Weekend Update

I just finished my last week of teaching and spent Thursday and Friday doing individual oral finals. I have a few more to go on Monday as well as a stack of language and culture portfolios to wade through. While classes were winding down, I also was moved to a new office and it is great. I have a Real Door and a Window. Yes me, a lowly grad student, it's amazing. I'm in a suite with my former officemates so I've still got company but we can work quietly when we need to and talk and cheer each other on at other times (I am lucky to have cool 'mates).

I'll have about a week and a half off before the fall semester begins but I'll be revising my course, reworking my syllabus, and working on that little project called a dissertation proposal (aka the first three chapters!). This may be my last semester of taking credits, we'll see how the requirements and credits work out when I apply to take dissertation credits. I cannot believe how fast this has gone; I even missed our two year Texiversary, August 1!

Before classes take off again I'll also be working on a few projects around the house. I'd like to refinish the toy box my dad made me when I was a little tyke and use it as a storage piece in the guest room. I'm also redecorating the bathroom (or really decorating it since we never did much with it other than replace a faucet and towel racks). Austin is doing a trial period with his office set up in what is currently the guest/Stinky's room. He has the front room as his office and it has a large window so it gets really warm during the day. If he finds the guestroom (which has a small window and gets no direct sun) is significantly cooler, we'll be swapping both rooms and repainting.

Other than that, we're laying low and dealing with our worst weather of the year. It's hot but we're still ok with sunshine and bright blue skies and heat indexes as the trade off for not having winter and snow and wind chill factors.