back to St. Frideswide's

I had to read some overdue books, and one of them was Margaret Frazer's A Play of Dux Moraud, which I liked more than I expected to. I like Joliffe when he's a secondary character, but I didn't think he could carry a book until now. But it led me back to reading Dame Frevisse. So I'm in the middle of re-reading the series, and I'm really enjoying it. They're peaceful books - even if, at the end of The Reeve's Tale, Dame Frevisse's rage was enough to make Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix seem Quaalude-mellow.
On Monday a colleague and I are speaking at a nearby college. The unexpected side effect of my busy life is that while I can still muster the energy to work for 10-12 hours a day, I can't think very well about intellectual issues. So somehow over this Thanksgiving break, I need to rest, and think, and catch up enough to be brilliant on Monday morning. Wish me luck!
Also on Monday, I'm supposed to send an essay to an online book discussion. So I need to come up with witty things to write, to match the sections I wrote a few months ago, when I had time and wit.
Maybe I'm over-extended?