Chilly

It has been cold the past few days in the Bay Area, with temperatures below freezing at night. It is supposed to be -2° C tonight (28° F), and Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency. I'm sure the rest of the country is laughing at us (again)...

Winter break is almost over. Yesterday morning I went to Essig coffee (the Friday morning social activity in the entomology museum) for a planning meeting for this year's insect collecting trip. It looks like we'll be going to the far northeastern corner of the state, where California, Oregon, and Nevada come together. There are mountains, and alkali lakes, and sand dunes up there at the southern end of the Cascades and western border of the Great Basin. I'm looking forward to it, assuming I'll be around at that point in the summer.

My roommate sold four Berkeley entomology T-shirts yesterday to a soldier stationed in Iraq. Apparently he (a Cal alum) lost a bet to another army friend, and then somehow discovered online the Berkeley Entomology Students Organization T-shirts website, and came over to buy some while he's in the Bay Area on leave. He says he'll send us a photo of him and his friends wearing them in Baghdad. Crazy...

Oral exams are a month and a half away, and I will be posting to this blog much less frequently. Everyone is asking me now how studying is going, and I'm really starting to feel the pressure!