So, I leave

for DC on Sunday. My students have already sailed off, or at least, have got as far as Reykjavik. They fly tonight and I will see them in DC. Mother in law and her friend arrive tonight to "help" with er pupo, which means hubby won't get near. Hopefully it will provide sufficient distraction for him not to miss his mammy too much.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it all. I'm anxious and nervous as I don't know how er pupo will be without me. Maybe he won't even notice I'm gone. But what if he is miserable, cries all the time, won't eat, won't sleep?

It will be such a joy to come home to him...

I shall report on my return. By then, hopefully something will have been done about our pc problems at home.

Teaching and Talking and Writing and Coaching

Yes, indeed, I owe you an update. My excuse this time is not so much lack of news as lack of time. Er pupo is continuously a joy to behold, though for the second week running has spookily woken up bawling as the open credits of Lost appear on screen. I mean, it's the only programme we watch!

In the last 7 days, I have given 3 papers, although they were admittedly on more or less the same thing. I have to try to write something about them now. One was written up, till I gave the paper and got so much, ahem, "feedback" (i.e. told it was duff) that I have to make some changes before I can send it off in the vain hope that something thinks it is interesting enough to publish. Another will be published in September, so I have a little breathing space there. Not that these are actually on my research project, oh no, that would be easy. So come summer (by which I mean May) I actually start researching my proper project.

At least by then I shall have finished teaching for the summer and... dadaDAH... the most timeconsuming and second most thankless task of all time: coaching the students for the Jessup international moot court competition to be held in Washington DC next week. Click on said link to the team blog. Perhaps they would be more competitive if they actually worked on the case and not the blog, but, sigh, I am but the lowly coach. This does all involve a week in Washington, which I can hardly afford in terms of time, but at least it's an opportunity to buy a shiny iBook at US prices.

First year essay grading is ever a delight, though perhaps less so for the students when they see their grades. The internet is the bane of my existence. Why oh why do they cut and paste random things from random, unreferreed websites? And worse, why do they think I won't know?

Our home PC is not working; I'd like to use that as my excuse for non-blogging, however, it only went funny last week and it seems I have not posted for a teensy bit longer than that. But it does provide me with an excuse right now for cutting this off and getting on with my job.

He lives! He lives!

For a little less than a hundred quid, the romabíll is on the road again. that's it for another year - when no doubt we will be told again that we have an oil leak that we have to fix, but hey ho, it'll do for now.