It is fun to come home and find Zoe's toys in places other than where they were when I left in the morning. It makes me think that she at least has a little bit of fun while I'm gone.

Today was an especially long day. I actually worked at work, believe it or not. Its finally dawning on me that classes start up again in a little over a week. I still have quite the work "to do" list to conquer. My prof and I planned on having me read background information on thermoelectrics and materials research for most of the break. I was planning on getting through two if not three or four books. I am barely into the first one. I have enjoyed my holiday slacking immensely but I am definitely starting to feel the crunch of a new semester hitting. I also had a discussion with my lab partner, Matt, this afternoon. He is completely swamped with work. I'll be helping him out for the next couple of weeks. I'll be grinding and sieving powders like a champ for the rest of the break. It takes an entire day to prep a powder sample to go back into a furnace and I have volunteered to help get five of them done. That means that if everything goes according to the planned time schedule, I have five full days of work ahead of me. As I am an experimentalist, nothing ever goes according to the plans, so my five samples will end up taking the rest of the holiday break. I'm okay with that. And it will be a pleasant surprise if I finish early.

I should go to bed. I'm exhausted. I spent time with my two favorite little boys in the world tonight and they wore me out.