The final exam is written. It is hard but fair, I think. I went against my better judgment and included an extra credit question. I normally frown on these in principal � either ask a question or don�t. But the question was too polemical to be useful for the exam and too interesting (to me at least) to ignore. In the off-chance that one of my students has discovered this blog, I must refrain from specifics until after the exam has been completed by one and all.

One of the biggest challenges for me about writing essay questions is coming up with questions for which I am interested in reading the answers. Sure, there are some things I just have to ask and they just have to know and they�re not that exciting. But it�s so much more fun when I can write questions where they have to think a little and I can actually learn something about it from another perspective.

I still need to record my listening section. I wish my good tape deck hadn�t crapped out on me. I need to replace the motor, but I can�t seem to find a repair shop to handle this particular high-end brand without schlepping back to the weird little place a few blocks from my old Ukrainian Village apartment. I can�t even remember the name of the place, but it was always a joy to go in there, as it was full of fellow audio nerds who�d come over and ooh and ahh at my 15-year-old stereo equipment saying, �Wow, I wish they still made them like this.� And I�d always know my stuff would be in good hands.

Their final paper is due in less than four hours and so far I�ve received exactly two, one of which I received a week ago because the student, who is graduating, was trying to avoid excessive craziness in her last ever week of college. I�ll be checking the computer at midnight to see what I�ve got. I�m hoping to get started grading tomorrow while spending an afternoon at my mother-in-law�s trying not to fall asleep while everyone else is watching sporting events. We will spend the morning watching two of our nieces march in their school band in their town�s Memorial Day parade. AJ when digging through his box of dress-up clothes for his flag, a freebie from last year�s parade. �I�m going to wave my flag very slowly,� he announced proudly, so that all the kids can see that it�s the AMERICAN flag.� Between this and the �No child left behind� incident from a couple of months ago, we�re starting to wonder if AJ�s moonlighting as a Republican shill.

[Second pointless entry of the day. Click back to see me butcher The Bard while reflecting on my academic future]

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