family update, with Valentines surprises

Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.   We learned some surprising (to us) facts this week, partly by way of celebrating Valentines' Day.   The week kicked off, as it often does, with waffles and an intense game of Boggle, in which Inkling trounced me during one of the four rounds we played.   

Be My Valentine XOO -- check it out!

Kinderling delighted me by sharing photos of her Valen-dinner, . . . 

. . . which she described this way:

Mom this one is for you- ;)

Kiss-adillas,arrows (arroz) y I'm bananas for you fried bananas for our vday dinner

My guy celebrated his romantic Valentine's Day by getting his Covid test in Paris, prior to boarding a flight bound for home.   The next day, he was greatly assisted in overcoming jet lag by getting a case of food poisoning at a local restaurant that wiped him out all day.  By the time he'd recovered, with lots of [internal cleansing] and lots of sleep, he was back on local time.  Yay?

Mathematicians sometimes like to publish what we call "proof with no words" (a graphical presentation of something cool and true); Sizzling texted us all with her "news with no words".  

This was followed by lots of congratulations from all of the Snoughlings, but of course!   

So, this lovely surprise came at about the same time I went to a talk at my campus about carbon footprints associated with various kinds of food.  Beef is seriously, seriously major compared to, like, almost every other kind of food to eat, which I already knew.  To my surprise, though, vegetarian diets aren't always carbon-optimal.  In particular, chicken has a lower carbon footprint than cheese.  Who knew?  Not me!

At any rate, after Sizzling's awesome announcement, OfSnough called her to say they should chat about her dowry:  we've decided that a flock of goats is right out, because their carbon footprint is nearly as bad as those of cows, so instead we're getting her a flock of soybeans.  

We then looked up group names, and learned to our surprise it's not "flock of goats"; it's "trip of goats", or a "tribe of goats".  That's wild.    

Nelson has been invisible, but rumor has it that next week he'll be wearing this fancy suit somewhere.   Let's check back in a week to find out whether it's true!

A group of alligator shoes is called a "pair".

My own life as a dean continues to be a learning experience, although I have to think that most of what I'm learning won't be of long-term use in my life.   The regulations involved in Radiation Safety, anyone?  How about the difference (and corresponding tax implications) between wages, stipends, and fellowships?  I've also spent a lot of time trying hard to be human/humane in the midst of bureaucratic tasks -- like trying to convince already-busy people to take on big committee assignments, or threading the fraught space between administrators sticking to the rules they know and faculty members who want to do research that spills out across the boundaries of those rules.   For example, one of the things that is taking up way, way too much of my time right now is trying to find a way for some of our faculty to take paid student researchers into the field over the summer, with our HR department seizing up because our little College isn't set up to pay taxes in other states -- or worse, other countries.    

I've taken on a bunch of time-intensive, non-dean tasks as well.  Somehow, those haven't added to the overall burden, but rather add sparks of joy.   I'm teaching a half-credit research class, and seeing the progress the students are making is fabulous.   I am giddy about the nifty thing my own small team in particular is figuring out; it kinda blows my mind.   And I'm also organizing a musical for faculty and staff (and trying to reassure other administrators it won't blow up in our faces).   Singing and dancing with my colleagues has been an incredible communal joy --- it takes so much time, and yet it gives me so much energy back.   

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our trips and tribes.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.