Everybody's out for the holiday--Amy at the parade with her inlaws, Jamison rock climbing with Chicago friends (right, I know, but what can you say), John, Rob and Chris climbing Timp. I said I'd stay home to clean the house and do laundry but I slept in instead.
It's nice to be using all our space. A&J are in the guest room and in the underused front room as their office/studio. They're waiting on applications and programs, and considering the next school year. I hope they stay through the time we'll be gone to the UK in the last half of 2011.
John spent spring term away from home with his "Utah Study Abroad" classes (officially titled "Integrated Natural History of Utah" or INHUT). This is the second year he's done it, this time mostly with freshmen students. Other faculty include Riley Nelson, our entomologist neighbor through the block (who once gave demonstration of spiders doing a mating dance during a priesthood lesson on avoiding the evils of porn, according to John), rec management prof Stacy Taniguchi, who once saved a colleague who had fallen into a glacial crevasse by boiling water and passing it down to him all the while holding the rope he was hanging from, and Brian Cannon (a history teacher I don't know anything about). Or maybe it was Brian Hill, not Stacy this time. They backpacked into and studied four watersheds: Vernon Creek; the Bear River; the Provo River; and the Escalante River. John of course is from Vernon and Riley is from Brigham City, so when they go to church and interview the locals, they have a connection. It's nice to have him home, even though he still flinches when I say, "John!" thinking I'm going to ask him to do something. Usually he's right.
A&J have been garden slaves. Now the main work is done, I hope they don't vanish like the shoemaker's elves. That's why I don't pay them (for fear they'll vanish). Chris also does some work. He has a part-time job taking care of an elderly neighbor's garden, and he spent a week working at the Greenjacket Ranch before Rebecca's wedding. Chris liked his physiology class this past year and is thinking about post-HS training in medicine. Other than being a rock-god, of course.
My job is OK except for Congress's problem funding Medicare/Medicaid recently, which means I haven't been paid this quarter for what amounts to about a third of my patient load. We'll see what happens with that. My other problem is not going to bed on time and having my circadian rhythm low point kick in at 3pm and not being able to tolerate caffeine anymore (rebound headaches). I have to leap up immediately after my early afternoon sessions and do jumping jacks to keep myself awake. By five I'm usually OK again. But I think the solution is getting 8 hours at night instead of 5 1/2 or 6. I'm still not sure what's going on medically--I still have MD appointments, one with a hematologist and one with my Cylon gynecologist.
We're planning a trip to the Shakespeare Theater in Cedar City and another to San Jose in Costa Rica. John and I both want to visit the West Desert near Lehman Caves for background for new writing projects. I told Eric we want to visit Anchorage too but I haven't called Boyd about it because we can't decide what month. A lot depends on B & MA's schedule of course. I hope to visit D&D again sometime, and the Mo'ungas in Houston. Rob's flight benefits will really help with cutting the costs.
Betsy and I do our PWA meetings still, even though Tena's in Houston--Professional Women's Alliance--a support group for women trying to maintain a good balance between home and family and career. I have four areas I'm working on, and seems like I can only really do two or at a stretch three of the four. The bottom of the list is writing, and it ends up being the one neglected. But I have some new ideas about werewolves that I want to think about. I'm also trying to reassemble "Blood Practice" for anybody who would care to read it and comment.
Everyone is welcome to come visit our garden, and pick strawberries and raspberries to eat. I'm inordinately fond of it.
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