What a Month!

If there's anyone out there still checking this blog...my apologies. I'm not sure it even counts as a blog anymore, given how rarely I manage to update it!

In any case, we've had quite a month!

A few weeks ago, Michael was accepted a position at the University of South Florida, in Tampa. This is fantastic news. It's a great position in a great department, and it happens to be located near the beach...and the sun shines there!

As in, the sun regularly makes an appearance, and when it does there is no reason to drop everything and rush outside to try to see it, because you can be certain it will be there for a while. This is, as I said, fantastic news.

About a week after Michael got the job, I sent off my dissertation to my advisor. The final chapter is new, so it's possible there will be some revisions, but I'm really hoping it's finished. It is, at the very least, very nearly finished. So it looks like I will manage to get this phd one of these days, which will be awesome.

Here's a funny story: A few months ago, back in November or December, I decided to submit a paper to a graduate student conference that sounded interesting. I never submit papers to conferences, since they tend to happen in the US and I'm here, but I liked the topic and I went ahead and sent in a paper. When we got back in January, I heard that it had been accepted. Then I saw where it was taking place: USF. When I sent it in, I had no idea that Michael had applied there. When I accepted, and said I'd attend the conference, I knew only that Michael was in the running for the job, but that he might very well not get it. I accepted thinking "This will either be the best weekend ever, or the most depressing conference of all time."

So David and I went to Tampa! The conference was great, I even met a like-minded philosopher who works at U. of Miami, and I got to see the area! (And I got to hear people talk about how great Michael is, and how glad they are that he's coming, and that was nice:) It all felt pretty providential to me.

So that's that. Most of you (are there any of you?) probably knew all this already, but it seemed weird not to acknowledge Michael's awesome new job on the blog, so there you have it.

Now for the photos!

Here are some from yesterday. Emmanuel, David's buddy, is now 2! This happened altogether too quickly, but the party was a lot of fun.

Here's David playing with our present for Emmanuel, who was kind enough not to knock David over and take it back.

The boys played together really well. They crack each other up!

David was playing with these little animal magnets, so I put them in his pocket for him. He was inordinately proud to have them there.

And, after taking them out, tried to put them back in...

Here's my favorite shot from the day:

That's all for now!