Lucky 28

In our (Kathi's) 28th week of pregnancy (which included a 28-person baby shower on the afternoon of 2-8), during a month that has 28 days in a year that has seen 28 inches of snowfall (in Central PA), we finally chose a name for our child - and it happens to have 28 letters in it! (Little Chadjrkathijrjoepaternokelly Carlson will love his/her parents when it comes to the D'Nealian handwriting unit in Kindergarten). More importantly, though, in the 28th week of the 28th year of his life, Chad has just gotten his first full time job!! Woo-hoo!!

Penn State-Altoona (28 miles southwest of State College) offered Chad a position of Assistant Professor of Kinesiology starting in August. Chad apparently wowed them with his impressive resume (highlights: over 22 years of schooling, first in childhood neighborhood to run around the block in under 10 minutes, performed in 5 and a half piano recitals (the half was in fifth grade when he blanked partway through an etude he memorized, could not finish, and walked off stage in tears), and once won 47 straight games of minesweeper in six straight hours at the computer), and amazed them with an eloquent interview in which he only piss-pronounciated one worm.

Chad also proved to be a shrewd negotiator during the process. He bargained for a two-day-a-week teaching schedule that includes a tennis class, a court sports class, and sport philosophy. However his efforts to include in his off time Columbus Day (c'mon, the guy discovered the new world) and the Wednesday and Thursday afternoons of Tulip Time week proved futile.

Kathi is most excited about all of this. Chad signing a contract means that her days dealing with truck drivers are numbered. For whatever reason, the thought of changing poopy diapers and waking up every hour at night to breastfeed a wailing infant seems appealing when compared to managing the finances for excavators that do this kind of thing to their trucks (the driver of this truck, who was unharmed, said that he noticed smoke coming from under the hood and kept driving until the smoke was so thick that he couldn't see the road in front of him - good thinking). By her sister's birthday (March 18), Kathi will only have 28 days left.