So today Laura and I went separate ways...  Laura went to go see the girls ice skate at "worlds".  Here is a picture of the crew from Alabama:

There were several events for all of them, but the one that sounded the strangest to me (and Caitlin was in so we have pictures) was called "surprise".  Apparently they tell you as you go onto the ice what it is they need you to do.  I'm sure it's to test some sort of skill or concentration since Caitlin had to push a kickball around the ice with a hockey stick.  This isn't quite as odd as seeing a hockey player do spins, but it's close:

So while Laura was watching ice skating, I took a trip down into Boston on the "T" to see a thesis defense at MIT.  It is impressive to me that it took him 6 years just to get his PhD (this was time spent completely after his undergrad work) and this is about average for the MIT programs.  While I was in Boston, I had to kill some time between events, so I walked around a bit.  I did see the Old South Church which makes me wonder where the Old North Church is relative to it:

We had dinner at this amazing Italian place across the street from our hotel called Linguini's.  It's a dad-and-daughter type show, but it has some of the absolute best Italian food I've ever tasted.  I'm sure we'll visit again this week if we get a chance.