RBOC, copy&paste edition

Okay, so I finally updated our family blog with what has been going on behind the scenes here at Chez Nous, and I will share some of it with you, through the power of copy and paste and with only a modicum of overlap. Voila, I present to you my last two weeks (only some of which is work-related)!

We begin my update with:

• what happened two Wednesdays ago, namely that my department head has announced his resignation, effective July 1. I am hoping he has sent out an announcement to all those folks who should find out from him, and not from reading this blog. It has been a very emotional year with respect to my department and my department head, as my department head announced last August that he had ALS, which is degenerative and eventually fatal. I want to blog properly about this sometime; for the meantime, just say it has been a tough year all around.
• we had a fun potluck at a colleague's house, where my husband and I helped people make little tiny pizzas for themselves -- the whole thing was to celebrate grades being in, and having had the last faculty meeting of the year...
• I started my first glass project at a make-your-own-glass-stuff store run by the partner of a colleague. This is very fun, but I think I so far suck at glass art.
• I attended my first Purdue graduation (for my new postdoc!) in the midst of a severe thunderstorm warning, with impressive lightning lighting up the bell tower... Purdue actually has "the Purdue Orator" read out the names of all the PhD candidates, with their names broadcast on the slide, and they get hooded by their advisor.
  
  The bell tower, all lit up by lightning in the scary thunderstorm - sorry it's blurry, the whole thing was terrifying, shortly after this shot, the heavens opened and it BUCKETED rain down. This shot was taken about 10 pm.
• We were going to have a garage sale, but we bailed on account of the 6 inches of rain the day before. But we had it this weekend instead.
• Another colleague had a massive party that he holds every year - "Italian" was this year's theme. It was a tremendous spectacle, as it always is, and the food was good as always.
• As I have already mentioned, last Sunday I drove home for my Dad's retirement party, then stayed a few extra days... I arrived to find lovely tulips, and a birds nest in the bell holder on the front porch.
  
  Birds in the bell
  

  Then my sister arrived home, as a surprise for Dad. :-)

  The main event was Dad's retirement lunch on Monday. It went really well, and they gave Dad a coolio microscope as a gift. Many, many photos were taken.

  The next day, my mom and I talked shop, while my sister and dad went sailing on one of the local lakes. And, of course, fell in. But the main thing is that they made it back to the house in time for a celebratory dinner at Otto's, where we sat out on the balcony and ate delicious things.

  The next day, I took everyone out to breakfast at my favourite Madison coffeeshop, Cafe Soleil, and we walked around The Square in downtown afterwards.

  
  Can you the the family resemblance? Look at all those blue eyes... except for Dad...

• I drove back to West Lafayette to have 5 hours of meetings with my research team, and to cook them dinner yesterday.
  RIFE Group dinner (Research in Feminist Engineering)
• Then last night, after cleaning up from dinner, and after my husband got home from being on a career panel in nearby Champaign, IL, we got to garage sale prep. This morning, we were outside at 6:30 setting up; our first (early-bird) customers arrived at 7:30 even though we didn't open until 8.

  
  The driveway at the beginning of the day

  
  The driveway at the end of the day (or, at least, about 3 pm)

  
  The difference between pre and post, as measured in money. W00T! We're going to donate most of this, or perhaps use it to BUY A DOG. I hope. From the Humane Society. Sometime soon.

So I guess this is what I've been doing instead of blogging. And it is helping me to uncurl. But I am also exhausted. More is scheduled for tomorrow, but at least not until the afternoon.