someone's got a birt'day, i wonder who. someone's got a birt'day, i wonder who.

...

the cherry blossoms are beginning to wilt and the ground is littered with soft pink petals. the street that runs up toward campus has cherry blossom trees (as opposed to cherry trees, which actually produce cherries) lining either side and whenever a gust of wind blows through the corridor, the petals billow through the air like snow.

there are so many of them.

i saw four or five shopkeeps frantically trying to sweep them up from outside their establishments -- one was using a leafblower (idiot), but it was largely futile. they just keep coming. i guess the diligent merchants want to get rid of them before they become this unmanageable withered rusty-brown pile. for the time being, though, i don't mind wading through a few petals to get to my groceries.

...

i picked up my marking today: 14 lab books. a bit daunting to me at this point late friday afternoon. i may try to get some of it done this weekend, then use having to mark as an excuse not to show up to my lab during my retreat. anyway, this one kid wrote this rather lengthy explanatory note about why he was late handing in his lab book. he concluded his note with his e-mail address so that we could let him know if there were any problems: a hotmail account with the handle 'jedicodepoet.' nice.