Miscellany

[stoutfellow]

1. Today, I finished reading The Emperor of Dreams, an anthology of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, and One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich, and I'll probably post reviews of both books sometime soon. I've read 26 books so far this year, which puts me on pace to read 84 in '06, slightly ahead of last year's pace. (Since I won't be teaching this summer, I suspect I'll actually do better than that.)

2. I gave Ben the last of his medicine yesterday, and he seems in much better fettle now. He's taking his treats, and as of a couple of days ago he's eating all of his dry food as well. I still need to take him in for his shots and dental work soon. (For that matter, I need to get myself in for dental work soon, too.)

3. Lately, Murphy's been asking for help getting back into the house a lot; he hops up and I catch his hindquarters and boost him onto the table. Yesterday - I don't know just what happened, but while doing this I jammed my right thumbnail into my left ring finger, just below the nail, hard enough to draw blood. I now have a nice little slice on that finger, which stings about like a paper cut, only more visible and longer lasting. Problem is, my dishwasher isn't working, so I've been doing the dishes in the sink lately. This desperately needs doing now - but that finger won't tolerate contact with hot water. I'm reduced to quick-scrubbing whatever dishes I need immediately.

4. One more week of classes, then finals. I've got a stack of essays to grade this weekend, a take-home final to prepare for my Differential Geometry class by Thursday, two Senior Projects to shepherd through, the final for History of Math - and someone wants to take a proficiency test for Critical Thinking (so she won't have to actually take the class), and I'm the one who supervises those tests. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

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My Sympathies

[oilhistorian.livejournal.com]

Since the department chair took a sabbatical last semester, no adjuncts for US history were hired and I somehow ended up teaching every section of the second semester survey (the only course offered this semester due to the same sabbattical). I just finished grading the second midterm. Now I get to grade their second short paper. In two weeks, I get to grade theie long paper. Then comes the final. I can't wait for graduation and three months away from grading ...