I’m back in the office today after being away for a week on interviews, etc.

The local fire marshall has determined that the California Fire Code requires that all doors in a residential area remain shut unless someone is actively entering or exiting. Which means…. all residence halls across campus are being required to immediately enforce a “closed door” policy. All doors in all buildings must be closed at all times, including the rooms that students live in, my office, the doors to the lounges, etc. Needless to say, it’s been a difficult challenge to encourage my staff to work within this new policy (the University has been “pre-cited” for non-compliance, and if we don’t change our policies, they will deem the buildings “unsafe” and will not allow us to house students here), and residents are not happy either. Not surprising since we spend a good part of fall quarter trying to encourage folks to keep their doors open to help encourage community and openness.

Blah.

Lots to do now that I’m back in regards to this any what seems like a million other issues that have come up while I’m gone. My list of folks to check in with has grown quite a lot during the day, and there are lots of projects to go along with it. Still, it’s good to be back! I had a really nice time with my staff on a retreat this past weekend. We spent the night at a resort near Capitola, California, and then got up the next morning to beautiful weather, sunshining on the beach. After some time in the hottub and pool, we headed out to a yummy breakfast at Zachary’s in Santa Cruz, and then on the visit the Mystery Spot on the way home. Good times.

Yesterday, Jeff replaced the battery in my car and then tomorrow she goes into the shop to get some things fixed so that she’ll be ready to be sold. For real, this time. (I know I’ve been talking about selling my car for 3+ years, but now I really mean it). After I get those things fixed, it will just need a good interior/exterior detail and then I can sell it. I’m hoping to get $4500 for the car…. and I’m assuming I’ll need to buy a new (used) car when I arrive at wherever I arrive next, so I can put the money aside for that.

Oh! 5:00. Time to go home.

So….how much marketing money has that seemingly ridiculous “Sarah Marshall” movie spent. Seems like every other billboard and every other commercial – and it looks… well… dumb. I guess that’s $10.00 I don’t have to spend at the movie theater.

I’d forgotten the stress of a job search. I should go back to my posts from spring of 2002 and 2004 and see how I was feeling then. I’m sure it’s much of the same. This search is just harder because ideally I would like some advancement, but I’m also trying to balance figuring out if I’ll relocate, or stay here, and what salary I’m willing to take. Oh… and if I’m willing to do another live on position. And will they let the cats live with me? And what are the benefits, etc? Ugh.

Scrabulous is broken today. It’s very sad.

I’ve decided I’m totally a wimp when it comes to aches and pains. Over the weekend, I was helping Jeff move some furniture upstairs and in the initial lift did something to my back. Strained or pulled, I really don’t know, but the last few days have involved mostly slow and careful movements, lots of ibuprofen and ice packs. It’s exhausting really. By the mid-afternoon, I just want to hide in my apartment and do nothing but knit. Maybe it’s the pain medication that is making me feel so anti-social, or perhaps it’s the constant dull pain. Who knows. In any case, I do think things are improving… just slowly.

Speaking of knitting, I’ve been focusing on using up yarn that has been hanging around here for many months and in some cases, years. I don’t want to have to move yarn that I’ll likely never use, so I figure I’ll knit up what I can, and then give away (or maybe eBay) the rest of the stuff that I don’t have plans for.

To start I made a baby sweater, which I think I might send to my cousin’s baby boy born last fall. I think the sweater might be about a 9-12 month size, and with chunky yarn and size 10.5 needles, I knit it in about 3 days. The best kind of project. I used an original pattern (which really means… I cast on some stitches, 20 in this case, and just started knitting). I like the results.

There’s a hat too, but I don’t actually like the hat much.

People often say I should sell my knits, and I’m wondering if maybe I could. How much do you think I could make for something like this? I figure the materials cost me about $25.00, plus maybe 8 hours of my time? So it’s not like I would make money on the cost/time, but if I could use yarn I already have, perhaps knitting with it and selling it would be better than just having the yarn sitting around.

After the sweater, I started thinking about all the 100% wool yarn I have around that I thought I might make felted projects with, but never actually followed through on. So then I started knitting felted boxes. Finished a large one and most of a small one last night, and now I think I’ll do a couple more. Here’s the “pre-felt” look at them. Hopefully they turn out well. Would make good gifts I think…..

On job searching… I have 2 on-campus interviews in the next week. Crossing my fingers.

p.s. Doesn’t Niko look ferocious (for a house cat) in this picture: