Mom took us kids to Alaska for a two week vacation, and we never left. Well, eventually, but not for a long time ( Read more... )

My stuff was delivered yesterday around 17:30--they just dropped the pallets off at the door and we unwrapped the plastic from around them and brought the stuff into the house. A bunch of our friends, some truly wonderful guys who live a short walk away, came over and helped us carry stuff inside. We fed them some cookies, and they hurried on ( Read more... )

On Friday I turned four, for the fifth time ( Read more... )

Tuesday I received the examiner's report. Wednesday they delivered my boxes. These two facts alone would be enough to keep me very, very busy. Add to that experiments to upload, microprobe time, a conference next month to prepare for ( Read more... )

21 weeks ago today my boxes of stuff were picked up by the moving company. They told me that it would take 10 to 12 weeks to get them to Milan. Last week their UK counterpart told me that I should get them on Wednesday of this week ( Read more... )

When I first looked at the apartment I wound up renting we noticed that it lacked things like a toilet seat and towel rack, and the free-standing wooden closet had broken hinges, no door knobs, and missing shelves. When I did the meeting with the owner to sign the rental contract I gave my colleagues (who came along because they speak Italian and ( Read more... )

Yes, that is correct, at long last, I have finally heard from the shipping company--my things are in England, and have cleared customs (who want me to pay £20.00 for the privilege of having my boxes X-rayed). They tell me that there is a truck leaving London for Italy next week, and may they put my things on it to be delivered to me? Yes, Please ( Read more... )

Much of today was spent in the lab learning how to assemble the nest in which my little capsules sit during the experiments. We got everything nearly ready to run. The only remaining step is for my boss to make a new metal ring which goes at the top of the piston to keep the bridge from moving around. The old one was damaged, and while he tried ( Read more... )

This weekend I stayed home, which is to say, at uni, which is more or less home. I put in a total of 12 hours of uni-work this weekend, though all I have to show for it is increase understanding--there are no tangible results as of yet. Part of what I did was attempt to weld a little gold capsule on my own. I think I need to do it again with ( Read more... )

I enjoyed the second visit of my couchsurfing houseguests from Poland, but I didn't make as much time to spend with them as I might have liked, since I was aware of everything that needed to be done by this evening, in preparation for flying out tomorrow morning. Fortunately, they were very self-entertaining (a group of five guests at once is ( Read more... )