Monday Update, One Day Late Edition

Dude's clothes are awesome (and no doubt expensive . . .
but check out that bike!!

• Don't look now, but The Runner and I may have gotten one step ahead of the yard . . . for now.  It has helped that it hasn't been raining all day every day. If I could find a way to make the roses thrive and a way to deal with (i.e., eliminate) the Diodia Virginiana, I'd consider my yardening a total success.
• We are two weekdays into summer now.  by 7:00 yesterday morning, the two older boys were already bickering.  This morning, Number One got up at 5:30 and turned on the TV.  Only two days down.
• On the upside (and this is quite the upside), the runner and two of the three boys picked strawberries on Saturday (the littlest one was there too, but he didn't really pick any strawberries).  Which means our freezer is once more filling up with strawberry jam, and we are once more eating lots of strawberry-centric foods.  I tell The Runner that I'll never refuse fruit to the children, so they take advantage.  Pictures of recent hijinks here.
• Bike riding:  I have gone on three rides since Thursday, each of more than 15 miles.  For me, that's a big change from the past couple of years. The Runner is supportive of my spending a lot of time in the saddle, even if that means she is *ahem* saddled with the children.  For that I am most thankful.  I'll be especially thankful while riding that Metric Century up in Illinois a couple of weeks from now. 
• Course Evaluations from the Spring came in.  In a surprising development, I was most often (80+% of the time) called "enthusiastic" in the classroom.  Okay, so perhaps not that surprising.  One student did call me smart, though!
• Project Kick My Own Ass (hereafter PKMOA) is going fairly well so far this week:  yesterday, though weather forestalled a long bike ride, I did spend all afternoon doing yard work.  The academic part of the project is complicated by: a) the closure of the second floor of the library (yeah, that's the floor with all the study carrels and the books); and b)the mysterious failure of the overhead lights in my office.  The floor lamp and desk lamp provide adequate illumination for casual work, but the more intense stuff has become that much more challenging.
• Attempting to cultivate focus.