Update

*My promotion is still not finalized. I've been told that this is a mere formality, BUT... they have to officially advertise the job (which they just did two days ago) and I have to apply for it. And be interviewed. Why they aren't allowed to just promote someone internally, I have no idea. However, I'm fairly sure the job is mine for the taking. Either way, I'm ready to compete for it. Bring it on!

*As of 6am tomorrow morning, the UK will be "smoke free". Well, as far as smoking in public is concerned. We've been looking forward to this. There's a pub near us (The Porterhouse) which serves beer from Ringwood Brewery (one of my favorites over here). Unfortunately, the place is so smokey that we NEVER go in there. It's disgusting. But after the smoking ban, it will be accessible to us. K and I are going to go in there tomorrow to show our support by having a drink in their smoke-free environment. We fully support this ban and we don't even feel any sympathy for the smokers!

*I'm still going to the Minnesota Kali Group martial arts classes. In fact, for the summer, I've upgraded to the "Gold" membership so I can go to as many classes as I want. Generally, I go on Monday and Wednesday evening for two hours and on Saturday morning for two and a half hours. Tomorrow, Brendan (the owner/head instructor) is holding grading trials in Kali, JKD, and Thai kickboxing. I thought I'd give it a whirl by trying for the Level 1 Kali grade. So, tomorrow morning I'm going to see if I can swing the sticks well enough to pass the grading. Fingers crossed!

*We have been totally unaffected by the attempted car-bombings in London and Glasgow.

*K is almost finished with some last-minute changes to her "transfer document", a 10,000-word section of her PhD that she has to turn in to the school and which will then be read by a scrutiny panel. She then has to "defend" her PhD subject in a "Viva" on July 16th. Provided that they OK it, she just has to write another 70,000+ words to finish the PhD.

*On the 4th of July, I'm going up to the National Film Theatre in London because we are screening the students' grad films. Should be a nice day in the big city. The films are pretty good and I know the students a lot better than I did last year when I had just started the job.

*We just got a Cuisinart Professional Waffle Iron. The Belgian (Liege) Waffle we had in Dublin got is thinking about those luscious beauties we used to eat in Brussels. And, dammit, we want to be able to make them at home. We'll be testing a recipe tomorrow morning.