Matt and JR are sleeping. I am working.

That doesn't seem fair. But, to be clear, I am working on my church newsletter, which is fun work. Except that I'm now formatting the calendar, which is my least favorite part. It's also typically the last thing I do, since I have a hard time saving the fun stuff for last. Jess and I used to edit the newsletter together when she still lived in Santa Barbara, and she usually did the calendar. Bless her for that, I say.

I am having a great July 4 weekend, and I'll tell you why. Yesterday, for no apparent reason, my advisor called me in the lab and told me that she thought I should warm the cryostat up and enjoy a long weekend, and then work on paper revisions next week. Maybe she has lost faith in my abilities as an experimentalist, but that is A-OK with me. I mean, it's not like she'd be the only one. And after next week, I'll have, what, seven weeks left? Something like that.

This morning Matt and I had breakfast at a bagel shop that we discovered this past week called Manhattan Bagels. It wasn't bad. One of the things that east-coast natives typically find less than adequate about California is the quality of the bagels. This place was an improvement over most others that I've experienced in Santa Barbara, but I tell you, it was no Bagel Basement, which is where Megan and I used to get bagels at Dartmouth.

Tonight we're having a pre-Fourth-of-July barbecue with Helen and Buebbles. It's also to celebrate their first anniversary, which is Monday. We're making kabobs, corn, salad and jambalaya-style rice. I think it will be good. Matt and I know next to nothing about cuts of beef or how to prepare them, so I called my parents while we were at Albertson's this morning. They were full of advice, which I appreciated. I think Matt was less appreciative because he only heard the parts of the conversation that I repeated to him. He ended up standing next to me for a good five minutes holding two pounds of top sirloin something-or-other and waiting for me to get off the phone. Eventually he gave up on that and completed the shopping trip while I chatted with my parents about clothes, my sisters' jobs and my parent's a**hole neighbor. I'm pretty sure that a good time was had by all.

And this afternoon we prepared the meat, I baked a cake and Matt made banana bread. Matt also cleaned the shower and bathroom sink, while I worked on the newsletter. It's been a productive and pleasant Saturday, the first day of a three-day weekend! Not being at UCSB makes me very happy.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!