Listening to: Chris Potter. (More specifically, I'm listening to a playlist on my computer of sax jazz.)

Finished grading papers this afternoon. Hoped to finish yesterday, but happy to not have them hanging over my head tomorrow. Have the last week of the maymester pretty much planned out, so hopefully the grading is all I have to worry about. Fifteen of the original nineteen left. Seems to be a pretty good class, and I sure could use one.

Alex had a tournament today. They dropped two of three games, but they played hard and I'm pretty proud of them. Good kids these are. Go you might Sugar and Spice!

Finished Steve Martin's Shopgirl on Friday. I liked it a lot, but want to reserve more specific comments on the novella until Angela has had a chance to read it. For some reason, I'm very interested in her opinion of this book.

Started Lawrence Block's Hit Man. I'm in the fourth story/chapter and so far like it. The main character, Keller, is a hired killer, and we get to see him in not necessarily a positive light, but certainly a human one. I have been interested in writing about characters the people usually write off as inhuman (not always killers), and so this sort of story intrigues me. I also like the idea of writing a novel so that the chapters are stand alone stories. (This was a device I may have first seen in Walter Mosely's series involving Socrates Fortlow.) I think I will likely read the sequel to this one when I am done. If it isn't good study work for me, it certainly will be entertaining. Even when Block's books don't knock my socks off, I'm not disappointed.

And now the mighty Coltrane blesses us with his "Song of Praise." So I suppose it's time to get back to reading.