I PASSED

I thought I would come by to let you all know that I passed my dissertation defense and only need to make minor revisions to my proposal. I need to add a few details to my abstract and a couple of documents to my appendices, and then I will resubmit it to my chair by this weekend. The next step is to start working on my IRB application. I imagine that it will not be approved until after the first of the year, but that is fine. I do not plan on doing much between now and then anyway.

I realized that I forgot to mention that we decided to refinance our mortgage, and we closed on the new loan today. When we closed on our first mortgage 2 1/2 years ago, our interest rate was 4.75%, and I was able to get it down to 2.75%. We also went from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage, and our payment will only be about $150 more a month than what I was paying. Oddly, we did not have to bring any money to closing--in fact, the title company is going to mail us a $500 check on Tuesday. It does not make any sense to me that we had to borrow money to pay ourselves, but I guess that's an extra $500 I can put toward my principle in February.

I think that is all I have to say at the the moment. Tomorrow is Friday, and I get off work at 3:00, so Dan and I will probably grab an early dinner and then watch Christmas movies. Sunday I would like to try to get my office painted and my house cleaned up so it's in order for Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to all of you!