Monday—you guessed it!—began bright and early at Pilates with Claudia. Right afterwards I headed to the dentist’s office for my check-up with Dr. Walt Henderson. Though I like my dentist, I don’t really enjoy going. He gave me the terrible news that I will need a crown, so I (probably wrongly) put that appointment off until after graduation because I’m not looking forward to it. Anyway, it’s a blessing that I have dental insurance and I’m grateful for that. I just really don’t like to go to the dentist. Sorry Dr. Henderson, you’re a great guy, but . . . also no offense to 3L Rick Hebar, a terrific person and dentist in another life.

At noon we had strategic planning meeting in the law school. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog posting that we were focusing the most recent sessions on scholarship. It was a very open and thoughtful conversation. I thank my colleagues for their participation and for helping to steer the future of the law school.

The exciting news that I failed to mention earlier is that late last week Jesús Moroles’ work crew showed up and they have been working diligently on the courtyard. (I do have some pictures of the progress of the courtyard and them working out there.) We are really excited to see Dreamscape take shape and happy to have them back and to see the progress under way.

Jim Phillips, one of our alums, who I spend a lot of time with at football games visiting in his skybox, stopped by this afternoon. It was great to see him. Thanks very much, Jim, for coming up. Don’t be a stranger. After he left I played a little catch-up behind my desk.

Tuesday was also a relatively quiet day. We had a faculty meeting at which a student requested credit for spending a semester at an international law school. The faculty had a full discussion about this request, and as a result, we will probably have a committee look at this issue. We haven’t had this request of this nature previously, at least in my time on the faculty. The faculty agreed that this is something that we should look at more carefully and we will do that, but we gave the student a tentative okay.

Later that afternoon I met with Don Pederson. It was actually good to have the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration visit. We toured the building and I showed him some of the changes. Vice Chancellor Pederson has been a good friend to me since I first joined the University of Arkansas’ faculty. I remember many years ago when Margaret Clark and I went to him with an idea for an interdisciplinary paper and speech abroad. He graciously provided his support. I could never have afforded to go without that help. Aside from that he has always been a helpful colleague and mentor. I appreciate him, the guidance he give me and the time he took to visit.

That evening I went back (yes, I know) to Curves for Women. I hadn’t been in so long that my routine was off and when I got done, quite frankly, I was so tired that I walked out and left my suit. But at least I’m getting back on track!