Two Week Recap

Greetings. A lot has seemingly taken place over the past couple weeks and I'm just now getting a chance to take a step back and relax. I figured now was as good a time as ever to update the blog, since I'm sitting in the laundromat waiting for my clothes with very little to do. So here is a chronological ordering of the events that have taken place over the past couple weeks:

1) Started seedlings for the garden. Spring is almost (yes, almost) here and the vegetable garden provides some great pleasure... and food!

2) Passed my thesis proposal. This was a huge stress in my life since February. Most of March was spent writing my proposal, writing and re-writing... mostly re-writing. The beginning of April was the actual presentation. A quick 30-45 minute talk over a topic I had just spent the past month writing a paper about, so that wasn't too bad. However, after the talk your committee is allowed to ask you questions about whatever (generally related to your field of research), and can do so for however long. Needless to say, I survived.

3) The Dead River Oilers won the UVHL championship! Dead River (DR) is the men's league team I play for in the UVHL (the Upper Valley Hockey League), a men's A league. Great hockey, good fun. Turns out that although we finished 4th in the regular season (out of 6), we had the best team come playoffs. We won 5-2 in the championship against a solid Whalers organization.

4) Submitted my first "first author" paper. A letter to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, to be precise. The article is currently undergoing review, so I will refrain from discussing it here.

5) Mudleague hockey playoffs. This event was not so great in terms of the overall outcome. We lost in the first round against the Wiseguys, but it was a 1-0 final score. I probably had around 40 saves, I'd estimate. A good individual performance.

6) End of hockey season. Normally something I wouldn't find myself wanting to enjoy, but it was a long season and the end feels great. Last night was the last skate of the year, a UVHL pick-up skate; the last official skate before they took the ice out of Campion.

A great couple of weeks, in my opinion. Now I get to put effort into enjoy other things in life, aside from my thesis proposal and hockey. More likely than not, this will include Contra, gardening, and hiking.