Today was Family Day at TCNJ, but none of the official activities were particularly inviting. That was fine, since Jean and I did our traditional activity of picking up Mark and Kate and spending a few hours with them (highlighted by a delicious lunch at Olive Garden). Afterwards they went to the Homecoming Game (why is the homecoming game always football anyway?), while we did some shopping.

This is a fairly busy weekend, since tomorrow Jean is going to a baby shower while I’m spending the time at the father-in-law’s house, my old friend Rick whom I have seen much too little of the past few years.

Currently listening: One of the most underrated bands ever is The Strawbs, and one of their finest albums was Bursting at the Seams. They started out as a folk-rock band, then eased into progressive rock, all of it sparked by some outstanding songwriting by David Cousins. They are still active today, although Cousin’s surrounding cast keeps re-arranging itself. In a few weeks a three-man acoustic version will cross the Atlantic to perform in Sparta (and presumably a few other locations as well).

Currently reading: Robert Sheckley was certainly sf’s finest satirist, and he was often laugh-out-loud funny, several such moments occurring in Mindswap. Only Sheckley could make a comedy out of a poor man who is evicted from his body and doomed to die unless he finds a replacement body for himself in six hours. This is one of 6 novels in the fabulous collection Dimensions of Sheckley.