Our trip back east last week for conference went well.

No fires currently threaten us, but some of our colleagues at work cannot say the same. At this point we don't know anyone who's lost a house, but the fires are far from controlled.

We can see huge clouds of smoke and haze on the horizon to the south, and some to the west and northwest. The LAFD has developed a nice interactive fire map showing the locations of fires and other related items of interest.

Also on the horizon: moving back to Ithaca. Most likely this will occur within the next 18 months. This is pretty definite. We certainly intend to move, and it's clear that Ithaca would be our top choice of destination.