missing the rubber stamp...

james called me from his office wednesday evening with some surprising news: he had a letter in his hand from the provost saying his sabbatical application had been approved! WOW! we weren't expecting to hear anything back until january or february! what happens now is that the application goes to the president, who takes it before the board of regents for a vote. my understanding is that, like promotion and tenure, this is merely a rubber stamp, all the important deciders have already decided. so it looks like we'll be hawaii dwellers for 6 whole months next year! i really can't wrap my mind around this until after christmas (only 16 days left to get things accomplished!), so there might be another post in january about this with many more exclamation points, but for now i am quietly amazed and excited - yahoo!