Pix, thanks for the simplification and explanation. I've been following along, and worrying about Drew, but when I was thinking back about what happened (and trying to explain to someone today)all I could say was, "well, he had his gall bladder removed, and then apparently he had a stone that got loose and now he's going to be in the hospital for weeks." It just seemed like I should be missing something. I feel dumb saying this to you, but it is scary how something can go from relatively routine to very serious so quickly. I'm glad he is in good hands and I hope he keeps feeling better and getting stronger.

I am just tired from two days of standing and cat-herding at the book festival, which went smoothly in my area except for the first hour in which despite reminding and then begging the hotel staff, we had no water and no mikes for the speakers. After that things went swimmingly, except that an extremely vocal church had services in an adjacent room. Also, I can still be surprised by how much gall some people can have. Two of the rooms were the typical hotel ballroom with a divider in place. When an event in one room filled to capacity, some people who couldn't get in took it upon themselves to go tell the hotel management to remove the divider. Uh, no. You got there late. Suck it up.

I keep thinking I can find the right shoes or inserts to keep my feet and back from going, but I suspect the fault is not in my shoes, but in my weight.

Thanks for the explanation, Shir.

Ginger, I'm glad your book fest went ok, in spite of the hitches in the works.

They were very minor hitches. This is my fifth year of volunteering and they've gotten most of the kinks out.

I thought of P-C and his family during this author's [link] presentation. This first book is apparently a lot about the difficulties of being caught between two worlds. He said the novel he's working on now is about a 40-year-old man and woman trying to have a relationship but they don't know how because, he said, "they're Indian."

Grading. A quiz question was "Use the Squeeze Theorem to prove" and then gave an equation to prove. It was a somewhat difficult problem, and so far (about 2/3 of the way through grading), I'm pretty pleased with how many people got it right. I just got to a student, though, who answered, "No thank you."

Emeline is taking her first foray into anime, and taking me with her. She chose Ponyo (English version) to watch this morning. So far, we like it. Though I really need to get back to getting my living/dining room back in order.

I just got to a student, though, who answered, "No thank you."

At least he was polite?

I just got to a student, though, who answered, "No thank you."

Hmm. Sounds like a tacit "No thank you" to the implied "Do you want to pass this class?"

Well, if there's 20 questions on the test and you know you got the other 19 right, you can skip one, right?

Well, if there's 20 questions on the test and you know you got the other 19 right, you can skip one, right?

Of course, but writing "no thank you" is cocky. Better to just skip the question. Although I would have been amused if he wrote, "I prefer not to."