They Say It's Your Birthday

It's my birthday too, yeah.

Really. And I am spending it just like the last six days - eight to twelve hours of heavy studying for the oral boards. But since it is my birthday, and Friday and all that...



This has been the view from my lap most of the week (with notes, book, tea, nice view, and of course Zima the cat). It may look like she's sitting on a stereo receiver, but it is really an electronic cat warming device that happens to play music.

OK, back to my cave. I fly to Louisville tomorrow afternoon. The test is Sunday. See you in June.

Hiatus

Coming out of hibernation just long enough to say "I'm not internetting this week." Test is in seven days. I'm at home this week cramming. So you won't see me out and about until June. Will catch up then.

Back to my cave...

Weirdness on Steroids

My dreams continue to grow more and more vividly bizarre as the studying intensifies and the exam approaches. I can hardly guess what craziness my brain will manufacture next. Imaginative and disturbing, all at the same time. And really, really off-the-charts weird.

The World Is His Litterbox

He just doesn't know it yet.

We've started letting Silvio outside when we are home to supervise. He hasn't figured out that he can pee wherever he wants to when he is outside. Today, he was outside for a while, and then promptly peed on the porch when I let him back in. *sigh* Maybe we should have him follow Zima around. She definitely prefers nature's litterbox.

I haven't been around the internets much due to the impending exam. It's all eat, sleep, work, study. I'm taking the last week of May off, so I can cut out the work part and study full time. May 31. Seventeen days.

My Three Cats

This was the scene last Friday afternoon as we were leaving for Callaway Gardens. Typical. Moxy is chillin', Zima is sleeping, and Silvio is stuffing his face.

Ghost In The Machine?

Physics has invaded my dreams in a big way since I ramped up the studying this month. The weirdest nightmare occurred a few nights ago. I was doing some routine tests on the linear accelerator and it started, well, messing with me. Moving stuff when I wasn't looking, wrecking my test results, making mischief. And then it got nasty. Then the next thing I knew, I was somehow stuck to the gantry head, hanging on for dear life as it rotated around and around, faster and faster. I couldn't jump off without injury, and couldn't make it stop. There are lots of emergency off switches, but none in the head. (In reality, it isn't capable of continuous rotation. It will do a full circle, but only once around so the cables don't get tangled. But since when has reality ever gotten in the way of a vivid dream?) I tried to yell for someone to hit one of those emergency off switches, but could only manage a hoarse whisper. No one could hear me because I was inside the shielded vault without a voice, and the machine was out to get me. Because this linac was evil. Lets just hope the board examiners aren't.

Countdown = 25 days