Now Playing: Doctor of Philosophy - Plant Biology
On Saturday, May 10, 2008 we attended Vicki's (Bob's daughter) graduation from the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in Plant Biology. This particular ceremony was the Integrative Biology Convocation and was not the entire graduating class of 2008, so it was much smaller. Which was great. Vicki also participated in the graduation ceremony the next day that included all graduates from all departments. We were able to see all the graduates attending this ceremony on stage and Vicki was in the middle, first row, right up front. Part of the ceremony was where those receiving their doctorates are hooded. Vicki's advisor, Dr. Stephen Long performed her hooding.
Ginny, Vicki's sister, Ginny's husband Morgan and his parents, Judy and Eric, Mathew the girl's brother and their stepdad, Marty and his sister, Leslie, were there also. We were all so proud of Vicki's accomplishments. Her years of hard work were certainly worth the end result. She received several awards. She was offered and has accepted a post-doc position at the University of Illinois. She begins this new adventure June 16th. The picture with Bob and I and Vicki includes Bob's daughter Ginny, Vicki's sister.
After the graduation ceremony we all went to a Park in Allerton and had a picnic. It was a good day, lots of food, good company and very pretty grounds to explore. Two weddings were going on in the park while we were there. We could see the wedding party going down the paths. We left just as it started to get cooler. There was one more event that we attended with Vicki, Ginny, Morgan and Mathew. It was a party given by Vicki's advisor Steve, and his wife. They have a beautiful home in Champaign and are exceptional hosts. A wonderful way to end the day.
Have had several different birds the past couple of weeks, Summer Tanager, Red Breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting and Baltimore Oriole. Only see these briefly as they fly thru. We had one squirrel in our yard this winter but this week we have two more. They are younger, don't know if they are babies of our one squirrel, they chase each other around the yard, fun to watch.
Bob's carpel tunnel surgery on the left hand is not doing as well as the right. The nerve in his left elbow is causing his little finger and the one next to it to be numb. When he had the stitches out he was told it may take awhile for the nerve to not be irritated. It is probably caused from keeping the elbow bent to elevate the hand.
We are in the process of getting estimates to re-roof Dad's house. He put the last one on in 1975. The old roofing will need to be torn off which gives Dad some concern because he doesn't want nails in the yard. He is getting three different estimates and they all assure him they will do the proper clean up. It's difficult for him to have others do the work, he has always done any repairs himself.
We just purchased another tool to make life a little easier here on the "farm". It is a motorized, 25 gallon, weed sprayer (12 volt ran off the mower battery) that we can tow behind the mower. It has a wide sprayer on the back for the driveway and also a wand sprayer. I think we will do 10 gallons at a time. We are looking for cheap weed spray other than Round Up. If you know of any let us know. We have not done any spraying yet, to cold, wet and windy. It's starting to warm up and it looks like there will be a break in the rain. It was sunny today and I did all of the mowing.
The farmers corn is starting to pop up. It looks like we will have soy around our house but corn across the street. Bob's garden that he started is so wet nothing came up. Don't know if he will try and do any replanting before he leaves for Alaska. And so it goes here on the "farm".
