It seems like it has been quite a while since I've had a truly good moment to sit back a little and just relax.
The shape of Intervarsity at NSC is going to change a little next year. Spencer is being promoted and the collective wisdom of his bosses, he is going to step away from his involvement with us. Jack and I both agree that it's the best thing for him, given his new position, which leaves the two of us -- one faculty, one student -- to decide how we're going to proceed (not *if*). We're going to have to spend some time meeting this summer to decide the shape of things, but that's a little too far off for now (though not that far off as the semester ends in about 5-6 weeks). I believe the real key is to find a second student leader.
I went on a spending binge this week, buying up a few board games and some new books.
On the board game front, I got Incan Gold (which is really just Diamante in a new package), Quoridor (a simple maze game that I think has quite a deep strategy and might turn into a student project), Race for the Galaxy (San Juan on steroids -- hopefully it will come back in stock soon), and Set (popular game among math-types). Spencer was going to make a games purchase soon, so by putting the orders together we can get free shipping. I don't know when it's going to come in.
I bought a couple poker books (The Mathematics of Poker and Mike Caro's Book of Tells), a C.S. Lewis compilation, and two books about Richard Feynman (Surely You're Joking and What Do You Care What Other People Think?). I haven't gotten any new books in quite a while, and my reading has gone down quite significantly over the last couple months, so the intent was to bring that back a bit.
Aileen pointed me to a no-knead bread recipe (Link) that I want to try, but I fear I may not get to it before it gets really hot out here. It is interesting from the theoretical perspective (kneading is usually the step that makes bread instead of cake), but apparently gluten strands can be formed into a doughy matrix over time alone as well as with agitation. Notice that it takes an entire day, so it does require some advanced planning.
I think I need to buy some shredder lubricant for my paper shredder. It's not sounding very happy.
