Spring has Sprung

I'm back! Thanks, my long-suffering audience (or what's left of you at this point), for staying with me. Let me promise you that you've missed absolutely nothing important during this week's radio silence on my part. I've been working on my research project pretty much every day so that I don't feel guilty about neglecting it while I'm in Germany. I can now tell you all about the fossil ecosystems from Quarry 9, Wyoming, Las Hoyas, Spain, and Phu Wiang, Thailand.
On a more interesting note, Spring has finally officially arrived! Every day this week (except today and last night) has been gorgeous. The weather report claims it's been in the 40s, but it certainly feels warmer than that. I've been on several walks around the city during breaks from data entry, and it's been really, really nice. The first robin of Spring has even made an appearance! In America, of course, this kind of weather would be perfect for baseball, but I little expected that to mean anything here. I was wrong, though: as of yesterday, I'm a member of the departmental softball team, the Flintstones (made up largely of Canadians and Americans; I have no clue who we'll actually play against, though)! Games start in May! As if all this Spring weather wasn't enough, last night (the only rainy evening all week, of course) was the big fireworks show to kick off the Brunel 200 celebration, and several of us from the department headed down to the river to watch them. Let in never be said that the English can't do fireworks...