My defense...

It official! I passed my defense - or as my boss insisted on calling it, the "final examination". It went pretty smoothly considering all the chaos leading up to it (like last minute changes to the presentation),



and my committee seemed pleased with the talk, etc. I got a good number of questions (and I was able to answer them all), and some great feedback from the audience and from my committee.






The boss even bought champange and gave a toast.









Of course, it wouldn't have been the same without Macy to help me prepare and to give me a good-luck cuddle before I left.



Phil was there too, and that meant a lot! (So were my good friends Joel and Libby, also in the picture below, and Jamie Rae, and Stacy).



Now all that's left are corrections and getting my papers submitted...