Today is the last day that Congress will be in session until early September. That makes for a slow month in my office. No Congress, no communication necessary.* So this means that I should have lots of time to focus on other things like writing MSs from grad school, blogging about science, etc.

HA.

This time next week, I’ll be preparing for a 2-week science extravaganza tour. I’ll be attending ESA in Sacramento the week of the 10th. It will be my first conference as a PhD** and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, making new ones, and being entrenched in science for a week (I really need to talk science). After that, I’m heading back to the Alma Mater to start work on a project that was funded right after I graduated. Over the course of a year, I get to head back down south every few months to play with turtles, their diseases, and some nasty chemicals. Who’s excited? This guy. And, since I plan on using the data gathered from this initial outing for upcoming conferences in November and January, I will need to perform some record-breaking analyses. Needless to say, it’s gonna be a busy month.

I’ll likely be blogging from ESA. Actually, James and Jess will be there as well so perhaps there will be some joint posts. The regular posts will pick back up in September after things cool down a bit.

*This is actually untrue. Considering that most of our communications between the USFWS and Congress occur between us and congressional staff, we still have work to do. Things are just calmer than usual.

**Also somewhat untrue. I attended the SICB meeting in early January right after I received my degree, but I hadn’t started my new position yet either, so the feeling wasn’t quite the same as it is currently.