I passed

Hey all...

Thought I'd let you know that I passed candidacy today!

Thankfully the questioning remained focused on my actual research and not random optics questions, so I had no problems answering. I had this fear that I would get some sort of "please derive the Kramers-Kronig relations based only on the principle of causality" since that sort of thing is allowed within the format of a candidacy exam.

[The infamous Kramers-Kronig relations]

The questions I got were more along the lines of "have you considered ____ in your model" to which I could answer "why yes I have".... (much easier then the previous queston)

My committee members seemed to think my presentation was good, so I'm happy. I got all my paperwork filled out so I will now be on dissertation hours for the rest of my time at UCF (only need to take 3 hours per semester instead of 9 to remain a full time student). So now I've got two hurdles down and two to go for my degree (still have to slog through proposal and defense.... but at least they make sense as opposed to this random candidacy requirement)

I think I'm now going to sit in front of the TV and veg before getting back to lab work tomorrow.

Blab

Today, at 1:00 p.m. EST, is Will's candidacy defense! So please send any positive vibes this way if you read this before then. :-) Will's mom sent him a care package of several containers of brownies.....yum!

No brownies from me - since I am a Bad Wife, instead, I met up for dinner with my old manager back at EY last night. She was in town for a firm conference. Her daughter is exactly 10 days younger than Annika, so we've always had fun swapping pregnancy/kid stories.

Annika has been cracking us up with some of the things she "doesn't have." She likes to point out what is lacking in her life. The other day she saw a picture of a diamond. "Oooh - that is a really cool diamond! I think I have never had a diamond before. Sometime I will have to get one." Dream on, girl!

Right on cue, since Will really needed to get a good night's sleep, Daniel slept horribly last night. He woke up at midnight and 2:30, AND wouldn't go back to sleep at 2:30. This hasn't happened since mid-June! Go figure.

Good luck, Will!

Dollar Tree

I have a new favorite store (okay, 2nd favorite - Target, you have my heart forever). The Dollar Tree! They are in malls around the country and what I would call a "true" dollar store. None of this "$2.50" or "5.00" nonsense - everything in there is a dollar. (Including pregnancy tests.)

And, courtesy of the store, Annika is now the proud recipient of a stuffed dolphin and whale! They've already engaged in competition on the way home in the car. "The whale wants to be better than the dolphin," Annika told Daniel in the back seat, "But the dolphin wants to be better than the whale. So he is sad. I will make him feel better." I'm not quite sure which animal "him" is, but feeling better is always good.

Here she is, enthusiastically showing off her new friends.

10 Sentences

I've gotten busy and have become a bad blogger. Here are 10 random sentences about what we're up to.

1. I e-mailed and mailed out my pilot study today.
2. I got a favorable review letter on a paper today that we submitted in, oh, NOVEMBER.
3. I'm still waiting to hear on 2 papers that I submitted in January.
4. Can you tell that I am at school now and thinking about school?
5. Will is home with Daniel today.
6. Daniel is getting even more huge - we think he weighs 18 pounds.
7. Will's candidacy is only a few days away!
8. Annika seems not as excited about school now, since a lot of her friends aren't here this term.
9. Annika wants to go on a train trip sometime.
10. Daniel and Annika are both looking forward to seeing Nonnie in less than a week!

Hope you are well!

By the Numbers

Today, courtsey of our craptastic insurance policy, we headed over to the county department to get Annika's scheduled immunizations, where they do vaccines on a walk-in only basis. Here's a recap of the fun:

• Time the health deparment opened: 7:30 a.m.
• Time that we arrived: 7:30 a.m.
• Assigned Number that we received upon arrival: 14
• Number of people we saw working there: 11
• Number of those people that actually gave immunizations: 1
• Time that our number 14 was called: 11:20 a.m.
• Number of shots that Annika received: 5
• Time that we finished: 11:40 a.m.
• Annika's handling of the whole situation: 100

The Sunset State?

I came across an interesting article from Time from a couple of weeks ago on why Florida is in trouble right now.

It opens like this:

"Greetings from Florida, where the winters are great! Otherwise, there's trouble in paradise. We're facing our worst real estate meltdown since the Depression. We've got a water crisis, insurance crisis, environmental crisis and a budget crisis to go with our housing crisis. We're first in the nation in mortgage fraud, second in foreclosures, last in high school graduation rates...." Click here to read the rest.

As a current 3-year resident of the Sunshine State, I thought a lot of the observations were dead-on. We love the wonderful people we have gotten to know here, our college, church, daycare, the close proximity of theme parks, and yes, the great winters. But I must say that I have never appreciated Kansas and the rest of the Midwest quite as much.

It's Getting Hot in Here

This weekend was HOT. In addition to the usual 95% humidity, the sun was in full force and the temperatures were in the upper 90s. Yuck. We tried to experience this first-hand on both days.

On Saturday, we headed near downtown for a "Family Theatre Festival." They had a bunch of activities for kids set up, especially arts and crafts projects. Annika enjoyed it, but the rest of us preferred taken turns under the "cooling fans" that were set up. [The whole event was sponsored by a major retailer whose logo is a birght red bullseye, which was oh-so-subtly placed on every object there.]

Today, Will went on a heroic mission: Conquering the grass! Our lawn is made with St. Augustine grass, which according to Wikipedia, "forms a thick, carpetlike lawn, crowding out most weeds and other grasses." Well. The problem with that is that it can also crowd out things like the sidewalk. With the purchase of an edger, Will spent several hours attempting to chop back the jungle that had grown onto the sidewalk by several feet. Will 2, Jungle 1.

The heat didn't stop Daniel's favorite activity. We attempted to put a bib on him....but the only ones that would fit over his neck were larger ones that had belonged to Annika. We can torture Daniel with this later.