Damn, life sure has been hectic lately. Ever since Thanksgiving, it seems that everything is just snowballing forward and I’m getting caught up more and more. So let’s see, I wonder if I can even remember half the random stuff that’s been going on lately so I can so much as post about it! We’ll try. Maybe if I organize it by subject it’ll go more smoothly…

First off, our cat is getting pretty spoiled. Over Thanksgiving break, Ian and I got some of Doc’s old things (Doc being Ian’s sister Erin’s late cat) such as an electric drinking fountain and a cat carrier. Then that weekend while Damien was up, we got her a cat tree (one of those carpeted perches cats use to be taller than everything else) to put in front of one of the windows so she can look out. We also picked up a new litter box at some point in there–one of those electronic ones that scoops the poop on its own. To say the least, the cat is absolutely fascinated by it. It sounds like a shredder to me. We also got her this cat treat where you grow a small bowl of grass to leave out for her to nibble on (and to leave dead pieces of grass lying around). We got her a new collar; the blue one was getting pretty frayed and was on the verge of breaking. The new collar is red and I drew Christmas trees and her name on it in green, but once it was tightened up, one of the trees and part of her name got covered up. So, to say the least, Kitty has gotten a lot of new things, and still all she wants to do is sleep and drive me crazy.

So my birthday was this past Saturday. Ian and I went out Friday night together to eat and do some random shopping. Saturday we went to Sears and bought a new washer which was delivered this morning. Our old washer, as many of you may recall, cracked and died, so I’ve been hitting the laundromat to do laundry. As soon as I get home after Knit Wits tonight, I’m going to do laundry all night and love it. I like doing laundry so long as it’s not at a laundromat.

This past Sunday, Ian and I went out with the Lushbaughs and Miller to Cheeseburgers in Paradise (a bizarre restaurant, so say the least) and afterwards we hit Wally World so I could get a full-sized tree. It’s only six feet (they had a twelve-footer there), but that’s three feet more than my other tree. My first Christmas tree was a gift from Grandma Nolan when I was in the third grade, and while I’ll keep it and still love it, I decided a while back that it’s more a tree for an office or kid’s room or bedroom, not really for a living room or study. Besides, as Ian has pointed out on a few occasions, the three-foot tree was really just too busy with all the ornaments that I have for it. So tonight’s other project (in addition to laundry) will be to decorate the new six-foot tree. I already assembled it two days ago just because I happened to be up and needed a break from writing final exams.

Speaking of final exams, that’s what has been occupying my time a lot lately. My 101 classes have been doing in-class presentations which I’ll have to enter into my gradebook soon; my 102 students have been coming to my office to do interview exams which I’ll have to enter into my gradebook soon; I had to turn copies of my 101 and 102 finals in on Monday but the e-mail said Wednesday, December 4 so I was shooting for Wednesday not caring that the date was for Monday; I wrote up study guides for 101 and 102 late last night but couldn’t post them until today because Buster has been a bitch about our network lately; and I still have to write up the final exam for 202 as well as a study guide and that particular class asked for a study session Monday at 1 right after I give a final to one of my 101 classes. I’ve also been getting hounded quite a bit lately about getting grades figured up until now for several of my classes, and while I’m under no obligation to get it done, I at least want to try because that will be one less thing I’ll have to do next week when I’m grading the finals. In addition to all this, there have been several homework assignments turned in this week which I have to grade soon, and half o my class period on Friday will be eaten up for each class because I have to administer questionnaires to each class. Add to that the fact that they’ll be turning in yet another assignment on Friday plus the fact that I am supposed to turn in a whole pile of stuff for my departmental folder so I can be evaluated next week and you can see that I’m just a little pressed for time around the office. I even have a meeting tomorrow morning at eight. Then I’ll be in my office until two with some students coming in around noon and a bunch of crap to clean up/grade around here. Tonight, however, is Knit Wits and relaxation time because otherwise I’ll snap and start killing everything I see. Not that that has happened before.

Oh, and I also have to get Christmas lists out to people. I wonder if that’s too late. Dammit, it’s not like I have a lot of time to think about this stuff. Thoughts like this always occur to me in passing or at some point where there’s no way I can get the information out because I’m in bed, driving or on the toilet or in the shower. Stuff like that. It’s not like I can think of too much I’d want for Christmas anyway. Bookends, probably. I really need some for the office. Um, I really need to get a new French dictionary and a new French-English dictionary, but I’m pretty picky on those. No pocket dictionaries. Those are about as useful as Kleenex full of toe jam. Crochet pattern books are fine, I guess. Um, gift certificates to book places is about the best way to go, honestly. And who am I telling this too? The people who need to know my Christmas list don’t come here as far as I know. Go figure.

Something else just occured to me, but now I can’t remember what it was. See? Brain = goo. I haven’t checked my e-mail in about a month; I haven’t checked any of my webcomics in over a month (going on two now, I believe) and I’ve barely even touched my desktop computer or even my laptop computer other than to write up stuff for class. My life is insane! I can’t wait until winter break because I’d like to just do normal stuff like cook food or clean up my desk or whatever. Oh well. Time for Knit Wits. I almost can’t believe this post took only twenty minutes to write. Crazy. Laters!