Did our absence make your hearts grow fonder?

I certainly hope so! Sorry it's been such a long time since our last post. Starting school kept me pretty busy, and then once I got into the swing of the full time thing, my students started in turning in papers for me to grade. Who told them to do that?! I've got most of it under control, now. And I took some pictures of my cool new office now that it's finally settled. I still have an entire bookshelf to fill up, but I'm thinking that it won't take me too long to do that.



At the start of the month, the Borks had one of the last parties they'll hold at their suburban home, a Labor Day barbecue. They had the gang over for pulled pork sandwiches and hot-dogs (all deeelicious) and we enjoyed talking about who'll be adopting their old furniture. I got dibs on an end table for a night-stand, and Greg and Paula are going to hold onto my piano until we get a bigger place (although I do think that we could fit it in the bedroom...Trevor does not agree.) And Mom and Dad are getting more and more excited about moving!




This weekend has been a rainy blur. Yesterday our friend Jessica and I braved the damp weather to wander the Renegade Craft Fair up on Division Street. I got some great stuff for me, for Trevor, for Neill, and even for Henry. Since Hank has outgrown his fancy collar, I got him a replacement accessory:



Last night Trevor and I headed out to Hanover Park for a Team 2 Birthday Celebration. It was a belated party for John, Neill, and Letty (who we called, but Mina said was sleeping, so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY LETTY!), and a preemptive party for Destiny, whose birthday is on the 15th. We got caught up with everyone about babies (Heather and Don's new little girl!), school (Destiny's in student council at Schaumburg and we anticipate that she'll soon be running that place), work, life, and other assorted topics. We ate snacks, pizza, and cake (the cake was baked by Fran Napier, and was perfection. Fran--I had a dream about cake last night. And it was good, but better at your house than in my head). We watched the beginning of the Saturday Night Live season opener, and wondered at what a great Sarah Palin Tina Fey makes. We've been harping about Sarah Palin for the past few weeks, and won't continue our annoyance-filled rants here. All in all, the party was great, though I'm sure that the Team 3 party will be even better. And guess who's on Team 3? Yes, that's right: I am.

We gave Sean and Angelique a ride home from Neill and Fran's and after we'd dropped them off, Sean called Trevor to tell him that Neill had just called him to give him some sad news: David Foster Wallace, a favorite author of Sean's and mine and former English instructor at Neill's college, took his own life last night. He was only 46 and it's quite a loss to the literary community. His prose was involved, frequently footnoted, often brilliant, and always interesting. I, for one, will miss his writing quite a lot.



Tonight we're double-dating with Lisa M. and Josh to the movies to see Burn After Reading, about which we're all very excited. Until tonight, though, I'm watching Rocky (really, a great movie), organizing my papers to grade, doing laundry, and, of course, blogging. Which I should stop, now, to actually grade the papers that are so nicely organized. So until later, readers, keep dry and cozy!