Ron's father Bill died this past Thursday after undergoing surgery for a torn bowel. Ron is in Maryland right now, helping out with everything, and spending time with his family.

Another big nasty piece of news is that Ron's company has closed down until the end of the year because they don't have any money to pay anyone. We will have health insurance through December, and the boss is hoping to bring people back in January. However, our situation does not allow for this kind of thing -- no paycheck is very bad. Ron is looking for a new job and has said that if he must, he will even go back to Raytheon.

I think my class is going very well. The students seem interested and the day we discussed The Communist Manifesto, they even stayed past the dismissal time! This was a huge compliment to me and made me very happy.

I have been asked to teach two classes next semester: Writing Fundamentals (lots of grammar) and Humanities 251 (800 BCE through 400 CE). I have started putting my syllabus together for the Humanities class and I think it will be a lot of fun. So far, these are the works that are on the list:

The Epic of Gilgamesh (there are two translations of the same tablet, and I thought I would have them read both for comparison's sake)

The book of Genesis

The book of Job

The Iliad

Sophocles -- Antigone

Aristophanes (Lysistrata)

Herodotus, selection from The Histories

Plato, The Republic

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics

Virgil -- The Aeneid

Ovid -- The Metamorphoses

The New Testament: Matthew, John (this is not what is in Norton, but I think these two books will work better than what is in the Norton)

St. Augustine, selections from The Confessions

I will also include the art from these eras. I think this is a lot of information to cover in one semester, but I feel pushed to cover it. After all, I have to squeeze 1200 years into 14 weeks!