. . . And Then There Were None

After a marathon grading session yesterday in the office, my exams are scored and filed. Unfortunately, the registrar's office had closed by the time I was finished, which means I have yet to submit my final grades. I could have done that today, but I took some time to look at something other than my office walls. The pouring rain outside did little to sway me toward the walk to campus.

The School of Arts and Sciences faculty had a progressive dinner tonight, so Sandi and I were relieved of the responsibility of planning a meal. Given the amount of angst that sort of decision causes us, this is a blessing. All we had to do was prepare a dessert, which led to something astounding. As has been mentioned before, I am not a baker; my skills lie in the preparation of things involving meat, noodles, meat, vegetables, meat, and meat. Sandi had agreed to make the rocky road brownie bites from the Bethany dinner for the festivities, but she decided to conduct an experiment. Since I had tangentially partaken in the preparation of the last batch of goodies, she chose to give me the business on this run. Needless to say, tensions ran high in the kitchen whilst I prepared our contribution. I rose to the occasion, however, and the brownie bites turned out at least eleven kinds of awesome. Does this mean that now I have to make the desserts, too?

The dinner itself was a great time. We were split into smaller groups to distribute the workload on the hosts. In our case, five families gathered at the home of one of the English faculty, and we each contributed something to the meal (technically, our dessert came later at a full gathering, but quit splitting hairs). We had pork tenderloin and smoked turkey, along with a broccoli salad, green beans, some Greek potatoes, and little rolls. With two department chairs along for the ride, a lesser couple would have been intimidated; mavericks like us, though, can hold our own. It helps that Martin and Vanessa are really cool people, too. Sandi got to put some faces to the names she hears me constantly toss about conversations, and I had the chance to meet some folks' husbands and wives. Yay for acculturation!

By the next time I write, I will have participated in my third graduation ceremony at King. This will officially upgrade in sweetness once I can get this blasted dissertation written, since that means I can get the super-sweet felt tam instead of the boring old mortar board. On the other hand, the dean of the School of Education commented that my voice would do well announcing names at the ceremony in the future, so this could be a double-edged sword.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!