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Home > Archive: April, 2018

Archive for April, 2018

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April 23rd, 2018 at 10:14 pm

Oh, my SA friends, I've missed you. But the blasted semester will be over soon, and I'll be back to accountability and a little more time.

Off to teach yet another class and grade ten thousand more papers.

Interesting Times

April 11th, 2018 at 09:00 pm

My boss e-mailed me yesterday asking for a few minutes. I wondered what was up, but knew he wasn't thrilled with his job. He has a 25% administrative appointment and it's not his thing. So, beginning this summer, I'll be taking over his administrative position while staying in the classroom 75 percent of my contract.

Honestly, there are many things I'm eager to change, and a three-class load is much easier than a four-class load. I'm pretty pleased; it gives me more time and more authority to improve things.

I am pretty darn busy right now with four weeks of the semester left--plus my adjunct class, a conference talk, a couple of scholarly projects, and a myriad of other things.

In other news, I dropped a bag off at Goodwill this afternoon and transferred a few dollars into my Big Goal fund to round it up to 4.5 percent (still sad) completed.

April Showers but the Wrong Kind

April 9th, 2018 at 08:44 pm

Yes, snow showers here too this morning. I am darn done with snow. Seems like lots is going on here. Despite the raise, my DH is still halfway thinking about looking for a new job. Oddly, he's the only man on his team and many of the others have worked together for over 15 years. It's not the best fit for him although he likes the work. They've lost the other two men they hired too. Our DD is busy busy with another theater production, and I have 31 days left of the semester. My students are flat tired, but for me, by the end of the week, the bulk of my heavy grading will be done.

I have a mini getaway to Madison later this week for a professional development event. I'm going with a colleague and springing for a single room for a little extra luxury.

Speaking of springing--DD and I went shoe shopping on Saturday. We got tremendously good buys with local store coupons and ended up with (eeek) four pairs of shoes. I have a weakness for summer shoes. But four pairs --with the coupon--were cheaper than two pairs without. I know--kind of a lame excuse, but it's good to treat yourself a bit, right?

Already I'm formulating plans for summer break. Lots of work to do around the house. I tried a bunch of new recipes with some success. Somewhere I read about a whole chicken in the crockpot which was no better than meh. The website said it was as good as a rotisserie chicken, but it was far too steamed or boiled tasting for us. We'll use up the bits for tacos, but wouldn't make it again. A very simple bean soup for DH's lunches was much better as was a breakfast casserole using the ends of the Easter ham.

Off to prep for my evening class. Monday is a very long day at our house!

Some Good News

April 6th, 2018 at 03:17 am

My DH got a raise! Not as much as he would've liked, but money is money. I'd like him to stash it all into his retirement plans.

Tomorrow some colleagues and I are meeting to try to tighten up our very lax occasional academic editing business. We're going to print up a few things and work in tandem.

I got paid this week for my evening class and stashed half the cash in my big goal and the other half in the account we borrowed from to re-do the bathroom. Feels pretty good to put some money away.


I also have about $500 I need to collect from some class fill-in and an editing job. We've been fairly frugal lately too, although I foresee some spring shoes in my future.