My back has shown improvement the past week, which I credit partly to switching to newer sneakers with better support during Spring Break. I have bought the book BackSmart, which I have started reading. It seems to offer some useful stretching and back-strengthening exercises, so I am anxious to try some of them.

I have gone on a bit of a book-buying spree recently (don’t worry: i am keeping within my mandated two-dozen purchases per year ☺). Yesterday I bought Mary Gentle’s acclaimed historical novel A Sundial in a Grave: 1610, which I quickly added to the list of books I plan to read this upcoming summer (including Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell and China Mieville’s latest novel Iron Council; it should be a good reading summer!). I am also required to buy 3 more books this year from the Discovery Channel Book Club, so when they had a Buy 2-Get 1 Free offer this past week, I decided it was the opportune time to make those purchases. I ordered Conclaves, a history of papal conclaves (which looks fascinating, especially in the light of the recent election of a new pope), Outdoor 25, a collection of travel articles from that magazine, and Stephen King’s collection of nonfiction essays Secret Windows.

Both my wife and sons have finished their college semesters, which is the second nudge in my looking forward to summer vacation (the first nudge was my very late Spring Break a week ago). Seeing them up late every night when I have to go to sleep at 10:00 will be frustrating. Fortunately I see some of my favorite students as soon as I arrive in school each morning, so that will ease my mood a bit. ☺