week 10 almost done!

It's hard to believe that week 10 of school is just about over. Eeks! I've gotta say that prepping for 2 new courses has really sucked up a major chunk of time. I also got in over my head with grading, in that I assigned too many in-depth papers that I really wanted to give a lot of feedback to. But feedback takes time. Time time time. Oh well, lesson learned. If I wasn't worrying about getting some articles out I'd be fine, but it's that "publish or perish" worry that lingers over me. I'm looking forward to breaks where I can spend a few days in coffee shops just writing/reading and not grading papers. What am I saying, I'll totally be grading papers. HA! Ok, Christmas maybe will be free.

Speaking of which, it looks like we'll be getting home for Christmas, that is assuming airfares don't continue to go as crazy as they already are. Last week tickets were 500, now they're 700!!! We're looking into flying to MSP (200 cheaper) and then getting a ride from jokes who will be headed to the UP anyway. Then on the way back we could celebrate new years even in MSP which would be fun. But, this is all tentative and there is the possibility that jokes will actually get a job in the meantime which might screw things up. We'll see.

So last Saturday (day 1 of cold) I went mushroom hunting with my friend Jessica. I totally forgot my camera, so no pictures for you. She knows a woman in soil sciences who is a mushroom geek, so she took us hunting for chantrelles. We went to this national forest about 45 minutes from here. It was very beautiful and lush there, and super moist (so unlike Pullman!). There were a TON of mushrooms, but we didn't find any tasty ones (not chantrelles). There were also a lot of bird hunters around which was funny. We all were told to wear bright colors, so as not to be mistaken for birds. Anyhow, it was fun and now I know a new place to check out.

My cold is finally going away I think. This makes me happy. Jeff works Friday and Saturday again, so I'll be grading more papers this weekend. Exciting! Come November we're going to have to play more on weekends, maybe a day trip to Spokane or something. Ok, off to watch tv and go to sleep.