Gratitude, Part 18 (Dec. 14-20, 2013)

  1. Quickly receiving articles through interlibrary loan

  2. Homemade salmon fish sticks

  3. My wife making homemade coleslaw for me

  4. Helping my wife cook kale pesto pasta

  5. Christmas lights in our window

  6. Successfully removing old light fixtures from basement

  7. Warm weather to melt ice and snow off the roads

  8. Successfully getting the PAW script running

  9. My knowledge of FORTRAN coming in handy for the first time in 10 years

  10. Finding the book "Downton Tabby" at the library

  11. Generous in-laws

  12. Tempura at Fuji

  13. Sushi at Fuji

  14. Finishing the first draft of the syllabus for the class I will teach next semester

  15. Unexpected lunch with colleagues (Dec. 16, 2013)

  16. Finding a Japan travel book at the library

  17. Walking to library with my wife

  18. Helping a collaborator by commenting on his presentation

  19. Another professor willing to take over my class while I am in Japan

  20. Reading a chapter in a book that helped me to reframe the goals for my class

  21. Getting independent study sections set up so that students who wish to take my class for 3 credits instead of 2 can do so

  22. Printing fliers to advertise the class

  23. Graduate student installing PAW on our computer cluster

  24. Anniversary card from my sister

  25. Good meeting with my graduate student (Dec. 16, 2013)

  26. Interesting presentation at the Lunch-n-Learn seminar (Dec. 19, 2013)

  27. Good lunch at the Lunch-n-Learn seminar

  28. Able to attend my first Masters thesis defenses at School of Mines (Dec. 20, 2013)

  29. Our friends were able to come to small group despite bad weather (Dec. 19, 2013)

  30. The delicious results of my wife making a new bread recipe 

Total: 575

Gratitude, Part 17 (Dec. 7-13, 2013)

  1. Snow tires for my bike
  2. Friendly bike store owner who installed snow tires at no extra charge
  3. Have not fallen off bike once since obtaining snow tires
  4. Eating pomelo
  5. Pomelo tea
  6. Seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with friends and colleagues from the Physics department (Dec. 14, 2013)
  7. Mike giving me a ride to the movie
  8. One of the students sharing his popcorn and almonds at the movie
  9. My wife's phone interview for a teaching position
  10. Learning about the differences between white-tailed deer and mule deer
  11. Our fourth anniversary (Dec. 12, 2013)
  12. Getting a great deal on a used computer and supporting a good cause at the same time
  13. The ability to have so many things delivered to our door
  14. Opportunity to travel to Japan in January
  15. Playing in my first band concert in several years
  16. Good conversation with Bob over Skype
  17. Having fun at the white elephant gift exchange
  18. Meeting Rafal's wife and children at the party
  19. Getting a geeky magnetic poetry kit in the gift exchange
  20. Lots of good food at the gift exchange
  21. Biking home with my wife from the gift exchange
  22. Successfully manually converting a proposal draft from Word to LaTex
  23. The Minnesota Public Radio online Christmas station

Total: 545

Gratitude, Part 16 (Nov. 30 - Dec. 6, 2013)

  1. Seeing the Society of Physics Students float in the Festival of Lights Parade

  2. Wishing my mother a happy birthday (Nov. 30, 2013)

  3. Good Beer & Bible discussion

  4. My questions served as effective prompts for discussion

  5. Meeting new people at church

  6. Apple Ginger hard cider

  7. Able to pick up keys early for drive to Sanford Lab 

  8. Safe drive to Sanford Lab (Dec. 2, 2013)

  9. Attending safety training with two colleagues

  10. Got to know my colleagues better during the tip

  11. Pizza Lab in Center City, SD

  12. Talking with two USD graduate students at Pizza Lab

  13. Signing the "buck" rogers sculpture at pizza lab

  14. Tour of the surface of Sanford Lab

  15. Safe drive back from Sanford

  16. Finished proceedings for conference and sent them to collaboration for comment (Dec. 6, 2013)

  17. Picked up our order of buffalo from Breadroot

  18. Placed order for salmon at Breadroot

  19. Placed order for poultry (including ducks) at Breadroot

  20. Good meeting to start drafting a proposal (Dec. 4, 2013)

  21. I am halfway to my goal for this list!

  22. Final project presentations by students in PHYS 733 (Dec. 5, 2013)

  23. Our friends were able to come to small group despite scheduling problems (Dec. 5, 2013)

  24. Opportunity to read messages from Dr. Lemut's colleagues aloud at his tribute (Dec. 5, 2013)

  25. Progress on getting colloquia series started next semester

  26. Student working on colloquia series next semester

  27. After some re-arragement of food, our new fridge is working well

  28. Despite the cold weather and bad roads, I was able to keep getting to work by a combination of bike and mass transit. 

  29. Learned more about using the Rapid City bus system

  30. Other than the cold, the weather is nice and sunny

  31. Making anniversary plans

Total: 522

Gratitude, Part 15 (Nov. 23 - 29, 2013)

  1. Getting our home office organized
  2. Significant unpacking progress from boxes in home office
  3. Received extension of deadline for proceedings
  4. Our new, energy-efficient refrigerator
  5. Our new chest freezer
  6. Finished cleaning our new refrigerator
  7. Received discount on our new refrigerator
  8. Playing internet radio station from our laptop through our iPod dock with good sound quality
  9. Someone attended the first church potluck we hosted (Nov. 24, 2013)
  10. Bought turkey and other ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner
  11. Physics Thanksgiving social
  12. Support and encouragement within the Physics Dept. and campus community after the tragic events of last Thursday (http://www.sdsmt.edu/News/Mines-President-Heather-Wilson-extends-condolences/)
  13. My wife made a beautiful memory book for Dr. Lemut
  14. Learning that I can still find God even when I seek him with imperfect motives
  15. Interesting and encouraging seminar on STEM education (Nov. 26, 2013)
  16. Gift of a constellation mug from my wife
  17. The friend who suggested the constellation mug to my wife
  18. Shopping at Main Street Market for the first time
  19. Coupon from Main Street Market
  20. Christmas candy
  21. Excellent birthday card for my mother
  22. All the parts for Phase I (and some of the parts for Phase II) of our Entertainment PC have arrived
  23. Good "town hall" meeting with fellow Project Church members (Nov. 24, 2013)
  24. Delicious chicken soup at town hall meeting
  25. My wife and I biked to church and to the town hall meeting
  26. Time off for the Thanksgiving holiday
  27. Our Thanksgiving turkey was (and still is) delicious after brining and spatchcocking
  28. We were able to host good friends for Thanksgiving dinner
  29. Our guests introduced us to the Jewish tradition of beginning the Sabbath with a Kiddish meal
  30. Our guests brought wonderful mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and brownies
  31. Great conversation with our friends that helped us get to better know each other
  32. Butternut squash baked with oil, parsley, and garlic
  33. Garlic rosemary bread from Breadroot
  34. Free range turkey

Total: 491