Painting for Zoe

Tonight I finally started painting Zoe's room. We're painting it "Spun Honey," a shade of yellow. I'm not that good at home improvement projects, but it feels nice to be painting the room for her. It seems to make it more fully hers. Tomorrow night we paint the second (and hopefully final) coat. Sadly, I can taste the paint after breathing the fumes for hours.

In other news, I was surprised to find that I've fallen for "Chuck," a new NBC show. The show seemed absurd based on ads I'd seen and news I'd read, but I'd earlier seen a bit of the premiere while waiting for "Heroes" to start and so tuned in last night. I found it laugh-out-loud funny and very well done. In fact, I was so satisfied that I didn't bother watching all of "Heroes."

Tomorrow: The October JFP comes out.

Changes

It would seem that the decision to start a blog was a good way to fill up downtime as I started to put together the full draft of my dissertation, but it was clearly not something that I could keep up with while finalizing the draft. As I became more immersed in finally finishing it, the work gained momentum, and when there was downtime, it was spent resting (or, if energy permitted, packing).

In the time since I last posted, Rhonda and I have moved down to South Carolina and into the house we bought (our first), we have started teaching in our new jobs at Newberry College, and I have successfully defended the dissertation. Rhonda’s pregnancy is progressing well, and little Zoe is due at the end of the month. Also, my sister, Heather, has given birth to a baby boy, Colin.

I was already an uncle by marriage, but now I am … a blood uncle?

Colin was a very big baby: 9 pounds, 1 ounce and 22 inches. He arrived this past Sunday (September 30^th). Both sister and nephew are doing fine. Here is a photo of little Colin getting a head start on his tan … no wait, that’s not a tanning bed; it’s just a heating lamp!