I started this on the 14th, and haven't finished it until now.

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Nyuk, nyuk. I just turned in my last batch of grades . . . Free at last, free at last. Or, well, almost: We have two days of professional development and then a BBQ (which I'm, um, hosting) and then there's nothing between me and that beach chair . . . Yee, ha.

So I immediately started planning the border to the Poodle Skirt sweater . . . pictures tomorrow or the next day, I promise. I have a huge backlog of pictures . . .

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Well, as you can see, much time has passed, but I still don't have the pictures off the camera . . .

. . . and speaking of cameras, for Mother's Day Emil got me a Konica Autoreflex TC, from the late 70s/early 80s . . . It's completely cool. I'm hoping that it will give me more colors than the digicam (especially in low light); and I'm also eager to experiment with depth of field, because there are lots of pictures I either don't take, or take and am disappointed in, because the depth of field on digital cameras is infinite, I'm told . . .

So soon I'll be posting pix that were taken with the new (old) camera. Yee, ha. I can't wait. This is the first SLR I've ever owned, and I'm thrilled.

I did indeed host the writing program party (last Wednesday), and it was really fun. Eight people came over, and although the weather was cool, everyone enjoyed sitting on the deck on the new chairs . . . the food turned out to be wonderful (if I do say so myself). One of my favorite colleagues went back for three helpings of pasta salad - which I took as a culinary triumph of sorts because I'd made it strictly out of the (paltry) ingredients I'd had on hand. It rose above its plebian constituents (rotini, onions, red peppers, black olives, uninspired supermarket cheddar) because of its dressing: Oil, balsamic vinegar, and lime juice. The vinegar took the edge off the lime juice, and vice versa. It turned out to be a great combination (and one I'll probably never be able to replicate).

All in all, it was a very pleasant event. I'm taking it as a sign of my ease with my colleagues - and with this place in general - that I wanted to have this party and that I found it so easy to do. (I'm already planning next year's bash.)

So then I spent Thursday and Friday puttering . . . I planted a few things in the garden, I swept Em's floor, cleared up some of the residual clutter in her room, and raided her bookshelves for summer reading material. I hung a few pictures, began to straighten up the work bench area, and so on. I also took Charlie's car in to be repaired (again!), and got some knitting done.

This weekend has been very interesting. Emma moved out last weekend, so this was the first weekend Emil and I had to ourselves as "empty-nesters." We had a really good time . . . feels like it took us about fifteen minutes to pick up from where we were twenty years ago when Charlie was born and everything changed. I almost feel guilty because I'm really enjoying the fact that both kids are (sort of) gone and we have the house to ourselves again. But we lived together for eight years before deciding to have kids, and that was a lot of fun; before Charlie was born I wondered if we'd ever have days like those again. Now I'm thinking, yeah, we will - and early indications are, they're going to be just as fun as they were back when we were in our twenties.

Tomorrow I have more car maneuvers to execute, as well as motoring to Ann Arbor to work on our curb appeal. We've got a new realtor (finally), and we're optimistic. It would sure be nice to sell the house; I can think of lots better things to do with the monthly mortgage payment . . .

Money aside, though, life around here is cranking along very pleasantly at the moment.

Pix soon. Really.