Preparing for the Big Family Visit and other random things

As you know, we got the main guest room in order. We are about 85% done on the other two rooms upstairs. Just a few more things to do and they will be ready. It's coming along slowly but surely. We are putting together an itinerary of activities. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

More importantly, I've submitted the dissertation to ProQuest, it was approved by the university and so it is now officially official. I will be hooded with the ceremonial hood and will receive a big piece of paper bestowing all of the honors and responsibilities of being an overeducated person.

I've managed to get out most of the announcements and invitations to dozens and dozens of people. I am thankful for self-sticking stamps. By the way, if you received it in the mail, it is an announcement, not an invitation. If you try to come to the ceremony without a ticket you will be turned away. However, if you do try and get turned away, let me know and you can join us for dinner afterwards.

I think I've figured out what spring cleaning really means. Twice this week I've seen workmen at various neighbor's houses literally emptying out basements and backyards. I called one of them and hope that we can work out a deal to take an old fridge, stove, and the oil tank this week. This will allow us to actually use the back part of the basement during the party.

In other news, I have learned that estate sales are FABULOUS. We went to one in central Massachusetts yesterday. We weren't looking for furniture but we were amazed at how reasonably priced everything was. We bought a few household items (serving dishes and the like) and some christmas presents, all for less than $15. Go to EstateSales.net for a list of upcoming estate sales and auctions in your area. We still haven't gone to any auctions, but hope to spend part of the summer learning about those too.

Also, for those of you interested in my dissertation research, my program director wrote a Spotlight article for our webpage about my work. You can go here and scroll down to see a not very good picture of me and read the summary.

That's all on this end. The semester is ending, which for us means grading, and grading, and more grading. Which is what I need to get to.