Basket-free picnicking

We've just returned from a very pleasant, though chilly, Classics Department picnic. adfamiliares and I rode our bikes together for the first time, eliciting a shout-out of "You're too cute for words!" from the chair as she drove past. There were big trays of reasonably good barbecued ribs and chicken from P.J.'s, which triggered Nags Head flashbacks in my mind ("Ten pounds of ribs! Four pounds of sides!"); after eating, adfamiliares played croquet while I chatted with the undergrads, who are in many ways quite SWILlish. One of them christened me with a new nickname, "Thefter," and I'm afraid an explanation would just bore you all—that was Katherine, with whom I apparently have a "thing." (It's unclear exactly what sort of a "thing" it is, but she seemed pretty insistent.) Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, actually; I smiled a lot.