It's been over a month since the last post...and as that last post hinted, the month of October was a big one! A lot of fretting and working paid off for us here in T-Town...
For one, this finally happened:
Yeah!!! A five year epic journey finally ended with my thesis defense in Moscow, ID. I took a week off from cool Alabama Fall weather and entered the entirely different Fall realm that is the inner Pacific Northwest. I was greeted by so many vibrantly colored leaves that smacked me right in the retina. Happiness!! It was quite a mixed bag being back in Moscow. I figured I'd be nothing but elated, but it turns out there was a lot of bittersweetness mixed in as well. Memories from grad school proper came flooding back...
Remember when...
We had a (read: many) late Thursday nights of Long Island Iced Teas at the Ale House?
Fresh pesto rolls from the Co-op?
Buying sticks of grilled chicken from the Saturday Farmer's Market?
Walking Hannah through the calm neighborhoods of Moscow?
Trudging up the 6th street hill after a long day in the lab/office??
The smell of the fresh cedar chips walking by Line St and 6th st??
sigh....
Then came the corrections to my memories and new realizations...
Was the Student Rec Center really THAT close to our office?
Is it usually that quiet around campus after 1pm in the afternoon?
Was there always this bone chilling wind running through Moscow?
The Red Door is now Gnosh!
They painted those balconies green!
It's time for winter wheat planting in the Palouse!
more sighs...
Overall it was just a wonderful trip. I got the defense out of the way half way through the trip and got to relax with Kristin and the kids for most of the rest of the trip. The kids are HUGE...I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of them, and my overall lack of pictures of the whole trip. But I guess that is a testament to my fretting and then my uber relaxation due to the main point of the trip...
sigh and pause.....
So now, after my big hurdle, there is Dan's great accomplishment of finishing comprehensive exams. Not all the results are in, but we are pretty darn sure he passed. He got to check out the Neil Young-Alabama Shakes show at the Amphitheater as well - a mini comps break the day before his last set of questions.. This week he'll have his 2ish hour oral exam where he gets to sit in a room and have his committee pummel him with questions that will demand succinct answers until his brain is the consistency of baby food...
and let us not forget...
Hannah's big October consisted of getting a vomit-inducing hot spot on her face. Hot spots are common in dogs - in starts with a scratch or bite that the dog continues to scratch at, it gets infected, then in a matter of hours it grows...it went from the size of a quarter one morning to a baseball later that evening when we got back to work. She wore the cone of shame for a while and also got a visit to the vet where he gave her a shot of cortisol to dry up the nastiness and then a shot of antibiotics followed by a 10 day bottle of antibiotic pills...I also tended to her wound twice a day with some warm water and apple cider vinegar and blow dried the area to speed up the healing process...Playing Florence Nightingale helped me feel like I was doing something to help her heal. She was in pretty miserable spirits for a bit, but that maybe due to the embarrassment of the cone of shame (borrowed from and doctored up by Jamie see pictures later)...
Now it is November...Dan's Bday month, and a new month all around for the fam as a whole. Now that most of the hard stuff is over we've vowed to be outside more, make more short weekend trips around the Southeast, get back in shape, do more cooking and gardening. This first weekend back in town we've enjoyed the nice Fall weather with a nice 7 mile hike at Oak Mountain State Park followed by a fantastic early dinner at Little Donkey, which is soon soon coming to Tuscaloosa as well. Yippee!! Hannah is absolutely tuckered out after the hike and it's so satisfying to see your dog so tired. We spent Saturday watching a nail biter of a game between Bama and LSU (and in case you're wondering, the Bama win apparently clinches
this race as well..) Whew! We finally got a good game and thank goodness our quarterback finally manned up...
all for now!
pictures!!
xo
