SUMMER!

It's here! Hooray! I got my grades all entered by 1:15 am this morning, and now I don't have to think about grading until September! Hooray!

In other news, Josh and I went on our first real trip together last weekend. We flew up to Spokane for our dear friend's wedding (Hi Emily and Simeon! You guys are amazing and adorable! We love you!) and we rented a car and everything like real adults. It was a lot of fun, except for all the layovers on the way up. I tried grading term papers in the airports, but didn't get a lot done. (Side note: funniest typo I found this quarter: "doe snot." I think the student meant "does not," but one can never be sure...maybe it's not that funny...I've been grading a LOT OF ESSAYS.) Back to Washington. It was really nice to get out of CA. I realized that I hadn't left the state since Oxford in 2007 (almost driving to Mexico on our honeymoon doesn't count). That's a long time.

In additional other news, we have a new kitten! His name is Theodoric (we call him Theo most of the time, and Dork-Dork the rest of the time). He's probably about two months old. He is black and white, like Ivan, and also came from Biola. Yes, Ivan is still around too. Ivan is terrified of people who are not Josh and myself. He acts mostly like a normal, friendly, sweet-tempered cat when it's just us, although he is a bit jumpy, but bring anyone else over to our place, and his tail is instantly between his legs and he makes a beeline for my bedroom closet or the bathroom. We found out yesterday when we were babysitting our nephew that Ivan is even more terrified of babies than he is of regular people. It's just a little ridiculous. Theo, on the other hand, is very friendly. He most often wants to be with people--laying on their laps, being held and cuddled by them, climbing up their legs, etc. When he's not doing that, he's usually gnawing on Ivan's ears. They get along really well, and often cry for one another during the night if they aren't in the same room, which is really sweet if you don't care about trying to sleep... I don't have pictures to post yet, but I will--give me a break, I graded for about 17 hours straight yesterday. I'll get to it when I've recovered a bit.

Over and out.

A.