The end of July means summer vacation is half over. I have not completed half the work on the Tibet book that I want to accomplish, not to mention doing any of my own writing. And with a week’s vacation coming up in August, prospects for finishing everything do not look particularly good right now. *sigh*

Friday was Adrianne’s wedding, and it was a fun occasion. We sat at a math table, and behind us were two other math tables of friends of Adrianne’s mom who is also a math teacher. Ironically, as Jean and I were in the receiving line after the ceremony, Adrianne’s mom recognized me and greeted me as if she knew me, although I had never seen her before. It turned out she attended one of my talks at the Morris Area Math Alliance several years ago, and because Adrianne mentions me at home occasionally, her mom made a connection I was not able to make. If any PHS student is reading this, and you have Mrs. Whitney as a teacher in the fall, be sure to ask her about the “Badlands” dance! ☺

Yesterday Jean and I went with two of my brothers’ families to rural New York State to visit my cousin Will and his wife Dora. My brothers and I grew up in a two family house with Will’s family living downstairs, so Will and his sister Rita were more brother and sister than cousins, and we have stayed relatively close over the years. We spent some time yesterday looking at childhood pictures of the six of us, and mostly we were able to determine immediately who each picture was, except occasionally we confused my brothers Stephen and Michael. They are the most similar of the brothers in several ways. Poor guys! ☺