Okay, so next week I have to finalize the 'official' readings list and course outline for my seminar. I have to re-read and fully commentize a dissertation to be defended on Thursday. I have to arrange for several upcoming events to be announced to the university.
These events include: 1) the 'grand opening' of the lab on 5 October (please &deity; we have furniture by then); 2) the mandatory meeting I've called for the grad students on the 14th of September; 3) the department open house scheded for the week after that. Not on the list of things that need to be announced to the general public is the trip I'm planning back to Seattle, for my parent's 65th wedding anniversary. That's sixty-fifth, just in case you think its a typo.
But I need to figure out how to get all of Xmas 2004 and 2005 (and if I have time 2006) into a suitcase that can fly. Cuz this is my big opportunity to get that monkey off my back.
Also, in a few days, it will be one month since my doctor told me that my dead toe should be better 'in about a month'. My left little toe is numb. Not the whole toe, just the 'pad' and the lateral side of the last segment (phalanx? that's the bone). The very tip used to also be numb, but it came back a couple weeks ago, so I expect the rest to come back eventually, but in the meantime I have no sensation (well, no touch or temperature--I haven't figured out pain or kinaesthetics, not wanting to poke at it too much) in my little toe. It's weird. I'm not looking forward to trying to start yoga again without sensation in my little toe.
Sometimes I get deep pain in that toe, which is either 'phantom limb syndrome', real pain coming from somewhere, or my imagination. I'm actually hoping for real pain, cuz it means something is happening down there.
BTW, in case anyone cares, blood supply looks good, motor control (to the degree that I have any in my little toes) seems okay, doesn't seem to be infected or swollen or atrophying or anything like that. As I said to my doctor when she assured me everything was going to be okay, "Won't you feel silly when it turns black and falls off." Which, for the record, it doesn't look like it's going to, but there's always that little voice in the back of my mind.... Luckily, the I have a pill for that voice, which keeps it mostly in check.
This has turned into a big rant about my dead toe, when it started out as an attempt at a to do list while I have the time and energy to think about it. Maybe it's time to switch the meds up again....
Sunday, 26 August 2007
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
The joy of poking
No, not that. Get yer head out of the gutter.
I've joined Facebook. I have a couple of friends who spend a lot of time on facebook, and I was resisting. Except there's a Winnipeg Fringe Volunteer Collective, run by FringeBuddy Danielle Carriere (for those of you who aren't sure who Danielle is, "her royal highness, venue 6"), that I wanted in on. So I hopped on yet another internet bandwagon.
I haven't worked out all the ins and outs, but I've discovered "poking". You can "poke" your friends on Facebook. You press a button that says "Poke <friend>", you get a little notice confirming that you want to "poke" them, and then they get a notice that they've been "poked". They can then either ignore it, reject it, or "poke back".
My friend James and I have a kind of "poke war" going on. But since it doesn't involve on-screen pop-ups, noises, or anything else, it's a lot less annoying than in the old days at IBM, when I used to msg him incessantly.
Weirdly, we're still friends.
I've joined Facebook. I have a couple of friends who spend a lot of time on facebook, and I was resisting. Except there's a Winnipeg Fringe Volunteer Collective, run by FringeBuddy Danielle Carriere (for those of you who aren't sure who Danielle is, "her royal highness, venue 6"), that I wanted in on. So I hopped on yet another internet bandwagon.
I haven't worked out all the ins and outs, but I've discovered "poking". You can "poke" your friends on Facebook. You press a button that says "Poke <friend>", you get a little notice confirming that you want to "poke" them, and then they get a notice that they've been "poked". They can then either ignore it, reject it, or "poke back".
My friend James and I have a kind of "poke war" going on. But since it doesn't involve on-screen pop-ups, noises, or anything else, it's a lot less annoying than in the old days at IBM, when I used to msg him incessantly.
Weirdly, we're still friends.
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
My annual (sort of) pilgrimmage to the Old Country ...
... or "I <heart> Ikea, but I <heart heart heart> Trader Joe's"
So I'm back. I took the weekend off and drove down to Minneapolis. Picked a bad weekend for that, owing to the bridge collapse on Wednesday. <aside>I think it's cute that they call it the "35 double-u" and not the "35 west".</aside> More sober observations aside, the major effect on me was that all the NPR news and shows that I was waiting to hear got pre-empted by news conferences. But anyway...
I went to Ikea and spent $111 US in about an hour. Sauce pans, pasta bowls, side bowls, a match to my bedside lamp, and several sets of cutting mats. I also spent about an hour in Albertville (outlet mall) and bought a beautiful hollow-ground santoku knife that I can't wait to rip into some real food with.
I hit Trader Joe's, the SoCal chain that all of us up here who lived in SoCal miss, and are ardently jealous of our friends who live in shopping distance of one of (?), on the way back. In Maple Grove, which is the burb of the Twin Cities where the I-94 and the I-494 cross west of Minneapolis. I'm very mad at my Minneapolis friends who knew all this time that Trader Joe's was in the Twin Cities and didn't tell me. Which is one of the reasons why I didn't call any of them while I was there. That and I figured getting around would be a hassle, what with the bridge collapse and ensuing, and I didn't have any numbers, having migrated recently to a new Contacts program and, well, not having any of them.
In Grand Forks on the way back, I nearly maxed out my customs exemption (thankfully now up to $400) on Jiffy cornbread mix, Mentadent toothpaste, and assorted other necessities to get me through till next summer.
So now I'm all relaxed and refreshed and ready to get back to work.
So I'm back. I took the weekend off and drove down to Minneapolis. Picked a bad weekend for that, owing to the bridge collapse on Wednesday. <aside>I think it's cute that they call it the "35 double-u" and not the "35 west".</aside> More sober observations aside, the major effect on me was that all the NPR news and shows that I was waiting to hear got pre-empted by news conferences. But anyway...
I went to Ikea and spent $111 US in about an hour. Sauce pans, pasta bowls, side bowls, a match to my bedside lamp, and several sets of cutting mats. I also spent about an hour in Albertville (outlet mall) and bought a beautiful hollow-ground santoku knife that I can't wait to rip into some real food with.
I hit Trader Joe's, the SoCal chain that all of us up here who lived in SoCal miss, and are ardently jealous of our friends who live in shopping distance of one of (?), on the way back. In Maple Grove, which is the burb of the Twin Cities where the I-94 and the I-494 cross west of Minneapolis. I'm very mad at my Minneapolis friends who knew all this time that Trader Joe's was in the Twin Cities and didn't tell me. Which is one of the reasons why I didn't call any of them while I was there. That and I figured getting around would be a hassle, what with the bridge collapse and ensuing, and I didn't have any numbers, having migrated recently to a new Contacts program and, well, not having any of them.
In Grand Forks on the way back, I nearly maxed out my customs exemption (thankfully now up to $400) on Jiffy cornbread mix, Mentadent toothpaste, and assorted other necessities to get me through till next summer.
So now I'm all relaxed and refreshed and ready to get back to work.
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