logisticslad

Last weekend was Swarthmore's Alumni weekend. it wasn't my class' year to get together, but since I knew many people across the classes and the sci-fi club that I used to be part of always has a gaming/hang out room, I went up for the day on Saturday. I was delighted to see dwvanstone and his handsome beau, eclectic_boy, who arranged for a yummy BBQ, my former housemates grr_plus1 and ruthling, the lovely metasilk with pictures of her son, mst3kforall who is actually in my class, nutmegger and his lovely wife, jedediah who is New Jed to my Jed Classic, and syndicatedebby sans jhp64 who was home with the kids. In addition, I hung out with a number of folk who don't have blogs such as Jim H., Anne M., David SG, Neil O, Sylvia W., and Jay S. It was good to see everyone and recapture memories and reaffirm the camaraderie we had all shared during our college years and beyond.

In the gaming room, I got to watch two games that I had heard of but had not seen. Transamerica looked like it was easy to learn and kind of fun, but did not seem to require much complex strategy. Order of the Stick looked overly involved with too many rules and modifiers, but definitely captured the spirit of the webcomic. I think it would be more fun if everyone actually knew the basics of how to play (which did not seem to be all that intuitive).

In the midst of the heat, I drove over to see blueflamedfire and cuddlebunni3 to drop off stuff for June Pride. My brother had invited me up for a family visit on Sunday, so I decided to do that instead. It was fun to see them and I look forward to seeing their new place. Sunday also turned out well with the rambunctious nephews telling me that they wished that I lived with them all the time (melt). Of course, my brother pointed out that he and I had lived together growing up for quite awhile and that we were both much happier to no longer do so. In any event, the weekend was very centering for me with prepared me to face another week at work.

I'm still here at work, waiting for my grad students to finish their Med Neuro essay exam. I gave them a choice of answering 4 out of 7 questions and have set a limit of 4 hours for the exam, which I told them I expect should take 2 hours. It's 3 hours and counting and they are still at it... I will be grading their essays all next week - I can't wait. Meantime, I'm at my desk working on a manuscript that has been in progress for the last 4 years and trying to finesse my way around the various experimental design problems that I inherited as part of this experiment. So I'm suffering along with my students :-)

It's my 20th year college reunion weekend. I had stopped by last night and attended a lecture by my Chemistry professor, who had started the same year as I had. Now I finally understand what he's been doing all these years. I told him afterwards that I still admire his teaching style and that I have tried to incorporate elements of it into my own style. He was very pleased to hear that. Sitting in the lecture hall with several of my chemistry classmates really brought back memories. The outdoor gathering was driven indoors by the torrential rain. I hung out with a number of my classmates for the rest of evening and enjoyed catching up with folks. Several members of my class have died and we remembered them. Many of my classmates have kids, who were in attendance. Circle of life. I plan to return this evening for the class dinner and more festivities.