Mixed Nuts

Like a cup of glazed almonds sold from one of those vendors next to the Millennium Bridge, I'm going to keep this blog short and sweet.

Over the last couple weeks, I have buckled down to knock out my Transfer of Status report. I'm happy to say that just an hour ago, I knocked it out like Muhammed Ali. The net result: a 7300-word conference paper complete with over 30 figures and 15 references and a 5800-word literature review with 30 references. Such is the sum total of eleven months of reading, coding, and writing at my engineering lab desk.

While I have been madly slaving away at my writing (16 hours yesterday! whew!), I have still made a bit of time to socialize. Of course, we did move into our new house (never fear, you can still mail me at my Keble address), which has thus far been fantastic! Six double bedrooms, galley style kitchen, and of course the obligatory toilets/shower. My room is in the dungeon (bat cave? basement sounded boring... still taking suggestions), where the smell happily reminds me of my grandmother's basement in Maine! We christened our house with a housewarming BBQ and then found that the weather was so nice that three consecutive BBQs were necessary do the job properly.

In fact, we decided our crazy little house would be perfect for a sit-com. I have entitled it Mixed Nuts. I'm sure over the course of the year, vignettes from Mixed Nuts will appear in the blog. As a teaser, each episode is to open with me playing the cello with over a hodgepodge of our funniest moments. Episode 1 would include Dave, Ellie, and myself standing around our tiny 800-setting washing machine in the kitchen (yes, in the kitchen), hypothesizing that Ellie's clothes would be torn to shreds...

Indeed, there has also been the usual tea and cakes on Sunday, punting up the Cherwell to the Victoria's Arms Pub, croquet on the OU Croquet Club green (very posh!), and the regular cricket outings... but I'm afraid I must now leave you in favor of packing for my trip! In the next episode: all about Germany and Switzerland! Auf Wiedersehn!

CULTURE CORNER
Words of the Day:
gutted. adj. To be disappointed in a chummy sort of way. syn: bummed out. ex: I can't believe the US didn't win more golds at the Olympics. I'm gutted.

chuffed. adj. To be pleased or happy about something in a chummy sort of way. syn: stoked, psyched. ex: I really wasn't expecting Team GB to do as well as they did in the Olympics. I'm chuffed they made third place!