3 June to 11 August

• At the first of June, I was starting my summer school session on Research Methods. 6 weeks was not long enough to cover the material, but the students were much more engaged than I had expected. Overall it was a good experience. I worked hard on projects, but they all seemed to fall to the wayside amid the torrent of summer class.
  
• We returned to Kansas to witness the marriage of good friends. A couple of days alone and near our old digs was refreshing.
  
• R had a business meeting in Las Vegas (a weekend away for planning and relaxation).
  
• I replaced a colleague's toilet (doesn't appear relevant, does it?).
  
• We had the left driveshaft seal on the Jeep fixed ($200).
  
• The last day of class, I boarded a west-bound train to Gallup New Mexico, where my lovely wife met me at the station. We had a nice long drive to my in-laws house. I had planned to remodel their bathrooms, but plans changed. It was a short trip, but just long enough for E to scratch the side of my father in-law's Karman Ghia with his bike.
• We drove from New Mexico to Flagstaff to enjoy the company of friends for the night. the next morning we at at "the Place" (better known as Mike and Rhonda's). Their breakfasts were better than I had remembered.
  
• We raced home from Flagstaff so that we could drop off the kids with a sitter and then continued on to Los Angeles for a Coldplay concert. Normally, I would have never gone to a stadium type concert of a band that I hardly know, but the tickets were a gift from the colleague whoes toilet I replaced. Karma magic
• R had her annual reunion with her college roomates in OC.
• That catches you up to July 23rd, when I started to work again in my office
  
• I have been trying to write a developmental narrative for RTP, a couple of papers, and get my feet under myself while learning my new position as Graduate Advisor for Environmental Studies. It comes with a course reduction, so it was worth it to me.
• Our department let go all of the part time faculty as part of the budget solution. Where there were 40+ people in line before me to get fired, this now leaves 5. It is unlikely, but not totally out of the question that we could go through these people before the budget is solved.
  
• I am back on the job market.
  
• And I got a 10% pay cut (i.e. a furlough). Luckily the summer money will help offset the income lost.
• We had the air conditioning system replaced in the Jeep ($850). It went out on my way home from work. I was in bumper to bumper traffic. It was 100+ degrees. It took nearly 2 hours to get home.
• We started the paperwork to buy a new house. We got preapproved from one lender. We inquired about a few properties. We got a desperate email from a faculty member trying to sell her house in the University subsidized housing. We went through the paperwork with the approved lender. We went through the paperwork for the city. To meet the lending and subsidized housing requirements, our monthly payment must be between two numbers whose difference is only $50. If it happens, it happens, if not, it doesn't. But it is a source of stress. Whoever thinks that $318,000 for a 1640 sq ft house is subsidized housing, has lived in California for too long.
  
• E and I went to a colleague's production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at their synagogue. It was really fun to watch E watch the show. As a special treat, I took him to see the Disneyland fireworks after the show. We stayed and rode Alice in Wonderland and the Teacups. He was tired. I was tired. But an occasional, exceptional experience makes all the difference to how a child feels about their relationship with their dad. That's at least what I tell myself.