for purple mountains majesty

yesterday i went with lauren and heather into the mountains again, this time to collect caterpillars. we collected over 30 in an hour and a half. they were ephydrus gillettii (or something like that). i'm working on colias meadii, which live at a higher altitude in the alpine meadows above our camp. when ward gets here next friday we'll hopefully be going up to check them out. i don't think it's really a problem that he's not here yet because the butterflies are still in the larva/pupa stages.

today for the 4th of July we went into town (crested butte). there was a 1/3 marathon from gothic to cb, as they call it here. i volunteered to cut fruit for the runners when they finished. after the race there was a parade. it was so cute! the whole town came together for this. the fire department had a pancake breakfast and gave kids rides in the bucket on top of their ladder. rmbl, the lab, marched in the parade. we made our costumes entirely out of veratrium leaves (skunk weed). then we went down the street banging pots and pans and cheering about how we love to do science. it was so dorky but really fun - and somewhat stanford band-esque in that some people were wearing nothing but leaves... i just made a hat.

probably the highlight of the trip was finding a little health food co-op! it had all my delicious organic vegetarian food that i love :) i totally turned into my mom with my excitement at the health food. anyone who's been to whole foods with me has witnessed this, but it was even more exciting because it was so unexpected in the middle of the mountains!

the other highlight was having cell phone service! i got to talk to everyone in the family but jen (calling italy is a little more challenging than calling california), and i also got to talk to alex! totally made my day :) special note for kat: i got a compliment on my frog pooh and thought of you!

in the afternoon we came back and napped before the gib barbeque. it was delicious - they had veggie burgers and grilled corn. i sat down at the table with heather and before we knew it this man came at sat next to us. he was kind of in a flurry but seemed nice. when he got up to get a fork, lauren glared at me and asked if i knew who he was. i had no clue. turns out that was paul ehrlich, only like the most famous butterfly researcher ever. he's at stanford but i've never met him. i said something about how i thought i'd probably read about half of his papers for my project, and lauren shushed me. she's going to work for him next year as a ta, so i guess she really wanted to make a good impression. he came back and told us all sorts of stories of bears breaking into cabins and climbing roofs and getting drunk with birds in austrailia. he was a very entertaining character and brilliant man. i guess i will be talking to him more this summer...

after dinner we were talking about plans for the weekend, and i asked carol of by chance there are any churches nearby. turns out there is at least one other scientist here who likes to go to church! so i'm getting a ride with her into town sunday morning. if the service at the ucc church is the same time as her mass i'll get to go to that, otherwise i may see what's it's like to go to mass in the mountains. we'll see. it will be nice to have something familiar to do.

i guess that's all the updates for now. heather and lauren's caterpillar project is going well. the bugs were eating today, which is a major improvement from yesterday. i'm still reading about butterflies and plants, and i think on monday i will do some gardening to get ready for our critters when they emerge. i will also probably be driving a stick in a couple of weeks... ward and i will go to pick up the third car from gunnison - scary! thanks to cara, dad, and gt and michelle for helping me learn how to use those. we'll see how this goes. if it goes well enough i may also end up doing the church carpool runs so the lady who drives the two of us can sleep in on sunday mornings (she offered me her car, but said she'd prefer if i had a little more practice)

till next time, te quiero y te extraño!