January and the Return to School

Greetings. I have the pleasure to announce the successful completion of the Plan with the return of Josey! She spent an enjoyable time abroad in Greece and Germany, and after visiting our friends back in Missouri, she has come back to us. She was rather surprised to find that we had moved but has settled in well here. She would not mind going on another trip, so if any our friends are set to go abroad, or even to another location within the States, please let us know and Josey would be happy to accompany you.

Miss Caitlin has started classes - one about children and language development, and another on language development. She hopes the first will be interesting, while the second has her saying bad things about the Education department. I am happy to say she only needs four classes from said department - it would be cruel, unusual, and unjustified punishment of us if she were required to take more. She is taking one class from her normal graduate school - that for learning to become a school librarian. She is not too hopeful that this will be helpful - rather she has higher hopes in her practicum with a local school librarian.

My good friend Gip sent a package that arrived today. She has given me little stationary cards and a notebook, in addition to some scrumptious snacks. Very thoughtful of her. I generously gave Miss Caitlin a pair of socks that were also enclosed.

Her Schooling Continues

For those unaware, Miss Caitlin has been accepted at Dominican University of the Library Science Program there, and is awaiting word from other schools which should arrive at any time.

In the meantime, Miss Caitlin is rather busy. Earlier this week she presented a small scene for her directing class. Today, she wrote a paper for her literature class. Tomorrow she takes a test on the history of the English language. Friday we will depart for Illinois again, this time for spring vacation. Miss Caitlin has a number of things to accomplish during that time, mostly in the nature of readings. Tipsy has insisted that I include this picture of Tipsy and myself aiding Miss Caitlin in the writing of her paper earlier this evening.


The weather here has been most unreliable. One day it is warm and to all appearances, spring has finally beaten back the harsh winter. The next day winter has firmly reestablished itself. The vacillations in weather have caused giant chasms to open up in the streets. Some people call them "pot holes" but this is an understatement as it is possible to lose small children in them. Also a form of ice which Miss Caitlin has dubbed "stealth ice" (I believe the more common term is "black ice") has taken to covering the sidewalks in the mornings, and sometimes lasts all day in shady areas (for instance Miss Caitlin's back step). It is hard to spot and can lead to unexpected falls. Miss Caitlin thinks (hopes) that today saw the melting and drying out of most of the spots. However it is still far from warm. We all await more permanent fair weather.

Schoolness

We're back at school and Cat's been to all of her classes at least once. Cat says Japanese is pretty cool, especially since there are people who are worse at it (yes, even with only 3 days of class, she can tell). Theatre Senior Seminar is like Theatre-group-therapy- because-no-one-knows-what-they're- doing-for-the-rest-of-their-lives. Cat's glad it only meets once a week. Scene Design got taken over by the new Theatre teacher - which threw Cat. Not that this Janet person isn't nice or not a good teacher, but Cat was mentally prepared for a Ron class. African American English involves a lot of reading, so I'm glad it's Cat that's taking it and not me. Of all the classes, Cat's the least sure about that one. She thinks she'll do well, but it will be more work than she expected.

In more interesting news, Cat got her Traveller rulebook (finally) and she has some characters and a spaceship (how often do you get to say that?!). She's working on stuff for them to do with their characters and spaceship.

Some people might find this interesting - Cat dyed her hair again, so now it's all one color. It's pretty close to her original hair color. The sun-bleached part was really getting to her.

We have a new addition to our house - Shawn Samuel. He's a perky little kid - all the same, Snibbly and I have been staying away from him. He's nice to the other animals, particularly Clem, but the other animals are on a more even size with him - Snibbly and I are afraid of the damage he might inflict on us. Maybe when he's older. . . Cat's settled on the nickname Spud for him, but only when her friend Sean is around. Otherwise, things would be way confusing.

Other than that, things are pretty normal. Cat's working on homework and studying for the GRE. She has to sign up for a date still, but she's working on it. She hasn't been writing as much as she'd like - once the spaceship thing gets off the ground, that should improve.