- Finished my first year of the PhD program. "Disappointed" a professor. Found out that disapproving professors are not as fun as disapproving rabbits. Got my first B+. Survived it.
- Tam came to visit for about 4 days. This was the first time in several years we actually spent more than a day together, and it was completely great.
- Got sick, got better, got sick again...etc. Right now I am in the "got better" part of this cycle.
- Purchased a shiny new desktop computer with two big-ass monitors. I am right now, at this exact moment, downloading the latest Ravenhearst game, which will be the test of my computer's mojo.
I'm still trying to settle into my summer schedule. I've got several different projects I'm working on, plus I'm trying to develop some new ideas. And it would be really helpful to me if I got up to speed on the basics of R (the powerful free statistics software) for the regression course I'm taking in the fall and learned some HTML/Javascript so that my online surveys are easier to build.
After watching The Big Year a couple days ago, Robert was on the American Birding Association website and we remembered that we can get listed on their site/magazine once we hit 500 species. I'm 24 species away and am feeling eager to get some new birds on my list. We were planning to go out this past weekend to a relatively nearby park, and I went online to see if it was within walking distance or not. Imagine my surprise when (using the Yahoo maps feature to which the park website linked) I encountered this:
Indeed, 1303 miles is a bit far to walk. I'm not quite sure how this park ended up in Vermont, but whatever. Google maps came through for us.
It was a gorgeous day and we saw some nice birds. Nothing completely new, but several that were new for our state lists, including the Baltimore oriole and the indigo bunting. Oddly enough, those same two birds were new for our NC lists exactly 3 years ago to the day (during our visit to My Masters University to find an apartment prior to my starting the program).
