"I've lived here long enough that I can't imagine living anywhere else. I don't even mind the rain." He glanced up at the overcast sky. "My parents moved out here to retire--we came originally from St. Louis, hence the Midwestern accent. My brothers are scattered all over the States. We fought like cats and dogs growing up, but I miss them."
He pulled a leg up to his chest and circled it with his arms. "I haven't written a book, but I have published a godawful amount of papers--the last was on plant cell biology and the secretion of the cell wall," Noah replied. "I know you'll rush right out and read it when it comes out in the American Journal of Botany. But playing with the electron microscope was a lot of fun." He grinned unrepentantly; it really had been fun for him. "What about you? What secrets of numbers have you divulged lately?"