Oh the Bronies are the talk of the town right now. I haven't watched this but a bunch of friends posted it as a good explanation of the phenominom: [link]

Huh. Okay, then.

It has taken me 5 days to catch up after my vacation. I drove all over MO visiting family, 6 of whom were born since the last time I visited. The babies were all very cute, the adults seemed happy to see me, and I managed to avoid all political discussion. I'm calling it a win.

Oh, and my 13 yr old nephew is now 6'4" and wears size 15 shoes with no signs of slowing. I played trac ball [link] with him on Sunday and my forearms are still tender. It's a good thing he also likes playing cards and board games or he'd have killed me.

Moved one pile of mulch today! One more to go with two days left before Awfulness happens. Felt like a pile of dog poo though, because with the rain a lot of stuff got left undone outside, and the ED was in today and picked up some of it, which made me feel bad. On the other hand, I feel that this is what happens when my department is understaffed. I'm always torn about about getting more things actually accomplished, or spending time cleaning up after fewer projects. Put that hose away or put the fire pit away or pick away at the horrible mulch pile or weed the rose garden? On top of supervising unruly teenaged volunteers and filling out evaluation forms for the Y and coordinating with future volunteer groups and following up on deer assassination and setting out the groundhog traps and, oh yeah, deadheading the Rudbeckia in the display garden. On top of the usual watering ridiculousness. Yeah, I've been caught with my pants down, but I am now currently half a staff. It feels wrong to me to spend time tidying shit when I could be getting more actual work done. I know this is wrong for a public institution. If our visitor count was higher, I might give a damn at all times as to how tidy we look. Otherwise it feels like I could lose half a day every day just making sure a quarter bounces off the bed sheets.

OK, I've signed up for Science and Cooking. Presumably it will become clear how to audit the course at some point..

That trip definitely sounds like a win, aurelia!

By which I mean to say that my connundrum is: "Julie, what di you do today?"

I either did 1) did projects 1, 2, and 3, and spent the rest of my day cleaning up after them.

Or I did 2) did projects 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and cleaned up after some of them.

I need to convince my brain that the cleaning-up-after is actually a productive part of my day.

Aw, I just got a wedding invitation in the mail for some family friends, and they are the kind of couple where you are super duper happy for each of them that they found each other. So that's nice! Although my train of thought at the mailbox was kind of funny... Seeing the envelope: "I don't know anyone getting married, do I?" Turning it over: "Who do I know in Cambridge?" (besides like everyone, but I didn't recognize the address) Opening it: "AWWW!"

ION, if I didn't make popsicles sweet enough, can I just melt them down and try again?

A company is holding running of the bulls events in the US. [link]

To be followed immediately by the Running of the Lawyers.

Seriously. That's ridiculous.

I think this is my favorite part of their FAQ:

Is running with the bulls dangerous?

Of course! Much like rock climbing, mountain biking, skydiving and other extreme sports, running with live bulls is an inherently dangerous activity (which is why it’s so thrilling). By participating in the run, you accept the risk that you might be trampled, gored, rammed or tossed in the air by a bull, or bumped, jostled, tripped or trampled by your fellow runners. We do what we can to minimize those risks by using less-aggressive bulls than those used in Spain and allowing runners to hide in nooks and climb over the track fence if necessary, but make no mistake: you could get seriously injured in this event. That’s why there’s a mandatory insurance fee during the registration process and medical staff on site.