Hey all,

You know, the trouble with this blog thing is that nobody reminds you to check it. I guess no one reminds me to check my email either, but somehow it really feels like email is delivered to you and to blog you have to go out and post something. I was really thinking that I had put an update on not too long ago so everyone should know what is happening in my life. Then I looked at the blog and realized I was at least 6 months behind. So it seems I have missed a lot of great stuff in 6 months. Glad to hear so many new houses, babies, and other major life changes are going well. Many congrats on all of them! Nate, way to go on the dissertation defense!

I guess I don't post much because my life hasn't changed a whole lot. Still in school, I have pushed my graduation target date back to next June rather than December. Maybe my big news here is that Lisa (younger sister) just left for China last weekend. She is going to spend the year there learning chinese and helping in a coffeeshop/bookstore.

Hannah, you must already be on your way to New Zealand. I am jealous! Looking forward to your updates.

That's it for now. Back to learning about what sort of aerosols are in the atmosphere and what they do to sunlight.

ps Alysia, I can't remember if the getting rid of odors post was in the last few months, but the question intrigued me. I am pretty sure that our sense of smell comes from molecules interacting with some kind of "sensor" in our nasal passages. I would guess that many of them are organic and not very polar molecules, so not ions. But it may be that those molecules are given off by the life habits of bacteria. In which case, if you get rid of the bacteria you get rid of the smell...