Chapman Kids Blog

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Month: December 2019

Huevos divorciados

By

On Tuesday, December 31, 2019

In Cooking, Family, Retirement

Lynn took Conchita, Lorena, and I to breakfast yesterday morning at a “working man’s” restaurant. We all had huevos divorciados. They are like huevos rancheros, but one egg has red salsa and the other egg has green salsa. We are taking our last evening here slowly and fairly quietly–as much as is possible for this family–really not that quiet. Tomorrow morning we have to get up at 4 AM in time to get to the airport in time to fly back to Washington so I can go to work on Thursday morning.

Our time here has been very good for me. I have had time to reflect without a ton of work. I have some hard decisions on what to do next. With only a little over two years until retirement I have a lot of options with not a whole lot of knowledge about where we should be nor what we should be doing. Some new options have opened up to us since we got here and I will be exploring them over the next few weeks.

La Huasteca en Monterrey

By

On Monday, December 30, 2019

In culture, Family

Tio Laurin took Lorena, Christian, Tio Lynn, and I to see the Huasteca yesterday. It is a series of rock formations that are both huge and an international rock climbing destination. After visting the Huasteca, we drove out to a location where there is a huge flood control dam. Most of the time, there is no water on either side of the dam, but when the rainy season comes along and under just the right conditions, the water floods over the top of the wall you see to the right. It is an amazing thing to see.

La Quinceañera de Valeria

By

On Saturday, December 28, 2019

In Family

Last night, the whole family attended the Quinceañera (fifteenth birthday party) of Lorena’s brother Jorge’s daughter, Valeria. There were lots of people there I had not seen for ten years or so and there were lots of people who are now gone that it would have been really nice to see again including Lorena’s father Lauro. It was a nice party with great food and a TON of desserts made by Minita (Lorena’s brother Rigo’s wife). That will be the last of such events until Rigo’s daughter Fanny has her Quinceañera. We hope we can make it to that one, too.

Waiting for Kelly

By

On Thursday, December 26, 2019

In Cooking, culture, Family, Music

Last night, we all got together at Tio Rigo’s (second from right) house to wait for Kelly’s arrival from Baltimore. Rigo prepared an amazing carne asada and everyone helped prepare for our niece Valeria’s (the girl in pink at the left) quinceñera which takes place tomorrow. There was lots of music and talking. It takes an even like this to remind me how noisy are these special Mexican events.

Christmas Eve 2019 in Monterrey

By

On Wednesday, December 25, 2019

In Cooking, Family, Music

Tios Lauro and Tio Lynn and his family spent Christmas Eve with Lorena, Conchita, Christian, and I. Lauro and Lynn, did all the grilling while the rest of us sat around and talked. Christian downloaded some music he wanted to learn and it was just nice to watch him start to work through that. This was as nice a Christmas Eve as I have had for years. The only thing missing was Kelly, but she will be here later today.

Retirement clock

By

On Wednesday, December 25, 2019

In Education, Work

I have added a retirement clock to the sidebar of the blog. I am not sure things are going to actually play out in the way the retirement clock is planned, but God willing I hope to be moving from a full time direct employment position to a half-time contract position on or about May 2, 2012–28 months from now. Here is the clock:

Hopefully, this will allow me to spend half of my time working on my PhD, but who knows. More on all this as we go along.

Christian’s PhD graduation ceremony

By

On Tuesday, December 24, 2019

In Education

Lorena and I flew to Tempe last week for Christian’s PhD graduation ceremony. It was nothing short of amazing. Several thousan graduated even though the ceremony we attended was just for the schools of engineering. There were bagpipes and speeches and lots of happy people–us included.

Since this is end of Christian’s educational journey, at least for the time being, I thought I would just put down a brief synopsis of his trajectory for posterity.

Age 13 – Homeschool

  • Duke University TIP (Talent Identification Program) medal
  • Passed first CLEP (college credit exam) test

Age 14 – Wake Technical Community College

  • Dean’s list all semesters for two years at

Age 18 – North Carolina State University

  • BS in Applied Mathematics
  • Dean’s list all semesters
  • Honors Mathematics
  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude (highest honors)

Age 23 – Arizona State University

  • PhD in Electrical Engineering
  • Fellow of the Fulton School of Engineering
  • MIT funded his fellowship that paid for school and a living stipend
  • Published 3 referred journal articles

Age 24 – Boston area

  • Accepted a position as a full-time researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén