Is it really almost August???

One day I turned around, and it was the middle of July. The next time I caught my breath and turned around, it was the last day of the month.

July has been an eventful month. Dad finally got out of Cardiac ICU, then out of the hospital...but only as far as a nursing home/rehab facility. He is doing better, but still has a ways to go. I am still driving the Great Circle Route every weekday: from Auburn to Angola, to work; then from Angola down to southwestern Fort Wayne, to see Dad and check on Mom, with whom I nearly always have dinner and spend a couple hours; then back to Auburn. It's a 108-mile loop, and some days it seems twice that long.

I have spent a lot more days at the university than usual this summer. First of all, because I taught in a two-week science camp, the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp; secondly, because the new department chair (me!) is doing her best to hire good new faculty members to replace those who have left the university or will be on leave next year. (Two down, one to go.) The third reason for my extra time at the university this summer is because, as the new department chair, I am expected to show prospective students around any day they (and their parents) want to stop by---and so far this summer, no two have chosen to stop by on the same day.

My big accomplishments the last half of this month, apart from the science camp, hiring a new faculty member, and a (slightly) cleaner office---which must move next door next week---is another pair of socks. These socks, like all the others I have knit this summer, are by designer Wendy Johnson (www.wendyknits.net). They are called Nanner Socks. (This pair is not from Wendy's new book.) I made these for my sister, although she doesn't know that she is getting them for Christmas.

I should have some time off these next two weeks. Hopefully, I can use it to unpack the boxes in my study at home---which have been piled there since we moved in last winter.

Susannah