Spring must be here!

Why? Because the geckos are back! :-) (Sorry, no new photos - Emily has the camera!)
I spotted my first gecko of the new year tonight, plastered to the wall on the front of the house.

In a previous post from last year, I had a sky-shot of new leaves. We have those, too, but I think the old leaves took a little longer to fall this time. Our winter has been much warmer and far, far drier than last year.

As for an update, I've been busy with classes - too busy. I've never been a great student, but this all-remote bit is getting old. Thankfully this is the last semester I'll have to do it. With any luck, I'll be an in-person full-time student at the University of New York - Tirana once we get to Albania in 2009. Taking classes in person will be a pain, in some respects, but I'll honestly welcome the structure.

We still don't know when we're leaving Monterrey, only that my language classes run from September 2008 - April 2009. Emily still doesn't have a schedule, so we have no departure date. Hopefully we'll know soon, so we can start planning for the big move.

We are probably going to purchase a condo (or townhouse/house if we can afford it) while back in the States. We'll live there during training, then rent it out after we move to Albania. If we're back in the DC area for an extended period again, we'll probably live there, since we plan to get something convenient to the Foreign Service Institute and Metro.

I must say, NBC Universal, the owner of Battlestar Galactica, has greatly annoyed me. In December, they dropped the show from iTunes. I guess we'll have to wait until the new season comes out on DVD and pick it up while we're back in the States. Grr. At least Stargate:Atlantis is still available, although I think the season ends soon. With any luck, Big Bang Theory will make it back with a few episodes now that the writers' strike is over. We've managed to catch all but one or two of the few episodes released on either the studio channel (Warner, I think) or a re-run on the network. We are also watching Jericho, although we didn't see most of the first season, just the last few episodes of it and the new show that just kicked it off. I don't know when/if Smallville and Supernatural will resume here in Mexico. I think a few fewer episodes aired down here than in the States; we stopped getting new episodes before the Christmas episodes.

That's about all I have time for now. I have some class work to wrap up this weekend and, with Emily in Nueva York with her parents, I have nothing else to do . Other than TV... and games... and books... and a dog that really needs a walk... more accurately: I have no excuses.