Hello from Boston

Life is hard here, too.

Now that the semester is finally over, the hectic pace of life has slowed considerably, and (although there's as much to do as before) there's time to gallivant about the country. In the last three weeks I have been to see Kennebunkport, Maine (where the beloved G. W. Bush goes on holiday -- sorry, vacation), Kennebunk, just down the road, where Tom's of Maine toothpaste is made (they sell fabulously cheap seconds in their factory outlet store), Ohio (to see, amongst other things, the world's biggest basket), and to Cape Ann (Massachusetts' other cape, where there are fantastic beaches and very delicious seafood).

On the academic front, things are going as smoothly as dragging a dead dog across a boulder field. I was planning to go on a summer field camp in LA, but it was cancelled, so I'm in Boston for most of the summer. I hope all of you who chose the UK route are rejoicing in the absence of a taught component -- I am still working on an (exceedingly) overdue term paper... Other than that, I still have no idea what I'll be doing for actual research. I've decided to stick with the silica cycle for the time being, and have been looking into using silicon isotopes to reconstruct the palaeo-cycle, but it looks like a very sketchy and unconstrained system to be working with. And who knows about the effects of diagenesis?

Is anybody going to GSA this fall/autumn? I am going to submit an abstract about the radiolarian stuff I did with Dani.

I hope everyone is doing well. Come visit!