December 21, 2011

Life hasn’t slowed down since the last time you heard from me but that’s not a bad thing. I have been working like mad to keep up with the demands of learning a new city, a new university, creating and developing new courses, building a lab from scratch, getting funding, writing manuscripts, meeting with prospective students and discussing their interests, and really that’s just part of it. It has been challenging but rewarding. The last time you heard from me, I was about to depart on a geology field trip to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The trip was cold but beautiful. I saw a lot of countryside and enjoyed spending time with the graduate students. My favorite part was visiting the famous fossil locality known as Mazon Creek. The locality is full of clay (siderite) nodules that formed around ferns, fish, and crabs millions and millions of years ago. It is unbelievable to crawl around in the mud, find a fist-sized rock, bash it open with a hammer, and find a flat and perfectly preserved leaf. Fantastic.

Next up was a trip to Vegas where I presented my research at the annual meeting for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. The trip coincided with Matt’s birthday, and he and our friend Matt Neft flew out to join me in Vegas. We had a great time experiencing both the insanity of the modern strip and the classic feeling of the old strip. The conference went well too. I returned to Cincinnati just in time to host Patrick, my friend and Santa Cruz colleague. We worked on wrapping up a manuscript that we’ve been working on and Patrick gave a great talk to the Geology department. It was super to catch up with him and we really made some good progress with our science. I had to bid Patrick adieu a bit early so I could return to Toronto to help Matt move out of our condo. And move out we did. No problem. The place has now sold too, which feels great. So goodbye Toronto. We returned to Cincinnati and then immediately hosted Thanksgiving at our new home in Cincinnati. Mom and Matt’s family joined us for a first-rate long weekend. We ate lots of good food and then enjoyed being tourists exploring the Cincinnati area. There’s so much new great stuff to see and do. We have only just scratched the surface.

Since Thanksgiving, we’ve basically been wrapping up tasks such as painting the house, unpacking our last batch of belongings and fitting them into our new home. It feels so good. Plus we found a 30-year old bottle of wine in the basement (Chateau Lassegue, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 1982) and enjoyed it very much.

Now Matt and I have headed south for Christmas. We packed up the car, complete with Lou, and drove first through Memphis, then on to New Orleans, and finally to Crestview Florida, where we have met up with my brother, dad, my aunt, and her clan. Next week we close on our house in Cincinnati, which will allow us to finally move on with our new lives. Then we will go to Pennsylvania to celebrate the New Year. It’s incredible to me to think that we are nearing the end of 2011. I certainly can’t say it’s been a boring year. I’m looking forward to ringing in the New Year. I hope that you get to do something special with special people. Happy Holidays to you all.