Lek off for Love

Some clarification about things you may have received in your e-mail today, the first of April.*

• Yes, I know this is twins for the third year in a row, but my choices become more limited every year. I can't plausibly become engaged now. I have quit my job and moved across the country recently; it's not that interesting to do every nine months. Breaking limbs as a result of clumsiness is just too plausible.


• I did once put a leek in a toilet as part of an April Fool's joke. It's classic and not a spelling error. Like the twins, it stays.


• Lek is a real word for the dance of prairie chickens. "Lek" is both a noun and a verb.


• The Mister's family's ranch includes prairie chickens that are lekking right about now (assuming you are reading this at the crack of dawn, central time).


• Hand, foot and mouth is, sadly, very real, and both husband and son have had it this week.


• Actually, everything whiny about the trip to Kansas is true, except that it was actually a great trip.


• Rutherford Robinia is singular.


• I became engaged to the archaeologist from the cave April 1, 2003. Some of you have been reading these letters long enough to remember him. He wore leopard print underwear.


• Somebody stole an April 1, 2004 idea, and is trying to open a gourmet grilled cheese franchise as part of an NBC reality show. Sadly, he misses the best part-- the chocolate and churros, the aphrodisiac foods and the fantasy of quitting a PhD to start it.


• Very sadly, the number of students suddenly aware that they are failing (today, the drop deadline) is not any sort of joke. Yet another one just e-mailed me "willing to do anything" [except, apparently, come to class, study, or turn in homework]. Urgh.


• It's sunny and beautifully springy here.

*If you didn't receive the e-mail, and should have, please let me know.