Still Alive II

Imagining where to start a post after very prolonged stretches of silence makes me want to channel surf. But I'm trying not to turn on the news until 4 today because Chicken Little is running all over CNN, and I'm susceptible to panic. And I'm already thinking too much about the financial crisis. So, I decided it was time to sit down and write. Or pull the plug on Truls Bobby. And I really don't want to pull the plug.

Since I'm keeping this blog as a kind of diary for myself as much as a window for friends and family, I need to basically make more of an effort. So here's my effort. Can you hear me straining?

I thought I would start with a recap of the last couple months. As I know this will take more than one post, I'm calling the first installment:

Chapter I
In August, we traveled to Norway for E's dissertation. Congrats to my man, he's now Dr. E. Maybe I should refer to him as Dr. E on the blog now. Could be funny. His area of specialty is MHCII molecules and... diffen gofle strapple gangler. Or, it may as well be diffen gofle strapple gangler when he gets into any kind of detail regarding his work with me. He's so highly specialized at this point that attempting to put things into laymen's terms, and believe me, I do ask and ask often for laymen's terms, is somewhat fruitless.

That said, I'm really very proud of him. Watching him at his dissertation was very impressive. In Norway, dissertations are handled a bit differently than in the US. I think we estimated that there were around 50 people (including professors, students in the program at University of Oslo, and family and friends) were in the auditorium that day. And then, we hosted a party at the university afterward. And even more friends were at the party. I've put together a slideshow of a few select pictures from the day. Notice that EM is dressed somewhat casually compared to the rest of us. Well, we had just arrived at the university for what was going to be a very long day when the little one launched a smear campaign. On my dress. And his lovely little outfit.

But without a doubt, it was a really great day. Even though when we were going to leave the party, the car battery was dead. And it was late. And the baby was screaming. And we didn't get in bed until 4 a.m.

Slide show coming. No really. I promise. But the baby is yelling for my attention. Tomorrow, pictures and more about the trip. (My version of a cliffhanger. OK. Really gotta run now.)