Back at it

I have been trying to remember what we did since New Year, and quite frankly, I don't seem to be able to do so. Oh well, since we talk to most of our readers on a regular basis, I am certain that they are already aware of the highlights.

We started back to work on the Monday after New Year, and although the students didn't return to campus until January 10th, we stayed pretty busy. It has been a tough time trying to meet the student demand in a lot of our chemistry and biology support courses. Long waiting lists and angry students and parents to deal with. We have done the best we can, but it has been a trial. The good news is that the demand has resulted in new faculty lines for both chemistry and biology. Now if we can just get them to reform their curricula a little, we might be able to meet our demand.

The weather has been pretty cold, but we have survived. To break up our time a little, we slip off to the condo as often as possible. We went down last Friday afternoon, did a temple session, and then worked on a couple of projects. I tried to hang a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom, but, the electrical box in the ceiling was not secure enough to handle the weight. I had two choices, crawl around the attic, or hire an electrician. He finished up the job on Wednesday.

We continue to work to get our stove replaced as well. The electrician updated the plug wiring to a four prong arrangement on Wednesday as well, and a handyman service is supposed to give us a bid on modified the cabinets and counter tops today. Maybe we will have this project completed by the first of February.

We have been feeling like the "run away Bubby and Poppy", though. On Saturday afternoon last week, I got a phone call from Daniel, who had been trying to track us down. The conversation went something like this: Dan, "Where are you Queeks?" Me, "In St. George." Dan, "We were just looking for you to see if we could give the kids an outing." Me, "Do you want to come down?" Dan, "No, we were just hoping to hook up." "When are you coming back home?" Me, "Later this afternoon." And that, turned out to be a lie. By the time we finished fussing around, it was late afternoon, and I suggested that we just spend another night and go home early enough Sunday morning to make my 7:30 AM PEC. That is exactly what we did. It is so nice to have a little hide away.

I am teaching a senior level course this semester, and I am thinking it will be a lot of work. First, instead of scheduling a class time, I opted for TBA (class meeting time To Be Announced). That meant that on Monday afternoon, when I met with the five members of the class, we had to find 150 minutes of class time each week that didn't conflict with either their schedules or mine--no simple trick. We finally came up with meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. I have spent a lot of time in the past week preparing for that class, which I haven't taught since 2005.

It looks like we will be here this Friday night. Dan and Rosalyn are having a night away, and Drewfy and Mevelyn are having a sleep over at Bubb's. Of course, the gymnastics opener against national champs, UCLA, is also tonight. We already have a babysitter arranged for. We are hoping to slip away right after church on Sunday. St. George is supposed to be beautiful this weekend, and we could use some 60° weather.

Happy New Year to our readers.

Buboppy