Summer is officially over. Kids are back in school. I am pretty much a stay-at-home-Dad these days and this is even more obvious during breaks in the school calendar.
And we certainly had a great summer, starting even before school ended, with our trip to New York City. We went to the pool a lot and generally had a nice laid-back family time together.
Coturnietta spent a week in a science-technology summer camp, then ran off to the beach with her cousins and my mother-in-law for a week. She read a bunch of books (all with cats as main characters - she is a huge cat lover). She had such a good time this summer, she was not that excited about school starting again. She has the best teacher in the school this year, the same one my son had three years ago. We have great communication with the teacher so we are looking forward to a good school year for her.
She has also mastered the use our digital camera, taking pictures mostly of our cats (you can see two of those in other posts tonight). Her birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and, if we can afford it, we want to buy her a digital camera of her own.
Coturnix Jr. started the summer with some math-advance algebra school and, unfortunately, spent his birthday in the ER (don't ask) while at the beach. He did not get to see his friends over the summer as much so he is much more eager to go back to school. So far, I have not met his teachers, but he says he likes them all. The language arts teacher he was dreading suddenly decided to retire so he had a big sigh of relief.
Mrs. Coturnix quit smoking a couple of months ago and is doing great with it. Still, all those night shifts in the ICU are making her tired.
As for me, apart from having a great time with my kids all summer, managing to read a couple of books, and enjoying the community spirit here at Seed ScienceBlogs, the end of summer also gave me a renewed enthusiasm about finally finshing my Dissertation. Blogging helped - it brought me an offer to use space where I can write in peace in quiet. It is in a corner of a computer lab which is mostly devoid of people. The computer (according to my specifications) has been isntalled and, hopefully tomorrow, all my strange old software will be properly installed on it and working fine so I can get started on making hundreds of grapsh that are still missing from the thesis.
Taking such a long break from writing was not all bad. Now that I am thinking about my data again, with a fresh eye, I am seeing new things and coming up with new interpretations. I am looking forward to tackling the stuff again. I also have to fill a little gap in literature (2004-2005), so if I read something interesting, that may result in a cool blog post.
Due to renewed effort at thesis writing, I may blog a little less - perhaps 5 instead of 10 posts a day! But I'll try to make those posts good. I have a couple of dozen ideas of topics I'd like to tackle soon, so those posts will keep coming. Also, November is coming closer, so there may be not just more chronobiology but also more politics here in the near future.
Unfortunately, this time of year always poses the same problem - summer is expensive! I get little or no teaching over the summer. Kids need to be fed, taken places and entertained. They both have their birthdays. And then there is the Back To School shopping for necessities, followed by our anniversary (no presents - just a night out).
So, we are in a big hole. I have squirreled away just enough to cover the next rent, and went to the grocery store and filled the fridge. I have already milked my mother and mother-in-law out of everything they had and there is nothing left for any other bills. I am afraid that power, water, telephone and internet may get cut off by the end of the month and there is nothing I can do about it. So, if you are in the Triangle area and know of a flex-time job, let me know. Or if you'd rather hit the PayPal or Amazon button down on the bottom of the sidebar, I'd appreciate it as well. I hate begging like this, but I see no other option. Thank you.
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