Hi family! I hope things are well. I thought Id update the blog before there are any riots. It's been a good semester so far. I'm a TA for a materials intro lab. I teach porosity, grain size, and sample preparation to a bunch of sophomores who don't care one lick. The way our lab is set up, I teach four weeks and grade the papers on my off weeks. The papers are...well...Carson could write some of them. There are plenty of good ones, but there are some stinkers too. Despite the attitude, I do actually enjoy being a TA right now. Which is good, since I have to do it again next semester. I've got a new advisor and a project that I'm looking forward to, so yay.

The football team...not so hot. We have a new coach now. We've lost several games in a row. Kinda sad.

Amy was in town this weekend. We saw a glimpse of her as she ran past. Actually, we had a lovely lunch after church on Sunday. I can't even begin to tell you how happy mom was. I go up to visit in 2 weeks. We have fall break and I have a rather open schedule at the moment, so I get to go visit. Yay!

We had a tornado or two at the beginning of the semester. It was quite scary once you realized that the tornado warning was real.

I went to Pittsburgh for a materials conference 2 weeks ago. It was quite fun and productive too. I always love a new city when I have my camera, so today's slide show will be from the conference. Enjoy!

home again, home again

Well, we got up on Wednesday morning and Jessica’s mother had made a delicious breakfast for us. We ate and watched some more Olympics, then we got on the road just after 7. We drove and drove and sang and whatnot. We got to Ben’s house in Atlanta (Conyers, if you want to be picky) at around 2 or 3. We unloaded his stuff (but I’ve already found his bedsheet in the car, so who knows what else he left in there) and talked to his dog, a chihuahua who apparently wanted to come to South Carolina with me, as he decided to camp out in the passenger’s seat. I headed out and maneuvered the roads of Atlanta quite brilliantly, on my way home finally. I called all sorts of people, trying to keep myself from getting antsy or bored in the boring drive from Atlanta to Greenville. I got within 3 miles of the house when I was slowed down by a car that insisted on going so slowly that it made me cry. I got home and yay! I’m here! Woo! Chris came over for dinner, Paul came over after that, and there were wii competitions. Quite fun. I pooped out and here I am this morning. I am sitting here all by myself with the dog, who is quite content. Mom and Amy left for PA just a little while ago (boo) and Dad has gone to work now. He’s apparently going to Kansas on Sunday, so nobody will be around. I’ll probably hop between Clemson and Greenville for a little while.

Thanks for being awesome readers! Amy has promised to blog for us while she’s gone. I don’t know how frequent my blogging will be this school year. Grad school puts a lot on your plate, so yeah. We’ll see. But anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it!

the dull part of the drive (except we got to see Jess)

Did I mention that we failed to find the special Dr. Pepper in Texas? I am very sad.
The drive out of Texas was very foggy. Very Very Very foggy. So there weren’t many pictures on this trip. Oklahoma was mostly boring. I called Rachel and talked to her while I drove. Except she was in Texas and not Oklahoma. Arkansas is currently boring as well. Ben is griping at the drivers around us. They’re quite absurd. We saw a plane take off right next to us. We are on the west side of Arkansas, on the way to Little Rock.

Welp, now I’m at Jessica’s house. Yay! The traffic in Memphis was quite insane, but we made it into Collierville safely and have had a lovely dinner, thanks to Jess’ family. We had delicious homemade peach ice cream. Yum! After a quick walk around the neighborhood and a phone call, I’m ready for bed. Going home tomorrow!