What a crazy past two months!

Since the last post, I traveled to Vienna and back for the European Geophysical Conference -- a meeting of the science geeks of the world. This was a quick trip, with 2 days of travel and 3 days of hanging out in Vienna, 1 of which I was pretty loopy on Tylenol Flu from a bug I picked up somewhere en route to Austria. The "low" of the trip was accidentally stepping in a large amount of puke (sorry if I just ruined your appetite!) in the Charles De Gaulle airport bathroom...and then trying to do gymnastics of rinsing off my foot in the sink and then walking around dragging my right foot with every step. The "high" of the trip was seeing some good friends and meeting some new cool folks! Here's Steve and I hanging out one afternoon. He's a fellow snow junky, having done stints at both Summit, Greenland and Antarctica...

And here's a completely random picture from the trip -- where's Gayle? Hahaha

After Vienna, I had about a week to get my act together for the thesis defense. On April 30th, I defended! I gave an hour-long talk, had about 2 hours of questioning by my committee, and then crashed in a lawn chair while Ty grilled up shish-kabobs. Oh, and got matching tattoos (a 3-eyed yellow alien) with my advisor's daughter...we're sitting on a motorcycle here, being tough biker chicks:

During my first post-thesis weekend, Ty took Michael, Courtney, Katie, Jen, and I out touring around Lake Lanier (thanks to my in-laws for the borrowed boat!) What a cute boat captain...

Michael and Courtney...
The kayaking chicks, Ty's sister Katie and Jen...
I pretty much stayed in a "crashed" state for the next 2 weeks, watching bad TV shows (I watched every episode of this season's "The Bachelor", much to Ty's chagrin) and finding it extremely taxing to do chores like, say, making the bed. I then went the completely other direction, making elaborate spreadsheets to rank and sort apartments in North Carolina and car ratings. We found an apartment and a car! Ty's well-used truck died...to the point where it has now been physically pushed into a parking place and we're hoping to donate it. After searching for a car based on 3 criteria - high fuel economy, good for putting kayaks on the roof, and price -- we settled on a snazzy blue Subaru Forester. Ty is now tooting around in it, enjoying novelties like air conditioning and reliable headlights! Our other vehicle, a Subaru Legacy that is up to about 185,000 miles, has come to a state that you have to pop the hood and poke at the connectors to the headlights to get them to come on at night. We are enthralled with the new car's headlights -- Ty enjoys just turning them off and on, off and on.

Now, I have just started my summer of bouncing all over the place. I just returned from New Jersey, at the wedding of grad buddy Dave and his lovely bride, Denise! I'll be making 2 trips to New Hampshire, 1 to Florida, and 1 to Texas in June-July, to bother family/friends and see Laura and Craig marry! Ty will be coming along for a few of the trips.

For really cool travel news, check out Suzanne's blog. Suzanne is having a wild summer touring around southeast Asia! I believe she's in Thailand right now, about to head off on a 10-day "meditation retreat". And, tomorrow is her b-day -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUZIE-Q!