Before I go out to finish tearing apart my tractor so I can get a part welded tomorrow and keep working on the new pig enclosure, I thought I’d share a few words. I went to granddaughter Savannah’s dance recital last night with Nicole and Conner. It was fun, but I confess I had completely forgotten the culture of the dance recital – bouquets were being handed about, seemingly back and forth, continuously.

May was busy with the biggest event being my annual teaching of ecology and geology on the CT River. I started teaching that course in 1983, and along with other adventures up on the river, have now spent over 340 days on those waters. We digitized the course this year, capturing lectures and labs before leaving for the river, and then all the ecosites, geosites and data sessions as well. Not sure what will come of it all. We’re thinking supplements for teaching, an online science literacy course, tutorials for travelers, and YouTube clips galore.

Thursday I head west to meet up with Sergio for the Goldschmidt Conference in CA, followed by a Sierra Nevada field trip with Allen Glazner. After that I’ll be home less than a week and head down to NYC for a dog-and-pony show at Apple’s NY Headquarters before taking the train down to D.C. for CUR business meeting followed by the biennial CUR meeting. We’re presenting a panel how institutionalizing undergraduate research can help develop a culture of research throughout the university. Maybe I should use this forum to report out on how I think it went. We’ll see. Saluti a tutti. Ciao.