It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Yesterday I got a memo saying that I’d been awarded my travel grant for France. I was starting to worry because the applications have been in for a long time, and the budget is really tight these days, but they gave it to me. And they gave me more than I asked for. That was really nice of them since I’d asked for what is typically considered their maximum, but it was far less than the 65% of the budget that they say they try to fund, and I had no idea where I was going to make up the rest.

This morning, I got the go ahead from the program office to take my comps. There was actually a little concern there because I’ve been more than a little late turning things in to them. I only just turned in the forms for my first committee meeting, which was two years ago. This is a huge relief because my comps are scheduled to start two weeks from yesterday.

And finally, the least important piece of news, but the one that’s making me the happiest… As I was getting ready to leave the house this morning, I happened to glance into my fish tank. And then remembered that they like to be fed sometimes. While I was feeding them, an itty bitty baby fish swam out from under a rock. I knew that Blue had been pregnant, and I knew that she was not anymore, but it’s been a while, so I had assumed that she had either given birth and eaten the babies or had just reabsorbed the eggs because I don’t feed her enough. So I stood there and watched the little pink fish with giant eyes, and suddenly there were two! Mom (Blue, because she’s not) and dad (Spot) are red and white, mom has a black tail, and dad has a few black speckles. Both babies are pink, but I’m hoping that will get more interesting as they grow up. And both have black markings on their tails, one more than the other. I think it’s safe to say that they are both too big to be eaten by anything in the tank at this point, so I’m looking for names. Being the big dork that I am, I’m thinking of using the names of some of the major themes I’m studying for comps… perhaps Pleiotropy and Geostrophy, or Sverdrup and Hadley, or Lotka and Volterra. Any thoughts?