Gainful Employment

That's right, what we are all looking for (in theory). As many will know, Erin (then ABD) and I had a productive year on the job circuit with a number of interviews and 3 job offers. In the midst of our decision making Erin had to jet back to UCSC to defend her dissertation. This she did successfully and now prefers to be addressed as "Dr. Kraal" but will let Elena slide (on occasion) with a "Dr. Mommy".

Erin returned from her victorious foray to California and we made our decision to accept a position for me at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg VA. They are working hard to put together a position for Erin and we are confident that something will be in place before our arrival there in the fall of 2007. Blacksburg is south of where we met in Lexington at Washinton and Lee, but still in a truly delightful part of the country and we are very much looking forward to returning there and visiting some of our old haunts, as well as the new ones that abound around our home-to-be.

Now that we have the somewhat longer "short-term" decided, we can focus on our research, and our free time!, here in the Netherlands. We've had both sets of parents visit and have a serious backlog of pictures and tales that we hope to start sorting out and posting in the coming week.