pictures of my new house

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14317449@N00/sets/72057594116356785/

2 news flashes

(1) I went through the house inspection today. There were minor things that need fixing, but structurally the house is in good condition. In general, the owner has kept things pretty ship-shape. That happens when your grandfather built the house and you've lived in it your whole life.

I need to see the final report, but things seem ok. The things that need fixing are, like I said, minor, and every house has them, or so I've been told. Its a little scary to hear how expensive the minor things are, but it is a house. Nothing is going to cost twenty bucks to fix.


(2) My advisor emailed today and told me I have funding for the summer. woo hoo! This means a gravy train of funded research. In computer science, it seems, the only difference between getting research grants and teaching grants is that with the teaching grant, you have to teach. Either way, you still need to do research. So this summer, I'll be doing only research, which is what I really want to do right now. chalk one up for the home team!

grown up stuff

Even as an adult, my parents (and my friends' parents etc.) always seemed so comparatively grown up. I always wondered how you get to the position where you're comfortable raising kids and handling a house and have this job you'll have "forever". Even in my later twenties, in many ways, I didn't feel grown up.

Last Thursday, I made an offer on a house, and it was accepted. I think this is one of those big changes that qualifies as "grown up". Pretty soon, I'll have a mortgage, and tenants and a yard to take care of. (The short skinny on the house: 4br, 2 bath, 2 kitchen, 2 fireplace. The backyard is adjacent to conservation land, so I get woods+trails for free)

Anyway, I played squash for the first time this morning. Right before Danny and I left for the gym, I had to call and postpone the meeting with the mortgage people until tomorrow. Danny said he thought he'd be forty before he talked with his mortgage broker right before playing squash. He brought up a good point.


Last thing: this week is all pretty much staked out already, timewise. Which is good and bad. As long as the research doesn't suffer for it, it'll be ok. I have 2 birthday dinners to go to, which didn't happen nearer to my birthday because there was no time. Grad school. I'm thankful that I have the friends for 2 birthday dinners.

Tuesdays are going to be gruelling. I start class at 10AM and finish my lab hours at 10:30PM.
I should finish writing this paper tonight, but I'm >6 hours from that, so its probably just not going to get done today.

There's always tomorrow.

Today is the first day that really felt like things were getting back to normal. Classes, study, work, running, back to work.

The prospective students seemed to have enjoyed the experience. So far from what I've heard, we've scored two acceptances, and one probable. I haven't heard about the others. It seems a little weird, but this is kind of a big step. Last year, I couldn't imagine being comfortable as a PhD student. Stressed maybe, just trying to stay above water, yes, but comfortable, no. Now, I really feel like I belong here. Hosting the prospects gave me an opportunity to reflect on that and realize how far I've come in the past 12 months.

Hal took me around to look at houses on Saturday. The first one is a definite no. The second was probably no as well. I could take either of the other two, but I really, really liked the third one. More news on this later.