Yes, Master....

Master of the Universe

Master of English

I did it, er, give or take a few papers I've got to grade, that is. I am now a Master of English.
Thank you. Thank you. You're too kind. Really, thank you. Have a S'more.

For a number of reasons (not the least of which was the 50$ gown rental fee I would have had to pay) I chose not to "walk" on Friday afternoon (other reasons include a desire to hold off on all the pomp and circumstance until I'm actually done with my PhD, as well my acute aversion to stuffy convocation centers full of uncomfortable, sweaty people fanning themselves with programs and wishing that the speaker would cut to the chase).

Instead I spent the day packing boxes and playing with the boys. We took a bike ride with Mr. Baseball's new trail-behind (a recent acquisition from a stranger in Columbus. Long story short we walked in to a Dick's Sporting Goods in Columbus on Monday and because the store didn't carry trail-behind bicycles the sales clerk offered us his old one for free. "My boy is fourteen and we're done with it," said the man (his name was Phil). He offered to bring it to the store parking lot after his shift and we accepted. "Just pay it forward," is all he said. Nice guy. Very Nice. Thank you Phil).

Because we are moving in a little over six weeks, and because I'll be teaching every day during the last five of those weeks, this was our week for summer fun. Monday we went to the zoo. Tuesday night we went camping at Lake Hope State Park. Thursday we had a friend over for dinner and a discussion with the missionaries. Friday we went to another BBQ. And Saturday, hmmm... Saturday is a blur. I seem to remember riding our bikes to the store and forgetting our food at the bike rack on our way out and not realizing our error until we were all the way home).

Here are some pictures from the past week or so...


The zoo was a big hit. We got half-price tickets because we used a park-and-ride near the zoo and took the bus in.

We had chicken salad sandwiches and chocolate cake for lunch. Thanks again, Leo, for the chocolate cake.




Poor Monkey spent so much time at the zoo trying to catch up with the longer-legged members of the family. He did great.



The first time we've ridden the bus together since living in Japan. Nuts. What's wrong with this country that public transit isn't more practical?


95-year-old carousel = Big smiles from the boys.




It was cooler at the zoo than we expected, which meant the animals were out in droves-none of this lying around in the shade looking like helpless captives resigned to eating dietary biscuits for the rest of their lives. The monkeys were swinging, the bears were pacing, even the snakes were up to greet us when we stopped by the reptile hall.



I imagine that 50 degrees or 100 degrees, these guys don't look much different. But they were cool. The sign said that no one knew how old they were because they keep outliving all the researchers that have studied them.



Everyone was pooped by the afternoon so we caught the 3:30pm bus back to the park-n-ride. And it's a good thing we did, or we would have missed Phil at the sporting goods store.


We camped in a small cabin at Lake Hope State Park in the Zaleski National forest. We had foil dinners at night and pancakes and sausage in the morning, took the boys swimming in the Lake, played on the playground, and ate too many S'mores, as evidenced by the Monkey's alternating episodes of throwing up and diarehea that lasted most of tuesday night. It got the point that I was sleeping beside him with a plastic cup and a flashlight ready to hop up and keep him from throwing up all over himself again. All in all, it was a fun trip.


One problem with last-minute camping is that you tend to forget things--like a pancake flipper. Oh well. We had had most everything else.








Our Saturday afternoon bike ride brought us to Mr. Baseball's school. we played tag on the playground and ate some chocolate covered raisins before heading home.