Summer Reading, 2015

I never made last summer's reading list into its own post, so I thought I'd do that now. The asterisked titles were all free Kindle books, which were surprisingly not duds. The Milan and Adina were my favorite of those. It was clearly a Seanan McGuire summer. I managed to keep reading throughout the academic year by reading library books on my Kindle, so I finished out the Brennan, Milan, and McGuire series (all of which I highly recommend). The Brennan series is also good, and I think the first one in the series is actually the weakest.

1. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
2. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
3. Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger
4. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
5. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
6. Maids of Misfortune by M. Louisa Locke*
7. Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire
8. A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire
9. Murder at Volcano House by Chip Hughes*
10. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K. Dick
11. An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
12. Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire
13. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire
14. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire
15. Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
16. The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire
17. Murder on Moloka'i by Chip Hughes*
18. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan*
19. The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
20. Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina*
21. Prudence by Gail Carriger
22. The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan
23. Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge*
24. The Proposal by Mary Balogh

Monthly Check In

Check up? I am exhausted. Last week was hell, with student conferences and me calling a meeting for a university committee I'm on that does not have a chair. And other stuff. I shouldn't have done it because now everyone wants me to be chair. I explained that I cannot (research is neglected and misses me), but almost everyone else who attended the meeting is just as overloaded as I am (minus the toddler). They all say they support me not wanting to be chair but no one stepped up. So this week I will be trying to wrangle a chair. I have said that I will not chair. The admin part is not a problem, but writing reports is time I do not have. Grrr. I hate that no one else is stepping up, but I refuse to do this without compensation. (Even though I basically am already. I refuse to do it for a whole term.) When I asked my dean if chairing could "count" as next year's university service (since this is not expected for my rank), he said no. So, there's nothing in it for me. Co-chairs is the next step, but I am definitely claiming I am Acting Chair for this semester so I can get useless recognition for getting us started.

The Toddler is so freaking tall. Ze is almost 18 months and can reach all of our counter tops. Ze can open whatever container ze finds. Today ze discovered that if ze goes into the closet, ze can close the door. We just jumped to a whole new level of peekaboo, ya'll. We're expecting the babysitter to report losing hir this week. I love this kid. Oh, did I tell you we had to take the lock off of the bathroom door because ze can lock hirself in the bathroom?

Lost: one bag of groceries

So we just got home to discover that we left a 6-pack of beer and a quart of half and half on the sidewalk in front of Whole Foods. Not near our apartment, not where we normally shop, but we were there and needed beer and half and half. We think we set it down when we put the cranky, tired toddler back into hir stroller to go to the car and didn't pick it back up. Goddamnit. Those weren't cheap either. And they were in one of the reusable bags that isn't ripped.

free books

I have 7 ebooks on hold at the library. I am next or second in line on 5 of them. I am dying here, people. Turn your damn books in! I've been waiting for months for some of these.

My kindle is full of free books. I haven't bought one ebook yet. Several have been very entertaining, and a couple are excellent. But I've only read the first chapter of many of them. I need to go through and delete those. It's getting hard to keep track of which ones I don't want to finish versus which ones I'm just not in the mood for.

I used to buy books all of the time. Now I buy a few a year, usually used and with Christmas money. Otherwise, they're for research. Today I bought a book for my toddler. I miss having book money.

Sunrise Baby

The Baby Toddler wakes up at sunrise (or 4 in the morning) and goes to bed at sunset (and not one minute before). While this is great for hir, I would like to sleep in. Not until nine or anything, but 7am would be fantastic. Ze is starting to figure out going back to sleep on hir own, but 4am is hard and ze typically needs help at that point. This is another reason 7am would be great. When ze doesn't fall back asleep until 5am, 6am is too damn early.

I love coffee. I felt completely broken on Monday and had a headache. In the evening I figured out that I had not had any caffeine all day. That was a mistake.

Toddler has invented a game where ze sees one of us around a corner or behind something, shrieks, and runs to the other parent for protection--laughing and shrieking. It's surprise chase. You don't know you're supposed to be chasing hir until ze shrieks and runs (though it's not so much chasing as stalking). This is the loudest game ever. Hir version of peek-a-boo is quieter. Ze stands behind you when you're sitting on the floor and leans around to peek over your shoulder. Then ze laughs when you see hir. Repeat on the other side, forever.

Need More Blogs

It's time to switch up my regularly scheduled online reading list. Do you have any suggestions for blogs? In particular, I want to replace The Mary Sue (and not with io9). But it's time for new content! So other personal blog recommendations are also good. Who should I be reading? Or watching. Vlog and web series recommendations also welcome. Basically, add to my procrastination list, please.

Babies take up lots of time.

So do toddlers. Baby is a year old, so uh, a toddler I guess. Ze has an adorable little chuckle and has just in the last week started taking steps on hir own unprompted. (Ze has been doing it prompted for a few weeks, just 3-4 steps.) We have been building a few things with pvc pipe, and Baby likes to play with the short pieces of pipe, connectors, and fun noodles pieces we are using to cover the pipe. Ze fits them together and takes them apart, and puts them all in a box. Ze just walked me into the bedroom, where ze wanted to nurse, then ze stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before closing hir eyes and going to sleep.

Hi! Still here? So I haven't been blogging because babies. Uh Toddlers? And also major work kerfuffle. Or perhaps clusterfuck would be a more appropriate term. Without going into details, let us say that I discovered a huge ass problem because I was totally screwed by it. This problem was a choice made by other people, and it affected everyone. I reported the problem and normal problem-solving skills were inadequate, so a group of people decided to take up super problem-solving skills. The problem is now being solved, but too late for me to benefit from it. So I am screwed but everyone else should be okay. Also a friend died. And that sucks. There have been good things happening too, and my to-do list for scholarship and professional service is too long (which is a good thing even though it is difficult). But I can do it. But I haven't felt like blogging because so much that has been going on hasn't been the kind of stuff I wanted to write about. And I've been exhausted. How does one manage time with a young child?