i saw the ocean in the ocean state

i am officially done with conferences as a graduate student, as i am finished with this week's conference of the Behavioral Genetics Association (BGA) in Newport, Rhode Island. it was a new conference for me. i gave a talk on wednesday, but spent most of the rest of the week meeting people, hearing new ideas, and remembering how much more i like conferences in the summer than conferences (in Canada) in the dead of winter. okay, that's a little dramatic, but you must admit that i have a valid point in there.

the whole town of newport looks like what you would expect from a scene straight out of history. the streets are narrow and often brick, everything is situated between harbors, and things are very picturesque in general. according to wikipedia, newport was the first settlement of rhode island. i poked quite a bit of fun at our hotel - hotel viking - because of its name, but it fit right into the the "looks like it stepped out of the colonial period" theme of the town.

related to that, the weather was beautiful - about 90 degrees - almost the whole time that we were there. briana (jenae's wonderful post doc), kristine (jenae's formerly-of-wisconsin graduate student), and i took some time before dinner on wednesday to do the semi-famous cliff walk, right along the edge of the narragansett bay. it was gorgeous and served as the setting for most of the pictures that i took on the trip. the first part of the walk was lined almost exclusively with nature and shore. the second half had what people were calling "summer homes," but which looked more like museums to me. unless someone can think of where an individual who spends their summer in the house pictured below would spend the rest of their year. . . (i can actually already sense EG crossing her fingers that this is one of william and kate's vacay spots).

i did force myself to have the seafood while we were there, though. and even ventured into the world of lobster, which i hadn't tried before. i will say, though, that ordering a whole lobster was off the list of possibilities almost immediately, as our first dinner venture involved charlie, kristine, briana, and i witnessing a woman pick up the whole lobster off of her plate, take it by the "arms" and make it do some sort of little waving dance for her children. obviously, i would have a hard time picking apart an animal anyway, but that just makes it even more awful. so, more true to self, i ordered the lobster mac-and-cheese. and i have to say, it was delicious. it was far too much food for one person, so i didn't finish it, but i would definitely order it again. note that it actually came with four pieces of bread originally, which gave it a kind of "dangerous starfish" look when they set it down. that didn't bother me nearly as much as the dancing crab.

despite the greatness of the trip, i am glad to be home. my friend christine organized a trip the the mt nittany winery on saturday morning as they were having a "free-wine-and-cheese" tasting event. the wine was so terrible that i was afraid to try the cheese. however, i couldn't help but be thankful for a rare sunny day in valley and enjoy the pretty surroundings. in some ways, this could be a picture of iowa if not for the ginormous hills in the background. i was on the wrong side of the car to get the vineyards themselves, so you will just have to trust me that they really were quite lovely.

believe it or not, there are only ten class periods left for me this summer. two weeks and we are done. i think my class is starting to feel it, too. they got a few days off when i was gone last week, but i think we could all understand how being in class every single day at 9:35am for 6 weeks might get a bit old.

the only other news of the week (i think. . . my brain is kind of mushy right now) is that my nephew izacc, was baptized this weekend. he and gabe were originally dedicated since they were part of baptist church when they were born, but both of the boys have done baptism as part of the confirmation classes at the (methodist) church in buffalo center. if i remember the progression of events correctly, izacc will likely do confirmation next year. in any case, he should be very proud of himself already!!