Yeah, I know - I fell off the face of the earth again. Let me just say that T.S. Eliot was right....

Anyway - we're now well into May and so many things have happened that it will be hard to catch up.

First off - we went down to Winston-Salem to visit the parental units and take in the phenomenon that is Merlefest in the beautiful foothills of the Brushy Mountains. It's a vacation that is always very much needed in late April - since March is always one of the hardest months in Ye Olde Boat Museum. So we spent some quality time in the good old North State and then headed back to reality.

I got to spend precisely one and a half days at home before having to turn around and head to the annual AAM conference which - darn the luck - was held this year in New Orleans.

AAM is always a good thing to go to because it's a time when 5 or 6,000 museum geeks get together and find out what everyone else is doing. I was on a panel session which was very well received - we had 90 people there at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the Big Easy.

Museum people have no lives, it seems.

Anyway - I returned from AAM to a new job. This is a job that is beyond my wildest dreams and I only hope I'm up to the task.

I am now the full-time official curator of the Monitor.

Before I was doing it on an ad hoc, acting basis - but it's the real deal now.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.....