Random News

General:
Archer is off to an Intercultural Conference with the University of Michigan for a week. Lily and Mom will be home hanging out and trying to do some projects while Dad's away. Archer is getting close to finalizing his reading list for his field prelims, so that's GREAT! Once he is examined on his mastery of the material he has chosen, all that's left is the dissertation! (By all, we mean, he has to propose what the dissertation is, how he's going to do it, actually do the research, write the paper, and defend it to several of his advisors. Takes a couple of years, actually. But the field prelim is a big milestone. If he doesn't pass it he gets no PhD. :)) He also has a paper accepted to an infrastructure conference in San Jose in September!

Africa:
- We are not going to the Conference in Dakar, Senegal.
- Archer has applied for a couple of other grants to do research in Kenya/Uganda, as either supplementary to the Fulbright or instead of it. These grants don't fund an entire year, more like a couple of months, but could be good alternatives if Kenya is unstable or he doesn't get accepted for the Fulbright.

Lily:
Lily is almost ONE! She's walking a couple steps at a time (if she forgets she's not holding onto something), eating tons of solid foods (she especially likes bananas, and hates spinach). She's babbling a lot (well, to Mama it's babbling, but I'm pretty sure Lily knows what she's saying!), and asserting her independence more and more. Almost a toddler! ACK!