end of August update

Life continues to be rich and full around here.  Once again, my weekend was jam-packed with excitement, and so once again, this update is a tad later than usual.  

My guy is off in Europe for about a month.   As a PR guy, he really knows how to hype a place, and so I can understand if this description makes you want to jump on a plane and fly across the ocean yourself:

Lisbon:

Clean, beautiful subway station. Clean subway with cork seats.

In other family news, I just got a beautiful picture of my newest grandchild.  Kinderling writes, 

We were able to catch baby opening her eyes. The doctor was concerned because they were finding increased complications in development with women who had covid during pregnancy, but he saw no problems, and we don't have to return. Yay!

3d ultrasounds are wild and I wanted to share. Pic of baby's face (opening her eyes- upper left) ”

For me, the highlight of the previous week came Friday afternoon, when we had a party to celebrate my new endowed chair-ship.   We designed the party to emphasize fun, listing these rules on the invitation:

1. If you talk about a person [including yourself], it must be about how awesome they are.

2. If you say awesome things about 'Snough (which is way too easy), you must also say awesome things about two other people. They need not be present.

3. If you can’t think of any awesomeness, you may talk about (a) math, (b) books, and/or (c) chairs.

4. Before we cut the cake, we will all sing the chair song. Together. Lip-synching is allowed. 

As you might guess from my resigning my Associate Dean job and heading back into the faculty for another year or so, there could have been lots of griping and gossip, but people took the rules to heart and the event was really peppy and happy -- we got to celebrate being together with people who bring us joy and happiness.  

My friends went all-out in decorating the math department; it was gorgeous and cheerful. 

Rice Crispy Seats.

Jelly beanbag chair.

My beautiful chair cake!

Everyone singing the chair song.
As you do.

That was a great way to close out the summer and get ready for a new year.  The next day, Saturday, the new students showed up on campus, and as a House Don, I spent the weekend in a variety of fun (and sometimes mysterious!) welcoming ceremonies.  The new students are lots of fun to be around, and it's good to be around so much energy, where I feel like I can be of use and encouragement.  

So that's (some of) the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.