First days of school

Busy week this past week. Tuesday was my birthday and my wife's and my anniversary. Got some nice presents that I am modeling in the picture above. We kept things low-key, because Bradley classes started on Wednesday. I also had a CT scan on Wednesday morning (looking for a potential hernia - the sonogram was negative). The procedure turned out not to be a big deal (the barium sulfate was not bad, and the tech was pretty gentle with the IV), Actually, I was sort of able to play the jitters about the test against the jitters about the first day of class - if I thought too hard about one I would think about the other. Getting back into classes is still a bit of an adjustment - I still feel a little like I am in the shallows and working into deeper water. Now that Kris and her peers are teenagers with their associated growth spurts, the college students look younger than ever before. That said, I think the first classes went OK - there is always room to do better. The girls are settling in at school and Karen's first class is this week.Yesterday, Kris's soccer team played to a 1-1 tie. Last night, Karen and I attended a social function at a house formerly owned by Lydia Moss Bradley (who founded Bradley University well over 100 years ago). The house did not look as old as I thought it would. Today we attended a charity rubber duck race on the Illinois River...well, not so much the race but a concert before the race - we know the drummer for the "Corn Wolves". We finally saw some of those goofy Asian carp jumping around a tugboat moving up the river. We could not stick around for the race itself because we had to get to the annual Peoria rock, mineral, and fossil show. The show was all right, but we had seen a lot of the stuff before. I'm in sort of a rut at those shows - I have a lot of the cheap stuff that I want, but can't afford the stuff at the next level. In fact, the only money we spent was a buck on some games for Katie. Somehow, I think the Texas sabbatical contributed to this - Kris and I had some pretty good hunting and we attended three shows. Don't get me wrong, I'll still hunt at every opportunity - can't shut that off. Today we are getting rain after a dry week and few days in the 90s.