Hooding done right

My first time being in the state for graduation festivities, for I found the hooding ceremony to be quite enjoyable.

Recovery

Thanks for all the good wishes for V! He aced the part that he was fearing and despite being a bit uncomfortable with the format (is being drilled questions in front of an audience ever comfortable??) did great. In the aftermath, we had much beer (anyone else familiar with Anderson Valley?)

We had a very relaxing weekend working on the yard. Last week, our courtyard was all gloom and doom and pink (ugh) flowers everywhere.

This weekend, we have cleaned up the beds and planted flowers*!

I am just happy to have my husband back!

*I *might* have overdone it with the marigolds...but so colorful!

Yay!

V passed his quals!

Yippee!

Details later...

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom is pretty fantastic. She does whatever she can to help me, and has taught me more than I can fathom. Given my field, she is pretty amazing in that she always tries to understand my work and learn from me too. All in all, I'm pretty lucky.

Love ya, Mom!

Congrats to a new Dr.

One of our departments favorites is leaving us. Today was his last day actually. Monday, grad student (and Sneks boyfriend), Ry, defended his thesis. He had very few revisions, turned bound copies in today and leaves for his postdoc this weekend. He is a great model for success in our department and it was very inspiring to see him fly through the defense with ease. I want to extend my biggest congrats to him!

It is very sad for our department though. I swear, as he finished his acknowledgements slide, there were people tearing up. He is one of those students that everyone loves. Softball team captain, president of the grad student organization, wins university-wide awards for his research- he'd be prom king if that grad student organization listened to my suggestion to have a formal. All this and a totally down to earth guy who genuinely cares and will do whatever he can to help you out. I have no doubts he will continue to do great research and be a great professor and advisor to some lucky students someday. Congrats again Dr. Ry! Here is the new Dr. and V after a particularly taxing round of 'RockBand.'