The Traveling Professor goes to Israel--Day II

Mom and Youngest Daughter aren't acclimated to the seven hour time difference yet, so they slept in a bit. I went out on the patio and up to the roof of the retreat house and took some pictures of the Sea of Galilee in the daytime.

North toward Mt. Hermon
We finally got moving around noon-ish, and headed to Nazareth to visit the Nazareth Bible Village, a replica of a first-century town built on a real first-century farm site. But first--we had to find it. We got to the turnoff to Cana with no problem, but when we got to Nazareth itself--oh mamma. The map was not much help, the website didn't have directions, and of course--no signs ANYWHERE. YD read the guidebook and all it said was that the village was near the YMCA. But where was the YMCA? We headed into the Old City (those dratted roundabouts again) and watched carefully for anything that might point us in the right direction.
South toward Tiberias
Finally, at the bottom of a long and narrow street, we saw a sign pointing right that said "YMCA". I turned and headed up the hill and there was a huge billboard for the Nazareth Village. AT the Y, not NEAR the Y. Also, a sight that gladdened my heart: a huge, empty parking lot. Ahhhhhh.
We went in the Y building and followed the signs inside up the stairs. To our left was a gift shop, and straight ahead was a ticket window. We finally got someone's attention and asked about
buying tickets. That's when we found out that we had to wait two
hours for an English-language tour. We couldn't go around the place on our own, and there was no audio tour. Sigh. But we didn't want to miss seeing the place, so we decided to go downstairs to the YMCA restaurant, get some badly needed lunch, and then browse the gift shop while we waited for the tour to start.

Arbel in the distance
The restaurant was pretty good--I had chicken shashlik, while YD and Mom had lamb. The typical Middle Eastern salad (tomatoes and cucumbers) , pita, and hummus were very very tasty. When we finished, YD and I walked down the hill to the main street and strolled around a bit while Mom shopped in the gift store. We got back to the Y with 15-20 minutes to spare, so I picked up a magnet for my office door, an olivewood spoon for Eldest Daughter and a small pottery oil lamp they called a "Jesus lamp".

The tour started by taking us through four rooms, each representing an era--the Ottoman era, the Roman era, etc. until we were back to the first century. Then we walked down a path between two stone walls to the village. The walls had stones jutting out like shelves, and on each shelf was one of the Jesus lamps. The guide explained that these lamps would be lit at night so people could see where they were going, and the lamps are extinguished by putting a large basket--a bushel--over them. Hence, hiding one's light under a bushel. The tour is basically a Parable Walk; the guide relates different elements of living in the first century to the parables Jesus taught. Really interesting, and what is really neat is that this is a working farm--they are growing olives, figs, grapes, pomegranates, herbs, etc. and using them in traditional ways. There's even a program to provide Biblical meals based on these foods.



















One of the young interpreters; the Shepherd and his sheep; a 1st century cistern with marks of wear from ropes on the left edge. Demonstrating the olive press; weaving in the courtyard; 1st century drilling.

























The photo on the left is of the synagogue, built using traditional methods. The room is actually below ground; ground level is at the tops of the columns. Here the guide unrolled a scroll and read, just as Jesus did so many years ago, from Isaiah 61: 1-2.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.

We finished the tour in a room lit by the light of one Jesus lamp. What a fantastic experience!

After leaving the Village, we headed back toward Tiberias. We wanted to drive along the shore and perhaps find a public beach where we could wade into the water and collect some rocks. Tiberias is very pretty, and the approach to the city is gorgeous. We found a spot where we could reach the water, and had a great time soaking our hot feet in the cool waters.


























We made our way back to the retreat house for dinner, about 15 lbs heavier (all those rocks!).

Next installment: More getting lost, Mt. Hermon, and a real Crusader castle.

The Traveling Professor Goes to Israel--Day I

I’ve wanted to go to Israel since I was five. I sat at my dad’s feet as he read the Bible to us each evening, listening to the wonderful stories of the Old Testament and fascinated by the thought that God had chosen a People. I remember asking Dad if we were Jewish and being very disappointed to find out we were not.

When my Aunt E went to Israel in the 70s, she brought me back a stone from the Mount of Olives that still sits in my top dresser drawer. She is the pastor of a church in the south, and they’ve got a retreat house on the shores of the Sea of Galilee so she goes there two or three times a year (still, at 94!). My parents went with her in 1998 and again in 2002, but I couldn’t seem to get the money together for a trip. I didn’t even have a passport.

Thanks to the prodding of my world traveler BestFriend, I finally applied for a passport in 2007. Still, the only place I went with it was Canada, which really doesn’t count as traveling—at least not to this Western New York native, used to bopping over to Fort Erie for Chinese food on a whim.

Then came Kosova. My university has a campus in Prishtina, and we were offering a master’s program that included a course I teach here at home. Part of the course is taught online, and then there’s a week of intensive classes at the Prishtina site. The university was paying my airfare to Kosova. Hmmm, I thought. How far is it from Prishtina to Israel, and would it be possible for me to make a side trip after my week of classes?

It was, indeed possible! Just a quick and fairly cheap hop from Istanbul to Tel Aviv, and my first visit to Israel became a reality. My mom and Youngest Daughter flew from the US to Tel Aviv to meet me, and we were off on our adventure.

Adventure is right—my flight was a bit delayed, and by the time I got through passport control, picked up my luggage, found my family, rented two cellphones, and got the rental car, it was dark. We would have gotten out a bit earlier if anyone at the cellphone counter knew where the Hertz counter was. What is with the separated second floor? We went up the right side just to find out Hertz was on the left, and other than retracing our labored steps—well, you couldn’t get there from here.

My mother was very nervous about driving around in a strange country at night, but I was determined to find my way to the retreat house no matter what. The first difficulty presented itself almost immediately—signage. As in “lack of”. Add to that “lack of explanation of”. We got lost almost immediately, although we soon found ourselves and managed to get on Route 6 heading north and even made the turn onto Route 65. We’d gotten in contact with the caretakers at the retreat house, and they assured us we were on the right road. I tooled along quite happily, thinking we were going to have smooth sailing—and then we got to Afula.

Ah, Afula—we love your name, we hate your traffic circles. Okay. I have a Ph.D. in engineering. I’m not a dumb person. It pains me to admit I didn’t realize the round signs with numbers in them were not route signs, but speed limit signs, and I didn’t figure that out until we got lost in Afula (note to guidebook writers--that would have been helpful information to include). We went straight when we should have turned, and literally went around in circles. We called the caretaker again and told her we seemed to be on a Route 60 which none of us could find on any map we had. We stopped at a gas station, but the attendant didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Hebrew so that didn’t help much. We waylaid a couple walking home and they didn’t speak much English either, but understood the gesture for “Which way to Tiberias?” and helpfully told us to find the hospital and turn left.

Left at the hospital (at least what we thought was the hospital) put us in a parking lot. At that point, my mom was REALLY getting worried, and I was starting to be a bit concerned that I’d spend my first night in Israel endlessly stuck in roundabouts and more than a bit annoyed that I hadn’t managed to find the time to learn Hebrew enough to read signs. Then I got an inspiration. Where was the moon? If we were headed toward Tiberias, the moon should be in front of me or slightly to my right. I figured 65 had to be near the western edge of town, so to go back there I’d have to make sure the moon was behind me. Five minutes later we were back to where we’d mistakenly gone straight, and I found a sign pointing to Tiberias. Whew!

My mother made up a song about being lost in Afula. She sang it several times during our trip. I’d post the words but somehow they, and the tune, kept changing. It was her first attempt at songwriting so we thought it was wonderful even if she (and we) couldn’t remember from one day to the next how it went.

The rest of the drive to the retreat house was uneventful, and I loved speeding around curves and up and down hills. It was close to midnight when we came out into a gap between two cliffs and saw an absolutely breathtaking sight. There, under the full moon, lay the Sea of Galilee. It glowed in the moonlight, a beautiful mirror of the starry sky above. If we hadn’t spent twenty minutes lost in Afula we would not have seen this very special view of the moon reflected in a storied sea. Thank God for those roundabouts.

The Sea of Galilee at midnight, from the retreat house

After unloading the car and getting settled in our rooms, we crawled into bed. Already we knew this was going to be a memorable week.

Tomorrow's installment: Not getting lost in Nazareth

I'm back! I'm jetlagged!

More later, when I'm actually awake.

Pictures!

These were taken in downtown Pristina yesterday afternoon. The first is Leke and me in front of the Skenderbeg statue.

Next is the old theatre. It was going to be torn down, but the people of Pristina objected, so now it's going to be restored. Beautiful building! This picture was taken with a camera phone, so the color is a bit off. It's pinkish in this photo, but really the building is a light yellow.
Next is the NEWBORN sculpture that we all saw on television in February when Kosova declared independence. First, Leke and me, then Faton and me.

Leke said he had signed the W that night, but there are so many signatures now that he can't find his. He carries the photo of him signing on his cellphone. His dad was in the Communist parliament, and his family lives up on the hills surrounding the city. He watched the bombing of Pristina from his house. He wanted to show me a building that had been partially destroyed by a bunker buster, but the city had started to tear it down. There's construction going on everywhere here--roads are torn up, houses are being built. The houses are interesting. Several floors, because each floor is a generation of the family. Houses are usually brick (squarish red ones) and there are hundreds of them that are half-built with no windows or doors, some in the middle of cornfields. These are called "black houses" (no electricity or other utilities) and are often illegal. The area directly across from the university was bare a few years ago; now it's covered with houses.

Last class day

Well, it's done. We finished around 11:30, and then headed to lunch in Germia, a beautiful parklike setting full of huge trees. After a wonderful lunch I headed into town with two of the students, who took me to the big NEWBORN sculpture placed in the main plaza for the independence celebrations. We took pictures of the Skenderbeg monument and the sculpture, and then they bought me a Kosova flag, hat, stickers, lanyard--and a T-shirt with the man who sparked the independence movement. Under his picture, in Albanian, it says "Dude, it's over!" After a really tasty ice cream, we went back to the school and said goodbye. I was sad to see them all go. They desperately want to come to the US just for one term, and I hope we can manage it somehow.

So my vacation has officially started, and I'm spending the first evening of it sitting in my dorm apartment, ha! I have not seen Boss since 11 p.m. last night, when I left him in downtown Pristina. I was going back to the school, he was heading to another restaurant with a bunch of the staff for more raki. I heard he wasn't feeling well this morning. Can't imagine why!

Tomorrow we should be heading out west for a day trip; at least that was the plan as of last night, before all the raki.

Time is just flying by

Tomorrow is my last teaching day. The students have asked that we end at noon so we can all go out to lunch together. So far, things have been going well. There's a class clown, and a class showoff, and all the usual things you see in a bunch of students. They are slowly learning to think critically about data, although sometimes I feel like I am pulling teeth.

We went out last night to a local restaurant for dinner. I had an amazingly good salad, and then meatballs and potatoes. Unfortunately I fell victim to eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome and couldn't finish the meal. I felt bad, because it was really really good and I didn't want to insult the host. But, it was just too much food. We're going out again tonight, for more traditional food than we had last night. I will just ask for a kid's portion!

Finally got my American dollars exchanged for Euros today in anticipation of SHOPPING Saturday. I begged my boss to wangle a car and take me to the western cities where the old monasteries are. Our other American teacher and his family went to those monasteries yesterday and they kept saying how beautiful the area is, and how much they enjoyed going. I am hoping also to get one of the tea pots they sell here in the markets, for on top of the stove.

I gave the students an in-class exercise today and it took four times longer than I thought it would. Which means all the stuff I was meaning to do this afternoon, I can do tomorrow. Yay! I sure hope they are enjoying the class, and getting a lot out of it. It's hard for me to tell for sure how things are going, but it seems to be okay.

Day three in Pristina

Last night the power kept going on and off. I got up around 6 and hopped in the shower, and just as I put shampoo on my hair--it went off again. I managed to get most of the soap out before the water stopped but the ends are still a bit soapy.

My appetite is still on Buffalo time, so I've not eaten a lot since I got here. I still have snack stuff that I brought with me, so I'm not going hungry (when I get hungry). I think I'll wander down to the school cafeteria this morning and see what is available.

The other night I kept hearing this bellowing and honking, and when I looked outside there was a cow in front of the school. Pristina is not a huge city, but that cow still had to have walked a ways to get here. Between the cow, the dogs, and the muezzin (and the power cycling on and off, with the attendant beeping of appliances starting up again, etc.) nights are fairly noisy around here!

Fearless Leader (my boss) is here also, and he said tonight we are going out to dinner. That should be fun!

Class went well yesterday, and I am hoping I have enough "stuff" today. Tomorrow's lecture will be harder because I know less about the subject but I will manage somehow.

Blogging from Kosovo!

Pristina, to be exact. Got here yesterday afternoon, and went straight to bed. This morning I ventured out with an American couple and their son, and we went to downtown Pristina. We visited a market where I bought my mom a Kosovo flag, walked around a bit, and took a couple of buses just to see where they went. The wife said the market reminded her of the one in Arequipa, Peru. Interestingly, the men minding the booths (no women, that I saw, were selling--only buying) would start speaking to me in German. I managed to get by okay with the little German I still remember.

There is a lot of construction going on here--houses (brick) built sometimes in the middle of fields, but unfinished--no windows or doors. The guidebook says they are called "black houses" because there are no utilities or anything but the brick shell. The bricks are more square, like half a concrete block. Supposedly what happens is the family runs out of money and can't finish the house until their relatives outside of Kosovo send more money. The houses are also several stories high to accommodate the extended family.

It was tough to sleep last night between the barking dogs and the muezzin at about 4 a.m. I think I'm going to take a nap, then we are all going next door for dinner later on.

ACK!!! CAREER angst

Quick update:

• Wonderful beyond measure having Son home.
• Wish Eldest Daughter could have been here too.
• Have almost everything I need for the Big Trip.

I have a bad case of Cangst:

• because my sponsored research lady wants the CAREER draft today before 3:30 so she can prepare the proposal approval documents and my draft is a mess.
• because my director wrote a letter of support and sent it to her, cc'ing me, talking about my "certain success" and my draft is a mess.
• because my draft is a mess and the submission date is the 23rd but I am leaving Friday and have to submit early or not at all.

Did I mention my draft is a mess? ACK!!

We hold these truths...

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Happy Independence Day!



Son arrives this afternoon from Florida, and we are all anxious to see him.

On this wonderful day, a heartfelt thanks to God for the blessings of this country, and to all who help keep us free. Here's a lump-in-the-throat story from Bob Krumm:

How did you spend Independence Day?

Byline: bob | Category: Military, Iraq, Above the Fold | Posted at: 2:07 am

BAGHDAD – How are you spending your 4th of July holiday? While most Americans probably slept, 1,215 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines raised their right hands and committed to a combined 5,500 years of additional service during the largest reenlistment ceremony in the history of the American military. Beneath a large American flag which dwarfed even the enormous chandelier that Saddam Hussein had built for the Al Faw Palace, members of all services, representing all 50 states took the oath administered by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Multi-National Forces Iraq.

Petraeus, reiterating earlier remarks made by Command Sergeant Major Hill, said that the unprecedented ceremony sends a “message to friend and foe alike.” He told those assembled that it is “impossible to calculate the value of what you are giving to our country . . . For no bonus, no matter the size, can adequately compensate you for the contribution each of you makes as a custodian of our nation’s defenses.”

Last year Gen. Petraeus, along with Senator John McCain, presided over a similar Independence Day ceremony. Then only 588 servicemen reenlisted. This year’s event, more than twice as large, saw the equivalent of two battalions extend their service in America’s military. Nearly the entire rotunda was filled with reenlisting servicemen, their voices drowning out all other noise. For two days the military members, flown in for the occasion from all across Iraq, have toured the elaborate palace where Saddam’s sons were said to have entertained friends lavishly and tortured enemies mercilessly in the basement dungeon. Following the ceremony, they were treated to Chicago deep dish pizza donated by Lou Malnati’s Restaurant and flown fresh by DHL for the occasion.

Among those in attendance were service members from the more than two dozen Allies serving with MNF-I. Along with their American counterparts, each appeared in awe of the sacrifice of these incredible men and women. Each of the reenlistees knows full well the costs of war, and yet, they chose to stand with their units, their mission, and each other. It was as humbling an experience as I have ever witnessed. On this 4th of July, while you celebrate around grills and coolers all across America, keep in mind the 1,215 who allow us that privilege.

Hopefully I'll be able to find a video of the ceremony and link to it. In the meantime, have a great day! I am looking forward to lots of loud, booming fireworks.

Just call me Annie

I haven't shot a rifle in probably twenty years or so, and my eyesight is not all that great. But I did pretty good at the range, and managed to get some nice groupings on the silhouette target. Spouse made the observation that most men choose the bull's-eye targets, while the women cry "I want to shoot the guy! Let me shoot the guy!" Hahaha! Well, Youngest Daughter, Good Friend and I were true to form and chose the "guy" (a.k.a. silhouette) targets.

YD did well for her first time shooting! I forgot the camera in the truck, drat, so I don't have pictures. GF's rented Marlin kept jamming so she was pretty frustrated. I also rented a rifle, but mine was a Ruger 10/22, same as YD's (but older) and it performed very well. It didn't take long to go through a box of ammo each, and YD went through nearly three boxes. We thoroughly enjoyed killing paper. I did so well I am considering taking the target to my office and taping it to my door. Think the students will mind?

Lots of stuff to do in the next ten days or so--get ready for Son's homecoming (he wants HomeCity food, lots of HomeCity food), finish the CAREER application, write and deliver three lectures, pack for the trip. TOO much to do. I need a clone. At least I managed to get to a lab yesterday and get stuck for this year's routine bloodwork, so that's one less thing to remember.

Yesterday I wasted an entire bowl of popcorn when it tumbled off the Sofa of Sloth onto the rug. I was trying to stop KittyMama from eating a big tuft of fur and forgot the bowl was perched next to me. I love popcorn, and that batch had turned out exceptionally well. Darnit.

Eldest Daughter is having issues at work again and is on the hunt for a new job. We are praying one comes through ASAP.