Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

It was my birthday this week. Thanks to all of you who sent me wishes, etc. Rebecca had a few nice suprises, but things were mostly quiet. Paela enjoyed tearing the paper off and looking in the packages for me.

I was even able to babysit for some neighbor's kids for the afternoon while I worked on my syllabus. I am trying to compile materials for teaching this class at the CC. They have given me some liberty in how I teach the class, as long as I am able to teach the skill set they want students to learn.

The best news of the week was that all three of my committee members have officially signed my thesis document and the book has been sent to the presses. Once it is finished in a week or two, it will be given to the department and I will be officially finished. The day I have word from the University that my degree will be in the mail is the day I will celebrate. And a HUGE hand of thank yous goes to my good friend Ali who has done the dirty work of taking the paper around to get signed in person.

Rebecca had bookclub on Thursday night and so I stayed at home and read my own books. Paela and I have tried to stay out of the heat; this means that Rebecca and I are dreading our electric bill at the end of the month. But it has made things bearable. (What does it mean when you are in a "heat wave"?) We visited a toystore looking for gift ideas for Paela. I know her birthday is two months away, but we want to start looking now for the used items.

This Saturday, we had Camilla and Victor over, to use Rebecca's new security clearance. In order for us to take guests onto the local air force base where Rebecca works, she needed to have passed her security clearance. A few weeks ago, when we tried to go swimming, we were turned away because she was only "interim" -- good enough for work, but not enough for the military base. But she got the all clear this week and we all went swimming! Paela chased me around the pool complex and wanted to watch me do the diving board and the water slide and take her in the deep end -- "so deep!"