This is a life?

Much too many things going on, and yet it seems like nothing quite gets done:

Dropped by school to get started on thesis research. Will be working with professorial choice #1 on Suzuki-Miyaura reactions (don't worry, I hardly understand 'em myself), as soon as I can find a couple of free hours to get briefed by his post-doc. Between the professor, three of his other researchers, and both analytical technicians being Indian, I'm liable to start sounding like Apu before this semester is out.

Veeeery slow moving on the apartment. New bookshelves are up, but it looks like even with the downsizing, we're gonna be short on shelf space. Might be making yet another New Jersey pilgramage. In the meantime, we've gotta clean the joint up for the holidays, since we're having the folks and friends at different meals.

What? We *still* haven't gotten our financials consolidated over with our advisor? Grr...

I'm trying (without any success at all) to convince The Lovely Wife(tm) that she's not going to be a Scrabble widow. I made my inaugural stop at NSA Club 56 last Thursday, and played four games, three of them against ranked players. Okay, so I only went 1-3 (with the one victory against a fellow newbie), but held my own into the endgame with two of them, and played five bingos during the course of the evening (SECURITY, NOTICED, TINCTURE, TINNERS, and UNPROVEN, for those who care about such things). "GI" Joel Sherman was reasonably impressed with one of my plays (TINCTURE... didn't know it was that obscure a word), and it was pretty wild to see a roomful of semi-legendary word freaks (the Sherman brothers, Lynn Cushman, and Stefan Fatsis, among others). I'm not liable to find URAEMIAS in my rack anytime soon (actually, now that I know it, who knows?) but I'm certainly liable to be dropping by more often. Now, we've just gotta get a sanctioned shomer shabbat tournament started so's I can get ranked. Either that, or figure out how exactly This guy does it.