It was commencement day here at UMM, and it was a special one for us because Child #3 is now officially Bachelor of Arts #3. Here she tolerates her father and mother for a few more moments before she abandons us forevermore.

And there she is in the midst of all the faculty and 2010 graduates of the computer science discipline at UMM.

Yay, we’re all done! Kids gone, all off on their own trajectories into the future!

Not that kind! And we were surrounded by chaperones! And there were lots of people there! I’m going to be in such trouble when the Trophy Wife™ finds out what I was up to this weekend.

OK, I’m sharpening my fangs right now.

The word is out: on my way to the Gods & Politics conference in Copenhagen, I’m taking a little detour to visit Oslo, as this forum article mentions.

It’s true! It’s true! Tidenes happening før Skepsikonferansen 2010! En ravende, sinna, og nysgjerrig teddybjørn av en ateist og skeptiker kommer til vårt fagre land i noen dager før Ateistkonferansen i København 18-20. juni.

Han skal være her 16. juni, og skal holde en talk på Litteraturhuset 15.30 -17; om noe om Science Communication. Skal dele link til info når den kommer opp.

Dessuten overleveres han til mine klamme hender når han er ferdig med å skravle med UiO-pampene, og da skal vi finne på noe trivelig. Forvent moro. Hold av kvelden. Dere som liker ham da.

Vi takker CEES for at de inviterte ham, og nyopprettede Studentenes Skeptikerlag Oslo for å dele  ham med folket etter foredraget.

I have no idea what she said…but wait, did she call me a “teddybjørn”? Somebody will have to translate the rest for me, or since only Norwegians are going to care, maybe you don’t have to translate at all. Just let me know if there are secret plans in there to have me publicly crucified when I arrive.

Barring any Christian berserkers assaulting me when I arrive (not likely, given Norway’s godlesÃ¥s socialist reputation), it should be fun. The Trophy Wife™ is joining me on this trip, no doubt drawn by the call of the Motherland — her maiden name is good ol’ Norse, Gjerness, and while I’m mongrel American with my maternal Swedish/Norwegian roots muddled with a father who was just about everything else European, she’s one of those purebred Scandinavians. She may also be coming along to keep an eye on me, because she knows from experience that I’ve got a thing for Scandinavian goddesses.

We will be getting out for some social time while we’re there, too. I fear, though, a visit to a nation where beer may be replaced with akevitt. I don’t know if I’ll have the stamina.

There I am, in a short interview with Jorge Salazar.

Hello, Wisconsin! I’ll be speaking at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point on Wednesday. At least I don’t have to suffer through airports this time — I’m driving, making a stop at UWSP, then briefly at Madison to drop my son off, then on to Chicago Thursday and Friday to talk morality with a communist and a priest. But this is next:

I’m scarcely home, and I’ve got something else lined up — I’ll be interviewed on Mike Feder’s show on Sirius Satellite Radio at 6pm ET today. Tune in if you can!

Thanks to Pamela Turner for sending me a box of TCHO chocolates — they’re fabulous. My one concern is that I’m about to leave town for a day, and this box of temptations is sitting out on the dining room table where the Trophy Wife™ and the Trophy Daughter™ and even one of the Trophy Sons™ (who is visiting us for a few weeks) can find it. I’m going to come home from Syracuse on Friday to find them all gone, aren’t I?

I’m flying away again, straight back to Minneapolis, arriving this evening. I’m not going straight home to Morris, though, because by great good coincidence Roy Zimmerman is playing in the Cannon Falls High School Auditorium (8209 E Minnesota St., Cannon Falls, MN), so I figure I’ll take a little detour and pop in there for a while. If you’re in the area, stop on by!

I’d hate to think that someone at Syracuse University might be driving to RIT tomorrow to hear my lecture, since I’ve been invited by The Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers Alliance to speak at Syracuse next week, on 8 April.

Oh, and look: Hemant is there tonight, warming up the audience for me. How nice of him!