Bocce and the in-between

There's been a lot going on at the Alpernardo house of late. There's been a lot of changing or soon-to-be-changing things on both the Alper and Nardo sides of the equation. We're about a month in to the recent expansion of the house with the arrival of Ania. In my opinion, she's the coolest of all of us. I had never had a huge amount of interaction with a newborn before. They always seemed a little too fragile and breakable to me. I never wanted to be the one who made the week-old baby's head pop off or kneecap explode (because those things happen all the time, ya know). It took me about an hour, however, to realize that I was probably a little too gun-shy about babies. Ania's my girl! We hang out all the time. If I don't get to hold her for at least twenty minutes, the day just doesn't seem complete.

Chris and Karli have also been growing into the role quite nicely. They seem like this is their third or fourth child. Just naturals, both of 'em. It's also a huge plus that Karli's a midwife and brings some mad knowledge to the table. I've been getting quite on education on all sorts of random baby-related phenomena.

Chris, in addition to being a new father, has just within the past two weeks become the second full-time employee of Evergreen. It's a blessing to see him up in the morning jazzed about meeting with people and gaining some ground for the community. He definitely played the responsible father and husband by wading through two years of less-than-glorious labor at the warehouse to make this entrance into full-time ministry a smooth one for his family. I've a great deal of respect for the man.

Katie's been rolling with the punches as well and digging the new roommate situation. It's cool to see her excited about a baby. I'm not sure how far down the road that role is for us, but I think we'll both be more prepared via this part of the journey. She's doing quite well professionally as well. She'll be graduating at the end of next month and I couldn't be more proud of her. She also just finished producing a play at her high school which was very impressive. It's encouraging to see your wife loving life through the weekly schedule.

The future for me is a bit more ambiguous at this point. I had been in a holding pattern as far as work/school is concerned for quite some time. I'd been waiting on a letter from PSU for a few months and found myself strangely at peace when it arrived last week. "Either way, this is a good thing," I told myself, "If I get in...great, if I don't...at least I'll know and I can make other decisions accordingly. At least the waiting will be over." Or so I thought. I might've guessed in the accepted/rejected category that there would be an in-between that I hadn't anticipated. The letter started with the typical, "Thank you for your application. We received hundreds and the competition was strong..." yadda, yadda, yadda. I was waiting for the "Unfortunately..." Instead, I got, "Your application is still in a review status and you have been placed on the waiting list for acceptance. You are number 16 on the list and we'll know if we can offer you admission by April 30th." Not what I had expected. How does one know if it's a good thing or a bad thing to be on a "waiting list"? How significant is being number 16 on the list? Are there only 16 people on the list or 200?

Who knows? I've mentally prepared myself for rejection, as it's obviously not a great sign that I didn't make the first wave. On the other hand, you never know. Strangely, I had been getting gut feelings that I might not be leaving my current job for academia anytime soon. Not less than twentyfour hours prior to getting the letter, I got a bump in salary completely out-of-the-blue and had other opportunities come about as well. Life is strange.

And now for something completely different: Today marked the second round in the adventures of Mike and Chris's Ongoing Bocce Ball tournament. I lost, but remain in second place in the grand standings! Thanks again to the Greenhouse for the beautiful set.

Always a step behind

I'm only now buying in to the user-friendliness of flickr. I've posted a few new and not-so-new galleries here. Check 'em out if interested. I'll post more next month when I can get some more uploading out of the freebie account.

Welcome Back

So, I decided I had better cruise into the office about an hour early this morning to get a jump-start on all the voicemails and miscellaneous things that one misses after two weeks off. Knowing my coworkers, I don't know why I didn't anticipate something like this. I walked in to find my entire cubicle taped shut with that clear duct tape stuff. You'll notice that the scissors needed to cut through the bubble are taped inside, just inches out of reach. I especially liked the biohazard sign and chalk outline. Big props to Loren and Derek for using hours of valuable worktime to ensure that I would have a completely unproductive first day back.

Prague to Portland

As good as any trip can be, it's always good to be home. I've actually been home for a few days now and, unfortunately, have to go back to work tomorrow. Jake and I had a cornucopia of good times abroad (love that guy). I did have a sick spell where I was topping about a 103 degree fever for four days in a row. Thanks for all who were praying for me. The fever broke on the fifth day or so and I was back in commission, spending time with old students and colleagues and seeing the sights. It was great to see some of my old students either in college or working decent jobs. Their at a good age and seem to be enjoying life. It was equally good to catch up with some American friends who are still over there. Big congrats to Matt Thomas (now Dr. Matt) for defending his dissertation while we were there via satellite and nailing it! All in all it was a great trip. And to top everything off...I got to come home to a new roommate!

Michael comes home tonight, and baby Ania is here!!!!!

Whoo-hoo!