Oh yay, I successfully defended my dissertation! w00t! Thanks so much to everyone for their supportive wishes! I'm not totally relaxed, because I have just about 2 weeks to get my dissertation document edited, approved, signed, sealed, delivered to the graduate school in order to officially get my Ph.D. The thesis formatting folks at the graduate school are very much like the Knights Templar - they'll defend the sanctity of the 1.5" margin to the death. I went through the crazy formatting crusade (the 8th circle of hell) with my Master's thesis, so I'm prepared for all manner of page setup hanky panky. And animal sacrifices, if needed. "Oh, sorry, your Table of Contents has to be written in the blood of a she-goat. This appears to be sheep blood." "Damn. Would you accept my first born child instead?" My defense went fine, and there was a great turnout of my colleagues and friends, including Emily who I met through knitting although we haven't knit together for quite a while (must rectify that). I promise that there will be more posts and pictures in the coming days. My knitting pace is already picking up, so I will have some new sock pictures to share. * Pending submission of my thesis. That dulls the excitement, doesn't it?