I normally adore reading. Sci-Fi, fantasy, crime, mystery, biography, classics. I don’t really have a favourite genre. I happily read hundreds of books a year. Of course my love for reading is predicated on the fact that the book I’m reading interests me. That the pages it contains call out to my imagination and paints vivid pictures in my mind.

Textbooks, at least the one’s for my classes to date, really don’t fill this requirement for me.

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this but I suspect it’s true for most university students – I’ve never read a text from school from cover to cover. Sure, I read chapters here and there. I skim sections that pop out at me. I’ll hunt down research articles and explore topics of interest. I’ll reference ideas from one text in research assignments for a different class. All the while content with the fact that I have never read a complete text in any class.

This semester worries me. In one class I have the standard text and handful of assigned readings in the form of articles. Class number two is a completely different story. I don’t have all the text for that class yet. One still needs to be shipped to me. The giant pile of textbooks required for the class keeps growing. To date I have 8 of the 9 books. Yeah, that’s right. 9 texts. I have a horrible feeling I’ll need to read more than one of them to pass this class. *sigh*

There goes my perfect “non-reading” record. I have a feeling I’ll be diving into the least dull seeming book beginning this weekend in order to prep for my fall classes.

I registered for my fall classes a few days back and am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of my textbooks. If only I didn’t have to pay a bazillion $$ extra for them. My thankfully my Adult Dev class only requires 1 text since the Aboriginal History (mandatory course to graduate) class has a 4 text reading list.

I have to admit, I’m really leery and uncomfortable with the idea of completing the Aboriginal History course. Partially because it’s mandated. Mostly because of a horrific experience I had in a similarly themed university course in the early 90s. I’d go into details, but I’m trying hard to keep my blood pressure in check these days. Suffice to say it wasn’t the fascinating introductory class to another culture and way of thinking that the syllabus portrayed it to be.

Four classes until graduation. Guess I better knuckle down and get to work soon!

Rain, rain, go away.

Blech!

It’s been raining for days. Raining, of course, is an understatement. Sloppy. Messy. Wet.

And flooding my basement.

Which makes me miserable while Drew is gone. Thank the gawds I have awesome neighbours. The source of the leak(s) has been found and Les will be fixing it as soon as it drys up. In the meantime, I’ve got mopping to do.

I love my old home. Weeks like this, where it’s rained a month’s worth in of precipitation in less than 72 hours, remind me of some of the downsides of owning an older home. My solace, of course, is that owners of newly built homes across the city are facing similar problems tonight.

Misery does love company.

EAVB_EDTOATTYOI

It’s been a while now since I came home from the sempertastic family vacation to find my beloved fur-baby had passed on. Less time since my non-profit organization hosted their first major fundraiser for equality based organizations – we raised $3773 this year. Very happy with the results.

I haven’t fallen off the fitness wagon. In fact, I’ve reached my December 2010 clothing size goals  5 months early. Since I’m still technically classifed as overweight, I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months and hope to reach my new goal by Christmas.

Still not able to run. Doc has banned me from running (again *sigh*) and I’m back to walking and torturous exercises to strengthen the muscles around my patella.

Tomorrow, I put my hubby on a plane bound (eventually) for Kandahar. It’s been just over a year since he returned from his last tour to KAF and the time has just flown by. Most likely because he’s been gone for at least 60% of the time; off on training courses and prepping for this tour.

With that in mind, I thought today would be a good time to post a gentle reminder to all those who call themselves friends and family. The following excerpt is from a post I made in Dec 2008:

There are nightmares that military families live with daily. To address them we set ground rules. The most important one when a spouse (or child, sibling, etc.) is deployed is that you never drop in unannounced for a visit. No matter where you are “in the neighbourhood” don’t ever ring my doorbell without calling first to let me know you’re visiting.

Spouses, children, parents, and siblings all dread the possibility that a padre will walk up the walk-way and ring the doorbell. Normally filling a position of comfort or joy, when a member of your family is deployed the padre is the last person you want to see near your home.

Our shared goal is to make it through the months never having heard a doorbell ring. Don’t ring mine.

Thanks.