Yes, I am still here
The week-before-last's CSA had: ~10 baby carrots, 2 bunches radishes, 4 baby golden & 1 baby red beet w/ nice greens, chard, cilantro, and collard greens.
Last week's CSA had: 3 small-med. leaf lettuce, some broccoli raab, a bunch of young garlic (which looked like green onions to start with), celery, 1 fennel, 1 bunch radishes, 3 green onions, and 1/2 lb. small-med. turnips.
I roasted all the carrots (including those I'd kept from earlier); the collard and beet greens went into gumbo; I've used a lot of radishes and the celery and some of the lettuce making chopped salad for lunches the past two weeks; the cilantro and green onions went into a southwestern egg casserole for this week's breakfast; the chard and broccoli raab we ate steamed/boiled; the turnips went into a mulligatawny soup for this week; and we've had more salad with dinner. What I have remaining are the beets (including some from an earlier week), some radishes, the young garlic, and the fennel. Keeping up pretty well.
The end of the semester is eating my lunch. We're open 2 extra hours later each night, and I'm the one on call in case a student doesn't show for that 12-2am shift. I've been called once this time; thankfully as I was getting dressed to go in, I got a second call to say the student had showed up, just 20 minutes late (I'd been called at 15, after the student hadn't answered hir phone). So I was able to go back to bed although with the adrenaline it took a while to fall back to sleep. But it's been sort of nerve-wracking each night not knowing. However last night was the last late one; there aren't many finals scheduled for Thursday and none for Friday, so we stop with Tuesday night. Phew.
Staff evaluations are coming up, I'm on the hiring committee for a new librarian, and our 4th-floor renovation is almost finished so we have to plan out our scheme for moving books back up there (if facilities ever gets their act together and does the last few things including putting the shelf skeletons up!). The new study rooms on that floor are bigger than the old ones were, so we don't have room for quite as many shelves, therefore some books have to be weeded/go into storage before we move the rest. And everything is going up as the 3rd floor is now supposed to be redone in the fall (which is good; that is the last floor still untouched. After that hopefully we'll scrounge money for new furniture for 3 and 4).
Basically just too busy. And my muse remains AWOL, much to my regret. In fact the whole fandom part of my brain seems to have shut down. That's part of the reason why I haven't been around LJ much for a while; it's always been the place where I post fic, and when I'm not writing any fic (or reading any), I don't have the impetus to come here in the same way, although I really should to at least keep up with what's happening with folks. Sigh. *guilt* I missed a chance to have dinner with
alisanne the other week because I haven't been checking the email associated with LJ very often, either.
On the bright side I am now only about 4 pounds from my goal weight - I have lost 36 pounds in rather under a year! This morning for the first time since I honestly don't remember when, my scale read below 140. I donated my size 14 jeans to a charity drive on campus several weeks ago, and have acquired one new pair of jeans in size 10, which I wore last weekend. Now that I know those will fit I need to buy another pair (because of my laundry schedule I like to have 2 pairs). I also went out last weekend and bought 8 new bras and threw out the old ones which were all way loose. Shouldn't have to buy more of those for a good couple of years at least. I loathe bra-shopping. (Doesn't everyone?)
Juno is much better than she was several months ago. She's still on the same dose of phenobarbitol but I would say she's at 95% of her old self; she can run at nearly her old top speed, just has the occasional problem with skidding on the wood floors (or sometimes the driveway cement) when running or turning too fast, and also has to go more slowly on the stairs. That is a great relief. We are still uncertain whether she has epilepsy or if she had something like a little stroke, but there have been no more seizures. Phew. She is happy taking her daily pill which she gets in a dab of soft cream cheese. :-)
Last summer's roof saga is not quite over. The roofers did some damage to the gutters on the front of the house, and there had also been some damage to those and to the fascia-board covers from the original hailstorm, so we're having the fascia boards repaired/replaced and the gutters replaced (this involves lead abatement for the old paint, and is complicated by the fact that we live in a historic district and have to get planning permission for anything replaced as opposed to repaired). SO has been wrangling the insurance company and the construction company for months (weather hasn't helped; there was a month where we were getting an inch or 2 of rain every week, not good for wood repair or painting). They are finally working on the fascia part of the project this week; hopefully once that is done the gutters will be put back soon.
We are also having to do rather more extensive work on the master bath than we had hoped; it's going to be in the neighborhood of $25K, about twice what we'd first thought. GAH. Basically a complete tear-down inside, plus structural work underneath that part of the house. SO for sure, and hopefully I also, will meet with the contractor next Monday. (He's supposed to come at 9, and I have to be at work no later than 10 as I am on both reference and circ then.)
I've sewn 7 pairs of trousers and 1 sundress so far this year - all my old homemade trousers were too big in the waist, plus they were all fairly old and starting to have rips and thin spots and so forth, so now all but one old pair have been removed from service. I have fabric for another pair of trousers and another sundress cut and waiting; I'm hoping to sew the trousers in the next several days so I can wear them at our commencement Saturday (they're plain black). Also have uncut fabric for one last pair of trousers, a couple of long vests, and a cardigan (plus a lot of vests for SO [the fronts anyhow, not necessarily backs or linings], and some other fabric that I'm honestly not sure what patterns I got it for now). So, um, I guess my creativity such as it is at the moment is being expended on sewing instead of writing?
*pause for thought* I guess that's at least a good bit of what's been going on with me in the last few months. If you read it through, I am impressed. :-) How are all of you?
Last week's CSA had: 3 small-med. leaf lettuce, some broccoli raab, a bunch of young garlic (which looked like green onions to start with), celery, 1 fennel, 1 bunch radishes, 3 green onions, and 1/2 lb. small-med. turnips.
I roasted all the carrots (including those I'd kept from earlier); the collard and beet greens went into gumbo; I've used a lot of radishes and the celery and some of the lettuce making chopped salad for lunches the past two weeks; the cilantro and green onions went into a southwestern egg casserole for this week's breakfast; the chard and broccoli raab we ate steamed/boiled; the turnips went into a mulligatawny soup for this week; and we've had more salad with dinner. What I have remaining are the beets (including some from an earlier week), some radishes, the young garlic, and the fennel. Keeping up pretty well.
The end of the semester is eating my lunch. We're open 2 extra hours later each night, and I'm the one on call in case a student doesn't show for that 12-2am shift. I've been called once this time; thankfully as I was getting dressed to go in, I got a second call to say the student had showed up, just 20 minutes late (I'd been called at 15, after the student hadn't answered hir phone). So I was able to go back to bed although with the adrenaline it took a while to fall back to sleep. But it's been sort of nerve-wracking each night not knowing. However last night was the last late one; there aren't many finals scheduled for Thursday and none for Friday, so we stop with Tuesday night. Phew.
Staff evaluations are coming up, I'm on the hiring committee for a new librarian, and our 4th-floor renovation is almost finished so we have to plan out our scheme for moving books back up there (if facilities ever gets their act together and does the last few things including putting the shelf skeletons up!). The new study rooms on that floor are bigger than the old ones were, so we don't have room for quite as many shelves, therefore some books have to be weeded/go into storage before we move the rest. And everything is going up as the 3rd floor is now supposed to be redone in the fall (which is good; that is the last floor still untouched. After that hopefully we'll scrounge money for new furniture for 3 and 4).
Basically just too busy. And my muse remains AWOL, much to my regret. In fact the whole fandom part of my brain seems to have shut down. That's part of the reason why I haven't been around LJ much for a while; it's always been the place where I post fic, and when I'm not writing any fic (or reading any), I don't have the impetus to come here in the same way, although I really should to at least keep up with what's happening with folks. Sigh. *guilt* I missed a chance to have dinner with
alisanne the other week because I haven't been checking the email associated with LJ very often, either.
On the bright side I am now only about 4 pounds from my goal weight - I have lost 36 pounds in rather under a year! This morning for the first time since I honestly don't remember when, my scale read below 140. I donated my size 14 jeans to a charity drive on campus several weeks ago, and have acquired one new pair of jeans in size 10, which I wore last weekend. Now that I know those will fit I need to buy another pair (because of my laundry schedule I like to have 2 pairs). I also went out last weekend and bought 8 new bras and threw out the old ones which were all way loose. Shouldn't have to buy more of those for a good couple of years at least. I loathe bra-shopping. (Doesn't everyone?)
Juno is much better than she was several months ago. She's still on the same dose of phenobarbitol but I would say she's at 95% of her old self; she can run at nearly her old top speed, just has the occasional problem with skidding on the wood floors (or sometimes the driveway cement) when running or turning too fast, and also has to go more slowly on the stairs. That is a great relief. We are still uncertain whether she has epilepsy or if she had something like a little stroke, but there have been no more seizures. Phew. She is happy taking her daily pill which she gets in a dab of soft cream cheese. :-)
Last summer's roof saga is not quite over. The roofers did some damage to the gutters on the front of the house, and there had also been some damage to those and to the fascia-board covers from the original hailstorm, so we're having the fascia boards repaired/replaced and the gutters replaced (this involves lead abatement for the old paint, and is complicated by the fact that we live in a historic district and have to get planning permission for anything replaced as opposed to repaired). SO has been wrangling the insurance company and the construction company for months (weather hasn't helped; there was a month where we were getting an inch or 2 of rain every week, not good for wood repair or painting). They are finally working on the fascia part of the project this week; hopefully once that is done the gutters will be put back soon.
We are also having to do rather more extensive work on the master bath than we had hoped; it's going to be in the neighborhood of $25K, about twice what we'd first thought. GAH. Basically a complete tear-down inside, plus structural work underneath that part of the house. SO for sure, and hopefully I also, will meet with the contractor next Monday. (He's supposed to come at 9, and I have to be at work no later than 10 as I am on both reference and circ then.)
I've sewn 7 pairs of trousers and 1 sundress so far this year - all my old homemade trousers were too big in the waist, plus they were all fairly old and starting to have rips and thin spots and so forth, so now all but one old pair have been removed from service. I have fabric for another pair of trousers and another sundress cut and waiting; I'm hoping to sew the trousers in the next several days so I can wear them at our commencement Saturday (they're plain black). Also have uncut fabric for one last pair of trousers, a couple of long vests, and a cardigan (plus a lot of vests for SO [the fronts anyhow, not necessarily backs or linings], and some other fabric that I'm honestly not sure what patterns I got it for now). So, um, I guess my creativity such as it is at the moment is being expended on sewing instead of writing?
*pause for thought* I guess that's at least a good bit of what's been going on with me in the last few months. If you read it through, I am impressed. :-) How are all of you?