Nothing major going on, just thought I should blog since I have not in awhile.  I am typing on my new laptop- an HP Elitebook 6930p.  It is a "business class" notebook.  I finally figured out that my laptops might last longer than 2 years if I actually bought a durable one that was actually made to withstand 8 hours a day of abuse.  The cute thing it has is a keyboard light.  You know when you are typing in a dark room and the screen is plenty bright but then you try and hit some keys you don't normally use (numbers) and realize you can barely see them.  Apparently, this geeky light solves that problem...  The real treat with this laptop is that it comes with Vista.  I have yet to actually use Vista heavily until this laptop.  I have to say that I actually really like it.  Of course there are things that are different and take some more time to figure out.  But, it just seems "smarter" - much more Mac-like where you just plug something in and the computer figures it out for you.  Have not had to go in and find all these obscure menus to get something simple to work - like say a printer.  So, I give it a big thumbs up.  I think they have fixed all the major bugs that everyone had issues with.  

What else... selecting grad students is much harder than I thought it would be.  I have been really successful at selecting undergrad students to do research with me.  Perhaps it is the ability to meet them, but more so I am thinking that there was always a limited pool.  I found someone that was good- went with him/her and that was it.  Well this time around I, at last count, have 26 students interested in working in my lab.  Not 26 students that are interested in applying to our program generally, but 26 that want to work with me specifically!  So that of course makes me feel good.  Especially when I go seek others advice and their reply is "In my 8 year career I might have had 20 interested total."  I'd like to take all the credit, but it pretty much is what I do.  Everyone loves that I actually am trying to save the frogs and not just study them for science sake.  So after going through resumes, transcripts, GRE scores, and letters of rec- I just get overwhelmed with all the data.  I literally spent almost all day Friday in the front office going through files.  In the end, I think I have selected a top 5 for sure, and perhaps have two favorites.  The applications are not actually due until March 15, and I thought that I might have them selected ahead of time, but apparently I need to run my choices by the committee first before saying anything.  I am looking forward though to having students of my own!  Not only because it'll be cool, but because I keep getting involved in new projects and cannot possibly do all the work myself.