News and Updates

1. Yeah, it’s been that sort of time. The semester is rushing to a close and the we’re gearing up toward summer without even a pause in between. And my semester actually drags on for an extra week because the various campuses I work for can’t quite seem to coordinate that sort of thing so I’ve got finals stretching out across the month. Yay, me.

2. I’ll miss my students, as I always do. This year was a particularly memorable year, which is either a function of them being lovely people or me slowly losing my ability to remember more than eleven months into the past. Or both. Could be both!

3. Oliver and I are working our way through the NHL playoffs, and having a good time while doing so. The Flyers were eliminated sometime in January, so we really don’t have any pressure to cheer for anyone in particular.

4. Why, though, did the NHL put all of their regular season games onto one cable channel – one that, by a fortuitous coincidence, we already subscribed to – and then decide that exactly NONE of the playoffs would be on that channel? Instead, that they would be broadcast on several other channels, none of which we subscribe to? Are they trying to make the game dry up and blow away? Maybe. Fortunately we know about such things as VPNs and streaming sites and we’ve been watching that way. It has to be said that the Canadian sites have better ads – not nearly as screamingly obnoxious as American ads. At one point we found an Israeli feed (yes, apparently, the NHL has fans in Israel) and we were kind of looking forward to seeing what those ads would look like but they just keep the stadium feed the whole time.

5. Also, only Canadians are allowed to be nicknamed “Dougie.” It’s the law.

6. We had a grand time at that wedding, by the way. Despite it being late April it actually snowed a bit, which meant that those of us wearing suits were nicely warm in the more or less outdoor venue while those wearing dresses – notably the bride – were not. But the event was lovely, the company was good, and if the reception was too loud because I am too old, we enjoyed ourselves immensely anyway.

7. I'm working my way through the last forty years in my US2 class, which is always a minefield since speaking the truth about recent American history does tend to upset the sorts of people who call others “snowflakes.” My class would be considered illegal in Florida these days and I take a certain amount of pride in that.

8. It is also something of a melancholy moment to reach the point in my history class where I’m giving a lecture that covers the exact year that I was sitting where my students are now, when I was a first-year college student. And it isn’t even the last lecture of the course! There are four more to go! Who thought that was a plan?

9. We went up to see Lauren on Monday to try to plan out our Big Summer Vacation – perhaps the last one we’ll do with all four of us before she and Oliver head out to their own lives, though perhaps not. Might as well plan big just in case, though. We’ve got some good ideas now, and at some point we’ll actually go and then after that there will be pictures here. We also stayed for the Monday night trivia contest and our team – a vast and cheerfully unwieldy collection of folks – came in second, so rah us.

10. We’re reaching the point where the good folks who run Our Little Town are going to come by soon and write out a Ten Foot Ticket about my lawn, so I’ll probably have to cut it this weekend. “But the pollinators!” I cry. “But the ordinances,” they respond. Oh well. I tried, little bees, I tried.