We had a big family event on Wednesday. Tom presented his PhD dissertation to his committee and had to defend it against questions from the experts. We were invited to join the festivities at the University and then celebrate afterwards with friends and family. The committee was 4 professors with an interest in the subject matter being discussed – whether or not there is a skill transfer from game players to surgeons performing laproscopic surgery. Tom designed several tests and then had a good population of students engage in the experiments. Most of those participants were in attendance at the presentation so the total audience was probably close to 100. The format was for Tom to make his presentation and then answer questions posed by the committee members and anyone else who wanted to participate. Our family didn’t ask any questions – just applauded at the right time. At the end of the Q &A session, the committee chairman asked everyone to leave while they reached their conclusion regarding Tom’s academic future. All in all, the presentation and Q & A lasted about an hour. About 15 minutes later, the head guy came out and requested that Tom come meet with the whole committee. Five minutes later Tom came out smiling. The chairman then came out and made the announcement that they had signed off on Tom and the only thing left was the actual ceremony in December. The chairman, Charlie, said Tom was “little Doc” until he was actually “hooded” and becomes “Doc”.
The experience was really great for us since Tom got us a room at the downtown Marriott which was a 5 minute walk from the event. Then after the event he took us all (the family) to a great downtown restaurant. We broke off after that while the rest of them headed to a spot called World of Beer where all the other’s from the presentation were ready to party on. We thought we might be a drag on that party so opted to head back to the hotel.
The actual degree award event occurs in December. At that point we (might) see both Tom and Olivia graduate from UCF. Olivia gets her bachelors degree from the School of Medicine. Originally the schedule had them both graduating at the same event which would have been really convenient but the university came to their senses and split up the event into two ceremonies. Interestingly, supposedly the word now is that Tom can only get two tickets to his event which is a real bummer considering that several people are coming from Utah and (maybe) Idaho and the number of local family planning to go. I guess no problem seeing Olivia graduate.
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I usually get out into the yard and/or garden by 9AM to get in a couple of hours before it just gets too hot for me. This morning I poked my head out to head over and got right back in. It turned into fall/winter overnight and it was actually (Florida) cold. That means in the low 60’s. So now instead of getting all my work done before it gets too hot, I have to wait until it warms up. Time to put out my cabbage seedlings etc.
Nancy likes old fashioned white bread, Wonder Bread to be exact. Me, not so much. We go thru a large loaf every week, half for Nancy and half for the critters, mostly fish. But more recently the critter count has grown to include a large turtle and a duck. They nominally reside in the back bay of the lake, where we live and as soon as I step out on the dock in the morning, I can see a turtle head pop out within 100 yds of me and head directly toward me. A few seconds later I hear the flapping of the duck wings. The duck hangs out around George’s dock but he keeps his eyes on ours, especially at feeding time. I’m aware of the fact that you’re not supposed to feed the wildlife but ………………
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