One Year

Today is the one-year anniversary of my move to Gainesville. I still miss my friends in Los Angeles and my work at the LA Zoo, but I am enjoying my life here. And the weather in Florida isn't as oppressive as I expected. Several times lately I have stepped outside and marveled at how nice it feels and then am surprised to find out that the temperature is in the mid 90s. I guess I have adapated to the hot weather.

My trip to Iowa went well. The other faculty members in my department are great and I have started working on a computational project with one of them. Which means that I am now using some of my start-up funds to contribute to the payment of a student who is doing the data analysis.

Sadly, Agnieszka and Dominika's time in Gainesville is over. Agnieszka flew back to Poland yesterday and Dominika flies back tomorrow. They've been great company and we've had a lot of fun exploring Florida together. They are planning to come back next summer, so hopefully we will have some more adventures before I move to Iowa. There are pictures from our Ichetucknee Springs tubing trip here. Unfortunately, we never had a chance to go back for a second visit. Last weekend we went to Clearwater Beach on the Gulf Coast. It was absolutely beautiful and the logic of the name "Clearwater" is obvious. You could stand in chest-deep water and clearly see the fish swimming around your feet. We also found a Fatburger in Clearwater, so Dominika and Agnieszka had the chance to sample a West Coast chain. There are Clearwater Beach pictures here. And I've tried pasting a video of the fish here.

Last weekend I downloaded the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack on iTunes and have had a blast listening to it on my iPod. It's been so much fun, that I decided to watch the movie tonight. While it's a little more wooden than I remember, it's still really fun to watch. It's hard to believe that it was released 20 years ago.

I previously reported that the Discovery channel had visited our lab and interviewed my advisor, Lonnie Ingram. We suspect that the show aired this week as "Future Fuels" on the Discovery Science Channel, but unfortunately no one in our lab has access to this channel. But if you do, and you find the program, check it out! But don't look for me, I was never on-camera that day.