Things continue to be busy, but I did get to relax a little bit this week. I worked four half-days on campus and another half-day at home. I've got all of my exams ready for the rest of the semester, so I got a chance to start working on stuff for summer. I was going to teach our precalculus course, but when I mentioned the idea of teaching an introduction to proofs class, a bunch of students mobilized and started the process of petitioning me to do it. If we have 17 students, we can run it like a normal class, otherwise I'll run it as an independent study class if there are at least 10 students. It looks like getting up to that number won't be hard, so I've already started to put the notes together. I've never taught this class before, but it's something that a lot of institutions offer (and something that we've already proposed to do, but haven't been able to do because of a lack of faculty), so there are plenty of textbooks and resources available.
Speaking of math faculty, the search has been completed, but because of a campus-wide hiring freeze, we're not going to be able to make an offer. In a very real way, this means that our decision has basically been made for us. We may not know until June whether the line will be reopened, and it's not clear whether our candidate will even be available to pick up the position in June (because of the timing of contracts and that sort of thing). So we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I submitted a paper to the College Math Journal, and they sent it back for some revisions (which was to be expected, and I agree with the comments). However, they indicated that they find the content to be interesting, so I'm hoping to get my first peer-reviewed publication finally out there. Most people try to turn their thesis into a publication, but I have no desire to do that (and I don't even think it would be published -- though one of my friends told me that I'm probably selling myself a little short on that point). The good news is that I'm not at an institution that is focused on publications, so the combination of this, plus the textbook, plus something related to the math remediation program that I put together, I should have plenty of scholarship when it comes time to apply for tenure.
I bought a new dishwasher and refrigerator this week. (My half-day of working from home was the day I waited for them to be delivered and installed.) The fridge is a French door style with a stainless steel finish with much more space than I had before. I upgraded from 18 cubic feet to 25. Do I need that space right now? Not really. But paying $1100 for a $1400 fridge is tough to pass up, especially when it's only a little bit more expensive than the $950 20 cubic foot one I was originally considering. The dishwasher also has a stainless steel finish, and besides that I don't know what to say about it except that it's quiet (and it works).
The credit issue has been resolved. I got the official letter in the mail today: "You recently contacted us regarding a bill in your name... in the amount of $3069.11. Based on our investigation, we have concluded that you are not responsible for this bill. We have sent authorization to our outside Collection Agency to remove all negative reference in your credit record regarding this debt." It took about two months to resolve, and it may take another 2-3 months before the paperwork is finally all completed with the credit agencies. It wasn't a painful process, but it did require a bit of record keeping and a couple trips to the post office to send things via certified mail.
