On a midnight, dark and dreary
As my eyes had gone all bleary
revising my c.v., so weary,
Then I heard a knocking knocking,
knocking on my chamber door
Lightning flash and peals of thunder
tore my peace of mind assunder
I stood and toward my door I blundered
toward the knocking at my door
shadows cast upon my floor
The door I opened, there to see
A Raven, in his finery
an ebon tenure committee
Come a’calling at my door
Knocking, cawing at my door
His eyes were black, my mood was blue
For his dark post-tenure review
Turned all my horses into glue
with sticky student eval scores
(It seems that they expected smores)
I told the Raven of my vigor
Maintaining academic rigor
and trying hard not to trigger
memories that open sores
and make the kids wander the moors
The Raven gave a caustic laugh
and showed me all his charts and graphs
with cuts in faculty and staff
The victory in culture wars
going to the well-paid whores
Who make the budgeting decisions.
My mind grew dark with tangled visions
“What of the education mission?”
I heard my quaking voice implore.
Quoth the raven: Nevermore.
— Orson Welk
Friday morning we again made it to Disneyland and were all about meeting characters. Our first stop, just inside the gates, was Daisy Duck. Since it was early in the morning, Monki was asleep by the time we made it to the front of the line, but we’ll tell her she had a great time and all will be right in her world. 
Well… since yesterday was Monki’s birthday, it only follows that today was mine. The big 5-0. Half a century. Not a bad life so far.
Finally it was here! One year since our little Monki joined us. It was her birthday and she… well, she couldn’t care less. Pretty sure she had no idea but that didn’t stop us from getting ready to celebrate it. 
The next three days were a blur of seeing friends and doing things around the house with the parents.
Monday morning and we had been “in country” for nearly a week. We woke up early (no jet lag excuse, just normally get up early) and got everything packed and ready to go. We had to “check out” of our Air B&B by 11am so the house was a flurry of activity as everyone grabbed all the stuff which had migrated everywhere and corralled it back into suitcases and backpacks. 
Saturday was reserved for 
Friday morning was destined to be a travel day. First up was having breakfast in nearby Oceanside with an old friend, Mike Wallis. I first Mike some 25 years ago when he was my instructor at a comedy traffic school and we ended up having a discussion about Satanism…as you do. Back when I lived in LA, we were pretty tight but, as happens, we drifted away into our own things. We’d chatted a few times over the years, and even gotten together for a coffee or two when I was in town, but even then it had been several years since we’d seen each other. So he came down and we went up and we met for a nice breakfast at a place called 
Thursday was again planned to be a family day. And again, due to jet lag, we were up early. Fortunately, mom and dad also got up early so we could spend some time with them. Faye, her boyfriend Matt and the three kids were all still sleeping, having stayed up late the night before so just the five of us headed out to grab a bite. 
We woke up bright and early – to be fair, we had no choice. Monki was up at 3:30 or so and that meant we were as well. When she fell back asleep we caught a few more minutes ourselves and then we were up and, with the whole family, ready to hit the day. This was going to be our first day of actual sight-seeing and we were doing it up right – hitting the world famous 
Tuesday June 27
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 