My head is numb, my arm is numb, my back is killing me...but I got the grades for my students finished, and they are in. It was torture, because everyone was suspect, and no-one was suspect. I kept going back and forth, agonizing over each point, wondering, did this student cheat too? Well - something great about the academic calendar is that every semester is a new beginning, and so I am still optimistic about summer session.

I did manage to fit in a yard sale day, and that was a good way to take a break. Not so much because of sorting and hauling junk (although in a way that is liberating, too), but because it was clear, crisp and beautiful yesterday, and the weekend house is isolated in pristine surroundings. Chilly, but just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and dinner at my parents' house - with my mother's eggplant parmesan and my father's funny stories sure went a long way to righting what was wrong in my world. Bob, my husband, is on a low-carb diet, which is one of the alternative methods he's employing in an effort to manage the battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Since I do most of the cooking (not to be uppity, but I'm good at it, and although cleaning is not my cup of tea, I like to cook very much) I try to make things that we both can eat, because I know it's pretty hard to sit and watch someone slurp down a big bowl of spinach tortellini without deciding maybe having stiff joints isn't such a bad thing after all. Friday of Memorial Day yardsale weekend, my father is making alla olio, and since I've been having pasta withdrawal symptoms, I have been looking forward to that meal for weeks!

So - now it's back to my contract work (another deadline looms).