Busy, Busy

Kansas City:

The last week seems to have flown by! Last week found me with things going on almost every night. Between my dance class, yoga, dinner with a colleague, a missed, but planned, night at the museum, then packing for Kansas City, whew! Of course, in all of that, I had to put the finishing touches on my presentation for the conference this past weekend, teach, catch up on reading, etc., etc.

The trip to KC was great! I flew in early enough on Friday to have lunch with my colleague and dear friend from Wisconsin. She and I had a wonderful visit all weekend and also enjoyed dinner out on Saturday evening. Sunday, we went to the Jazz Museum and the Museum of the Negro Baseball League.

Of course, the real purpose of the trip was the conference, and as always, it was wonderful. I picked up many tips on teaching and some great ideas for fresh approaches. The people who go to these conferences are the ones with the true love of what they do--the innovative educators. Spending time with them always recharges my batteries a bit.

Football:

And then there are the football games! I missed the one Saturday evening--opting instead to talk for hours to Lisa. But when we got back to the hotel, someone said the Ags had pulled it off. I waited, hardly patiently, to get confirmation of that fact on the big-screen in the hotel lounge, and finally---Whoop! Indeed, the Ags made it! And now, they're in first place in the Big 12 South. I just hope we show up to really play---both first and second half---against Tech this weekend.

And of course, last night was one of the most exciting ends of a Cowboys game I've ever seen. I'm not at all in an approving state of mind regarding the last-second time-outs called by coaches when a kicker is kicking a career-long field goal, but it is within the bounds of the rules. (It happened to a team Saturday night and to da 'boys last night.) But the Cowboys kicker pulled it off and made that field goal TWICE---moving the cowboys to 5-0. Fabulous!

Work:

I'll need to spend a lot of free time over the next two weekends with my scholarly work. First, I need to read over and over my article coming out in publication this fall, readying myself for any questions about it during interviews at the end of this month. And second, I need to get my work-in-progress to a state such that I'll be ready to give a job talk on it.

Of course, in the meantime, I have to keep up with my current schedule. This includes getting a new course ready to go for next semester. First step: choose a text. At least I've gotten that narrowed down to between two books.

For now, though, I better get out the door to go get some of these things done!