Bittersweet Break

Due to either brilliant planning or pathetic procrastination, my Westminster Spring Break is turning out to be more about remembering what it’s like to be a full-time student than what it’s like to be a teacher with a week off. On the docket:

Listen to seven 45-minute lectures, read five chapters, complete a study guide, and [...]

When Lost Luggage Is the Least of Your Worries

We made it home last night from Chicago, but it wasn’t pretty. Let’s just say you never want to have to go home with luggage tags, but if that was the worst of it, we would have had a nice trip.
Megan has all the details here. I swear to you they’re true and that we’re [...]

Chicago Regrets (and a Few Takeaways)

I finally had a break last night from the conference (after two full 12-hour days) and spent the evening with Megan and the girls together for dinner and a couple hours at the Art Institute of Chicago (a few details here). It was a good time, and I was amazed how much more comfortable the [...]

Quack

(If you’ve been following along, you know I’m in Chicago for the week. If you’re interested in reading and hearing about all the city has to offer, see Megan’s blog; to experience the thrill and delight of sitting in a chair all day long in a four-day education conference, read on.)
Yesterday was a little rough. [...]

My Kind of Town (and Trip)

We’re off to the big city of Chicago today (though a little later than planned). Last week, we were country mice; this week, we’re more of the town persuasion (click here if you have no idea what I’m talking about).
While Megan has all kinds of plans and places lined up to visit, the impetus for [...]

Fish

My sophomore year (1990) at Mizzou was quite a “friend year” for me. In addition to someone at the University randomly assigning Doug Serven (he of TwentySomeone fame) as my roommate, he or she also put us on the first floor of Wolpers Hall, two doors down from one John Gillman (pictured with me above). [...]

Spring Break Broke

Spring Break is over (thank the Maker), so as promised, I’m back. For those of you who enjoy true stories of life going very, very wrong, here’s a summary of the past week.
The break started off well enough: things getting done, papers getting written (and a few graded), pages getting read. This went on through [...]

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

I’ve never “vacationed” well. This has something to do with the fact that my father (and thus my family) rarely went anywhere when I was a kid (two words of legitimate excuse: farm animals).
Now that I’m an adult, I also have never seen the point of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on oneself and [...]