Bye Bye Candidacies, and Hello CO, Too!

[On location in Boulder, Colorado]
I’m DONE with the PhD candidacy exams!! Wahoo!! As I mentioned last week, I think the first part (dynamics) went reasonably well. The second part of the candidacy exam (physics) was on Wednesday, and that was a tough one too, but I also think it went reasonably well (was the rainbow on the way into Walker a good omen?). There was some mad studying going on during the day off in between exams, as I’d previously put off studying physics since I got back so that I could focus on dynamics. But of course, very little that I studied on Tuesday actually specifically helped me on the exam (in fact, only one thing helped me out, if I recall – the rest was basically just physical intuition or remembering a couple general concepts from classes a couple years ago). And just like on the dynamics exam, I took the full six grueling hours. I was completely exhausted by the end, but very glad to be all done with it. I was too tired even to go out and celebrate with anyone that evening, so after my worship committee meeting at church that evening, I just sat at home, relaxed a bit and then went to bed! I’ll be glad not to think overly much about the candidacy exams until we get the results back in a few weeks.
On Thursday when I woke up after my ten-hour sleep I felt like a whole new person! I also didn’t bother going into Walker at all — I deserved a break. Again I basically just relaxed and did some “fun” work, like tweaking the design of the Penn State Christian Grads website and designing a couple simple logos for PSCG. It was something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile, and it definitely took my mind off of all things meteo effectively. 🙂 On Thursday evening I finally felt up to celebrating, so a few of us went out to the Rathskeller for team trivia (we didn’t do well, though), and then to Pickles for a little bit after that.
The Penn State men’s basketball team, after a rough start to their non-conference season, really seemed to have turned things around, going on an 8-game winning streak coming into Saturday’s game vs Minnesota, including winning their first two Big Ten games — on the road, no less, which snapped their 15-game road losing streak dating back to two seasons ago. So yesterday I went to the game with Jeff [Frame], Jeff [Grabon], Kerrie and Kent, and it was a pretty entertaining game, with a good crowd. The home crowd was roaring (something which doesn’t happen for basketball games all that often!) as the Nittany Lions ballooned their 3-point halftime lead to a 16-point advantage with 12 minutes left. Then the wheels started to fall off, slowly but surely. Penn State couldn’t solve Minnesota’s full court press, and they also suddenly went ice cold from the free throw line, including missing their last 8 attempts. It was pathetic. PSU had numerous chances to seal the victory (including having the ball with under 10 seconds left and a tie game!), but the Golden Gophers escaped Happy Valley with a 76-73 win. So frustrating. Total choke job at the charity stripe. On the plus side, if Penn State was gonna lose to somebody, at least they were nice enough to lose to Minnesota, my second-favorite team. It was still a really disappointing loss, though.
Walter & I flew out to Denver today, and it was a reasonably uneventful trip, if a bit long. We’re out here in Boulder for the whole week for the WRF (Weather Research & Forecasting model) Tutorial at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). It’s good to be back in Boulder again, it’s a nice town to visit, nestled up against the Flatirons (I was here 3 years ago on a grad school visit to the University of Colorado). I really have no idea what to expect from the tutorial or how intense it’s gonna be. Hopefully we’ll have a bit of free time to get out a bit and either hike a little bit, and one of these evenings we’ll definitely check out Pearl Street, just a few blocks from our motel. It should be an interesting week though!