The beginning of the end...

... of SCHOOL that is!

Today was the last first day of classes EVER for Eric. You can bet I did a happy dance this morning as he left for campus. It's been such a long time coming and it's not over yet. We still have quite a bit of an uphill climb left over the next three and a half months (read: THESIS). But, I think I can see a little light up ahead. And that feels really nice.

As of today, the thesis research is about 90% complete. The entire thesis is outlined. And eight of .... who knows how many pages are written.

This picture could be entitled, "I don't understand a word you just said." (Name that movie!) or "My husband is really intelligent." or "I'm not smart enough to talk to you." :)

Eric says this is just a working title, not the final one. But it gives you an idea. Intense, man. Mostly when he tries to talk to me about his thesis, I spend a few minutes trying to wrap my brain around the concepts he's talking about, and then give up and just smile and nod. :) I'm sort of kidding. But I'm really, really proud of all his hard work!

Hard at work...

Although I may not be great for theorizing with about the implications of the genetic algorithm on seismic design, I am a great cheering squad/support group/secretary. One day while I was out running errands last week, I saw a nice office chair as I walked into Office Max and thought, "Eric would like a nice one of those!" Kind of random, but it got my mind working and I came up with (what I think is) a great idea. It was pure inspiration. Thanks to a little creativity and some wicked awesome after-Christmas clearance sales, I bought and wrapped 30+ gifts - some silly and some less silly- one to be opened for every completed thesis page. A few of the "less silly" gifts have two or three page price tags on them. Hopefully it'll help carry us through some of the rough times when we wish anyone and anything involved with engineering would drop of the face of the earth. :)

Onward and upward to the finish!