I Blame the Romans

The new year used to start in March around the equinox but since the Roman Senate started their terms a few months prior, we now start the year in January. I like the idea of the new year beginning in the Spring but I am biased toward the Northern Hemisphere. January 1st seems arbitrary.

Now that the holidays are over, we have the ordeal of January and February to survive. Leap year next month...thank you Julius Caesar for fixing the calendar. When I lived in much colder climes, Spring couldn't get here fast enough. I remember being so desperate in Idaho that I rolled on the first snow-free patch of grass that appeared in April.

Our neighbor dog Lucy is over today to play with the B. She is a Chabrador: half labrador retriever and have chow chow. She has cute chinese eyes and wrinkly skin on her face. Her tail is fluffy and her hind quarters bow-legged. Since B is taller, her wrestling manuever involves hitting him from below. It seems quite effective but she ends up with slobber all over her neck.

Recently I have been reading a book on the history of milk. I know that sounds odd but I had an idea of using milk as a problem-based learning topic to cover biology. There is little biology in the book but fascinating all the same about how humans regarded milk through history. Right now I am at the part on coming up with a milk replacement for orphan babies or infants whose mother can't nurse. It is surprising that any children survived the early attempts of formula-making. One idea that fascinated me was how important it was to people to employ a wet-nurse of character because of the mistaken notion that inherited traits were passed onto the child through breast milk.

Today is my final day of vacation. I have to start back officially on Thursday but I have a lot of prep to do before classes begin on Monday. Of course, I won't be putting in a full day that would be a shock to my delicate system. So far I have two BIO 103 classes, I also have a 104 and a 102 class. I only teach those every other year so I got to dust off some old syllabi and make sure we have the right specimens for lab. Plus I need to clean my office so I'm not swallowed up by the mess. Nap on comrades!