Happy November!

Well, October was unseasonally cold for us, but the last few days have been unseasonally warm. Yesterday the high reached into the 70s and today it was in the 60s. Nice to have a little bit of warmth before we settle in to the winter. D washed and put sealant on our balcony/deck today since it was so warm. We are just about ready for winter--the next step is to put those heat-sealing films on our windows since we seem to lose so much heat from them. I'm looking forward to getting to decorate for Christmas this year with the tree we bought last year. Pre-lit and everything! Now if only I could get my sewing machine fixed so I can finally finish making the stockings I started for us when we moved to Iowa four years ago. Yes, I know that's pathetic.

Funny happening of the day: the mom of one of my most annoying students came to class with him today. He usually has the shortest attention span I've ever seen and is loud and obnoxious. Today, he was as quiet as a mouse, along with the rest of his class. It was amazing! What a difference a parent makes! I wish she could come to class with him every day.

Yesterday we took advantage of the good weather (meaning me and the 6th graders...the other science teacher calls them Baby Einsteins) by calculating and then actually walking the distances in a scale model of the solar system. If the sun were the size of a basketball, the closest planet (Mercury) should be about 10 m away from the sun! Pluto didn't get to go far enough away because he would have been across the field in the middle of the street behind the school. The Baby Einsteins are fun...I want to devote more time and energy to planning for them.

Congrats!

D passed his comps last week! It's the last major hurdle before writing his thesis and doing his thesis defense. In his department, the purpose of the comps is to see whether the student has the background knowledge and a clear idea of where he/she wants to go for his/her thesis research. D had to write a paper (which ended up being 60 pages) and do a presentation for his committee. Then they asked him questions and made their decision. The nice thing about the long paper is that much of it will probably end up being recycled into D's final thesis. The professors commented that he's a good writer. Props to our liberal arts undergrad experience!

So, timetable for all this? He can probably be finished in 1 1/2 to 2 years. But, since I get a sizable amount of loan forgiveness if I stay and teach at this school for a total of 5 years, we'd like to stay 3 more (including this one). Luckily, D's advisor just got funding renewal for another 3 years, and D has already talked to him about staying until that funding is gone. It makes a lot more sense for his advisor to keep D than to train a new grad student for just 1 year of work.

D's stress level is thus much lower at the moment, and he is right now in Philly at a conference. He presented a poster on Monday and is hanging out and hopefully making contacts for the rest of the week. He's back on Friday night. Once he gives his departmental seminar next Monday, we will be out of the woods stress-wise for him. This is good, since I'm rapidly approaching the end of the trimester and I get a feeling it's going to get nuts around here.

Must go and get ready for the school day. TTFN!