Back after a holiday-and-work-related radio silence. Had the in-laws down for Easter, and celebrated the father-in-law's 65th birthday at the Kowloon, a large Chinese restaurant on Route 1. I didn't watch any of the marathon or the Sox game on Patriot's Day, which I think means I can be legally deported to New Hampshire.

Yesterday was my day to come in early during registration, and we were pretty busy with phone calls and the like. Some students were surprised to learn that when 900 students try to register at the same time, not all of them are going to (a) get access to the registration system, and (b) get into all of their first-choice classes. For the most part, though, students were good-natured about things, which is refreshing.

Getting back to the Easter, the whole Lent thing was a mixed bag this year. My decision to pass up "salty snacks" was doomed from the start, as I'd not done a good job defining my terms. While the words suggested anything salted and snack-like, in my head I had a more limited scope focusing on potato chips and pretzels. Those I managed to avoid, at least.

As for the "saint a day" thing, it didn't do much to increase my faith in the idea of sainthood. Each day I had a choice of anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen to choose from, and the amount of information available on those choices was mostly underwhelming. When you couple that with the occasional saint who we know nothing about other than that they were on a list somewhere, you can see where it's hard to buy into the system. A little roster-trimming couldn't hurt.