Bad blogger (again) and life in general

I hate having these huge gaps with no posts. Here's another promise to try harder. I will say that I am pretty sure my absence doesn't have anything to do with a post-tenure lack of productivity. Truthfully, the end of the summer just flew by, with a conference, a (fun) vacation to Maine, and then all of usual the back-to-school madness intervened.

All in all, things are good. About four weeks in, my classes are fun, sometimes challenging and frustrating in good ways, and always rewarding. Bing and Wes are good, although they are blissfully unaware of my new fascination with getting at least one of them to wear a bow-tie. (I blame the Russians and this cat.) The house is fine, although I am about to spend a large amount of money on a new HVAC system. (That's okay, too--the current system, while still working, is on its last legs and pretty inefficient and fortunately, I have the money.) Fall TV is upon us, which means some great shows are coming back. The Yankees might not make the playoffs, but they've played better than I ever expected considering their challenges and injuries, so I am still (of course) a proud fan. So again, life is good.

"What's a bow-tie?"