Thursday, June 16
A couple of things today. One, it's hot. Two, the air quality is bad because of wildfires in Canada? I think. It smells like rubber and there's a haze that I last saw at Bretz, a gay bar in Toledo I was a regular at in 2001 that had a lingering cigarette funk years after smoking indoors had been banned. Also, I had a dentist appointment? What a day.
A couple of things today. One, it's hot. Two, the air quality is bad because of wildfires in Canada? I think. It smells like rubber and there's a haze that I last saw at Bretz, a gay bar in Toledo I was a regular at in 2001 that had a lingering cigarette funk years after smoking indoors had been banned. Also, I had a dentist appointment? What a day.
Friday, July 17
I borderline forced my poor husband to go to the community center for a fundraiser after dinner. He was not feeling great and Friday nights are not ideal for either of us since we're usually fried after a work week. Regardless, we went. There was a band playing Bill Monroe music, a silent auction, and plenty of lovely people to chat with.
Saturday, July 18
There was an Adult Book Fair in my town today. It was amazing. Anne came and we made bookmarks, wandered around some book-themed vendors, and finished with Book Trivia. I don't want to brag, but we did come in first at book trivia. FIRST PLACE!! I knew Redwall!
Sunday, July 19
Back at the book fair again today. I am obsessed and so excited to see so many people in our town. Don't forget to sign up for my book fair giveaway if you want some adorable bookish items. The air quality was back to being gross, so we tried to limit our time outdoors. But not so limited that I didn't get photos of the sign advertising tattoos at the community center, which seems like the lady who originally imagined uses for this space would never have imaged. Sorry, not sorry, Joan, you fabulous lady.
My friend Gina and I chatted with all the vendors and they seemed so happy with the turnout. Yay! We were also used in some social media promo, so if you start to see Gina and I become famous, you'll know how it started.
My friend Gina and I chatted with all the vendors and they seemed so happy with the turnout. Yay! We were also used in some social media promo, so if you start to see Gina and I become famous, you'll know how it started.
Monday, July 20
I had to come down off my book fair high and go to work. The chair of the math department had a question about the software I'm ostensibly an expert on, so I wandered down to her office. She had a collection of math-themed stickers and I have to let you know, I was unable to prevent myself from taking a bunch. All my math friends are getting stickers!
Tuesday, July 21
Next month, we're doing a big training at work. Our office is charged with doing a big training for all faculty advisors. We did it last year (I mentioned it in 4a of this post) and it was quite successful. It was so successful, in fact, that someone in leadership heard how amazing it was and mandated it be required for ALL the colleges, not just our college. *sigh* Frankly, it's ruining the vibe to have these other people there (they're lovely people, I promise, but they have different advising models and it's hard to account for all of that in our material).
Anyway. One of the things that people liked about our training last year was that we did a lot of hands-on activities. So we have to continue that because did you know faculty members make terrible students? Of course you knew that.
My co-worker LB won an award at an advising conference for work she presented on play in training. She created a dice game to create advising scenarios that leads to excellent conversations. So we're doing a dice game is what I'm saying.
I found these Yahtzee yard dice for a STEAL at a local thrift shop for $10.55.
I told LB about them and then she went and bought a bucket of them, too.
That's twelve tables done. And I guess we can put regular-sized dice on the rest of the tables.
Wednesday, July 22
It was SO NICE today. Highs in the 70s with a breeze. I had to wear a sweatshirt when I walked the dog this morning. The air quality is back to normal, so we even slept with the windows open. But let's back up to the dog walk.
Look how beautiful it was!!
How was Hannah handling it, you ask?
THIS IS HOW SHE WAS THE ENTIRE WALK. Do you notice the tucked tail? What is she afraid of? It's not dark. No one was setting off fireworks? We literally didn't see another person or dog in the park. What did we see? Sandhill cranes, geese, ducks, squirrels, and a very foolhardy tiny rabbit. She pulled and yanked and started just sitting (her version of a no, thank you).
I ended up shortening the leash so she had to walk right by my side (loose leash? that's for other dogs, I guess) and I would not let her pull. I hated to do it, but I was scared I was going to hurt her or she was going to hurt me.
I ended up shortening the leash so she had to walk right by my side (loose leash? that's for other dogs, I guess) and I would not let her pull. I hated to do it, but I was scared I was going to hurt her or she was going to hurt me.
Anyone else want to come and deal with the mental case that is my dog?
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Is the air clear where you are? Anyone want to adopt a slightly used neurotic dog? Come to my town for our next book fair?
"Did you know faculty members make terrible students?"
ReplyDeleteYes, I was taking a data base workshop with some other teachers. The instructor had to firmly tell us to stop talking. Switch the roles, and we are all the same.
I think you meant July in the title.
Thank you for pointing out the typo. I then realized I had A NUMBER of typos, which is over the top, even for me. What was I thinking when I hit publish? I fixed all that I saw, which hopefully makes for a more readable post.
DeleteOMGGGGGG I LOVE THOSE MATH STICKERS!!!!! The math nerd in me has hearts in her eyes. ("in me" - that IS me!)
ReplyDeleteYesterday morning I was having my coffee and Rex went outside (remember, we have no fences around here in the sticks). I heard a shuffle shuffle shuffle then a lot of barking. I go outside and there goes Rex, chasing a coyote up the hill. Probably the coyote went into our neighbour's yard, hopefully it didn't eat their dog (I'm sure it didn't, it was like 5 in the morning, there's no way the dog was outside). Anyhoo, I had a hell of a time getting Rex back into the house, he was so amped up, he kept running up and down the hill by the foliage that the coyote disappeared to. That's my dog story of the day.
Tell your friend Gina I love her skirt!!!
Duly noted that you like the math stickers. :)
DeleteREX!! DON'T MESS WITH COYOTES!! Poor baby, he doesn't understand that he's not the alpha in this situation!
I'll pass it along to Gina!
Goodness gracious, Nicole. How scary that must have been! We have urban foxes and WM loses his mind when he sees/smells them, but they just slink away and disappear. A coyote wouldn’t.
DeleteNo no, it's fine, Rex is twice the size of the coyotes and they are scared of him - if he was smaller, I'd be worried!
DeleteAnything that makes math less horrible is a great idea. I'm sure you can guess which sticker is my favourite.
ReplyDeletePoor Hannah! Who knows with dogs--she could have picked up the scent of something she simply didn't care for. I'm no longer allowed to take Zydrunas (the granddog) out after he spotted the wooden silhouette of a dog (used for goose repellant) and literally dragged me face down for about 50 yards. In his defense, he did come back to check on me, looking very concerned.
We had the same wildfire smoke and it smelled like an electrical fire for a whole day. Yesterday was actually chilly; we were at 64 most of the day, and I was loving it. LEGGINGS, BABY!
Your book fair still has me in thrall. What an awesome event.
Yes, I'm sure there's probably a smell or something I don't get that she does. But! She still can't behave badly on the leash, even when she's scared. It's hard and I understand that she wants to run home, but we could both get hurt. *sigh* I hate being the bad guy who has to turn everything into a training exercise.
DeleteYes, it was actually kind of chilly last night. We had the windows open and I had to cuddle with my heat source (Dr. BB) in the middle of the night!
I'm obsessed with the book fair. I hope they do it again next year so I can properly prepare. I think I'll need to start training for it.
How nice that you met up with Anne!! And that there was a bluegrass band at the community event! We have decent air here but there's been a fire in Killarney national park and it's very dry everywhere. I love this weather but we really would need some rain right now.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have some nice walking areas there!
We can use some rain, too. The grass and greenery is super crunchy and brown.
DeleteI live in a beautiful area and try to get out and take advantage of it when I can.
Those math stickers!! I love them! And I am chuffed to read that the chair of the math department is a woman. Hurrah! I was a math major and my tongue-in-cheek joke about the male/female ratio was that "the odds are good but the goods are odd." But another good friend of mine was also a math major. We were rarities in a lot of the classes, and there were very very few female professors.
ReplyDeleteThe drop in temps/humidity + clean air has been a really nice reprieve. It was great to open our windows for the last few days and not sweat so much. I also had to put a sweatshirt on last night! It will be back into the upper 90s by the weekend, though. But we'll go to the pool on Saturday and then on Sunday we are going a small 2-family pool party at my coworker's house.
Yes for the math stickers!! Oh, interesting. The chair in our math department has always been a woman since I've worked here. Even the political science department here is dominated by women. It's a different world in higher education today.
DeleteI'm supposed to do a big family thing that is very waterpark-based and I hope some warm weather moves in because otherwise it's going to be too cold for me to participate. I need it to be at least 80 (preferably 85) for me to get in the water or I turn blue.
Poor Hannah, I always feel so bad when I see doggy tails curled under like that. What is distressing her so? It might be something she smells. BTW, your book fair was amazing, I was very impressed and jealous by all the descriptions!
ReplyDeletePoor Hannah indeed. It was not a fun walk for her.
DeleteThe book fair was so great. I am going to coast on its amazingness for quite some time, I think.
An adult book fair?! Sounds so fun!
ReplyDeleteWe had horrible air quality on the 16th-18th, with the horrible plastic smell in the air. I was even coughing indoors. Then on Sunday it *looked* and *smelled* better, but the AQI was still at a dangerous level. Thankfully it passed, and for the past few days we've had that same gorgeous weather you described.
Bravo on leading a successful training. A well-done training is very worthwhile. My younger daughter just became a faculty member for the first time -- she will be teaching anatomy at a community college. She might become a terrible student but she sure does love teaching.
The faculty are just as bad as the students - they're on their phones, sending emails, and doing anything except paying attention. It's very hard to do a training with them! Basically, we teach them something and then make them do an active learning exercise. It's exhausting.
DeleteOh goodness, that horrible air quality is SO frustrating. I mean, it stinks, it’s dangerous, you know that bad things are happening somewhere, it all sucks.
ReplyDeleteI want to take Hannah and take her for a walk every day. She would hate it here. 1. She would get one walk a day. 2. She would have to stay close on a short leash. 3. Our neighbors walk past our window and it’s a townhome complex to it’s VERY close, which I assume she would hate (Mulder hated that). But I would love to dog-sit that sweet girl.
Ha. Hannah would love one walk a day. She's so lazy. But I would not like that at all!
DeleteHannah's very sniffy on a walk. She's okay with a short leash as long as the person walking her is patient and allows her to sniff everything she wants to for as long as she wants to. It turns out that I am that person. My husband? He is NOT.
Ahhhhh the Cowculator sticker is the best!!! I'm impressed that your dentist has purple cleaning tools! I'm all for anything that brightens up that experience. What a beautiful place for a walk. Interesting about Hannah's behavior. I wonder what was going on in her doggie brain.
ReplyDeleteIf I knew what was going on in the dog's brain, I feel like I could be a much happier person!
DeleteI don't think Hannah would enjoy being adopted into my family with our three rambunctious, unpredictable children.
ReplyDeleteBut at least you get to go on some very gorgeous walks because of her!
Well, at least I think they're gorgeous walks, even if she thinks I'm torturing her!
DeleteAwww, the tucked tail! This is Lucy's MO whenever we take her places! She is such a spitfire at home, but once she's out in the real world, she turns into a scared widdle baby. We're trying to socialize her more, but it definitely seems like she hates being around anyone other than her family lol.
ReplyDeleteI am super impressed you went out on a Friday night even knowing you'd be spending all weekend at the book fair! That would exhaust me so much.
Yeah, we've kind of accepted that Hannah's pack is small and that's how it's going to be. But I refuse to let her geographically isolate herself to a block around her house! Dogs, man. You'll never know just how jealous I am when I see a happy go lucky dog just wandering around.
DeleteOkay, in my defense I had no idea that book fair was going to be this amazing. Last year it was ten booths at a coffee shop. I truly thought it would be half an hour on Saturday morning and trivia that afternoon. If I had known it was going to be an all weekend extravaganza, I might have relaxed a bit more on Friday night. Oh, well. It was delightful.
I'll come to your town for the next book fair, what the heck! (Really not sure I'd have contributed much to the book trivia though...avid reader that I am notwithstanding, I don't know that I'd be quite as impressive when quizzed, but maybe I underestimate myself.)
ReplyDeleteYou really should block it off on your calendar next year. It was great.
DeleteI intend to do that, just as I did with the Cow Parade this year!
Delete