most full 48 hours in a while

TBen received his diploma today! Yesterday was the hooding ceremony (see video immediately below) and then we had a GREAT dinner with family and friends.

awww, my graduate

all the physics graduates

Then we came home, and Becca slept over, and right before bed, at about 10:45 PM: THE KITCHEN FLOODED! Yes, icky kitchen sink water backed up in our kitchen and made a HUGE mess. We went through the BBB plumbers for Boulder County and NO ONE was willing to come out! Eventually someone gave us another plumber to call, in Denver, who had to send someone from Castle Rock (about an hour away when the weather is good and there’s no traffic, which was the case last night). The plumbers got here at about 12:15 to take apart the sink and snake the drain. BTW, this drain had already been replaced on Tuesday this week when on Monday night the PVC pipe had cracked and slowly leaked already! So, thankfully had just hadn’t had time since Tuesday to put all the cleaning things back under the sink so nothing was ruined by sludgey kitchen water. It was gross. The guys had to snake the mainline all the way to the street and then Ben cleaned up while I took a quick shower and then he did the same. Becca left early to go shower at the gym at school before heading into the lab because we all looked like zombie people in the morning!

In spite of all the drama in the kitchen, and the fact that my dad still had Ben’s poofy hat (which he needed to be allowed to process today), I got to a Weight Watchers meeting this morning, Ben got there in full regalia in time to process with his classmates, and my dad and Ben’s parents all got good seats (though no together) for the big convocation.

The ceremony was lovely, we started with a moment of silence after the color guard presented the colors for the victims of Newtown, CT, and it was lovely how personal the winter convocation was compared to the HUGE spring one. Pat Mason, a baritone, voice professor, award winning performer, award winning educator, and all-around awesome guy gave a great speech about how homework and time in the practice room really do prepare you for real life. I wish I’d had a chance to take a class with him, but everything he teaches is oriented to vocal studies from what I recall.

Anyhow, I know you’re all just here for the photos, so here’s Ben at the big graduation and a cute shot of me at the end.

shake your tail feathers!

sitting through convocation

getting hooded 2.0

yey, grads!

my grad.

shaking the chancellor’s hand

diploma!

undergrads in the stands, PhDs to the left, and masters to the right

recessing

recessing

mountain view outside the stadium

probably my last photo with Ralphie in a while

And now, it is time for some quality time with my pillow. Tomorrow we’re going to the bank to take care of stuff in the morning with my dad before meeting his friends for lunch, and then wandering around town trying to find Ben a graduation gift. I got my own wife-of-the-graduate/channukah present today, some beautiful amethyst earrings from our favorite jewelry store in town. :)

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this week in bullet points

Saturday we had a great lunch at Rabbi Marc’s to say goodbye and to greet Julie Geller before her channukah concert that evening. We skipped the concert and Jason and Diana invited a whole bunch of friends over to have a little going away get-together for us.

Skiing on Sunday was GREAT, I’m still sore; probably because I bruised my right calf pretty well, oops. I need to not tighten my boots as tight as they go just because I can.

I spent Monday (usually my quiet day off to do yoga) packing my office.

I’m moving on both ends, packing up the office at CBS, where I’ve been the temporary office assistant for about 2 months, for a renovation. They just finished the sanctuary/social hall renovations and are starting on the office today! New carpets, fresh paint, and rearranging the furniture, woohoo!

Ben was published in NATURE magazine yesterday!!! Here’s a link to the press release that he claims any college graduate should be able to understand (I don’t!): JILA Physicists Achieve Elusive ‘Evaporative Cooling’ of Molecules

Ben’s parents arrived last night, they both have a cold/cough thing of some sort :(

He is currently out for brunch with them while I have some quiet time and iron his gown and hood (he has a poofy, blue doctoral hat, it is not very flattering)

My dad should arrive around lunchtime today (my mom is currently posted in Germany)

Physics Department graduation is this afternoon, then we’re going out with all the parents and some friends to a fancy-ish Mediterranean restaurant (The Med)

University Convocation is tomorrow morning and then just the 5 of us are going to lunch at The Kitchen (a local farm-to-table restaurant) before his parents fly to Kansas

Packing is going kinda well, we mailed most of our books (about 400 lbs so far and another 150 still to be mailed) and sold our crummy Target furniture on Craig’s List

A friend Diana is adopting Mr. Fishy and taking him into her second grade classroom

We still need to give away a few pounds of butter, ice cream, frozen spinach, etc. from the fridge/freezer. We can only pack unopened pantry goods on the moving truck.

Still planning to move into my parents’ basement for a while we look for a house in Silver Spring/Takoma Park, MD (about an hour from McLean).

And that’s life for the moment. Pretty Ben-centric and surrounded by boxes!

PS- U-Haul has great boxes! They’re so much sturdier than the ones we stole from the recycling bin at the book store….

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