04:50:02 Tuesday December 23 2003
I have been quite negligent about my log entries for the past couple of days. Let us do a quick catch up. On Saturday I met Terry, Brad, Terry's parents, Professor Dunsmore and his wife for dinner at Bistro 501 in downtown Lafayette. It was a lovely dinner. Everyone but Brad and I seemed to know exactly how to socialize. We took to the edge of the conversation and snuck in a few comments here and there. It was an excellent night out and I was very glad to get an opportunity to thank Professor Dunsmore for being such an excellent teacher, mentor, and boss. I am certainly glad that he is here looking out for the educational mission of the department, because if it weren't for him I think that goal would be tossed by the wayside.

On Sunday I went to Anderson and attended a Christmas party held by Laura Ewald. Laura was a good friend in high school. She went to college at IU and very quickly got absorbed into that scene. Amber and I did go down to see her once her sophomore year (I think). However after that she just completely lost track of us. We tried to contact her a number of times. However after she graduated all hope seemed to be lost. Amber jokingly decided that Laura must be dead because surely if she were alive she would contact her friends. Well sometime before Thanksgiving I received an email from Laura. Apparently Erica gave her my address. We agreed to get together over Christmas and I forwarded her on to Amber and Cara. This all culminated in the event that I attended last night. Apparently the little get together had blossomed into a full scale party. There were a lot of people there that I knew: Laura F, Megan S, McNab, Amber, Tim+Susan. There were also a lot of people there from IU and Laura's summer camp job. I did all right, but Amber and I were reserved all night as is our habit when with new people. I would have preferred a smaller get together with only people I knew well, but this was probably the best use of Laura's limited time in Anderson.

Apparently all the driving and socializing last night wore me out. Because I overslept a great deal this afternoon. Once awake I went to work and banged my head against Professor Xie's problem for a bit. It turns out that it is much more difficult than I expected. I wanted to finish up tonight, but I will have to get up tomorrow and finish it.