Friends et al, I have been missing in action recently. The reason for this is that I am currently drowned in stats, talk preparations, working, reading papers taking classes and trying to take care of two cats and a dry cabin, don't even have time to shower. How embarrassing is that?I have a talk on Friday for my department with the rest of my crew (read lab). In early December I have a talk in San Francisco at a big meeting (read lots of important people in my field will also present in the same session so I am a bit nervous). Good news is, that the talk will be early in the week, the first day of the meeting so I will have plenty of time to relax afterwards. I am trying to use as much of my "free time" (read time that I actually take from being busy, as in I choose to go and do somthing fun even though I don't have time) that I possibly can to go and enjoy life up here. Last weekend I went on a short hike with W up to Murphy Dome It was so wonderful to be able to get out and just be, just be in this winter wonder land. We saw some trace of Ptarmigan, And some actual ptarmigan, which unfortunately lots of hunters were after, you could hear gun/rifle shots from time to time and a group of ptarmigan flying up into the sky Snow was deep in some places and, I of course just had to play around... W wasn't as enthusiastic as I was about playing around and taking pictures... The next day we went skiing, and had a wonderful weather, sun, around 0F, just absolutely amazing time! The view is just amazing. Did I mention that it was sunny? and, those of you who know me, knows that, that is a recipe for a happy me! The weekend before that we went skiing too! together with the whole office (almost) This, of course, also made me happy. Before that, we were making sure the chicks were ok, and picked up some eggs Anyhow, now I am going back to practice that presentation for tomorrow. And then, tomorrow, evening my time, I will do the friday Theme, I know I missed it las week...but life happened ;) happy happy thursday!