Everything But

This sure has been an eventful month. Or period of several weeks or whatever you want to call it. TM was on vacation for 2wks during Christmas, so I got absolutely no work done. Q pulled off a Christmas letter in record time – though I’d already written a draft, I let him completely re-write it ‘cause he said he’d been thinking about what to write almost all year. It certainly has been an amazingly eventful year for him (and us). It’s wild to look back and see what’s changed. I feel as if I haven’t progressed much, since all I ever do is work on my degree.

Speaking of which… I’m still working on it. I haven’t heard back from Molecular Ecology about my latest paper, which is a good thing, I think. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’m drudging through more data and finding more and more problems. But I must keep drudging.

Kit is Kute. He’s our new cat. Because we knew we couldn’t handle a dog, but I wanted something, and we thought it’d be really good for TM, we got a kitten. He’s an India Street Cat :D orange shorthair tabby. From friends of friends. Amazingly athletic, springing here and there, long and lithe. And Q has allergies, we think. So no bedroom-sleeping for Kit. Kit is short for Kitty Cat, the name TM gave him. He’s now 3mo old, and sleeping on the modem while I type. How he’ll manage with me being gone for 2wks sometime, I don’t know, but being a cat he’ll probably do fine. I just worry.

Two days ago I spilled the fish tank. I was trying to rearrange the living room so we’d have more room for kata or throwing practice or something like that, and as I pushed the bookshelf that the fishtank was on, the whole thing toppled like a couple dominos. Crash bang. That wasn’t a very fun Saturday. But I was happy that I saved most of the fish, and then Q wanted a new tank, which we picked up (with a stand this time) for $30. Cheap, eh? Yup.

I fired the cleaning lady and the driver. Now we have new ones that are more expensive but hopefully more reliable. That was tough. One doesn’t like to fire people. But what can we do? We didn’t like them. Sigh. And I feel funny talking about maids and drivers and things like that, but this is India, you know, and that’s just the way things are over here. One has maids and drivers. What to do.

TM has a nasty scratch on her cheeck (maybe 1.5cm x 1mm) from oopseedaisying into a bookshelf corner. I had to sit down and cry for 1.5 hrs after I got her to nap that day ‘cause I felt like such an awful mom. I’m glad I had Kit to hold while I cried. But it gave me an awful headache afterwards.

Oh – for Christmas dinner we had the chairman of Q’s office over, and his wife! Wow. Luckily Q’s mom gave us the china that she doesn’t use anymore, just in time for us to be able to lay a table. Not a complete table, but it was better (by leaps and bounds) than what we could’ve done before. Q cooked, which was lovely (I love his food) and I made a squash soup that really turned out well, after Q did the spices. He’s so good at that.

I need to get to the US. I’d LOVE to go NOW because I MISS shopping. But it’s so so so cold there right now that it’s not a good idea. So we’ll wait. We had a hard time deciding whether I’d leave TM here or take her with me, but we finally decided that I’d take her with me. That allows me to take time to see family, while if I went without her I’d simply have to run to Oregon and back without having time to visit. That’d be a bummer.

My advisor says that I shouldn’t worry about a timeline for my PhD – just keep trucking on it. Well, I still hope I can get it done this year. But I’ve been saying that for the last 3 years……..

The hinge on my laptop is broken. I hope it can stick it out ‘till I’m done with my degree – it has irreplaceable (for me) programs on it. Q’s new macbook laptop died, and I think he’s going to replace it with a PC. He never uses mac stuff anyway. I think macs are probably best for art, while for data management you’re pretty much stuck with a PC.

Ouch there goes my thumb again, getting stuck. It’s a sign. Time to sign off. I have so many things I wanted to do – send off my visa application, get TM a school bag, something else that has washed off my hand, and get a lid for the fish tank, but oh well that’s the way it goes. TM has a birthday party and that comes first.