late nights

Some late nights for me as I close in on my phd defense. It would help (or perhaps not) if I weren't also desperately working to revise a manuscript for resubmission, and helping with Taran's transition to a different school (where he has made many new friends, but also managed to repeat EXACTLY his pattern of disruptive behavior as at his previous school, which, frankly, I did sort of predict). Oh, and the unexpected message from 3 that my mobile phone credit was gone (because the credit they sold us at the store didn't count as a top up and had to be used in 30 days, those sneaky sneaks), and coordinating with long-suffering Uncle Dan about shipping some of our books to us, and all the complexity of getting acclimated to a University that, to its credit, assumes I know what on earth I'm doing.

In any case, here's a photo of Lynn with her new friend Belinda at the soiree Lynn hosted at our flat last week. My impression (from the upstairs room) was that it was quite the social success, and Lynn plans to do another before making a real effort to devolve (my new favorite Scottish world) responsibility for additional get-togethers to the rest of the Mums in the neighborhood.

I'm happy the kids are sleeping through the night, and although the flat is quite chilly, I'm enjoying the weather, which isn't nearly as bad as Dunediners claim it to be. As one of the waitstaff at Snax Cafe said, "We're natural complainers," and one of my University colleagues put it, "Complaining about the weather has been elevated to a national past-time. At the least it's a way to start the conversation."

After all, it's currently 45F and clear skies, and a predicted high of 55F tomorrow with partly/mostly sunny skies. Sure it's currently 74F in Sun Prairie, but tomorrow night it will be 39F. In November it will still be 40-50F here, but in Wisconsin...