; Joe gave the best talk ever (on one of the papers I am first author on) and got tons of questions from super famous people; met lots of new fun grad students; got some more post doc advice; listened to lots of great science talks; was brave enough to ask questions at a few talks; only a few bug bites; had an overall great time!

Not-great stuff: Traveled at least 22 hours each way (many planes and airports and buses); my talk was on the very last day, and the stupid clicker broke and my slides went away for a while, and I looked like an idiot; pretty sure I broke my toe while walking the streets of town one drunken evening; my undergrad advisor was there and it appears that he still hates me, making all interactions totally awkward; did not know Portuguese at all!!; got yelled at twice by a semi-famous scientist's wife for being too loud at night; perhaps have swine flu (though not as bad as Joe).

I think the Great stuff list totally beats the Not-great stuff list, so I declare the Brazil trip a success!!

Here are some photos for your enjoyment!

Beautiful weather in Newark!

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Beautiful weather in Brazil!
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Real poinsettias. Not like the Christmas plants in the US!
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DancingFish finishing the FunRun!
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Joe after his 4th place finish in the Fun Run!
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View from our balcony!
(Dick Dawk stayed on the bottom floor!)
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Pool!
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Such fun!

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Umm ... yeah ...

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Cow, the goat, and his Mommy

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Attempt at a photo of Dick Dawk's crack

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Joe ... with some famous science guy???
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The Caipirinha!
(Never accidentally ask for a double!)

Leaving on a jet plane ...

I leave today for Brazil!

A week long conference in the middle of a giant South American country! I am very excited about the work and also hope to get in some time at the pool! My tan is definitely suffering with the 28 days of rain we have endured in The Little Town!

I plan to blog from the pool, so stay tuned!

This is the start of our busy, busy summer! RyGuy leaves for London this week, then we're both off to Buffalo, then Vegas!, then moving in together! Crazy good times in the next few weeks!

I'm in love with a girl ...

Ry & I had such a wonderful time this past weekend visiting little Ally in VA!! We were so excited to meet her and are so happy to have a new little "niece"! It's fun to be "Aunt" and "Uncle"!

It was great to just hang out with BF Kimmy, her hubby, Anna & Gorgeous too! We play cards, watched some olympics and even took Ally to her very first fair!! Check out the video below to see me realize one of my dreams in life -- riding a mechanical bull!!!!!!

I'm just so happy for BF Kimmy & my BF-in-law! They have the cutest daughter and she is just so happy! I can't wait to see you all again in B-lo in a few weeks!!!

Cutie Baby Ally!

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RyGuy and Ally ... Isn't the expression great?
She's all "Really??! You're letting Uncle RyGuy hold me?"
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I just wanted to take her home with us!!
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So much fun at the fair!
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Ally's enjoying her first pig races!!!
(My first pig races too!)
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So excited!! I actually rode the bull!
(Anna did too, but I figured I should only humiliate myself with a blog video!)

Goodbye Texas ... FOREVER!!!

After 17 hours of travel, that included much time at airports, 2 planes and a bus, I finally made it home to Ry & the Little Town!

Let's just say, I couldn't be any happier to end my field work!


I'll spare you the boring stories of spending 3 weeks in a small town, 5 hours of travel for 2 hours of work, and the desire to kill my advisor! The highlight of the trip was the "Terlingua Pub Crawl 2008" (which means Joe & I drank at the ONLY 3 bars within an 80 mile radius)!

Here are a few photos for you!

A few mating pupfish (male on left (silver), female on right (brownish)).
I took more than 100 of these stupid photos!

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2 male pupfish in a throw-down battle!
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A different species of pupfish that we were able to swim with at a little state park!
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I love fish shoals!
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Me & Joe at Santa Elena Canyon (in our kick-ass hats)!
The left part of the canyon (behind me) is Mexico and the right side is the US, with the Rio Grande running between them!
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The roadrunner that lived with us!
(This photo is for Nephew, who asked if we'd really see roadrunners in the desert!)

Trapped in Texas!!

Ahh!

After 22 days in (far, far) West Texas, we're stuck in the airport because of a stupid tropical storm that is hitting Houston (one of the 3 connections we have today!!). Which means will miss our 2 other flights. Which means another day in Texas.

I am never coming back to Texas. Ever.

I'll post some photos and excitement from our trip soon!