Out of the frying pan.

Hiyo folks, Dan here for this week's installment of the Compendium.  When last we spoke I was neck deep in school work and Minnesota was doing its best to pretend it was still January.  Since then winter gave up the ghost bypassing spring and moving straight on to summer, and I, gloriously and with many a raised glasses, finished my first year of grad school.

This is a tower of the textbooks I used in my courses this year.  And if it by chance seems insufficient to cure your insomnia fear not! I have countless articles and supplemental reading materials which can lend a hand.

I all seriousness I really enjoyed my first year of this degree.  In spite of some hectic moments, and occasional articles I'd rather not read, I found the material engaging and I've learned an exorbitant amount.  What's more, my cohort of fellow future SLP's is truely fantastic, and helped make what could have been a really long and rough year bearable.

So now that school is out of the way what's on the docket? This:

I plotted all of my flights for the next 8 months on this map . . . yeah it's a lot.  Thirteen legs all told, but there are going to be many amazing stops along the way including, the Summer Vocology Institute, Sante Fe Opera, meeting my new Nephew in Portland, and most importantly getting to spend a big chunk of time actually living with my wife.

Needless to say I'm excited, and future blog posts will deal with more of the little details like "What the $%*# is Vocology?".  For now I am trying to coax a great many ducks into rows, working on everything from my visa application, course registration, and various to do lists . . .

To packing up the apartment to move into storage . . .

. . . so yeah, that last one isn't going so well. Or even at all yet, but god damn did I need a break!  So while I took care of the logistical work, I managed to include a fair amount of downtime.  I raised a glass (or half a dozen) and ate some Russian food with some awesome colleagues.

. . . mmm piroshki

 . . . REALLY good pelmeni . . .

. . . and a flight of house made flavored vodka. It was a good night :).

 And then biked the almost 40 miles to Stillwater with a good friend, to actually enjoy a bit of this weather before sequestering myself in the desert.

Lastly avoiding packing had one more practical motivation.  Tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to our lil' beasties Puck and Rags for the better part of a year.

look at the lil buggers pretending to be docile

Being cats packing causes them to freak out, and I wanted to spend at least a bit of quality time with them before packing them off to live their surrogate family. Of course given the current internet trends that involved a fair bit o' this:

And with that image emblazoned in your mind, I will leave you for this post.  You'll be hearing from me sooner rather than later.

Until then, thanks for reading and don't forget to feed the fish.

DW