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Today after another nice long weekend morning walk with Casey and the dog (my favorite thing about our weekends), a run at the downstairs gym, and some lunch in front of the TV together, I went over to Cafe Ventana for a study afternoon. Visited their quiet study annex for the first time and found it a great place to sit and read about the lives of ( Read more... )

My parents are coming today, and my in-laws are coming tomorrow! Add that onto my aunt, grandma, and cousin visiting last week, and basically, I've been super unproductive recently. Its kind of stressing me out a bit to know that I'm falling quite far behind in comparison with the amount of progress my colleagues have made on their semester papers ( Read more... )

The first week of teaching went well. I've got this discussion section thing down to an art by my third year. I didn't really realize how much I've learned about classroom management and stimulating discussion until Phil M (who is in his first year TAing) was asking me some questions about what I do in discussion. I remembered how much I stumbled ( Read more... )

So Tuesday I had lunch with Carol, and yesterday, Thursday, my Mom was unexpectedly stranded at the St. Louis airport on her way back to CO from France. Huzzah for impromptu mom & daughter time! Her flight was cancelled so I had to pick her up to spend the night with me. Good chatting and visiting before sending her on her way this morning. ( Read more... )

So today's the royal wedding - I caught a few pics and youtubes online this morning before teaching. Looks like a classy event. But for all the pomp and circumstance, that wedding probably wasn't nearly as fun and cheerful as my cousin Katie's wedding this past weekend ( Read more... )

So yesterday while we were gone, Charlie pulled a bunch of stuff off the pantry shelves, and got into the (thankfully nearly empty) peanut butter jar. He also chewed my makeup brush. So that afternoon when Casey got home I told him "Our dog has been such a nix-nux today!" And he laughed and told me he didn't know what that meant and he thinks its a ( Read more... )

So I just got back from the History student BBQ, which was a blast. I love that our department so enjoys hanging out together. It was such a weird demonstration of how far I've come in grad school and in the department, from how unsure and a bit shy I was at last year's BBQ and how comfortable and confident I felt this year. I had to really take a ( Read more... )

The weekend was amazing, as I knew it would be. I regret that I have so little time left for my paper, but I do not regret that I enjoyed myself all weekend and spent such great quality time with my extended family. This summer has been full of weekends and events and time with Casey and friends that I don't regret, even though they've taken me ( Read more... )

morning pancakes with mom + driving in my new car + chats with mom + afternoon nap on the couch + getting my reading and some supplementary reading for monday done + swing dancing in the apartment with Casey + pulled pork sandwiches + Casey and Robert + free UFC = Excellent Saturday!!!