UMD Graduation

The husband returned from his foreign adventures two weeks ago.  I met him at the airport with some clean clothes and two plane tickets to Minneapolis.

We arrived in Duluth just in time for senior project presentations.  Fortunately (for them), my father was unable to attend because he would have pestered them with all sorts of questions.  Instead, I made off with several helpings of the fruit pizza the engineering department provided and my mother and sister's boyfriend quietly made fun of them.

Meredith's senior project presentation

We also attended the Order of the Engineer Ceremony.  Apparently it has something to do with a bridge collapse and engineers needing ethics.  Although, similar to a wedding, if an engineer isn't ethical beforehand, I'm not sure a half hour ceremony and a ring really makes the difference.

Breakfast...college style

UMD Graduation in the hockey arena?  Seems appropriate.

Both of these events were much more enjoyable than the graduation ceremony itself (maybe because those had free food).  Even with some breakfast bloody mary's (we were hanging out with college students, after all) and stories of the night's antics (apparently, one roll of seran wrap can wrap three cars) we were plotting an escape before the first speaker.  However, considering two thousand students were graduating that day, they moved through them pretty quickly...until they forgot about the engineering students.  One whole college later, they realized their mistake and picked them back up, but really?  How long have they been doing this?

Meredith's up there, somewhere.

UMD Graduate in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

We were hoping my sister would be one of the "runners" that casually walked out of the ceremony after they got their "diploma," but alas she returned to our seat.  Our duty fulfilled, we decided to make our escape.

One of his nicknames is Jaws.

I got to meet my new four-legged nephew for the first time that weekend, a bratty German Shepherd puppy named Ruger.  Meredith usually spends half the time she's on the phone correcting him.  During our stay, he got into a bag of chicken strips and ate the entire thing.  He declined to get out of the car for that evening's walk.

Family photo

My mother's former barn kitty turned indoor college student cat, Jigs.

Duluth at night