Dr. Boyfriend

Congratulations to The Boyfriend!!

It's official, The Boyfriend is officially Dr. Boyfriend. I'll still call him The Boyfriend, mostly because he doesn't seem all that interested in being identified as someone with a PhD. I've overheard him on more than one occasion say, "It's just important that I know I did it". I don't anticipate any bratty outbursts when a server brings his credit card receipt to him and calls him Mr. Boyfriend instead of Dr. Boyfriend (which is good, because that wouldn't be hot at all). Note: I thought posting the above picture of his "smart person" napkin scribblings would be a fun way to start the post...he took the picture for his thesis defense presentation, but I found it on my camera. I cannot tell you how many bar napkins he desecrated with protein-genetic-markov-whatevers.

The Defense
Can I just say that The Boyfriend is the sexiest scientist ever?!? He looked like he might puke before we left the house, but once he was in front of everyone...man, he was ON! He seemed completely confident, relaxed, and able to joke at mishaps (such as the battery going out on the laser pointer and hitting the wrong powerpoint button and starting the slides over). He answered all the questions in a manner that seemed knowledgeable, but not arrogant.

Then he got grilled by his committee (in the meantime, The Boyfriends parents and I went to Home Depot to buy a part for our ailing toilet. We've been tortured by it's weak performance for months...and now The Boyfriends father has fixed it...hurray!). When the dust cleared, he had a PhD. in Genetics, without having to rewrite any chapters or anything.

The Yard
The Boyfriend's father is a total maniac. I mean that in the most positive way possible. He asked if there was anything else I needed to do, and I said casually that I was going to try to weed the patio. We went in the backyard for two hours, and we did a whole seasons worth of yard work. Then, I couldn't get him to stop. "Well, that looks about right, I think we can go back in now". The Boyfriends Dad replies, "Are you kidding? You can't get me started and then pull the rug out from under me!". He weeded, he edged (with a shovel!), he cut down random tree branches, he cleared the gate. It looked so amazing that I dubbed it the Party Cove and bought a fire pit! It only seemed appropriate since it had gotten chilly and I could see our place bursting at the seams with people...having a heated outside area would give an extra seating option.

The Party
I couldn't get The Boyfriend to commit to having a party. I really felt it was my duty to mark the occasion with a gathering, but he isn't very easy to pin down. Finally, last Sunday night he agreed - we would have a small party on Thursday. I began making calls, we planned the timeline of things to do. Our plan was simple and easily executable...especially with the aid of his energetic parents.

We had a full house...a perfect balance of scientists and not-scientists. It was so much fun, and everything went perfectly...even with 25 people in a 820 square foot house. The Boyfriend smoked 2 pork shoulders and we put it in a crock pot for pulled pork sandwiches. The other crock pot had baked beans...for sides we had salad, cole slaw, corn on the cob...and two excellent desserts from Z and T.

Descriptions of Photos (on the right):

• The first photo is The Boyfriends Father grilling chicken...which was the topic of conversation among people with cheeks filled with delicious BBQ bird. I had wanted to post one with both his parents, but it turned out too dark.
• The second is the sexy Dr. Boyfriend making pulled pork. If he hadn't finished his PhD., I really think he should have looked into being a grill master...give the man a couple charcoal briquets and a few hours and he can smoke anything in our Weber grill!
• The Party Cove in daylight.
• The Party Cove at night...you can see the Christmas lights I put up. We don't have a back porch light - those strings provided a shocking amount of illumination.
• The Boyfriend showing his fellow Geneticists his dorky Eve Online game.