Yesterday, I was motivated enough by the cooling weather to pull out my yarn again -- eight rows of plain garter-stitch knitting on a Karius scarf in Kauni wool (I weighed it, and after many months, I'm about a sixth of the way through, oof), and a few rows of head on a tiny baby elephant, that was originally meant for a particular baby, but got delayed enough that it's now for the next baby to come along. I'm pretty sure there will be more. I'd like to finish that this week, because I have a sweater that's three-quarters completed for Kavi -- it is orangey-brown and has owls on it, and I'd really like her to be able to wear it this fall. Time to get going!
Anand woke up cheerful and energetic, which is great -- yesterday, I was worried that he might be too sick to go to school today. But he seems to be over the hump, hooray! The plan for the morning is get him and Kavi dressed and fed, have Kev take them to school, putter a bit straightening up (because it's easier for me to work in a clean house) and perhaps crochet a few rows, and then work solidly from 9 - 4, when the kids come home.
Two goals: first finish all the pending website updates for ASAM, and then get all the stuff I've read for class into the syllabus in organized fashion. If I manage that, swing by the library and pick up Butler's Bloodchild and Dawn, so I can re-read them tomorrow and decide which one I want in the syllabus. It's late to be adding books to the bookstore order, but I think the Butler will be the last, and if I place the Butler later in the syllabus, they should have enough time to get it. I could wish I'd been more organized about getting this new prep prepped -- but ah well. I am not the Platonic ideal of the teacher, and it's probably time I accepted that. The new course will be a little rough this fall, but y'know, they get to read a ton of great SF/F, so hopefully that'll help get us over the bumpy patches.
It's been a pretty decent summer, despite being half-eaten up by moving. I taught a fiction-writing class to make some money, but luckily, it was an amazingly good and fun class, the sort of thing I would teach for free if I could afford to. I had at least a few days completely off, even if that was somewhat surgically-enforced leisure. And now the air is changing, the semester is coming, and I think by next week, I'll be ready to face the students again.
Next summer, if we can afford it, maybe I'll actually try this mythical summer-off that professors are supposed to enjoy. Time to read and write and sleep and dream. It sounds like a good perk, if you can get it.