I procrastinated and now I need to respond to two things my tenure committee recommended last year by, like, 15 minutes ago. (The rest of my tenure portfolio is complete; this is a tiny bit at the end that is important, but unlikely to be missed tonight). One was about the instructional assistant.

This is why we're still together. He was fixing to cut fruit for his lunches this week. I came back into the living room and this is happening. On the right, apples. On the left, knife sharpening jig. Lower left, digital magnifier. Of course we nerd out over our tools!

Something I love about living in this era: truck driver Indian food along every major transport route in California and Nevada. Ate at a restaurant in a Barstow gas station along the 15 recently. The food was quite good, and the menu is downright florid.

I remind myself that I'm frustrated with the new students in the fall, and by spring I love them. I remind myself VERY VERY LOUDLY when the 15th of 34 gets the same fecking thing wrong in the exact same way. WHY DO I GIVE YOU LECTURE NOTES?

If only you could have heard the snorting and snuffling the accompanied this change in position.

Aaaand 2 hours later …

She totally fitz.

Can you feel the snores?

I am trying to decide how annoyed to be (I'm annoyed already, of course, but that was on my time). The students have to turn in a lab journal assignment after most labs.

Tom Brady needs to look up Ochocinco's Botox person, because Chad looks beautiful and Tom is smack into Uncanny Valley territory.

Sigh. New plagiarism record: First assignment of the semester. Good news? I guess they can't do it earlier than the first assignment.

I am mildly embarrassed that it took me so long to buy a 21st century hair dryer. I avoided styling my hair because it took for-fucking-ever and I mostly don't care much. Old one tried to catch fire, so I replaced it. Y'all, the new one takes 10 minutes to fully dry my hair and keep the curls.

We have full-on derp in effect here today. This morning, the doggo didn't want to get out of the car because she thought there might be snacks under the seat. I waited about 3 minutes for her to decide she had already eaten the snacks.

My beautiful, classy pibble.

Because 81F wasn’t warm enough.

Gotta love Excel. The headers on these sheets (all in the same workbook) were copy-pasted from the one at the bottom. Same clipboard, same file, just switch sheet and use Page Setup to modify headers.

I am cautiously optimistic that this classroom setup will foster more collaboration among students. Yes, I'm giving them structured activities, but I already do that and it doesn't work well because there's no place for them to sit facing each other. 1/3

File under "Things you rarely see in Los Angeles." (This isn't LA; I'm in Louisville KY for a conference.)

I was watching a replay of some veterinary continuing education on blood transfusion. Since I teach this, I was curious about how they'd present it -- it's a complex topic, and veterinary nursing students often struggle.

It's a little rough here emotionally, but here's some bagel sploot to brighten your day.

Student sometimes give us gifts at the end of the year. This one was clearly observing closely, as the gift bag matches the journal I carry with me everywhere. The gift inside was very sweet, too.

I present to you what I estimate to be 1.297 m^2 of brindled glory. (Random dogs seen on my drive home last night.)

Oh. I forgot to update on the critter name changes. Box turtle is now Piglet in the school computer system so she can still be used for exotics radiography labs. Her official name is "Burn This Motherfucker to the Ground," but she will go by Piglet in official settings.

Tiny baby avocado. Apparently they bruise even when they're a centimeter long.

The mockingbirds are in rare form this morning. They nest in the eaves of the garage just behind the fence, and mercilessly torment anyone who comes near. I watched one toss a squirrel off that wire (he was OK). The crows just mosey on along instead of fighting. Even the ravens don't argue.

It's passive-aggressive to respond to the student's message with, "Hi <student>, I'm sorry to hear you got into another car accident."

I fervently hope that you never have to revoke your parent's driving privileges.

Um. I went into my photos to find something and Google presented this as the Best of January. It is the view from my front porch of the start of the Eaton Fire. Fuck you, Google. Fuck you.

So I'm sitting here watching sportsball and I hear a strange noise from my left (over the snoring of the dog). Mr. Cramp has apparently "discovered" the haunted house. From 2023. Which was in its final resting place before trash day. But I guess it lives there now?

I was assigned an administrative task by my department chair. Fair. I started working on it today. I have to evaluate performance over the past 8 terms, compare to benchmarks, and outline the plan for the next 8 terms. Cool.

It's interesting to notice how weird it feels to have people ask, "How are you?" and actually want to know how you are. Happened everywhere I went, and when I was leaving the grocery store, the person in the car next to me rolled down their window to explicitly ask if I was doing OK.

Our critters were housed at work while the power was out. My handwriting sucks, so my coworkers thought the cat's name was Mr. Cramp. And now it is, because that guy is a horrible, horrible predator.

I was sleepy and not really thinking about it when I went out to fetch coffee this morning (motel coffeemaker borked). It seemed darker out than usual.

This was included in a Japanese stationery box. I want it to be jackassery, but it's probably just a packing error.

Mr. V says that this is how it's supposed to work.

Mr. V says, "No football, only pets."

"... the vein will be felt to get a visual on it" sums up everything that is wrong with our educational system.

While correct, answering the question, "What goes into regular trash?" with "Testicles, gloves, bandages," evokes some striking imagery. (Veterinary setting; body parts are allowed to go into regular trash, though many clinics incinerate with cadavers or biohazard).

I go to grade my intro class, where they have to upload a certificate from an external source. Log in, 2nd item is Certificates. 3/30: screen shot of certificate 2/30: screen shot of page with the Certificate link on it 4/30: nothing because "couldn't find"

Gotta love state institutions. They plan to close all campus buildings from 12/23-1/1 and people with vacation days must take them. Must fill out paperwork if not working. Must fill out paperwork if reporting to work because no vacation remaining. None of which applies to me because faculty.

Heh. I'm reviewing questions for the online final that opens tonight, and in my item bank I have several titled "Doors and corners."

Iteration 1 pictured. Iteration 2 was tastier, with a thicker pecan pie base and twice as much pecan caramel on top of the pumpkin cheesecake.