They grow up so fast!

I started the week off with the best of intentions, and started working on a blog post on Monday morning.  I got pulled away from it and never managed to return.  The students are heading into panic season, with final projects due.  Despite my many warnings that programming projects cannot be started at the last minute like their other homework assignments, many of them waited until just a few short days before the project was due to start it.  I am getting urgent, panicky emails, phone calls, FB messages, office hours visits, non-office hours visits--they track me down.  It's frustrating to be so swamped with work, because they chose to ignore my warnings.  UGH!  Yet even though it was their own choice to put this off, I don't have the heart to say I won't help them or look at their code.  As long as they're willing to learn something, I will find time to facilitate it.  I will be a little irritated about it deep inside, though.

As rough as this semester has been, I am very happy that I've returned to teaching full-time.  I love everything about teaching except grading.   I also hate meetings, but they seem to be inescapable.  I am excited to see their final projects--especially my programmers and web developers!  I enjoy looking at their work but not giving them a grade.  It feels much more judgmental and authoritarian than I am comfortable with. Until colleges offer a grade-free degree option, I will have to bear with this one unpleasant aspect.

The only other unpleasant side effect of teaching full time again is that it has apparently brought back my laryngitis problems.  I am currently unable to speak above a whisper.  I squeaked through last night's class (literally!) and am already frustrated and crabby from being voiceless.  I got laryngitis once or twice per semester by the end of my previous full-time teaching stint, and then only had it once in the six years that I was only teaching one class per semester.  I will have to go back to looking for ways to prevent this and make sure I always have a "Plan B" for class in case my voice decides not to show up.

Poppy is so grown up (she is in the background of this picture)!  She is as big as her parents--maybe slightly bigger than her mommy (in the foreground of this picture)--except her tail feathers are still shorter.  She can fly fairly well already.  She still can't control the height very well and usually rises up to the ceiling.  She is able to steer and control where she goes, just not how high she goes.  She is doing well though and will have it down in no time.

She is starting to eat some things on her own (especially greens and apples) but still follows her parents around whining for food nearly all the time.  They still feed her, which is quite comical now, as she is so big.  She loves to come out and sit with me while I work for a few hours a day.  She intermittently chews/explores with her beak, naps, and snuggles.

Tica is enamored with Poppy.  They are never unsupervised, but under full adult supervision, Tica likes to headbutt Poppy, and Poppy likes to preen her ears and head.  They are just adorable!