A few things rattling around in my head:

• The kids have started school. It was immensely bittersweet to see [Abigail->] and [Liam->] run toward the Crockett Elementary gym together after watching [Emily->] board the bus in front of the house for the first time. We’ve hit a new chapter in our parenting, and with it come new heights of ambivalent feelings — proud of the kids, baffled that they could possibly be as far along in their lives already, thinking tentatively ahead to that time when parenting will no longer be one of our main responsibilities in life.

  So far the kids are all doing great in their classes.

• I’ve been doing a lot of music lately: bass for a Saturday night gig with [The Grant Mazak Band->], cello and singing for Sunday morning at church. It was fun to have the cello out again, though the A string broke at the last minute and I had to make do with only the lower three strings.

  On the Santa Fe trip, Ben pulled out some Rich Mullins and some Bright Eyes, both of which had hammered dulcimer in the mix. I came back eager to work out some of what I’d heard, so have had the dulcimer out several times lately as well.

• [David->] and I have started a workout program. I dropped about 30 pounds last year on a diet and weightlifting program, but have been out of the gym for a while now. Since Texas State lets one take up to 30 minutes a day off for some kind of on-campus fitness activity, I figured it would be criminal not to take advantage of that. I’m sore today, but we were careful not to overdo too much on our first outing, so I’m still functional.
• Continuing the recent run of opera, Kathy saw Madame Butterfly down in San Antonio Friday night with some of her girlfriends. Though the production apparently wasn’t spectacular, she had a great time running around San Antonio and playing Dance Dance Revolution.
• The University Convocation was this morning. It was really interesting to attend and to hear the new President speak. Having been in the private sector now for well on a decade, it was great to see the sense of community evident there — another item for my mental “why I like working in Academia without actually being an academic” list.