More things done

- Got the fieldwork done with my student this morning. (It still hasn't rained here, despite the OH NOES THE ENTIRE WEEKEND IS GOING TO BE A WASHOUT wailing they were doing on the news earlier. We maybe don't need rain, but I personally need for it to cool down. It was in the mid 80s and humid when we were doing the fieldwork).

- I am sore today. Very very sore. I don't know if I pushed too hard doing the mowing and edging last night (I worked faster than normal and the grass was higher than normal and there were parts where my asthma and the humidity made me stop and gasp a lot). Or if it was stress over everything seeming broken.

- Did 40 minutes of piano practice. Have not heard from my teacher but I expect I will; I figure with no new assignment I can slack off a tiny bit this weekend.

- Graded the exams. Well, the ones I have. I had 17 of 22 people present; several others had a field trip, one had a couple other exams that day (and so I told them to come in Monday), and one came to me with a severe case of poison ivy and the only time he could get in to his doctor was during class time, so....he takes it Monday. Not a big deal; I am pretty sure people won't talk (and the performance overall on the exam was....not such that talking to someone would help a lot, I suspect).

I am now working on a stalled project - that "Small Robot" I wrote about, what, a month ago? I had three of the four legs done but that was it so today I'm making the fourth and am going to start the body. (My plan is to give it the "sympathetic" face, because it is the Not Okay Bot for when you are Not Okay, and when I'm Not Okay, mostly what I need is someone to make sympathetic noises at me....)

I also find myself wanting to start ALL THE PROJECTS but I am telling myself (a) I need to finish the last bit on Augusta's sleeve first and (b) I should maybe consider looking at Anaheim again and working more on it.

I am grateful right now for Nat Geo Wild re-running blocks of the veterinary programs. Some of the segments are sad and hard to watch, but there are enough cute-or-funny animal segments, or enough cheering ones where the animal gets better that it makes you happier.

And something I read in this week's The Week that is one of the sadder things I've heard recently: apparently animal behaviorists have found some dogs are "depressed" because of a lack of eye contact - because their owners spend so much time staring at their smartphones and I admit my reaction was  I WILL GO VISIT ALL THE DOGGOS AND GIVE THEM THE EYE CONTACT THEY NEED. (I mean, seriously: if you're not going to give an animal attention, don't get one in the first place). Even though unfamiliar dogs sometimes make me apprehensive (if I don't know how they will react to me), I like friendly ones.

I do still have one thing to do this weekend - I have to make at least a batch of jam bars, or maybe jam bars and brownies (will ask the woman in charge of it at church tomorrow) because we are hosting a concert at church (long story, but: one of the performance spaces on campus is closed down now because of a water leak, and one of the music-department people asked if we would host a few concerts, as we have good acoustics and also several of the "senior recitals" are for students that sing in our choir. We are doing a reception for this one as an outreach thing). I admit yesterday I was like "Uuuuuuugggghhhh, another thing to do" but I can almost certainly get them done after church tomorrow (they are fast) and people tend to appreciate that sort of thing. And I am going to the concert myself.

At least next week I have no exams to write, and only the in-class portion of the biostats one to grade...

And my Gachapon crate (that I thought had got lost in the mail, or misdelivered and the person who got it just kept it) showed up yesterday, so there's also that. (I may later include photos of one or two things you could "rip me off" of - there's a Sumikko Gurashi zippered animal-shaped pouch, but it's that weird tricot material that sets off a couple sensory issues for me (it's scratchy) and I'm not sure I'd use it, and also there's a pineapple-half "charm" to hang on your backpack I doubt I'd use. I suppose the other thing is to save up those unwanted things and when I visit my folks, drop them off at their church for prizes - they do a block party for the local kids every August and they always want small items for prizes for the games)

And in the I Really Shouldn't Be Spending This Money department, I broke down and ordered a Toothless stuffed dragon from Build A Bear after looking at it for literal months and wanting one. I don't have room for more stuffed animals, but I guess I will make room....