"How are you?"

Listening to: Kermit the Frog Rainbow Connection

The title of today's post is a question each of us hears or says every day. When we ask it, we normally don't expect an honest, complete answer. Especially from hypochondriacs. Usually "I'm fine thanks, you?" or something similar is the reply we give (or get). Some folks have their own special twist to the phrase that brings a grin or a giggle. Yesterday, for example, an older gentleman was in my center/lab area to be fingerprinted and as the woman who does the deed was walking past, he asked her how she was doing. "Fine as froghair" was her answer... "and yourself?" "Same, split four ways." A student sitting at one of the computers muttered something about Southeast Missourian-isms, but the reply might be more than just a regional thing. Funny anyway.

Other tidbits... a momma mallard decided to march her fairly new-hatched ducklings down the sidewalk here at work. One kept getting left behind, and once Mom waddled into the grass the straggler just sat down and would not go farther. Mom kept going, and even though some concerned folks finally got the duckling back with the group, Mom wouldn't slow down and Straggler was left behind again. It was obvious that he was weak and was acting a little strangely. Mother nature has a way of weeding out the weak and sick, and this was just one more example of that. Eventually the duckling made it inside in a cardboard box, and was brought to me. Ugh. By the time I got home with it, the death stretch had already set in, and though it would struggle to get on its peds, it would then stretch up too far and fall back, pipping and flapping and contorting its neck. I've seen chicks do this when they hatched out a little too early. Daniel tried warming it up but no luck, so I guess there will be a small burial when I get home.

This has been a busy week with school and work. At the end of August I will be getting a new boss, and my current boss will be taking the new boss's old position - just a swap and a little bit of change in job description for them. I'm not going to mind the change - sometimes a new perspective can be a very good thing. Yesterday I took a final in financial management - didn't do so well on the exam, but came out with a B in the class; no complaints! The group web project in MIS was graded, and we got 89/85 possible - gotta love the extra credit. I also turned in an Access project for the same class, and the grade should be posted by Monday. If I'm satisfied with the overall grade in the class (it's an A at the moment), I don't have to take the final - it'll be counted as the lowest test score, which we're allowed to drop. That just leaves 2 finals, finished by next Wednesday night, and I'll be done for the semester.

Knitting has taken a back seat this week, except for working on the Squiggle scarf, and that's just a few rows in the morning... slowly but surely is better than no progress at all. I brought the Wild Stripes afghan today, and plan to work on it at lunch.

That's all I've got this morning (and it has taken me two hours of sporadic writing to get it!).