This is an old blog posting that got lost when the hard disk in my server crashed over the summer; I have recovered it from a backup and I'm just now putting it back up.

I am continuously amazed at the little things that some software can totally screwup. Today's case in point is MS Word. The auto complete date seems to be using a date from the time you opened Word and not the current time.

Those of you that know me personally, know that my kids attend the Blacksburg New School. Just for recap, BNS is a parent-teacher coop that has a number of very unique qualities. I won't go into them here, but needless to say, just about every week I am very impressed with the quality of education my kids receive there. Note that parents are directly involved in the education of the kids, in our case more so than in others. My wife teaches there (Spanish and Math) and she is currently the president of the board for the school.

Students often ask me questions about where they should live. That is such a hard question that I am often dumbfounded in how to answer. So, I decided to do a little bit of research on to how to do the research to answer that question.

I am late writing this blog, you can blame it on all the traveling that I have been doing lately, much to the annoyance of my wife and kids. But, I figure this is truly a historic moment and thus it is worth capturing my thoughts, if, for no other purpose, to serve as a future self-reflection of the event.

Being fluent in more than one language has many advantages, as most intelligent people will acknowledge. Sometimes the advantages are more subtle that most imagine.

My return to town today was bittersweet. I came back from a week in Brazil at a conference event that was professionally very rewarding. While I was away, however, Dr. Zenobia Hikes passed away. I got back in town just in time to watch the live stream of the memorial service in her honor. Her departure from this world was much too soon.

At the Grad School we have one of those fancy printers that are bigger than my Honda Civic. It can do copy, printing, scanning, fax, staples, you name it. Recently I tried to print a one page handout that I needed for class, so I selected 20 copies, pressed print, and proceeded to pack my things to go to class. On the way out the door I stopped by the printer.

For someone that has spent most of his life on a university campus, strolling around campus in the evening is as close as it gets to a magical evening. Today I had the chance to attend class instead of giving a lecture. I attended Shelli Fowler's Grad 5114 class. And on the way back walking to my car, I got to experience that magic again.

Last weekend I went to Puerto Rico to be with my father during the Hall of Fame ceremonies I mentioned before. It was a crazy weekend, because I had to drive a ton to make it (no, I did not drive to Puerto Rico, but it felt like it). My family stayed at a beach apartment in Buyé, Cabo Rojo. Buyé is a beautiful remote beach in the south west corner of Puerto Rico. My wife's aunt has an apartment there and she let us stay. The place is beautiful and quiet. With us were: my parents, Zayda (my sister), Carlos (Zayda's husband), Maya (Zayda's daughter), Liber (my brother), Joseli (my other brother), Cristina (Joseli's daughter), and Lupe (my dad's sister). The next day we were joined by Rafi (my dad's brother), Collazo (a friend of the family), Emarelis (Liber's wife), Mario Dumont and his wife (friends of the family), Luis Raul and Olga (my inlaws).