I write to you from a pleasant Southern California abode! The Tran family household in fact! I got here late Wed night and will be here enjoying the holiday with the family until Friday. I only come home once a year so it's jam packed with food food food...and sprinklings of movie watching at home, and a few outings. Today we're off to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center! I'm super excited to see it up close and in person after watching the various news coverage and such!
It's been a fun few last weeks since the last blog post!
I think I forgot to mention a while back that Dan passed his Oral exams in early November...he is now considered a "Ph.D.c" or a Ph.D. candidate now..which means he doesn't have to take another test for the rest of his academic life! PLUS!!!! he gets business cards now! Ha!! So the biggest hurdles are over for him - no more classes, no more tests, now it's just research - in the lab, in the field, and writing at the desk!! Just how he likes it (For real!)!!
As of Dec 14th I am officially a Master!!! My thesis was turned in and approved, much help provided by Karrie and Rick for gathering up signatures for me as I was in Alabama at the time. That was a rather stressful time - these small tasks must happen in a specific order and then you wait to see if you did everything correctly...I made it by the deadline and WHEW! What a HUGE-OLA relief!! I'm so very much more calm and just all around beaming with happiness!!
The above lead to an especially exciting Dec 17th - which was not only my birthday (My first Bday as a Master!!!!) but also pre-Christmas for Dan, Hannah, and I. Since I was spending actual xmas with the Fam in the LBC we decided to combine birthday and pre xmas celebrations before I left town. It was pretty fun to open gifts and be surprised by each other's gifts!! It was also great fun to torture Hannah with her wrapped gifts as she momentarily attempted to tear open some gifts, only to have her give up and go sit on her bed...Silly Hannah...
Anyhow, we spent the rest of the day lounging about - with birthday brunch (which is just breakfast with booze) and a lot of cooking with my new cookbook from Dan - How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman...It's a beast of a book and so much fun to flip through. I'm not a big reader of books, but at night before falling asleep I very much LOVE to fall asleep perusing cookbooks, getting ideas for future meals and learning about new fun ingredients...This book promises to keep us both quite happy and busy for many nights!
Various pictures from the last few weeks in T-Town... All for now, I'll update with a few LBC pics...just now catching up!!!
xo, ct
