A & E's Adventures: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Settling In

Ed and I realized tonight that it's been just over a month since we've moved. That seems crazy! To be fair, we were gone for a week and a half of it, so we haven't really been here for a month, but we have been gone from our bay area home for that long. While I have so many fun things I still need to blog about, sometimes it's fun to just hear about the every day, too.

So, what have we been up to?

Well, Ed's been doing a great job tackling our gardening. When we got back from Kauai, we came home to crazy long grass. It took a while, but Ed got it under control. We also bought a weedwacker that I got to show Ed how to use. A long time ago, I used to help my dad do weekwacking and have very fond memories of it. It was fun to teach Ed, and help make our grass look pretty.

We've also been busy trying to tackle our first painting job. It's been a bit of an ordeal, as we had curtains and drapes to remove, holes and cracks to patch, and areas to sand. We still aren't don't prepping, but we're making progress.

We did finally choose our paint color, though! We went with the sample on the far right, "cloud burst" by BEHR. It's going to look so pretty with the prints we're going to hang there, and with our furniture.

The first place we've decided to paint is this little nook off to the side of the door. We figure this will be a good place to see if our technique is effective, if our paint colors are good, etc.

So far we've only done the primer (having trainings 7:30 to 4 every day has put a bit of a damper on my energy) but we'll do the painting soon.

We also made a point to get out of the house, despite the temperatures, on Saturday. We have a lovely riparian preserve (that is right next to our library), and Ed was eager to go visit. Since we didn't get out until after 8am, I voted that we would walk instead of run (since it was already pushing 95). It was very pretty (though we did see a toddler rattlesnake which made me a bit nervous about future trail running) and would be a good place to run in the future.

Tonight? We went out. I had a very, very full and very, very long training (schools don't have windows here, and it was a bit claustrophobic to be inside a huge complex with no outside access for almost 9 hours), and we both agreed that a pitcher of beer and pizza was exactly what we needed. So, we headed to Oregano's.

Along with a pitcher of fat tire, we had the pesto pizza, with chicken, which was fabulous. Even better, we were sitting outside and it was perfectly comfortable. The misters were lovely, and it was so nice to be spending time outside on a beautiful summer evening.

And for dessert, we couldn't resist a pizookie.

After the pizookie was mostly finished (and I was beyond full) we enjoyed just sitting and watching twilight fall.

As we left, the full moon shone brightly in the sky.

While work has been, at points very stressful and frustrating (as well as very encouraging and exciting), I can already tell that our life outside of work will be wonderful. We've been going in the pool close to every day as soon as I come home from work, and have been relishing in having so many different spaces in our home in which to hang out. It's hard to believe that my school year has already started and the school year begins Tuesday. I'm not sure that I'm completely ready, but I am looking forward to what will hopefully be a wonderful new year.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Ed's Graduation (Flashing Back)

Celebrating Ed's graduation was something I'd been looking forward to for a long time. I say I, not we, because Ed had been telling me for a long time that he was not going to walk at his graduation. He skipped his college and masters graduations and wasn't wild about the pomp and circumstance, as it were. However, luckily we were able to persuade him that even if it wasn't important to him, it is a special event for his family and the UC Santa Cruz staff that supported him along the way, and he finally relented.

Which brought us to June 12th, a beautiful day in Santa Cruz.

The celebration began at the Buttery, a favorite local restaurant, where we had lunch.

Food was lovely, and it gave me a chance to pick up the cake for the party later!

From there, we headed onto campus, and I was reminded of what a privilege it was to live here for a year.

We went off and explored the library while Ed headed off to get ready, and then went ourselves to the field for the main event. A little after we found our seats, our friends Bill and Jenny joined us - such a treat.

Soon, Pomp and Circumstance started playing and we all craned to get a view of the professors and graduates. My sister, Kortney, got a better view by standing on her chairs.

The professors sat in front of us, and the grads sat in bleachers facing us. Of course, I picked the wrong side for us to sit on, but we still had a very nice view. We kept ourselves entertained by guessing the discipline of the graduate, based on their dissertation titles. Finally they got going and we waited, and waited, and waited, until Ed's name was read.

Beforehand, we all made a plan of when we'd cheer (while he was being hooded, for the full dramatic effect).

As his advisor, Jerome, hooded Ed. We all screamed as loudly as we could, and we weren't the only ones. All his Masters Education students, who were also graduating, cheered for him as well. We may be biased, but he had the best cheers of the ceremony!

We were all very proud of our graduate.

Of course we all needed our picture with him!

Kort had fun playing around with his hood (as did others!). It's like being a PhD superhero :)

After the ceremony, we left campus and headed to Jerome and Bert's home, where they were hosting a celebration for Ed.

The food was amazing

The cake I had gotten was beautifully decorated with flowers.

Ed chose the coffee flavor cake, which was a big hit!

The dinner tables were set up in the living room, and looked beautiful. Ed and I decided it was possibly fancier than our wedding :).

We all wasted no time in getting settled and enjoying the food and drinks.

Outside was just as lovely!

It was wonderful having everyone together.

After eating, Jerome gave a very wonderful toast about Ed's hard work over the last five years. Next, my dad gave a very touching speech, I said a few words, and Ed's mom also spoke.

Finally, it was Ed's turn. I'm always amazed by how great he is speaking in front of others, since he usually comes across as pretty reserved. Though, after hearing his mom talk, I can see where he gets that side of himself.

He presented Jerome with two gifts. First, since Jerome is always giving Ed books (and followed in turn by giving him two that night about being a new faculty), Ed gave Jerome a book about the Santa Cruz Campus. He also gave him a signed and bound copy of his dissertation, of course.

After speeches and gifts, it was time for the cake, which was every bit as good as we hoped it would be!

During dessert, Jerome's partner, Bert, entertained us by reading Ed's dissertation table of contents with very hilarious side notes. Who knew a science education dissertation could be so scandalous?

It was a great night, celebrating with friends and family!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

How to Catch Up?

Today is my unofficial last day of summer vacation :(. Tomorrow is my first day putting together my classroom, and my official first day of work is Monday. Seriously, how did that happen?

I have so, so much (actually pretty much everything from this summer) that I haven't even had time to share yet. So, here's everything that's happened, in one quick post. The goal will be eventually doing real blogging about all of these special events, while still keeping up with day to day life. We'll see how that goes :).

This was my summer: