What kept me from posting for the last nine days:

1. The first six days of teaching at my new school. So far, so good. My last class on Friday was way too rowdy, and the same gang wasn't much better yesterday, but even my worst class here is better behaved and more willing to learn than my best class last year. Main problem so far: no air conditioning.
2. A bad cold all weekend, just when I should have been nailing down the lesson plans for the quarter. From previous experience I know that moving to a new town and teaching high school or middle school means three to five colds in the first semester.
3. All the other complications of moving to a new town. The bank wouldn't let me open a checking account without a local driver's license (they blamed Ashcroft, of course), so I had to wait in line at the MVA Saturday morning. Having a picture of a crab on my license made the wait worthwhile. I found an apartment in Paradise -- that's the name of the neighborhood -- actually two floors of a stone row-house. Assuming the landlord gets the ferret smell out of the basement carpeting and the mouse turds and (presumed) mouse out of the garage before I move in, it should be quite comfortable. It costs about the same as the tiny one-bedroom I had looked at before, but is weird-shaped, huge, with high ceilings, hardwood floors, and a (non-functional) hand-carved stone fireplace. (The fake logs are going in the boiler room: I think it will look better empty.) I plan to make the first floor look like the inside of Dr. Who's Tardis (the one in the movie, not the tacky one in the original series). I liked the place so much I rented it without noticing that it came with a washer and dryer. Best of all, I can move my 200 boxes of books in very easily, since there are only two low steps leading to the front door and first floor, and none at all leading to the basement through the garage in back.

Now all I have to do is rent a truck and drive to Rochester this weekend to pick up at least half of my stuff.

Since my cold is almost gone, posting should be slightly less intermittent the rest of this week.