The Number Field

I'm running about a week behind in my posting, but we've been busy and haven't really had any events worthy of their own blog posts, so that's a brief explanation of why I haven't written anything in more than a week. Jenny said that I should at least let people know how we spent our holiday weekend, so I'll start with that.

We had a busy and fun Fourth of July weekend with friends and family, including three nights out in a row. On Saturday, we made pizza with Ben. He introduced us to the internet sensation that is Trololo man (aka Eduard Khil ), while we showed him the joy of pesto pizza and the game SET . Elena did obstacle course laps around his dining room.

Sunday we had a cookout with Jeremy, Amy, Jean, Ben and all their kids, followed by fireworks. They had picked up lots of fireworks at one stop of their long drive back from vacation the previous day. I had hoped that Elena would like the sparklers, but she was unimpressed. She did like the larger fireworks--she laughed at them whenever they would change from one stage to another. The only downside of the evening was the extended traffic jam as we tried to drive home after the local municipal fireworks ended.

On Monday we had dinner with Jenny's brother John and his family. It was really nice of them to make time for us to get together, because they were headed out on vacation the following day. After dinner we had the requisite trampoline/hide-and-seek/slide time. Although I resisted the boys' pleas to bounce them on the trampoline, I eventually gave in. Since they were leaving on vacation, and their tomato plants are in their prime fruiting period, we got the added bonus of a big bowl of fresh tomatoes. Even better, John reminded me about cream cheese and fresh tomato sandwiches, which I've enjoyed several times since then. It's too bad that Jenny doesn't like cream cheese or tomatoes, because they make the perfect sandwich, especially on her home-baked bread.

In other news, I sent a draft of my dissertation to my committee on Friday, which means that I'll be able to defend it the second week of August. I hope that they send me some comments and revisions, but not too many. Now I have to make sure I successfully navigate the maze of paperwork between now and the day I turn in the final paper certifying a successful defense. I'm glad that I have other projects to keep me busy, including this week's trip to Science Camp, because it will force me to be ahead of the game with the graduation requirements.