*blows dust off mike*

Yeah, I haven't posted here since the beginning of this academic year... and now it's the end, and I'm about to start grading the end-of-term papers. There's rather a lot going on just now, but most of it isn't yet for public consumption. By fall, I hope!

I'm working on a paper to give at a conference next week, though. Assuming I get it done (which, yes, I expect I will as I always manage somehow) that should be fun.

Autumn

Starting the new semester before Labor Day always feels odd. It's still summer out there, not autumn yet at all, and having a day off so quickly seems silly. Not that I mind having a day off, mind you, even if all I do with it is try to catch up on the things I'm already behind on.

Are we all conditioned by our elementary school years to expect certain eternal verities?

Waiting

I admit it -- I'm a Harry Potter fan. Right now I am eagerly anticipating the release of the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Under the circumstances I expect I'll be reading it from as soon as it's delivered on Saturday, until I finish... however long that may be.

Conference

I've just gotten back from the Very Big Medieval Conference that I go to most years. This was a good one; each time I go, I do know more people and that's always a plus. My paper went quite well despite the fact that I was rather behindhand (for me) in finishing it. Even my doctoral advisor seemed to think well of what I was doing. I also spoke with the folks who do the Medieval Dress and Textiles series and they'd be interested if I had another piece on textiles to submit to them, which was nice.

The one downside was not at the conference itself, but the trip home; one leg of my flight was canceled due to weather, and although I did actually manage to get home last night, on standby, my luggage did not come with me and I haven't yet heard about it.

CSA

Picked up my very first CSA* box yesterday (I have to thank Mel for telling me about these). Lots of salad greens, spinach, baby leeks, turnips, white radishes, oregano, and rosemary. I cooked the turnips tonight and washed up all the salad greens so that salad will be easy all week, and then tomorrow I'll turn the spinach and leeks and some of the herbs into something quiche-like, with eggs and cheese and a crust (maybe -- if I don't feel like making a crust, it'll be a frittata instead). Not sure what I will do with the radishes; I don't really like radishes, unfortunately. Maybe I'll try one on a salad and see if these are more my style than the usual supermarket red sort. It would be nice if SO were around to help eat and enjoy all the bounty!

*CSA=Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a fixed amount in advance to a local farm, and then for a specified number of weeks, you get a box of whatever was harvested that week. So fresh, local, often organic (mine is, yay!) produce.

What makes it worthwhile

I was honored by the History Club, the undergraduate group in my department, at our annual departmental banquet last Friday; they chose me as the Professor of the Year. I was surprised and pleased and very touched. Sometimes it's hard to remember that all the work isn't wholly unappreciated, after all.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is an extremely cool online way to catalog one's books. My sister told me about it and I decided to sign up, even though I already use EndNote on my own computer. For one thing, then she (and others) can see what I already own, if they're thinking about giving me a book as a gift. (Well, assuming I'm good about keeping it up to date!) My catalog is here. You can even add a widget to your blog that will show random books, or recently added books -- look to the right and you'll see it!