mother fuckin' break through

Well, things have been a little rough lately, and I'll be honest, they're only going to get worse before they get better. For some reason, I told Sandy that I'd have my qualifying paper to him this Thursday. Clearly I did it so that I would actually have to wrap the goddamn thing up because lord knows I've been dithering away at it for too long.

Anyway, I also have to read a bunch of stuff on Mendel for Wednesday, which is cool, but I also have to prepare a short presentation on why the general 'historian's' understanding of models is incompatible with the semantic conception of theories' understanding of models. That's my paper topic for the seminar and I think it's very promising, but I need to actually go get some papers and what not tomorrow.

Well, the breakthrough came tonight on my qualifying paper. It's not like I finished it or anything, there is still a bit less than 1/4 to actually put down on paper (lots of cutting and pasting to be honest), and there are still a couple conceptual knots to untie, but they're relatively minor. Anyway, the breakthrough was more of a light at the end of the tunnel sort of thing. I finally got around to piecing together a bit of analysis/conclusion after weeks of doing nothing but going through textual evidence and footnoting shit. Anyway, it was nice. I'm excited.

I was pretty down before the breakthrough, but now I'm drinking a small glass of whiskey as a reward.

I also burnt chicken tonight which sucked, but I'm over it.

So this Thursday, things will get better when I leave town for an exciting 13 hour drive to very upstate New York, the north country if you will, via Pittsburgh, to attend the second annual Pell Harvest Party extravaganza.

Here are some pictures from last year's extravaganza, and I've decided to do away with the white borders around pictures. Yes they're aesthetically pleasing, but they're also too much fucking work that's for damn sure.

Angela Ochipinski is sexy. She's even sexier with a lever action 357 rifle. That's for damn sure.



I've been assured that this year's fire will be at least 3 times as large. No lie. Mike got 5 cords, yes, 5, of split wood delivered already and several large, 4-5' long, 1-2 feet in diameter, uncut logs.



Hopefully this won't happen again. Not the Johhnie Walker, the dress.



One of my oldest and bestest friends, Michael B. Pell, host and true north country denizen (intended solely in the British usage).