the early bird gets the gummy worms!

Bums don't carry cardboard signs anymore. That's what we learned yesterday. We wandered around San Jose and Santa Cruz looking for someone with a sign so we could buy it off them. Wayne and his classmates are becoming art collectors for a bit here. If we can find any panhandlers carrying a sign, that is -- and convince them to sell it [a long explanation to this one... so only ask if you want to hear it. -wayne]. Didn't they used to stand on medians before freeway entrances?

We had a graduate student potluck to go to on Friday night. Wayne wasn't excited about going, because they combined "first semester review" with the "potluck social" this semester. That meant we weren't just going to eat and socialize, but he had to give a presentation as well. Fortunately he was able to present fairly early so he could relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. It was a very informal "review" process. The first-year graduate students got feedback from whoever just happened to "feel" like saying something to them afterwards. [and i wasn't so lucky.]

Wayne started having homework to work on in the evenings this week, so several nights he worked on homework and class readings while I worked on other things. I finished sewing my skirt this week, and I get to wear it today. I'll take a picture and post it later (after we get ready for church...). Wayne also has an 8am class to be at, so I made it in to work a lot earlier than usual Tuesday and Thursday. A lot. I'm not so much an...early bird...it won't be easy for me to do this the whole semester.

One of my co-workers based in the India office arrived in this area Wednesday. She's going to spend a couple of weeks in our headquarters before returning to India. We struggled at lunch time to think of "American" food we could introduce her to. Most of the places we normally go are Greek, Italian, Mexican, Brazilian...we finally came up with hamburgers (she was okay with eating beef). But what else is genuinely "American" cuisine? We decided philly cheesesteaks are an American invention, as well as southern BBQ. Are sandwiches? What else?

We also had a chance to try Vietnamese pho (pronounced FA, as in "a long long way to go") this week. It's a soup, apparently. Maybe I've had it before when Karl introduced me to some Vietnamese food, I don't remember. One of the couples Wayne home teaches introduced us to this Vietnamese restaurant [Paul is Vietnamese], and it was pretty good. It's nice to try food you don't have very often.

And for kicks and giggles this week...Wayne made me a blanket tent early Saturday morning and we had quite a relaxing silly morning. And during the week I hid "treasures" (aka bags of gummy worms) around the house when Wayne worked from home and would periodically design a "treasure map" that Wayne could follow to find a nice treat. Yay for silly fun!