Oh wow! I saw this earlier today, but couldn't reply because I was at work. I wanted to pipe in and share my congratulations, and didn't even realize how old it was. That's incredible.

I'm glad you're hanging in there, and wish you lots of success with your research (and writing - whether it's academic or more personal!)...

And thanks for posting an update! I don't think I've been around long enough to remember the original post, but it's really nice to see how things turned out, especially when you're looking at a post from that long ago!