I hate feeling like crap. I hate that I get heat exhaustion so easily, and that I seem to get more and more sensitive. I made the mistake of not turning on the supplemental air conditioner yesterday as I was cleaning the apartment until a couple hours into my work. Even though I drank tons of water, I still overheated and spent the evening fighting that horrible head pain and nausea instead of grading tests. I'm still feeling a little weak and not hungry today, and all I really want to do is go home and sleep. But I promised final grades to the kids yesterday, and the grades are due to the college tomorrow, so I have to finish grading tonight. I also really need to get the carpet cleaned, but I have to pick up a new belt for my vacuum cleaner before I can do the cleaning, and I should do some caulking upstairs before the new tenant moves in. I don't have time to be sick!

Never again am I renting to someone who's leaving the country immediately after the lease period. Either that, or I'm treating them like everyone else when it comes to the rent deposit. Closing your checking account and getting your money converted is your problem, not mine. No more concessions. I tried to be nice. I did a pre-inspection before I left last weekend, gave her a list of what still needed to be cleaned, and gave her most of her deposit back, with the understanding she would take care of it. Did she take care of it? No, of course not. I understand that my definition of clean is probably different than a lot of people's understanding, but when I spell out and physically show her what needs to be cleaned, and what products will probably do the job, I expect at least 75% of my expectations. Needless to say, I gave back too much of the deposit. At least I have a week of tenant-free living to get things done, plus enjoying having my house to myself. Here's to no more elephant-feet, and hoping the next one is better!

Quote #3 I Am My Father's Daughter: "Why can't someone just sell me something cheap?"

What a fabulous weekend, although I tell you it's weird to see one's mom dissolve into blubbering fangirl.

We arrived in Minneapolis a little early to get checked into the hotel early and find something to eat before the concert. We found this fabulous restaurant called Doolittle's Woodfire Grill, where I ordered the Roasted Pear and Chicken Salad, where I promptly had to snap a picture of the best salad I've ever had:

Aside from the roasted pears and rotisserie chicken, it had feta cheese, walnuts, raspberries and a raspberry vinagrette, and I'm drooling at just the memory. There was a mural on the wall, and part of it was a map of some cross country flight. Quote #1 That I'm My Father's Daughter: "That map is going to drive me crazy. They've got El Paso somewhere in New Mexico!"

The concert was just Awesome. You can really tell these guys have been doing this for 20 years.

The set list was awesome, they were funny, it was entertaining, and I'll definitely go again if I have the chance. We didn't have the best seats (this is zoomed to the max); we were way off to the right, so we couldn't see the drummer and some of the stuff that was going on in the back of the stage, but they came out into the audience a lot, and just looked like they were having a great time, and the crowd did, too.

The best part about our seats is that we were really close to the exit, so we were at the front of the line to get Chris' autograph afterwards.

Mom grabbed my arm on the way back to the car and said, "Chris Isaak was standing right in front of us!" We were told he stays and autographs for everyone, I brought my favorite album, Forever Blue, with me for him to autograph.

Friggin' awesome.

We went to the Mall of America the next day, with all the walking we did, all I bought were a pair of boots, and I only did that because I couldn't pass up the deal - $180 boots for $36 - plus, they look fantastic on me:

Quote #2 That I'm My Father's Daughter in looking for some gauchos to go with said boots: "I'm not paying 70 bucks for something that's not even a full pair of pants!"

All in all, it was some great Mommy-Mandy time. We haven't spent much time alone together for a long time, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Now I have to decide whether I'm going to read The Half-Blood Prince before I start in on The Deathly Hallows. I don't remember anything that happened in the last book! In fact, there was a conversation with Chelsea a few weeks ago, where it took us ten minutes to remember the name of the book! I was coming up with plot points, and Chelsea kept saying, "No, that was Order of the Phoenix, too." Ridiculous. I have homework to grade at any rate. Sigh. I hope I don't get spoiled in the meantime.

I made it! With a couple hours to spare! I just finished writing up the study guide for the last exam, and then realized I have no idea when I'll be able to make copies. I'm out on a job this week, and I usually appropriate the office copier to make copies for class (my boss okay'ed it - I'm NOT stealing). I may have to go into the office early tomorrow and do it, since I forgot to download some files anyway. So, classes are planned, test is written, tests are graded...and man, oh man, what am I going to do with these kids? I was sure this test was going to be easier for them than the last one, and it was just a disaster. How many times do I have to say something before it sinks in? I know I talked ad nauseum about how the allowance for doubtful accounts is an application of the matching principle, but I had kids trying to talk about inventory! I asked about accounts receivable! I ended up having to throw out an entire section of the test in order to get an acceptable bell curve. That part was partly my fault, I think it really was a little too complicated for their level, but the rest of it...the rest of it...disappointing. I wish I had a way to figure out how much is me and how much is them.

I skipped laundry and mowing the lawn. It hasn't rained in ages, so the grass really isn't that bad, and I can get by with laundry later. I don't feel bad about it at all.

I'm completely freaking out. I have finish all the planning for the last two weeks of class, because I'll be gone next weekend for that concert in Minneapolis. I have to plan three classes, write the final, make a study guide for the final, and grade the last test, on which I foolishly included short essay questions. Ack! That's at least 20 hours of work, and there are other things I need to do as well, like grocery shopping, a board meeting, mow the lawn and doing laundry. Why do I let myself get into these things?

It's annual review time here at CG. My self-evaluation was due back in April, if I remember correctly, and I was in a piss-poor mood, and not feeling very accomplished over the past year. In fact, I've felt pretty stagnated, and not even sure where I want to go in my career. I've got some goals, but more often than not, I'm not too excited about them.

I need something new in my life. Some new challenge, new project, new activity. I don't know what. I'm doing so much already, something would have to go or get cut back on, but I don't know what that would be, either. I'm bored!

Annual review went suprisingly well. I don't know how they can be satisfied with my performance if I'm not satisfied with my own. It's disconcerting, though it could be worse, I suppose. I suspect it has partly to do with how hurting they are for experienced mid-level personnel. So they made it harder to me to leave by giving me a 7.5% raise and a promotion: I'm now Manager. Wow, I sound cynical. Needless to say, I'm not too particularly excited about this at this time, especially since I don't really see how it means too much of a difference in job duties or responsibilities.

Maybe I'll feel a little less lethargic after this class is finished. Two more weeks! One funny story about that: I had a student show up Monday and asked me for a syllabus, he hadn't been to the class yet! I didn't realize until class was over that he hadn't, otherwise I would have asked him what happened, whether he thought class started in July or what. But there was absolutely no way he could have passed the class at that point with only three weeks left in the term, so I advised him to drop the class.

Relief! I just signed a new tenant. I was having nightmares about money problems and having to give up my motorcycle in order to pay my mortgage. In actuality, it wouldn't have been that bad, especially since I'm a stamp away from paying off my windows. I would have just had to become a little more frugal, which wouldn't have been a bad thing. Still wouldn't be a bad thing.

Anyway, it's a guy, which is different. It hasn't been a guy since I moved in, so I guess we'll see how that works. He came in to sign the lease, and saw my Angel comic book poster in the living room, and we got completely distracted talking about comic books. His sister (who was helping him look at places), had to get us back on track.

I'm probably jinxing it by saying it, but the weather has been soooo nice. 70's and 80's, comfortable humidity...it's crazy! Needless to say, I've been taking advantage of it. Chelsea and I took our projects and went to Jazz Fest Saturday afternoon. We liked the side shows a little more than the main stage this year. While we were there, anyway. We were there for only about four hours before we went to the Brewworks for an good-bye beer with Randal.

Yesterday, I went to the parents' and we ate supper out on the porch. Dad smoked a roast, and we had beets out of the garden, and picked up some sweet corn. Mom's raspberry bushes have been producing overtime, and she said she didn't know what to do with them. I was like, duh, pie! So we had fresh raspberry pie for dessert. Then Lew and I shot .22s off the porch. How redneck of us!