Some pictures

Sam setting up new chess set from Granddad.

Post-op Sadie. Growths and several teeth removed....

This is what post boot camp looks like....

Ta Da

Birthday eve

I am sitting at the dining room table, writing and listening to Catherine and her friend next door in the kitchen making my birthday cake. There have been shrieks of delight and despair, much giggling, and just now something that sounded alarmingly like the steam function on an iron. "Are you two ironing in there?" I asked. "We're just using the steam from the iron..." From what I have been able to glean the cake involves fondant and has necessitated repeated trips to check clips from some show called 'Cake Boss'. Now I am hearing things like "basket weave" and "save enough to make a star." Happy 48th to me.

Pet peeve

Heavy breathers in yoga class. Honestly, there was a woman today who was just ridiculous. There I am trying to find inner peace and she is letting out these gargantuan groaning exhalations that were just so rude and inappropriate. I'm sure she thought she was the epitome of "breath work" but I beg to differ. I think the instructor agreed because towards the end she approached her and asked "Are you alright? You seem to be breathing very loudly." But of course, people who can let themselves sound like a gale force wind are not ones likely to respond to subtlety. She was "just fine." Apart from an ingrown toenail which she felt the need to tell us about...

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.

Happy may day