"I like that dog.....

.....because if you get tired, you can ride it!"

This was the comment I got from a local fisherman while Dax and I crossed the small spillway in Mint Springs park two weekends ago.  Dax merely looked at him for a moment, then went back to sea-weed eating.  This is her thing - that spillway collects weeds from the lake and she LOVES them.  I don't know if there is something in the plants she likes or if it's just that they are always juicy, either way she pulls me towards the spillway where ever we go by.

So I'm alive, Dax is well and we're following the rehab plan so far.  It's only been two weeks of walks (and not every day) but she's doing great.  She also digs all the attention.....nothing like walking a horse past a playground.  I swear she sucks up to kids....snuffling hands and pockets, licking, making funny faces.  And to think the lady I bought her from got rid of her b/c she thought Dax didn't like children!  Apparently one of the lady's kids had "bumped" Dax with a four-wheeler, and Dax had stomped or shaken her head at the child in response.

Clearly the horse is at fault here. *cough* *sputter*

In other news the last two weeks have been CRAZY but with not terribly interesting stuff, ergo the lack of updates.  Neither time nor much fun to say.  The main highlights are:

1) Had my second physics exam and it went WAY better than the first....I ran out of time on the first one and had to guess on 5 problems.  Had plenty of time in the second one b/c I was much more prepared, both by the first exam and simply refining study methods.  But once again I was up until 2am a few nights in a row cramming.

2) Got to Blacksburg this past Friday and met with profs and looked at houses.  Nothing was decided, and there are clearly more trips in our future.  My priority right now is to find a mentor/lab ASAP so then I can figure out a start date, then we'll know exactly when we'll be moving.  Hubby has meanwhile been busy applying for new jobs all over the place, so please keep your fingers crossed for him.  Of course he's super qualified, has excellent references, is hard working and responsible and generally a great guy but I get the impression none of that is a job guarantee in this economy.  Oh, and I might be slightly biased :-)

That's really all the excitement....otherwise my life was completely consumed by lab work and class work.  Lab has been rough b/c we're super busy with a project and then one of the main people I work with got sick and was out for 3 days, leaving me to pick up the slack and push all of my other stuff back.  And physics just sucks.  It's a ton of work and time - I know I signed up for this and I'm trying not to be a whiner, but exam weeks are pretty rough, especially when they coincide with going out of town and needing to prepare to interview with four professors for lab positions.

I'm going to stop right there before I begin to rant.  Have got some pics to share and more details, so more posts to come soon, I promise.  Rest will make Cat a much happier blogger.