2 months instead of 6

So yeah, I'm trying to be better about this whole blog thing and look! It only took me two months to update this time!

Pathetic, I know.

Let's do a brief rundown of recent happenings:

First and foremost, el señor B is defending his thesis this week. I know that's his news but I am SO FUCKING EXCITED. Finally it will be over for him and he'll be able to bask in the post-PhuD glow. I would also like to bask in said glow.

We've really been keeping up, as a household, with the big Sunday cook-off. This week the offerings were varied and delicious. I made my you-ain't-never-had-better egg salad, which includes ground flax seed for your gut and is to be et with crackers and cucumber slices. I also made my specialty of coconut curry with squash, kale & collards, chicken and onion served over brown basmati. Then I steamed some broccoli and asparagus. Roomie D filled the whole house with smoke making some very yummy pork chops with a sauce made from the drippings, garlic, ginger, cilantro & coconut milk. He also re-made a pilaf with roasted red peppers that I really liked from last week. El señor B rolled up later with some homemade Greek yogurt and then whipped up a tasty pico de gallo (not to onion-y), some tasty and hella-spicy chipotle-based chili, and another tasty greens dish with kale, napa, and bacon. Ooh, I just remembered I have some of that with me right now. That's just this week, y'all. We throw down.

I just gave my first exam of the semester. I think they did pretty good. I'm mentoring a new teacher this semester and I definitely appreciate how much easier it gets with a couple semesters under ye ol' belt. I applied to a physics teaching job and just got the rejection yesterday. I wasn't super-excited about it anyway. I more recently applied for a math teaching position that I really really really want to keep your fingers crossed that I at least get an interview. If they meet me in person, they'll have to hire me. Fourteen months ago I applied for a chem teaching and educational research position in Puerto Rico. They just got back with me last week asking for a phone interview. 14 months! I was really feeling it when I applied, having just returned from vacation in PR. Now I'm not feeling it so much but my co-workers have bullied me into doing the interview. It would be a good job, I think it was even tenure-track, but vacationing in PR and living in PR are two different things. Plus I'm really happy with my life here, even if I'm destined to be poor, status-less and insurance-less. I mean, I probably wouldn't even get it anyway, but it's the first bite I've gotten and I feel like a cad for not being more excited about a job prospect in this economy.

At my current full-time job I'm organizing an outreach event in two months that about 2500 people will attend over 3 days, and the ~150 volunteers I'm going to need to staff it. Crazy. All that work to get a PhuD and I'm a glorified secretary. Except with way more exo-work stress. I'd rather be a secretary, I think, but those jobs are tough to come by. I'm quitting this job one way or another at the end of the summer. It's just gotten boring and stressful, even though I like my coworkers. No real plans yet for what I'll do then. Wing it. I mean, that's pretty much worked for me thus far.

My lil' buddy Toot died about a month ago. I miss his stinky, paper-ripping little rat butt. May he rest in peace. Or really, the deep freezer until the ground thaws. I'll bury him with his brother Ollie's ashes.

I've been getting back to the group fitness classes at the gym: Core Crunch, which I LOVE even though it is painful on Tuesdays and early-morning yoga/pilates on Thursdays. I'm also trying to swim on Tuesdays but that's been hit-and-miss so far. I've been pretty good about getting out climbing once a week or so, which was a goal of mine this semester. I'd like to get it up to twice a week. I've even been riding the SDB4k fairly frequently of late in the very unseasonable warmer weather. I was hoping I'd be cross-country skiing but after this week our entire snow base is going to be gone. Stupid great north! I finally learn, after 7.5 years, to love something about the winter, and then it rips it away!

That pretty much runs the gamut: love interest, food, work, rats, exercise.

One more note: this winter the city has made $140 combined (me-1, el señor B-1, roomie J-3, roomie R-2) on our household for opposite-side parking violations. Bastards. I'm thinking my back-up plan may be as a parking officer. It's a growth economy!