First weekend

It's been bathroom destruction week!  "The Man," as he is known by Big Brother and Little Red, has removed all the old cabinetry, the old shower, knocked out the walls, and removed all the electrical fixtures.  He's put in the new tub, the new shower & faucet, the new walls, and new subflooring.  The boys have been most helpful, sitting just outside the door asking questions and offering advice.  The boys also brought out their many tools just in case The Man needed any help.  Next week:  the vanity, the flooring, and paint.

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It has also been that really strange first week of classes where I go in and do my usual, to mixed reactions from my students.  I think it's initially off-putting to many students--I notice it most frequently in the really fratty and sorority-y (??) types.  Generally it evens out as the term goes on, but we shall see.  I'm sure my style of teaching doesn't work for everyone, even though comments and reactions are positive for the most part.  My most difficult bunch appears to be the 11:00 group of composition students . . . they were remarkably unresponsive yesterday.  It's probably good that I have a Supplemental Instructor in that class.

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The work week, I have to say, ended very very well.  That's good, because next week, it gets "interesting."  What with MORE meetings and MORE fires to put out and MORE MORE MORE

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The Spouse and I have been inexorably working our way back to watching the three Lord of the Rings films again.  The soundtracks came out of their hiatus a week ago, so the 9+ hours of the whole thing can't be far behind.  Still, watching those movies is not something we can do halfway. 

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We have been playing Lego Indiana Jones 2.  A very different game from the previous one, but since we are big Lego fans around here, we're having a good time with it.  Apparently, a Lego Harry Potter game is coming out sometime in the coming year . . . we will be on top of that one as well (think of it:  the layers of nerdiness/geekiness boggle the mind!!)

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Preparations for the baby are being made; we are in the process of moving Little Red into the Big Brother's room.  To his credit, the older boy has been receptive to the idea.  I foresee some nights in which commotion from that room lasts deep into the night.   Speaking of the two boys and commotion, the big hit toy from Christmas, the inflatable fire engine, has pretty much been destroyed due to a combination of kitty teeth, kitty claws, and preschooler roughhousing.

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Right now, Big Brother is making up a story of some kind with a beanie-baby type elephant.  Evidently it involves scrubbing around on the floor and banging the poor elephant against a table leg.  Little Red is building with Duplos.  Apparently that involves sitting with one's tongue slightly sticking out.

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I've got more utopia than you can shake a stick at (did you see what I did there??  hahahahahaa).

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Here's the challenge in preparing a lecture like the one I'm doing in a couple of weeks:  maintaining a balance between rigor, intelligibility, and (frankly) showmanship.  Can I do it?  If not, to borrow a phrase from Inigo Montoya--"humiliations galore!"

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We . . . are . . . going . . . to . . . have . . . three . . . of . . . them . . .