Things here are okay. Steffi and I had a nice weekend despite the weather. Last Friday evening I had 4 of my students over and we watched the film "Shaolin Soccer" -- a Chinese kung-fu comedy (I wonder if there are supposed to be any REAL serious ones?)
that was a hit (goal) all around. The students I expected to show up did, and it was a lively evening that actually lasted until 1 a.m. One of my students who is my age brought a ukelele and played a couple of tunes. It was kind of odd, actually, because there didn't seem to be a cause for his bringing the instrument (other than that he had mentioned playing one in class once or twice) or playing a song or two. It was fun, but a little surreal. I kind of had the feeling that it was sort of a tableturner -- I had taught him all semester, now it was his turn to do the same. Who knows -- I had made it clear in class that I liked music, showing students a picture of my
home office where the guitar and drums are, so maybe he just figured it was appropriate to bring his instrument. It certainly made the evening more entertaining, and I'm glad he brought it. (I think that two of the other students, probably 18 & 19 years old, thought he was absolutely nuts...)

On Saturday we went for a drive down through Pittsboro to take part in the annual "Farm Tour" -- in which a number of local farms have Open House. Despite the rain we went to a little farm a good 22 miles away from Carrboro where there were pigs, horses, some Jersey cows (actually odd looking things), and water buffalo. Apparently water buffalo are the new big "cattling" trend in the States because there's not yet a "mad water buffalo" disease and their meat is also fairly beef-like. Also, if you milk 'em apparently you can make a mozarella style cheese that can sell for $20 a pound. We talked to (or rather were talked at by) the farm's owner, Leigh, a man in his early 60s, I'd say, who left New York with his second wife, who had bought the farm, to retire and start a new career. City boy gone country... Just yesterday he was going to drive down to Florida with a 20' trailer to pick up more water buffalo for the dairy herd they're trying to put together. Pretty interesting, actually.

Sunday I read through the first 4 pieces of my dad's non-fiction short piece collection called A Reverie for Mr. Ray -- I won't get into it here, but I really appreciated and enjoyed seeing these reflections on my dad's past and his influences. The Classics Illustrated essay was neat, and I kind of wondered how I ended up loving the superhero comics that my father pretty much eschewed. Not that it matters -- I've got really fond memories of my extensive comics collection and the whole process of collecting, too.