I'll follow up Jen's comment with a post. I'm in NY until August 25, at which point we move to NJ. If you want to map our future town, it's Collingswood, NJ. There's a train station there where I'll catch the train into center city Philly, then switch trains to take me to West Philly, where the university is located. I estimate the commute will take about 50 minutes, so hopefully I can get a little reading done on the trains.

While the apartment we have lined up is okay, the rental market is very tight down there and rather than throw out a big rent each month to an apartment that we only like a little, we could pay a mortgage on a decent house in a good neighborhood for the same price. So unless the housing market tanks, we'd come out way ahead financially, not to mention it'd be nice to have more room for Jibblies and future kitties to run around. And I'd have free reign to do domestic things like paint, garden, and whatnot.

And for more on Maine, it's not a research station of any kind where I'll be working. It's an island where my advisor has a vacation house and permission to go onto people's beaches. The only "lab" is my advisor's garage. The ferry to the island departs about 15 minutes away from Bar Harbor, though.

I was feeling rich yesterday so I bought Ryan an iPod Nano (in black, of course). It's so small! I will probably borrow it occasionally. I got a car adapter, too, so it'll be good for road trips.