i'm so high!!

So high up in the mountains. Yup. I am in Salt Lake City at the Annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers Meeting. I am in quite good spirits right now because my presentation is all finished. It was this morning and it went great. It was on reserach I did at URI with Dr. Lucia, not research I am currently doing at Princeton, so I was worried that I wouldn't remember what I did, but I did fine. Tomorrow I hope to take a tour of the Great Salt Lake. Did you know that it is saltier than the ocean? I didn't. Here are some other fun facts about Salt Lake City, UT (ok, these are actually silly laws that are still on the books):

1. A husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence.
2. Birds have the right of way on all highways.
3. In Utah when a person reaches the age of 50, he/she can then marry their cousin.
4. It is against the law to fish from horseback.
5. It is considered an offense to hunt whales.
6. It is illegal not to drink milk.
7. It is illegal to detonate any nuclear weapon. (You can have them, but you just can't detonate them.)
8. No one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin.

So Martha, if you ever come here and bring you violin, be sure that it is not in a paper bag. Also ... no whale hunting. Interesting in a land-locked state. Maybe there are whales in the Great Salt Lake. Perhaps I will find out tomorrow. I have apparently already broken a law here, as I have not had any milk since my arrival. Must remedy that soon. And now, for those curious readers out there, here are some real facts about the Salt Lake City area:

1. Elevation: In the valley, the city's elevation is 4,330 feet above sea level, and in the foothills reaches 5,200 feet. The Wasatch Mountains to the east are 11,500 feet tall, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west are 9,500 feet high.
2. The Great Salt Lake, 17 miles west of the city, is only about 45 feet deep, and its water is 5 to 15 percent salt. The Lake is 48 miles wide and 90 miles long, making it the largest lake in the U.S. west of the Great Lakes. The Great Salt Lake is part of an ancient lake known as Lake Bonneville that used to encompass part of Nevada, which today is made up of salt flats.
3. Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 with the arrival of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers who sought religious freedom. The settlement was originally called Deseret, and within three years of their arrival, the Mormons founded the University of Deseret, which is now the University of Utah.
4. With a population of over 179,000, Salt Lake City is the state's largest city and the capital city.
5. As a whole, the state population of Utah is the nation's youngest and healthiest.
6. The population boasts the highest literacy rate, highest percentage of high school graduates, and highest percentage of college-educated people.

Ok, those are enough facts. I am taking some pictures while here, but did not bring my USB cable, so they will not go up until I get home. So stay tuned. In the meanwhile, I did upload a few other pictures that my friend Sareh posted from our homecoming weekend celebration in Rhode Island. Those are in the "October" album, if you wish to see them.