Deadline one--IRS. However, since they owe me money a few days later won't matter.

Deadline two--midterm grades. Those have to be posted by midnight 10/16. I can post from home. This afternoon I was on the phone (again) with ITC asking them what my passwords were. One screen calls for my Xavier ID number--all nine digits. So that's what the number taped to the wall by my home computer is!

I have enough numbers at Xavier to sink a ship. There's the Xavier ID. Then the password that goes with it. To log onto my computer I have to remember just what form my name is in--and use a password of at least six characters--numbers and letters--with at least one cap. And then there's my number for using the department copier.

Each of these is on a scrap of paper in my "junk" drawer. (Isn't that where everyone keeps all their different passwords?)

But, it is very nice to know that I am still in the Xavier system, even to the extent of my paycheck automatically going into my bank account, just as it did two years ago.

There are going to be some REALLY unhappy kids when the midterms get posted. There is no way on earth that the 15 kids who left early on a two-day mid-term break will have high enough grades in other areas to overcome the exam zero. And then there are the ten or so who didn't bother turning in paperlets.

I told the kids they could, if they wanted, block their parents from their records. They can't block out faculty, but they can block out parents.

I've got some really nice and really good kids in my class. But the majority of the kids aren't too good about deadlines.

I started on ancient Greece today, and there was one student who had read the Iliad. She was also familiar with Aristophanes' Lysistrata (this is a hilariously funny anti-war comedy), and some of Sophocles' work.

Needless to say, today's sports sections have a lot of highlights of yesterday's game with Seattle. Maybe the Saints' victory takes a bit of the sting out of LSU's rout by Kentucky(?) on Saturday. It should be interesting to see how this week's college football rankings are.

Ah well--back to the grading.