Gratitude, Part 14 (Nov. 16 - 22, 2013)

  1. Opportunity to help friends move from storage unit to their new house
  2. Help from other friends David and Anna in moving
  3. Ability to provide lunch for people helping
  4. Lunch also being a small birthday present for one of the people we helped move
  5. Laughs and good conversations during the move
  6. Creative solutions for appliances and furniture not fitting through doors
  7. Our friends being willing to help others in need after spending the day moving
  8. Learning how to make homemade potato chips
  9. Our food processor
  10. Our homemade potato chips turned out very well
  11. Thinking about what callouses in my life need to be removed
  12. Manheim Steamroller concert
  13. Beautiful moon out after the concert
  14. Welcoming a visitor to our church this morning (Nov. 17, 2013)
  15. The ability to edit misprints out of this list
  16. Able to safely ride home despite some of my bike clothes being locked in another building
  17. Fun trying to play my wife's clarinet
  18. Took my wife to a concert featuring a clarinet, piano, and vocalist
  19. Called my federal legislators to support a bill to combat human trafficking (Nov. 19, 2013)
  20. Good lunch and catching up with our pastor
  21. I knew what to order for my wife before she arrived
  22. Received free flu vaccination
  23. Useful tutorial for scanning events in NOvA
  24. Getting to know small group members better (Nov. 21, 2013)

Total: 457

Gratitude, Part 13 (Nov. 9 - 15, 2013)

  1. Able to help the Society of Physics Students with a donation of boxes
  2. My wife was able to turn of the water to a broken pipe outside
  3. The pipe is now fixed
  4. Veterans honored today (Nov. 11, 2013), especially my grandfathers (and step-grandfathers) Galen, Gordy, and Louie
  5. Meetings cancelled and thus more time to work today (Nov. 12, 2013)
  6. Three-day weekend
  7. Purchase of a powerful cordless drill
  8. Setting up several parts of our entertainment system, including the tuner and speakers
  9. Cat paw prints in the snow
  10. Stranger ringing our doorbell to ask if we wanted a cat
  11. Helping my wife cut her hair
  12. Peppermint tea
  13. Informative meeting with Director of ES&H
  14. Placing my first order with the GRE search service
  15. Cooking tacos with my wife
  16. Furniture shopping with my wife
  17. Keeping in touch with our friend Sam in Illinois
  18. Reading the Little House on the Prairie series with my wife
  19. My wife's grace under pressure during the broken pipe incident
  20. Finding a plumber able to fix the problem on short notice
  21. My wife brining my bike lights after I had forgotten to pack them
  22. My wife giving me a ride after she brought my bike lights
  23. My bike lights worked well enough for me to ride home and buy a surprise along the way
  24. Ordered new bike light
  25. New curry paste
  26. Good meetings with current and prospective students (Nov. 14, 2013)
  27. Lunch with a good friend via Skype
  28. Made decision about what to do with lab space
  29. Made important decision regarding a student's project

Total: 433

Gratitude, Part 12 (Nov. 2 - 8, 2013)

  1. Fellowship and fun at first small group meeting (Nov. 7, 2013)

  2. Great food my wife made for small group

  3. A friend's promotion

  4. A friend's generosity in bringing pizza to the small group meeting

  5. Fun playing Apples to Apples

  6. Getting to know our small group members a bit better

  7. Bamboo-themed room divider

  8. Cleaned up the living room to prepare for small group gatherings

  9. Homemade french fries

  10. Beer & Bible (Nov. 3, 2013)

  11. Finding a useable bicycle route to Buffalo Wild Wings

  12. The bartender at BWW letting me use their phone after my cell phone battery ran out

  13. Got more work done than I expected on Saturday (Nov. 2, 2013)

  14. Planting garlic

  15. Attending the live chat with scientists underground at the Homestake Mine

  16. Interviewing a Tiospaye scholar at their open house (Nov. 5, 2013)

  17. Door prize from the Tiospaye scholar open house

  18. Good conversation with a colleague and friend (Nov. 6, 2013)

  19. Unintentional but good lessons in computer programing and debugging in class (Nov. 8, 2013)

  20.  Friendly staff in the Music Office when I asked about my wife's lost tuner

  21. Good lunch with Jesse from church

  22. Interesting ideas in the physics colloquium

Total: 404

Gratitude, Part 11 (Oct. 26 - Nov. 1)

  1. The opportunity to help friends move in very trying circumstances (Oct. 26, 2013)
  2. People signing up for small groups this morning (Oct. 27, 2013)
  3. Forgiveness of my friends
  4. Helping people in need by clearing yard debris created by the blizzard
  5. Time to rest from all of the work this week and weekend
  6. Time to read and write to sort out some of my emotions
  7. My wife found her wedding ring, which had been lost for roughly a year (Nov. 1, 2013)!
  8. Good times at the Physics Dept. Halloween Social
  9. Good costumes at the Physics Dept. Halloween Social
  10. Good food at the Physics Dept. Halloween Social
  11. My wife's homemade spagetti squash
  12. My wife's homemade rice dish
  13. Ability to care for my wife when she is sick
  14. Successfully airing out our new mattress topper
  15. My wife's safe journey from Columbus to Minneapolis
  16. My wife's safe journey from Minneapolis to Rapid City
  17. Picking my wife up at the airport
  18. Being present in person at the announcement of the first LUX science results.
  19. Meeting interesting people at the announcement
  20. The governor's encouraging words at the announcement
  21. Learning about the Cultural Advisory Committee for the Sanford Lab
  22. Safe ride to and from the  LUX announcement
  23. Finished my lecture for the week earlier than I expected
  24. Interesting STEM education seminar (Oct. 29, 2013)
  25. My wife was able to join me at the seminar
  26. Noticing my improvement at band rehearsal (Oct. 30, 2013)

Total: 382