Why is "armoire" not in Blogger's spellcheck?

Charlie's motto:  "Play hard; sleep harder."

I got all of my DE lectures recorded and published last week.  The lectures are done, so now all that's left is the student interaction/support (yay!) and grading (ugh!).  

Something happened with my course website request at central (Madison), so the work I normally get done the first week in January couldn't be done until they got my courses up at the end of last week. It was an extremely distressing experience, because I always have all of my prep work done and the courses loaded the first week but was unable to do so. I really need that 2-3 week break between getting everything loaded and returning to classes. It allows me to catch up on life and the many projects/tasks that fall by the wayside during the busy semester. It also allows this extreme introvert to recharge and prepare for another semester full of intense human contact. I'm starting this semester off at a bit of a deficit, but it's a new semester with new faces (and friendly familiar faces), and the adrenaline will keep me going.

I made it through my first day (today), but this is my easy day (only a Java class).  Tuesday & Thursday are my brutally long days (3 classes plus office hours), so tomorrow will be much more stressful than today.

This weekend, I tried to stock up on prepping my supplies, so I don't have to worry about running out of staples.  By the end of yesterday I:

• made a big batch of post-workout smoothies for the week
• pressure-cooked and froze the equivalent of 5 cans of chickpeas, 4 cans of black beans, 4 cans of kidney beans, and 8 cups of quinoa
• peeled and cleaned 2 heads of garlic (I use so much that I always keep a container full of "ready-to-go" cloves.)
• made a spicy peanut soup mix that we got as an Xmas gift from my brother-in-law & his wife; It was very rich, and I wanted it to go further, so I fried up some small tofu triangles to throw in; Glad I did, as the tofu's texture really added to the soup.
• made Tortilla Soup (from my Thug Kitchen cookbook); We won't eat it until Tuesday, but I sampled it, and it's divine!
• made spicy chickpea wraps (actually, I made the spicy chickpeas and will assemble the wraps when I serve the meal)
• made dressing for the spicy chickpea wraps
• made seasoned, baked tofu chips to go with spicy chickpea wraps (We don't normally have tofu very often, and only organic of course. I pressed two blocks of tofu, not knowing how much I would need for the soup. I only needed one block for the soup, so I used the other for this)
• made (raw) caramel apple cobbler (last night's dessert)

I also got everyone up to date with their toenail and beak trimming. As my hand function and vision continue to degrade, this gets more and more difficult for me. I've been doing this for over 30 years, but now I put it off, because it stresses me to have to face how much functionality I'm losing. Anyway, I've been having Luce come in and watch as I do these tasks. I need the second set of eyes, and if my hands malfunction (they randomly jerk and drop things), I need her there to help with any messes/issues I may cause. I need to start training her to do these things, but even then, she's not going to be here forever.  Aging is quite unpleasant.

What I should have done but didn't was make another batch of dog food.  I have enough to get me through Thursday, so I will have to find time Friday to make a big batch.  If they didn't love it so much, I may be tempted to skip it--it's not like I needed another kitchen chore in my life.  They are so good at positive reinforcement, though. Every single night, they become almost as excited for dinner as they do for their walks (and everyone who lives on our street can hear how excited our dogs get before every walk).  All three of them stand there, staring at me, making involuntary whines, grunts, etc., while salivating puddles onto the kitchen floor.  No matter how fast I try to serve it up, it's never fast enough for them. It clearly brings them so much joy, I will never be able to stop and deprive them of that.

As I type this post, I'm watching Jasper rearrange my husband's clothing armoire.  M has a habit of opening the doors to get his clothes out and leaving the doors open while he showers. Jasper loves to be inside the armoire (also our closet, suitcases, and any other very small, confined spaces) and usually takes advantage of the open doors. He often has to rearrange things, though, so it suits him better. We frequently come in to find stacks of M's t-shirts or socks piled on the floor underneath, with Jasper snuggled inside.

M came in from his shower, opened the sock drawer, and Jasper relocated to his favorite drawer (after kicking a pile of socks onto the floor).  If you look at the wood along the top of the drawer and behind Jasper, you can see the claw marks from him trying to open it himself. Sigh.  This is why we can't have nice things. ;)  (True, but who cares! Living beings are always better than stuff.)