In no particular order:

The vineyards above Guebwiller

The Medieval city of Eguisheim

Christmas aftermath

Kebob and Yufka

Don't irritate me

We finally got both our bags. On Christmas evening even. In spite of having my full selection of clothes, I'm still wearing the jeans that I was wearing when our trip began a week ago. Aaahhhhh. Vacation.

As I mentioned, Sarah and I finally made it to France, safe and sound. Our luggage, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found. Somehow, our 24 hours in Atlanta wasn't quite enough time for Delta to make sure that our luggage came with us on our plane. When we were at the airport, they assured us that they would send it via courier the next day. When we hadn't received it as of yesterday, Sarah called their lost-luggage hotline to find out what was going on. It's got to be a bad sign that they have a hotline.

The nice man on the other end of the line told her that they had one of our bags, but they were waiting to send it until they found the other one. Found the other one?! That implies you've lost one of them entirely! Perfect. Thanks Delta. While you're working on getting your head dislodged from your buttocks, I'll just keep wearing the clothes that I've had on for the last 3 days, 15 hours, and 37 minutes.

This isn't any different from my usual routine, but it's the principle of the thing that counts.

We made it! I'll post more later, but you'll have to give me a few days to get over the jet lag...

Sarah and I were supposed to be in France today. We're not. We're in an dingy Econolodge in Atlanta. And we had to pay for it ourselves. Stupid Delta.

So yesterday, we got to the Detroit airport bright and early. The weather was clear. Sunny even. Check in was a breeze. Security was a breeze. Finding our gate was a breeze. So we waited for our plane with excitement. And we waited. And waited. When our plane did finally come, the flight crew accidentally let on the wrong passengers. And we waited.

We ended up taking off almost two hours late, and by the time we arrived in Atlanta, we'd already missed our connection to Zurich. We went to the line where we were directed, and we waited. And waited. When we got to the front of the line, the agent brusquely barked at us to 'wait here' and then disappeared. And so we waited. When she didn't come back for a half an hour, we went to another line and were told to go to an even longer line. And we waited.

There were at least 50 feet of people in front of us in the new line, and we moved ten feet in two hours. I did lots of finagling. I called Delta customer service. I went to new lines while Sarah held our place in the Line. We moved another six inches in the line, and it became apparent that Delta was going to blame our predicament on the 'weather' (25 degrees and sunny in Detroit, 65 and sunny in Atlanta) so they wouldn't have to give us a hotel room or meal vouchers. At the front of the Line, they were giving out blankets and telling people they'd have to wait until the next day to leave. Stupid Delta.

And so we left. We did some more waiting, looking for an airport shuttle that would take us to a cheap hotel (as you'll note from my recent post, we're not exactly super-wealthy right now). We talked with a few shuttle drivers, and we found one who ended up giving us an employee discount on our room. Nice guy. Even if the Econolodge is a little dingy, $50 (plus a ten spot for the driver) is a pretty good deal for a reasonably clean room with free internet access, a complimentary continental breakfast, and a free trip back to the airport. And if we hadn't left, we'd probably still be standing in the Line.

For now, we're sitting in the Atlanta Econolodge, full of continental Raisin Bran, watching cable, using the internet on our laptop, and hoping and praying that we make our flight tonight, because if we don't, we'll be sleeping in the airport tomorrow.

Last January, I posted about how Sarah and I paid off her student loans, and I joked about all the things we could have bought instead. Today we did our part to continue the recession by paying off the remaining balance on my loans as well. There goes $10,723.85. This brings the grand total we've paid off to ... wait for it ... $20,623.60. Just think of all the loot we could've had.

As you might suspect, this has considerably reduced the amount of cash we have on hand for a down payment on a house when we move this summer. However, because I'm looking for as much scholarship aid as possible for seminary next year, it's probably best that we don't show a large sum of money in our savings when I apply for scholarships later this winter. If, between winter and summer, we can't manage to scrape together enough money for a 20% down payment, we'll just live in a tent or something.

What's great about paying off the loans now is that (a) we'll save over $5,000 in interest payments over the next 10 years, and (b) we're now entirely debt free.

We'll see how long that lasts.

I had my last obligation of the semester tonight. Let the vacationing begin!

Today I went to the dentist for the first time in almost seven years. I'll be honest: I was a little embarrassed when revealing that fact to them. I'll be more honest: the hygienist spent about 30 minutes scraping plaque off my molars, and she looked physically tired by the time she'd finished. At the same time, I'd also like to point out that I had no cavities, and the dentist thought that my teeth were remarkably healthy, especially given the length of time between my visits. Then she tried to sell me 4 veneers (at $1100 a veneer) for my top four front teeth so that I could "get rid of those spaces" and "hide those tetracycline stains."*

Yeah, when I win the lottery. See you in 2016.


*I also just wanted to say thanks to the dermatologist who gave me the tetracycline in 1998 to clear up my acne. If you'd mentioned it was going to stain my teeth for life, I think I would have just gone with the Clearasil. Not everyone should go to medical school.

So I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here, but as most of you know, I recently submitted an application for admission to a Master of Divinity program at a seminary on the other side of the state. Today I got an email that said I've been accepted for the upcoming Fall semester. Sarah is even more excited to move over there than I am, and it looks like things are falling into place. All we need now is a couple of jobs...

And as an added bonus, I've secured an additional three years in school after I graduate from my current program in April. The real world is, for now, still far away.

Somehow, this is shaping up to be the easiest end of the semester I've had since I started college. Normally, there are multiple final exams to study for, papers to write, and presentations to make. There's usually so much work that I feel stressed for at least two weeks and still end up staying up all night at least once to ensure that I get everything done. Not so this semester. I feel like I'm already on vacation.

Even though I'd like to take credit for myself here, I'm pretty sure I haven't had much to do with it. It's true that I've been super diligent about getting things done early; however, the reality is that I only have two finals, and they don't require any studying because they're 'open book.' I do have one final paper, but it required so little research and so much of my own opinion that I finished it yesterday with so much time to spare that I was able to go and play basketball for a few hours.

Today was the last meeting for one of the classes I teach. After I told the students they were free and could go, two students came up to my desk to turn in some papers.

Student 1: Hands me her paper. I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed this class, and I learned a lot this semester.

Me: Feeling good about myself. Really? That's great! Thanks for telling me!

Student 2: Hands me his paper. I didn't learn anything.

Me: Feeling slightly less good about myself, a number of retorts run through my mind. 1) I wonder if you not learning anything this semester has anything to do with the fact that you listened to your iPod for the entirety of every class because you thought I couldn't see the headphones under your hood? 2) Oh, if you'd just said that you already knew everything about psychology, I would have let you teach the class. 3) That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. 4) Oh, well if you didn't learn anything, then I guess I'll have to give you a failing grade in the class. Instead, I decided to go with: Thanks for telling me!

But what I was really thinking, as you may have guessed, is that not everyone should go to college.

Yesterday the fortune-telling meteorologists at the National Weather Service said we were likely to have 4-8 inches of snow accumulate last night and into the afternoon today. In adulthood, I've always contended that they just guess when it comes to stuff like this, and so I try and make fun of their predictions whenever possible. I think they shattered my snow-day-dreams one too many times when I was a child.

Anywho, I started thinking about this most recent prognostication. As you may have noticed, they recognize that they're going to be off by at least 4 inches. Let's tack that 4 inches of assumed error onto the high and low ends of the 4-8 inches. Hmm... now it seems that they've predicted somewhere between 0 and 12 inches of accumulation. That's weird, because I make that same prediction every day of winter.

How did my forecast stack up? Let's check what's happened outside. Survey says... there's approximately a quarter inch of snow in my yard. Zero to 12 inches prevails again! Hey everybody, I'm a weatherman!

Not everyone should go to meteorological college.