Almost a Dr.

Eric passed his defense!! On Tuesday, July 20th Eric had his dissertation defense with his committee members. After his 50 minute presentation, they had some hard questions for him and some revisions they asked him to complete, but ultimately, they passed him! He received all their signatures which means when he completes the revisions, and turns in his final dissertation before July 28th, he will be cleared for graduation! It is SO exciting to see all his hard work come to an end.
Here is a picture of Eric while he was waiting for all of his committee members to arrive for his presentation.
This is a wall in Rhines Hall at UF which lists all the graduates in the first 50 years of UF materials science and engineering. Eric graduated with his masters degree in 2006. To celebrate, we had a small plate dinner with some friends. We had a 5 course meal, including dessert. I assigned a course to each couple to pair with the wine we had chosen.

Course 1: Phyllo Pizza with Cherry Tomatoes and Smoke Mozzarella paired with a Reserve Chardonnay from Virginia. (Zavaleta course)

Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter paired with a Merlot from Italy. (Kennedy course)

Course 3: Braised Beef Short Ribs with Cheddar Cheese Polenta paired with A Grenache from Australia (Armstrong course)

All the guys.

Of course, I always seem to forget to take a picture of one course. Course 4: Tri Tip with salsa, crispy bread and a taste of fresh, homemade, mozzarella cheese paired with a Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon (Armstrong course)
Course 5: White chocolate tart with raspberry topping (Heinen course- Erin and Eric have the EXACT same taste for dessert so it was great that she made something he loved)
He even had 2 servings.

Yay for almost Dr. Armstrong!!