Our Sailor

Eric, Riley and I


Riley's Division (with some lady cheering in front of us)


Riley and his sweetheart, Emily

We are in Chicago for Riley's boot camp graduation. It was an amazing ceremony. It's been quite a day. For those of you who have been reading this blog a while, remember the long-haired hippy kid who used to run cross country? Not such a kid anymore... No, that was definitely a man in that sailor uniform today - and not just a man, but a gentleman. Feeling pretty good about that young man right now. And, oh my, isn't he handsome? Okay, okay, I'll stop with the Mom stuff.

How about some updates?

Summer quarter is almost at an end - just one week to go. Our two week residency in Boston was intense. Lots of work, but also lots of fun. Just for the record, 53 is too old for dorm life! Though I did have it down, especially the night we had pizza delivered while we studied, then met our buddies at the local pub late that night. I vaguely remembered doing something similar way back in my undergrad days in the late 70s...

I worked hard to get six papers written in the two-and-a-half weeks I had between coming home from Boston and leaving for Chicago, but I got it done. I'm looking forward to spending the next few days exploring Michigan with Eric. After that I have two full weeks of freedom before I start my new job and fall quarter at school. I've got five classes left between me and writing my dissertation - hard to believe I've made it through eight classes already!

I love our new home in Mukilteo - it is wonderful. We met most of our neighbors last weekend at a social - that was really nice. Now I have names to connect with faces, plus they are a friendly group.

I got brave and signed up for the Victoria half marathon and the Seattle Ghost full marathon. Brave because my running has really suffered with all my schooling. I've been maintaining about 25 miles a week, five miles a day, five days a week. I really wanted to get some races set and these two felt do-able. If fall quarter gets too intense, I'll drop to the half at Ghost, but I have high hopes I'll be able to pull it off. We'll see.

That's it for now...saying good-night from Waukegan, IL!