These words (along with "Winter Break" and "Summer Break" and -- hopefully at some point -- "tenure") are words that remind me that I have no business complaining about my job. I'm still going in work to get stuff done, and that's really because I'm very unproductive at home.
I got a call from the Pearson's textbook editor on Friday, and now I've got myself a May deadline to complete the textbook and get it submitted for printing. I want to insert chapter review sections and then maybe one or two more sections before I submit it (at least for the first official printed version). They emailed me some generic covers to consider, but I don't really care about that for now.
I'm also going to dump a lot of time into that web program that I've been toying with on and off for the last year or so. I think I've got all the programming pieces in place, so now I just need to get it all laid out and then test it on some students. If I offer extra credit, they'll do it. Something I've learned is that students will do almost anything for extra credit, even if it's a small amount. If they would only put that effort into doing the work right the first time...
I'm in chapter 10 of 10 from the actuary exam study guide. I'll probably find the time to finish working on that this week as well, and then I'll have to set aside a couple three-hour chunks of time to work through the practice exams.
The church class that I was teaching has finished up. I think everyone enjoyed the class, and I was asked whether I would teach another one. I do like to teach those types of classes, and I'd be willing to teach another one, but I also want to see what the Elders are up to, and how they see things moving forward.
I bought a new hard last week. My computer suddenly got very unstable, and rather than messing with trying to rescue a broken system, I decided to just start fresh. The transition has been pretty painless, and I was able to get all my files over from the old system to the new system without any real difficulty, plus everything is now running several times faster than it did (especially at start-up).
I got my yearly credit report, and once again, there's some junk on there. This time, a couple of accounts in collection. It's another cellular company. Strangely, the account numbers are one apart (X8842, X8843), for the same amount, which suggests to me that this was probably done online through some automated scheme. I expect this to be cleared up easily. Other than that, everything on the credit report is good.
I'm still waiting for my tax refund.
We made stromboli last Monday. The dough was store-bought because of time constraints, but the sauce was fresh. I discovered that I don't have a rolling pin anymore, and I can't figure out where it went. It would have been helpful for rolling out the dough into a fairly even shape. Trying to mash out a rectangle by hand just isn't that easy. It will be worse (impossible?) to roll out doughnuts without a rolling pin (or similarly sized and shaped object).
I've had a neck "thing" for the last couple weeks. I don't know what caused it, but a couple weeks ago I woke up with a very stiff neck. It was quite painful to do a lot of normal things (leaning over caused pain, which meant that sitting down and standing up were a little awkward). It was like that for a few days, and then it was only like that in the mornings when I woke up. Right now, I'm basically better, except every now and then I'll notice a little discomfort in my upper back/lower neck. I guess it's sort of like a pinched nerve that has slowly been working it's way back where it belongs. I considering going to a chiropractor (I've never been to one), and I think I'm setting a Wednesday deadline to decide. I'll see how I feel over the next couple days.
I guess life has once again started to hit a comfortable stride. The last couple weeks seem to have just drifted by.
