Recreation

We've been able to squeeze a little fun into the last two busy weekends.  This past Saturday was date night, and we had tickets for opening season of the symphony.  We were surprised by two things:  It wasn't sold out, and there were more empty seats than there should have been!  and Some of the clothing choices were really inappropriate.  There is usually a vast array of clothing from very casual to very formal.  This year we were appalled to see a few people dressed in roll-out-of-bed-wear.  There was a couple who came at intermission and sat in our row.  He wore dirty gray sweatpants, a ratty t-shirt, and his hair was uncombed.  We were treated to a peep show as he scooted by us to get to his seat, and treated us with 2-3 inches of bare ass, as apparently it was too much work to pull his sweats up to the top of his cheeks.  His girlfriend was dressed on the casual side, but appropriately.  I felt that his entire personal presentation was insulting to those of us who cleaned up and put clothes on to attend!

The previous weekend, we had tickets to attend APT's performance of Twelfth Night in Spring Green.  My friend, Julie, had gotten the tickets (several months ago) for us all to go together as a thanks for M creating her landscape plan.  Unfortunately, M came home from work early on Friday quite sick and vomitting, which is very rare for him.  He took a nap, hoping to feel better in time to attend the show that night, but was still vomitting at our planned departure time.  L and I went with Julie, while poor M stayed home feeling horrible.  The three of us had a great time, and we really got lucky with the weather.  It was pleasant for the time of year, and we were very comfortable through the show.  As always, the bats flying around were my favorite part.  L really liked the way Malvolio was played--the actor went for very broad comedy, almost to the poing of being overdone, but he was funny and was her favorite part of the show.  She has been repeating lines and gestures he used since the show ("By THIS hand...") and still giggles over them.

Next weekend is the big (FREE) science festival in Madison, so we are trying to decide which of the many, many intersting sessions we will go to.  We were looking at the activity list last night, and it will probably take a whole week of negotiations to decide what we want to go to, as we each found different sessions of interest.  It's exciting to have so many choices but a bit overwhelming, too.

We are already starting week four of the semester, and now the programming classes are starting to get more fun.  Three of the four classes I teach are programming classes, and I have one female in one of those classes.  The intro to computer science class is required for business majors, so that has a mix of males and females.  Since that's only one day a week, I spend most of my time with young males.  Perhaps that's why I still have the humor of a 12 year-old boy. :) 

L is still adjusting to the more demanding workload of her middle-school years.  This year, I give her a weekly schedule (though she has a spreadsheet that shows each week for the entire school year) of what needs to be done in the upcoming week, and she is responsible for planning out her daily schedule and getting her work done by the end of the week.

We have entered the logic & reasoning phase, which is more fun for both of us, and more work for her.  She can't simply read and regurgitate the answers--she has to think everything through and apply the knowledge, and that involves a lot more effort on her part.  We had a long talk this weekend about the negative impacts of intellectual laziness, and I'm sure we will have a few more kinks along the way before she adjusts to the new paradigm. She's a very logical girl, so she will get it all worked out eventually.

This is her latest painting on canvas.  She said she's done so much digital art lately, she's lost a little skill at (?) non-digital art.  She wasn't happy with this painting, but I really enjoy looking at it on my bedroom wall each day.

Rats

I made it through the first week of the semester!  Now that all the boring talk of syllabi and administrative 'housekeeping' stuff, we can get into the fun stuff and start playing with programming.  I'm teaching three different languages this semester, two of which use the same IDE, so the big challenge will be keeping my brain using the right syntax in the right class.

We also made it through the first week of L's 7th grade year of homeschool.  Her workload is significantly more challenging this year, so it will take some planning and effort from both of us to keep on track.

 The big first week stress has also been complicated by a few unforeseen bumps--of course, because everything has to happen at the worst possible time.  L's laptop's harddrive died.  She uses that for homeschooling and has some software installed only on that machine, so I have to find time to get a new hard drive, try to transfer data from her old drive (if possible), and reinstall the necessary software.  Our Subaru was rear ended, so that's been in the shop getting repaired (since last week).   And, L adopted four more rats (all girls), who came home with us on Thursday.  We're hoping for a much smoother week this week!

We have a stray kitty staying in our first-floor bathroom recovering from her spay (done yesterday).  I was afraid she was pregnant, so I'm thrilled to have gotten her back last night spayed, healthy, and ear tipped.  She was incredibly scrawny and thin, so we're working on getting some weight on her.  The spay should help with that.

My fitness effort has taken an interesting turn.  I am trying to maintain my current weight but it may take some time for me to get the hang of it.  I have dropped a total of 51 pounds now, with the last several pounds' loss being accidental.  I am trying to find that magical balance that will allow me to maintain the weight I want to be at and still enjoy my full daily workouts (6 days a week).  It's so ironic that it's so hard to lose weight when you most need to but easy to lose it once you don't need to.  I'm still finding myself routinely shocked that I have become a person who LOVES to work out every day.  The harder the workout, the more of a sweat-soaked puddle it leaves me, the more I love it. I never in a million years would have anticipated becoming that type of person at this stage of my life.  I am feeling very healthy and strong and am really enjoying it.

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Update 9/17:  I started working on this post quite a while ago, but never quite got enough time to finish it.  I'm going to slap a few pictures of the ratty girls on and wrap it up finally.  The girls don't hold still for long, so it's been tough trying to get a good picture.  L built them a 3D-maze within a big cardboard box.  She changes and adds things to it every few days, and they enjoy running around and playing in and on it.  She named them Flower, Trixie, Frances, and Tessa.  They are getting along with the three boys, and they enjoy shared playtime when they're out together.  Their cage is huge and is identical to the boys' cage.

Now that I'm getting my routine down and feeling more comfortable with this semester's schedule, I should be able to blog a bit more regularly.