The Last Precious Day of Break

It's cool and rainy out this morning, and I can see already that my to-do list is in trouble. An advisee e-mailed me looking for a ride back to campus at a time that interrupts my afternoon plans and just adds to my car time ... but her mom has no car and I know I am going to help her out. So no point fussing about that. It's 9:20 a.m. and I have

• done laundry
• dropped off the clothes donations
  
• done the dishes
• been to the supermarket
• scanned an article for my students and e-mailed it to the one person who asked

We are attempting to meet the challenge of throwing out or donating 50 items (per family member), partly sparked by the imminent arrival of the puppy, partly by an overwhelming sense of encroaching STUFF, and partly because our current school housing situation is such that we could, as is always the case, be asked to move in June. I helped D#1 with this endeavor last night and she has set the standard with 92 items pitched, donated, or handed on to her sister. I'm up to 45 items myself, and have not even begun to look at books yet. We are at that dreadful stage in the life of a family when we really could begin to get rid of all of our picture books, and this makes me sad.

We spent the bulk of the weekend working at the Masters' Meet at Harvard. This is a huge fundraiser for our team and a really terrific opportunity for the kids to see that swimming can be a lifelong engagement. We saw a number of records set, the usual heroes swimming the 500 free as the 500 fly, and I ran into a high school classmate who paid me the ultimate compliment by recognizing me on the pool deck after having not laid eyes on me in 30 years.

I did get the last of the Red Sox traveling scarves into the mail last week and am awaiting the return of my own. I'm using some lovely Malabrigo worsted to make a hat for a colleague (she picked out the colorway, a springy turquoise) and might even be done with that today if all goes well. Then it'll be back to the rest of the UFOs.

We go back to school tomorrow, and will be immediately plunged into the frantic pace of the spring semester. Fortunately I have only 5 more night classes and will be free of that commitment during the busiest time at my other school. Both places are facing financial cutbacks and restrictions; the past couple of weeks have been a nice break from the institutional worry. My major accomplishment over break, though, has been returning to the kitchen. It's really hard to manage that during the academic year and we need to figure that out a little better. Chocolate may be a food group but pizza really ought not to be.

Red of Surviving Grady had a great idea for today (one week to Opening Day). You don't have to go there, although I would usually encourage you to do so, because I'm blatantly stealing it.