An actual May day post

Its been a super weekend here. Today we bought a new lawn mower which Sam and I can actually start on our own. The previous one was old and temperamental and each time one stopped to empty a bag of clippings, Craig had to be located to get it going again. I decided that we were worth something a bit more user friendly. The grass is freshly mowed for the first time this season (thank you Sam) and I did some pruning and weeding today since the sun was finally out. Yesterday we had snow flurries...

On Friday night I got to go with Catherine and her friends to see the Justin Bieber movie in 3D. Now that was a good time! Oh to be a teenager again - ok, not really. It was very sweet of them to let me come with them, and even let me sit with them... For my part, I did put up with driving them home with the windows rolled down and them all singing his catchy "Baby, baby."

This week is the final real week of the academic year. We have graduation on Friday and once that is done, it is over. The countdown to sabbatical can begin in earnest as there really will be just one more round of chair things to do: one more set of grant/leave support letters; one more round of retention, tenure and promotion proceedings; one more faculty retreat; and so on.

I've put in for a couple of conferences - one in France in early September and one in Iowa in October. The latter more professionally interesting; the former, well, in France so say no more. I continue to collect suggestions for remote, desolate, windswept places to spend a few weeks during fall 2012.