I’m at the beginning of three weeks that I expect will be tough.  I co-teach our intro class, which means that each of us teaches for three weeks of the semester.  My three weeks starts today, which adds four hours of classroom time to my schedule.  The math is not as straightforward: four extra hours of classroom time also means another four hours of prep, and another two hours of grading each week.  On top of that, for these three weeks, I am getting to my office at 7am to prepare to teach at 8am for Monday-Thursday.  In short, I’m tired and a little cranky.

Scott’s doing his part to make things better, in his own special way.  Not long after we moved in, I got an envelope in the mail filled with “Welcome to Neighborhood” coupons.  Better than normal coupons, the bunch included coupons for free things from several local merchants, like a free pizza from the place around the corner (which we redeemed right away), and for a free bouquet from a local florist.

Scott planned on getting the bouquet when he “screwed something up.”  I convinced him that if he screwed something up and got me free flowers, he would have screwed up twice.  I advised him to use that coupon as soon as possible, so that when he screwed something up, he could get me not-free flowers to make up for it.

So today, at the beginning of this most hellish week, I left the house in the dark and came home to flowers and a dinner plan (sausages and pan-fried potatoes, plus roasted brussel sprouts).

What a pretty picture.