My son's birthday

Today is Daniel's 29th birthday. He was born about 3 a.m. on Aug. 25, 1980, and has had his days and nights confused ever since. I haven't been able to be with him on his birthday very often in the last decade since school is always starting, and we haven't lived in the same state since his birthday in the year 2000. I miss him. I wish I could hug him today. Today's photo is of Dan back when he would let me hug him, and in fact, he often hugged me voluntarily. (It was more like a football tackle with a hug worked in.)

On other news, Sheila is doing better. I need to phone and check on her later. But when I spoke with her on the phone last, she sounded pretty good.

My mother-in-law is handling physical therapy pretty well, it seems. Both of her sons who live nearby have been to visit her each day, and my husband has called her every day.

I had three meetings yesterday at school. The first was okay. The second was in a very hot room (air conditioner issues), but it also was over reasonably quickly. But the third--oh, my goodness, this man is the king of wordiness. What it took him over an hour to say (I left after an hour and fifteen minutes), he could have said in five minutes. It was in the same hot room as the second meeting, so by that point, I was feeling ill anyway. I've got two meetings tomorrow. Both of these will be run by female colleagues in the department, so I suspect they'll be more efficient, concise, and useful. Sexist, huh? I'm sure it sounds that way. But since I know these two women, I know that they will take the most direct approach possible.

Our new department chair seemed nervous at our departmental meeting, but he did a great job getting through the business quickly.

I also had my hair trimmed yesterday and made an appointment for a bit of highlighting next Monday. Getting vain in my old age.

My husband is deep in the throes of getting campus visits set up for the candidates. That explains (according to him) his BFF phoning him NINE TIMES yesterday--and that was after they'd played golf together and had lunch together yesterday. If it starts again today, I'm going to pack up and leave for my studio in Big Rapids. I can't bear telephones ringing nonstop.

This morning the chipmunk and the squirrel faced off over the peanuts, much to Simon's delight.