Ernie would have hugged her if his hands weren't full of food so he settled on grinning and nodding happily. "That's simply wonderful! Congratulations!" He sounded ridiculously excited, but hearing about those things gave him hope that he would eventually move up in the ranks too.
He turned back to his cutting, considering her questions. "Family's good. A little freaked since what happened, but..." He shrugged his shoulders. "Suppose everyone is. And work's...work."