The house closes in two days!
I've got plenty of finals to work on and packing to do, so instead of a real post, I give you:

RIP Paul Gleason.

Black Friday

Last Tuesday, the CS department held the annual Black Friday. Its where all the professors get together and talk about each PhD student one by one. Often, the result is a stern warning to students to shape up and get cracking on their theses. Potentially, the department can kick students out of the program after a Black Friday session. (yes, this year, Black Friday was on a Tuesday. The name's stuck, and anyway, Black Tuesday just doesn't sound as ominous.)

During our weekly meeting, my advisor and I discussed results, and it was about what I expected. I won't go too much into detail since this can be bloggable, but things are mostly good. I need to concentrate on research, but we knew that. He also suggested I take the RPE (read: qualifying exam) this coming fall. Students typically take it sometime in their third year, so I'd be a year early. There's no reason not to get it out of the way though, as long as I can pass it. So maybe.

Haviland score: still 3!

A&E were up, and we had a grand old time. Their Sunday drive took 18 hours. yikes! I had a round of beers waiting for them, just in case they wanted to wind down. They came with a cooler of Yuengling. Great minds think alike.

Count my Haviland score back up to three, I think. I was a little reluctant to say so after last time's record nine day stay, but things seem really pretty good up here in Hanover. Yes, star, you were right.

Mala and I went furniture shopping yesterday. I grossly, grossly, underestimated how much even used furniture costs in New England. Yikes! it is expensive. Add that onto the other costs for a 4br house. I'm going to pretend its just part of the offering price and go from there.

I hope Mala is ok with the normal matress instead of the tempurpedic one she fell in love with. I just want this house to be perfect, and I want to do it up right. Its the first house, after all.

You all should come up and see it in July, after we've had a month to make it look good.

A&E arrive from Bloomington sometime tonight. Current ETA is midnight, which gives me plenty of time to do work. As long as I stop procrastinating.