My classes, especially the evening sections, are very quiet so far this semester. Maybe the cold weather of the Spring semester has an impact? Not sure. Last night, I gave my first ever multiple choice quiz. I decided to add pop quizzes into the class after a handful of excellent students over the past several semesters have suggested that I should do something to "encourage" more students to come to class prepared for the discussions - prepared meaning that they have done the reading. I am not really a fan of this type of assessment, and I don't know how it will work, it is too soon to tell.

I finished Team of Rivals (I was sad to have it done, it was so good), and have started Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle. So far, Lady Oracle is shaping up to be as good as her other books. On the entertainment agenda, we saw Children of Men over the weekend. It was a good movie, although maybe not as good as the review I'd read suggested. We also got tickets to see Ordeal by Innocence at the NYS Theatre Institute, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Proctor's. The Proctor's show is an Oneonta alumni event, with a mixer before the performance at the Parker Inn. An alumnus is in the cast. During Spring break, we are going to NYC to see Les Mis.

Since it was spared in the Diocese reorganization, the congregation has been inspired to do things to fix it up, and I've been doing some research on the history of the church I go to when I am in Samsonville. It is the one I attended when I was growing up in West Shokan. We lived next door, and now my nephew lives in that house. The original church structure was lost when the Reservoir was built, and there was no Mass in West Shokan for more than 40 years. Once it was re-established, Mass was held over a general store, and then, after a major fundraising effort, a new church was built. Here's what I came up with so far, it is a PDF document with some photos and maps.