Assorted stuff...
No CSA last Friday; unfortunately because I had first an off-campus meeting, and then a library retreat, I failed to check my email account and didn't get the message that there was no bag, so I went out to the farm anyhow. It wasn't a total waste, though, since I took Juno and she had a good time running around with their dogs for 25 or 30 minutes, plus they took pity on me and gave me a cantaloupe for my trouble. But I will be sure to check email for the next several weeks to find out if I should go! The heat and drought are causing the hiatus, but our farmer has planted new stuff so it will start up again in perhaps early September.
It was kind of weird not to have lots of produce to figure out what to do with. I did use one of the two cabbages making chicken-cabbage salad, for which I also used some of my own basil and mint, plus some dill and cilantro from the store. Since I'm trying to clear out old stuff from the freezer, I cooked up various sausages, and thawed the last old container of kalua pig for lunches this week, before making a new batch of that (pork shoulder was on at a really good price at one of my supermarkets - $1.69/lb.). Made couscous with red onion and a big fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, cantaloupe, and green grapes, dressed w/ a little orange juice) to go with the chicken salad, mustard-dill potato salad, black bean salad, and cucumbers in sour cream for with the sausages. If we don't go out for dinner on Friday (which we usually do - date night!), I will probably make salmon and white bean salad for that night as I think we will have run out of the main course dishes but not the various sides by then.
Students are coming back; this week is orientation stuff, including faculty orientations which I have to attend since I started in mid-spring semester. Today was our matriculation ceremony. All faculty (which includes librarians) were required to be there, in academic regalia. I'm extremely thankful that this week is significantly cooler than just a week or two ago, highs about 90 or even in the 80s, instead of the 100s and 110s. We also had the all-faculty meeting, at which both the provost and president spoke for substantial time. Later today are college academic orientation meetings for students, and of course we the librarians need to show up for those. Tomorrow I have more faculty orientation things, plus a faculty committee meeting, maybe; the person who was supposed to chair this committee got promoted to administration, and I got an email to say the meeting was canceled until a new chair was chosen, but then at the big faculty meeting today there was a scheduled time and room announced for all committees, including this one. So I guess I will just go to the appointed place at that time and see.
In-library events in these two weeks: new faculty luncheon, meet-the-author (of the book that all incoming students are supposed to read), "Sundae Sunday" in which there are library tours and ice cream, a book sale boosted by free snowcones for several hours the first day, and Game Night at the library the first Friday of classes. I'm signed up to be present for a couple of hours of that; it's the day after SO's birthday, so we will have to go out for his birthday dinner on Saturday, I guess.
Yoga this week was again tough, not because we had to do it blind (we didn't) but we did a lot of boat and half-boat poses - which amounted to abs crunches, basically - and also a lot of warrior three and half moon poses, neither of which can I do properly since they involve balancing that I am no longer able to do. :-( The boat poses I mostly managed, but BOY did they leave me sore. Clearly I do not use those muscles much.
Got my hd_holidays assignment, and it should cause me no trouble... assuming, of course, I can get my muse to cooperate and actually WRITE. I have not been good about trying to write in the evenings, which is now the time available for that, since I don't have that commute for dictation. Now that the fall semester is starting and SO will again be commuting, thus rarely home before 6:30 or 7 pm, I really should try to write immediately after I get home and before he does. Trouble is that is also the time that I need to spend either walking or at least in the back yard with Juno, after she's been inside alone all day and bored. I'll figure something out...
Looks like we will probably be going to France next summer - somewhere in the northeastern part, exact location TBD. My mom and sis came up with this scheme; originally the thought was Italy, but France seems to be more popular of a choice (SO is certainly much more enthusiastic about it - his first reaction was that he could get from there to Belgium to do some research he'd like to do), so France it is. SO and I still want to go to Idaho next summer, too, but the Idaho trip would be probably in May, to coincide with my dad, and the France trip will probably be late July. I am already taking two vacation days in October to go to St. Louis over SO's fall break, and I took two last June for my reunion in Idaho, but AFAIK I will not need to take any more before next summer - we get the period between Christmas and New Year's as official holiday at work, so unless we end up traveling, that should be okay - so I ought to have plenty of days by next summer. We can't roll over more than one year's accumulation of vacation time anyhow; if you have extra it gets converted to sick leave IIRC. I get 20 days per year of vacation, and I think 10 days of sick leave (which is not much, but interestingly, as a salaried employee I only get deductions from sick leave accumulation if I am out a whole day; so if I have to be gone for 3 hours to the doctor, for instance, that doesn't lose me any - weird).
Okay, that was way too much weird and random detail, and my lunch hour is now over, so that's enough for now.
It was kind of weird not to have lots of produce to figure out what to do with. I did use one of the two cabbages making chicken-cabbage salad, for which I also used some of my own basil and mint, plus some dill and cilantro from the store. Since I'm trying to clear out old stuff from the freezer, I cooked up various sausages, and thawed the last old container of kalua pig for lunches this week, before making a new batch of that (pork shoulder was on at a really good price at one of my supermarkets - $1.69/lb.). Made couscous with red onion and a big fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, cantaloupe, and green grapes, dressed w/ a little orange juice) to go with the chicken salad, mustard-dill potato salad, black bean salad, and cucumbers in sour cream for with the sausages. If we don't go out for dinner on Friday (which we usually do - date night!), I will probably make salmon and white bean salad for that night as I think we will have run out of the main course dishes but not the various sides by then.
Students are coming back; this week is orientation stuff, including faculty orientations which I have to attend since I started in mid-spring semester. Today was our matriculation ceremony. All faculty (which includes librarians) were required to be there, in academic regalia. I'm extremely thankful that this week is significantly cooler than just a week or two ago, highs about 90 or even in the 80s, instead of the 100s and 110s. We also had the all-faculty meeting, at which both the provost and president spoke for substantial time. Later today are college academic orientation meetings for students, and of course we the librarians need to show up for those. Tomorrow I have more faculty orientation things, plus a faculty committee meeting, maybe; the person who was supposed to chair this committee got promoted to administration, and I got an email to say the meeting was canceled until a new chair was chosen, but then at the big faculty meeting today there was a scheduled time and room announced for all committees, including this one. So I guess I will just go to the appointed place at that time and see.
In-library events in these two weeks: new faculty luncheon, meet-the-author (of the book that all incoming students are supposed to read), "Sundae Sunday" in which there are library tours and ice cream, a book sale boosted by free snowcones for several hours the first day, and Game Night at the library the first Friday of classes. I'm signed up to be present for a couple of hours of that; it's the day after SO's birthday, so we will have to go out for his birthday dinner on Saturday, I guess.
Yoga this week was again tough, not because we had to do it blind (we didn't) but we did a lot of boat and half-boat poses - which amounted to abs crunches, basically - and also a lot of warrior three and half moon poses, neither of which can I do properly since they involve balancing that I am no longer able to do. :-( The boat poses I mostly managed, but BOY did they leave me sore. Clearly I do not use those muscles much.
Got my hd_holidays assignment, and it should cause me no trouble... assuming, of course, I can get my muse to cooperate and actually WRITE. I have not been good about trying to write in the evenings, which is now the time available for that, since I don't have that commute for dictation. Now that the fall semester is starting and SO will again be commuting, thus rarely home before 6:30 or 7 pm, I really should try to write immediately after I get home and before he does. Trouble is that is also the time that I need to spend either walking or at least in the back yard with Juno, after she's been inside alone all day and bored. I'll figure something out...
Looks like we will probably be going to France next summer - somewhere in the northeastern part, exact location TBD. My mom and sis came up with this scheme; originally the thought was Italy, but France seems to be more popular of a choice (SO is certainly much more enthusiastic about it - his first reaction was that he could get from there to Belgium to do some research he'd like to do), so France it is. SO and I still want to go to Idaho next summer, too, but the Idaho trip would be probably in May, to coincide with my dad, and the France trip will probably be late July. I am already taking two vacation days in October to go to St. Louis over SO's fall break, and I took two last June for my reunion in Idaho, but AFAIK I will not need to take any more before next summer - we get the period between Christmas and New Year's as official holiday at work, so unless we end up traveling, that should be okay - so I ought to have plenty of days by next summer. We can't roll over more than one year's accumulation of vacation time anyhow; if you have extra it gets converted to sick leave IIRC. I get 20 days per year of vacation, and I think 10 days of sick leave (which is not much, but interestingly, as a salaried employee I only get deductions from sick leave accumulation if I am out a whole day; so if I have to be gone for 3 hours to the doctor, for instance, that doesn't lose me any - weird).
Okay, that was way too much weird and random detail, and my lunch hour is now over, so that's enough for now.