Hello! I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything really interesting to tell you about tonight. But nothing really interesting has happened in the last week. I worked, that's one thing. And we went over for dinner at Chris' house. He'd just returned from Friday Harbor and his mother was visiting, so that was a good time.

Oh! I remember something that happened. Spencer and I got to go out on a date, without the dog and everything! We went over to the clamshell building at the marine station to hear a concert. The last two weekends the Music by the Sea concert event has been here. What it is is that a bunch of musicians, and a couple of singers, come out and play some concerts and do other activities too. I think the idea is that the guy who organizes this wants to do a music school out here, and these concerts (this is the third year of concerts) are meant to be fundraisers for that. Spencer volunteered to drive a ferry boat across the inlet so that we could go for free, and we went last Monday. The music was awesome, of course. Last year when we went we were treated as if we were unwelcome by the lady at the door, like we weren't supposed to be there, which sucked, and then the weather was awful. It was horrible and stormy-- wind, rain, and waves too. But this year there was better communication about the volunteers, so we were welcomed just like everyone else, and the weather was beautiful too, which was very nice. So the concert began and we watched the sun set over the ocean and the islands, and it was very beautiful. It was nice to go out, and hear some music like you normally have to do in a city.

This weekend Spencer and I did some field work. We did the littorines experiment yesterday. Littorines are tiny snails, even as small as 1 mm across. Our job was to get some from the banks of the inlet, which means we put down a 10-cm square and then tediously search out all of the snails from in it and take them home. Then they're frozen, then I take their photo with a ruler for scale, then I measure their lengths with a computer program. Today we went so that Spencer could monitor his Pisaster (sea star) and Katharina (chiton) removal plots. My job was to be the data recorder, and Spencer counted everything in the plots. I saw a bear today while we were out, so you can see, I updated the bear count.

I think that's about everything that's happened. I have a couple more things to say though. First, I would like to congratulate my grandma on her new kitchen remodel. Second, to answer Kim's question, intertidal golf is a game of golf (and from what I hear, a not-very-serious game) played in the intertidal areas of the inlet at low tide (i.e. the area on the shore that is exposed at low tide, but covered up with water at high tide). An important aspect of this game are the costumes people wear, and then how wet and muddy people seem to get, particularly during years such as this one where it was raining buckets for the event. And lastly, I have added a couple of new photos to my gallery, so be sure to have a look! Talk to you later!