It’s been so long since I’ve done this that I hardly know where to start. As seems always to be the case, both quite a lot and nothing much has happened since I last posted. I’m getting ready to head down to Uppsala this afternoon for what will be my last trip before the long summer at home. I’ll be away for a week, not returning until next Monday, and though I don’t really like to be away for so long at a stretch, I can’t say I’m sorry to be escaping this menace of a puppy for several days. I realize that I haven’t properly introduced him here yet, but with the server issues we had I can’t post my pictures here at the moment (I know I could use Flickr or some such, but honestly, I can’t be bothered). I also don’t mind missing out on a few days of getting the kids off to school, as it’s getting more and more difficult as summer break approaches. Once I’m back, I’ll have only four more mornings of that particular hell to get through.

I’ve got plenty on my plate to deal with in Uppsala as well, including packing up my office for an impending move down the hall, cleaning and organizing my apartment in preparation for a friend’s stay there over the summer, and spending as many hours as I can manage in the archives. I won’t have time to do much actual research, but will instead be focusing on photographing as many documents as I’m able so that I can work through them over the summer. Technically speaking, I have seven weeks of vacation, but I don’t imagine I’ll be truly free for anything approaching that. Lucky for me, though, research is the part of my work that I like best, so it doesn’t feel like I’ll be missing out too much.

It’s always a little stressful trying to make sure I’ve got everything sorted in Uppsala when I’m going to be away for a long time, and I always manage to leave behind at least one thing that I simply cannot do without, no matter how many times I check and check again.?At least this year someone on-site will have my apartment key so I can arrange for whatever it is that I inevitably forget to be sent up to me.