I wish you an even belateder birthday, Hec. I hope it was happy, and that the year ahead is full of good stuff and happy people.

I am participating in the 4th of July tradition of thousands of Atlantans: watching the Peachtree Road Race on television. Even if I felt up to a 10K, nothing would drive me to join 60,000 people on Peachtree. It is, however, a very weird year. They've stopped the next wave of runners because of lightning, so about 30,000 people are milling around in pouring rain waiting to run. They've also been staring at the photos of the guys who crossed the finish line first for a half hour or so, trying to determine the winner.

That does sound very weird.

A very merry unbirthday to you, Hec. And everyone else to whom it applies.

Sous vide device is still verbing the lamb. So my secret fear that leaving it running overnight would be disastrous appears to be unfounded. So far.

I need to have a little work vent, and this is the only place I feel safe doing so. Just found out I'll be teaching an additional class next year instead of doing all the extra stuff I had been doing (coordinating the online classes some of the students take and the major literary conference). I am beyond bummed. I had space in my schedule to do so much cool stuff for the kids last year, and now I won't. I also found out that they have shifted the pay schedule in a way to really screw a lot of people. We used to get paid on the 15th and last day of each month. Now we get paid on the 5th and 20th. This would be a problem except that I--and I imagine the rest of the faculty, who are much younger--rely on that second paycheck to pay my rent, which is due on the 1st. Now it won't come until the 5th. And the transition is happening right now; got my full paycheck for June on the 30th. Then got a tiny paycheck yesterday to cover the gap of the 1st to the 5th, and won't get another paycheck until the 20th. That would normally be the one I'd get on the 15th, which has been my mid-month bills check. Then I don't get another until the 5th of August. WTF?!? ND and I are well off enough that we can probably cover the gap ourselves and make the transition, but I can't imagine the impact that's going to have on the majority of the faculty.

Tino has apparently been visiting my workplace.

Ugh. What is the rationale for that?

Timelies all!

Happy Belated Birthday, Hec!

You'd at least think they'd give more notice for a pay schedule change like that.

After an hour of staring at photos and saying "WTF?," they announced the men's open winner. He won by .009 second. I know you were all holding your collective breaths.

Wow! That's wild, Ginger.

Seems like a douchebag move by your employer, Pix. A couple of them, actually. Certainly not obvious how either one will benefit the school, much less the students, as much as they will cause trouble for the faculty.

I managed to sleep in until 10:30 today, with help from the white noise of the AC and Ethan keeping the kids more or less quietly occupied in the living room. BLISS. Then I went into a cleaning frenzy and wound up cleaning our bedroom (OH MY GOD HOW WERE WE NOT DEAD FROM DUST MITES) and both bathrooms. Since it's raining, I may as well go ahead and take care of the kitchen after lunch too.

K-Bug, CJ, Jack, and I all participated in the local parade. Jack did fantastic. After, we walked around the fair a bit and visited with the rescue place where we got Jack.

Now we are all hot and tired. We have no fireworks plans other than staying home and maybe catching some on tv. Jack hasn't been thrilled with the amateur fireworks these last few night.