Now for some good news

Look, while I realize no one stops by here expecting



These










farting these








even I recognize when I'm being more "Glass Half Empty" than usual.







So in no particular order:

• It's Friday!
• My brother passed the New York and New Jersey bars exams!
• This morning I submitted the final abstract, budget and report for a big ass grant we got last year!
• The Saint has been out of town and yet nothing/no one broke down, threw up or caught on fire!

It's the small victories people, the small victories. I'm just sayin'.

I lost the will to live

And when you lose the will to live, you also lose the will to post. The car? It is dead. Dead as in it will cost almost as much to FIX the car as we PAID for the car. A car we PAID for less than a year ago.

Bitter, party of two? Right this way.

A day may need to pass

I don't have much tonight. It's only Tuesday, but it feels like Thursday at the LEAST. The weather is gray, misty, cold.

We went to two wakes tonight. Wakes for two good women who will be buried tomorrow. Women who left children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Isabelle and Rose lived long lives. Not healthy lives, in the end, but lives without prolonged suffering. They both had what one calls "a good death". That's something to cling to when nothing else is left.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The good...

You may recall we had yet another college visit scheduled for today. In one of our sessions this afternoon I thought one of the panelists looked very familiar. When she introduced herself I bounced up and down in my seat just a little. She was the professor who taught my very first history of art class. She was fairly new to the university at the time and, since I always sat in the front row, we got to know each other quickly.

Her enthusiasm for her subject of the class was so contagious that I took another art history course, and then another, and another, and the next thing I knew I had myself a double major. When our art museum was looking for a new director, she asked me to serve as the student representative on the search committee. She was also largely responsible for the departmental award I received my senior year. I've kept up with her career and family through department newsletters over the years.

I went to speak with her after the session and she's just as warm and enthusiastic as she was twenty plus years ago. Many years have passed since I last saw her, she is the Chair of the department now, but we talked as though I had stepped out of her classroom days rather than decades ago. I have to say I'm still smiling!

The bad...

On to another topic; I am ready to smack a certain seventeen year old. I know she's tired, I know she's stressed, I know she has a lot on her plate. But so help me - the craptastic attitude has GOT TO GO!

The ugly...

I leave you with one last thing. If an automobile engine runs out of oil, guess what happens? I should have prizes for Ree and Susan. I'm just sayin'. *sigh*

When the phone rings after midnight

it is NEVER a good thing. The Saint and I were getting ready for bed Saturday morningFriday night and the phone rang. It was Precious Oldest - broken down on the highway 40 some minutes from home. She and a friend had gone to a concert and on the way back to campus her car just up and died.

We thanked God she wasn't alone. That no one was hurt. That the weather was cold but not frigid. That we had AAA. A wrecker towed her car to the nearest town and friends came from school to pick them up.

It was only the next morning, after the Saint talked to the driver of the tow truck, that it came to light WHY the car had "just up and died". Let's just say the car will not be "up and running" any time soon.

The Saint drove two hours with a friend (a GOOD friend) to retrieve the car. They rented a trailer and hauled it back here. They left the car at our regular garage and tomorrow we'll have the mechanics take a look and access the damages.


Too bad the money tree in the back yard just lost all its leaves.

As promised

Campus life in pictures


Rubbing his beak is supposed to be good luck on game day.








We had a great tour guide. She hails from Minnesota and I enjoyed her accent.








We didn't see very many students out before noon








I liked this building and its nod to Art Deco
















It seems they made an effort to take elements of old buildings into consideration when constructing new ones























They have a beautiful church on campus








Some of the Professors live back here.












We drove home through a gathering storm.









I have no way to wrap this up except to say we visitMY Alma Mater one last school on Monday. I don't mind saying I'm glad we're down to three!

From the Saint

A bonus funny for Friday: