Little Picasso is growing up! He has been enrolled in obedience classes. And he has taken to sleeping on Mom and Dad's floor instead of in my room. Although, tonight he is on my bed with me. He missed me today while I was at work.

On a different note:
I have an appointment with my advisor to discuss the whole thesis, committee, graduation stuff on Thursday. I want to get all the nitty-gritty details worked out before Dave comes home. (only 4.6 weeks to go!!!!)

Things with the brother and his psycho (ex)wife are worse than ever. She is now holding the daughter hostage for a while. Won't let Brother come get her and bring her up here for a week (as they previously agreed to do).

I just want my own life to begin.

I am hoping to get to Japan in May as I will be on break from school then. I am also hoping Dave and I get to do some local travelling too.

That's about all I know. Hope all is well.

So week 2 of class is done. I am having a hard time getting organized. The frenetic pace of jumping back on the speeding train known as a Master's program is....um.... interesting. Oddly enough, the class I've been most worried about might turn out ok. I think my thesis is getting on track and now I have to assemble my committee. I just hope they all agree. If not, I don't know what I will do.

Dave said the sun is finally starting to come up on the ice. One more milestone down. I think it is approximately 40 more days til he is home again.

I don't know much else.

So here's the deal..

I am contemplating my thesis...

I want my love HOME, but it is soon coming, so I guess I can be patient a little while longer.. But he knows he will be on a short leash for a little while at first. I just want to spend as much time as possible with him when he gets home. We are at approximately 13% now, so it won't be long.

As for my thesis, I need to establish my committee and I need to find out if I can recreate a study based on another discipline (I think I can do it, but I gotta double check). I want to investigate the usage of gap-fillers and disfluencies as they are used in ESL.

Watched a great movie tonight, "Man on Fire" I highly recommend it.

I miss life abroad. And hope that after I get my degree I/we can move somewhere else before we buy land. It would be awesome to work in Antarctica and save some money, or Alaska.

That's about it from here.

Have been trying to reach my friend Mikiko but I think I have the wrong number. So I shall try again. I have asked my friend here to do a people search in Japanese for me (to look for her).

Not sure if I'm happy or sad about school startingtoday. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Any personal information about the state of Japan after the earthquake(s) in Kinki this weekend would be greatly appreciated.

My stepbrother doesn't have a brain. I have given up on trying to get through to him or his daughter. I just wish they'd leave and never come back. She has a touch of the devil in her (and I don't mean that in the good/nice way) and he is just plain DUMB.

Less than two months until my David returns--Yippie!!!

I've decided my stepbrother is an idiot. He is off talking with his soon to be ex. He has disclosed way too much info as to what he is thinking of doing, etc. Needless to say he has royally infuriated Mom and Dad and me.

I want to plan a trip for beginning of January but I don't know where to. Can't be too expensive or too long as school starts again on January 20th. Any suggestions???

So my brother is finally getting his head on straight and is starting to think like his EX. The screws are slowly being turned on her world, but she doesn't know it yet.

School starts next week. Yea, I think.

I haven't hardly touched my thesis research stuff this summer. *sigh* But my excuse is I am taking the research class this semester and will learn how to do what I need to do to write an effective thesis, hopefully on a publishable subject. Am currently thinking of examining people's use of gap-fillers when giving formal speeches. Are these active listening devices or are they used to make them sound more "native-like"?

It's too bloody late at night to get into this now. But check back periodically throughout the semester as I might be mulling it over on this medium.

Sleep time after finishing my brew...