Congratulations Dr. Green!!

Finally, something worth posting about! It's been a week and a half and life has been so uneventful that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with a thing to post on. Today, all that changed...Jason defended his dissertation and passed with ease. Miriam, Tony, and I sat in on his defense and let me tell you, it was the most nerve racking hour and a half of my life! When I defended last month, the whole process played out more like a seminar than anything else...I presented, no one said a word during the entire presentation, a few questions were asked when I completed the talk, and I was done. Jason's went a bit differently. Every few slides, one of his committee members would stop him and ask a series of questions. THAT was the scary part for me...I understand his research on a basic level, but not on the deep theoretical level from which the committee's questions were coming. So, I had no idea whether or not he was answering the questions correctly...and no way of knowing if follow-up questions were due to a lack of satisfaction with his answers or further curiosity about the idea under discussion. After every series of questions I had to confirm with Miriam and Tony that things were going well...and each time the reassured me that it was going very smoothly. Thank goodness I had them there to keep me up to speed! When I talked to Jason after it was over, he told me that he wasn't nervous at all and that it had been fun!...I sure wish someone would have let me in on the fact that we were having a good time!

After the defense was over, we went to lunch with friends to celebrate. We were supposed to continue the celebration this evening with some more friends who couldn't make it to lunch, but poor Jason was so exhausted from the last few weeks of limited sleep and serious focus that he ran out of steam pretty early. He almost fell asleep at dinner several times, so we decided to call it a night. He's sleeping now...he's actually been sleeping since 6:30...I'll be curious to see if he sleeps until noon tomorrow like he claimed he would...I won't be surprised if he does!

Well, for all the dullness of the last few weeks, this week and next promise lots of excitement. Our new furniture will be delivered Wednesday and I'm very excited to see it! I told Jason the other day that I think I'm turning into my mother...for the first time I thought twice about having people over for dinner. I can't get the thought out of my head, "What if someone spills on my new furniture!?" Definitely something my mom would consider...

Thursday is when the real fun begins! I leave for my conference in Hawaii. I have to give two talks at the conference, but other than that I'll be spending most of my time either on the beach or at the pool. I think it's a win-win situation either way, I mean honestly, how could you go wrong picking between the following two locations to enjoy some tropical sunshine?

Beach:


Pool:

Hmm...beach or pool? Pool or beach? How ever will I decide? I guess I'll have to leave that one up to Kari. I'm so excited that she's going to meet me there! I haven't seen her since she flew out here to visit me last fall. I'm sure there will be lots of stories and pictures to share from our week in Hawaii...and don't worry, we'll be eating lots of fresh pineapple and soaking up lots of sun for all of you who can't be there with us!