Home for the Holidays

I finished grading and got all of my grades entered the afternoon of the 24^th.   I spent several days in my room doing nothing but grading.  It was not pleasant. It is always a good feeling to be (almost) done with a semester; after grades are entered, there is usually a handful of student emails with questions about their grades or projects.  That phase is almost wrapped up.  Next week I will start prepping for the spring semester, which starts right after MLK day. 

As always, I miss my students when the semester ends.  I get used to seeing them, talking with them.  I spend most of my work time with them, rather than colleagues, so I always feel the loss when they're gone.  It's so nice to hear from them over break via email and FB.  I do look forward to the spring semester (already) and getting back to the students.  

This was one of the least stressful holidays I’ve had.  The non-consumerist Xmas is really the way to go.  We were all in agreement and will definitely continue it in the future.  All the time and energy normally spent on shopping and stressing out over what to get for people who have too much already, wrapping, opening, cleaning up after opening, finding places for the gifts we didn’t need, etc., was all freed up for accomplishing tasks or visiting with friends/family.

We knew we were getting paintings from L, but were all eager to see what she had chosen for each of our pictures.  She always puts a lot of thought into what animal/creature she will paint for each person.  I hope she got photos of Dej & Russ's, because mine didn't turn out.  I will either get them from her and post them later, or I'll have to have D & R take photos for me--either way, those will be coming in the near future.

Our traditional pre-family get-together with Denny & Susan was very enjoyable, and I was much less frazzled and tired this year and able to enjoy visiting with them.  I added two new drinks to the options this year, inspired by the delicious peach mimosa I had at the comedy club last month.  Peach and pear mimosas were both available, and the pear mimosa was a big hit.  We were so anxious to try the pear, we never made it to the peach.  Maybe we’ll get to it on New Year’s.  (Yes, that is a big-ass Bible he's reading from.)

Sophie had her first surgery on Friday.  They removed all but ten of her teeth.  They were in very bad shape, and most of the teeth removed had also abscessed, and some of the abscesses were so deep they had gone into her nasal passages and sinuses.  They flushed a lot of grossness out, and that has helped her labored breathing immensely.  She will probably always retain her little pig-snort noise, because her left nasal passage is essentially closed, it’s so small, leaving her with one functional nostril.  That’s not something they can’t fix, though.  She has lots of stitches in her mouth from the removals, but it’s still clear that she is feeling much better already.

I got to babysit for her yesterday while the kids attended a funeral out of town.  She had good pain meds and seemed to feel just fine.  She played, hung out with the other dogs, and ate her soft food very well.  She had a good day, and it was fun to have some extra time with her.

Daisy is improving with her.  She didn’t try to hump her or “T” her but was still a little vigorous and irritating with her butt sniffing. It’s always something with Daisy.  She’s such a strange little being.