Things have been chugging along at quite the frenetic pace in the Drudge household. Spring has sprung, which means that all the teenagers at Prestigious Academy have become unhinged and are acting accordingly. Though it is still dank, cold, and snowing on and off, flip-flops, short-shorts, and spaghetti-strap tanks have reappeared on the teenage girls upstairs. Both the Drudge progeny are also coming apart at the seams, down with various ailments, both real and imagined. And J. has been gearing up to teach his last term at Prestigious Academy.

Did you catch that wee adjective? "Last." Yes, folks, the Drudge family is moving on from PA. It has been eight years--and while that may not seem like a lot of time in the grand scheme, please remember that it is also eight years of raising a dozen teenage girls that we cannot ground because we're not, like, their parents or anything. So J. will bid PA farewell in June, and I will immediately begin posting witty little précis about the insanity of boarding schools between packing up all the crap I've accumulated and begging complete strangers for wine-bottle boxes, empty or no. I get to keep lexicographicating from home; J. has a new job working for a record label we both love and gets to stop sacrificing sleep so he can play and write his music. J. is so happy he can barely stand it. He floats about six inches above the ground all the time, smiles beatifically, and smells of roses, he is so excited.

I am also excited--not because I will finally be able to stop yelling at teenage girls to put more clothes on, or because I will no longer need to tell the pizza delivery guy every three days that this door does not lead to the dorm, please quit pounding on it at all hours, go around back like the sign says, you moron. No. I am excited because this showed up on my doorstep last week:





For those playing along at home, it's a single treadle Journey Wheel with Scotch tension option, handmade by Jonathan Bosworth. It is pretty and smells good. It also draws the eye away from the mess surrounding it, for which I am grateful.

More details as I have time to post them.