is it Jan 24th already?

i haven't posted in so long...
some important updates:

1. starting with the very good news: i was offered (and accepted) an awesome postdoc job for 3 years, to start as soon as i graduate, at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the university of chicago. that means that we will have 2 salaries (hurray!) and i get to do whatever i want with mine. i mean, work on whatever i want :)
ooh, and i'll have an office with a window!!

2. the last 2-3 weeks my friends and i have been monitoring the 'Astrophysics Job Rumor' page, to see who got offered what in the job market this year. had some happy days (and celebrations) when my friends got good offers. seems like things are settling down now when all the big fellowships are out (hubble, spitzer, chandra, big names :))

3. i had a bad cold for a few days, and ben took good care of me. i hate being sick, but i love being taken care of :)

4. the middle eastern restaurant on our street closed a few months ago, and this month a japanese restaurant opened instead. we went there last week, and we intend to go there frequently just so that they stay in business. a reasonably priced sushi that tastes good on your street is an important resource, so we'll do whatever we can to support them.

5. the scroogim developed an annoying habit of standing in the doorway and barking at the door (they say 'miau', of course, but they're really barking). at first i thought they were missing ben (it started when he was away) but now we don't know why they do it.

6. i started going to pottery class - tonight will be my 2nd time. they teach us how to make clay into bowels and other round things on those spiny wheel thingies. it's fun, and messy, and i like it so far. expect to get bowels for presents next christmas ;)

ok, it seems like traffic is moving better on lakeshore now, so we can start thinking about driving to work.