Well, tomorrow morning at 5:05 am my time (6:05 am EST is the official time-of-birth, according to the certificate), my odometer rolls over to "40."

It's kind of too bad (but kind of not) that we don't have visible odometers like cars or else it would be tempting to take a picture.

But at any rate (looks out at world in general and department in specific with the stink-eye) everyone BETTER be nice to me tomorrow. (I've already had a few not-so-nice dealings today. It always happens on the days I give a non-majors exam).

I'm not exactly freaked out by the number but it still kind of surprises me, in an "I've been here this long already?" sense.

The McKinney trip is still on for Saturday, as is Friday evening's package-opening. (At last count, there were SIX things. I feel a bit like El Guapo in "Three Amigos":

Jefe: I have put many beautiful pinatas in the storeroom, each of them filled with little suprises.
El Guapo: Many pinatas?
Jefe: Oh yes, many!
El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.*

Except, I DO know what a "plethora" is.)


(*Heh. I had forgotten how funny that movie is, in the dumb-funny sort of way that I like movies to be.)