Thursday evening things

 * longest day of the conference today. Morning talks, afternoon sessions

I gave my talk. It wasn't great, I was nervous and rushing because I know I wouldn't make time, and I felt bad about it because it felt kind of thin on results compared to the other talks (and also, it was an ecology talk at what was fundamentally a taxonomy conference). But no one said anything critical to me about it and one person at a break asked me about getting students involved (and continuing) with research, so maybe it was okay after all

 At any rate, even if it wasn't very good, it's done, and I can put it on my post tenure review now.

* I'm glad to be home though. Today was tiring; it's just hot out now, and it was a lot of sitting around and a lot of "peopling" with people I didn't know well. 

*Haven't been knitting; getting home late and tired (The site of the meeting is an hour each way, and I was driving a colleague, so I had the extra stress of feeling responsible for another person) I was thinking I might wind off a yarn and start a pair of "meh I don't want to think" simple socks but it was after 8 when I got in the door so not today I guess

* We got fed. Lunch was pretty okay, I had a big salad with cheese and a half hard boiled eggs and "cheesesteak fries" (kind of like disco fries or poutine) and a couple pieces of fruit. Dinner was (very salty, at least to my taste) chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes (also salty but apparently real potatoes). Dessert with dinner was banana pudding (which I can't eat, bananas upset my stomach because of my ragweed allergy). I did stop and get a tiny caramel sundae on the way home to make up for that....

* I'm still reading on "Far from the Madding Crowd." It took me a minute to slip back into the whole "slow reading" thing (longer, more complex sentences, lots of description) but now I remember how much I enjoy this sort of writing. 
 

I don't know that I have any other Thomas Hardy novels on the shelf but maybe I eventually read some others. (I might have a paperback of Tess of the D'Ubervilles somewhere). And yes, the comparison of his writing with Eliot's seems apt; and I enjoyed her writing....