I thought I was exaggerating when I jokingly told someone that I couldn't remember the last time I had both Friday and Saturday off while being in town (France aside). Sadly, I wasn't. That'll change for the summer, fortunately. However, I'm beginning to wonder how long I can keep it up. I need to learn to work smarter, I guess. Or something.

And what did we do with all the time?

A whole lot of home improvement.


New storm door
New raised panel vinyl shutters
Ah, that sense of accomplishment that eludes me with my nebulous work.

Oh. And the new Indi@na Jones? Mediocre.

Book #22: Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, Margaret Farley. Good, but only applicable for adults.

Book # 23: Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. You know, I thought I didn't like One Hundred Years of Solitutude because I read it in Kenya, and that was a weird setting for that book. It was very him. I don't know if I liked it or not.

Book #20: Into the Wild. Jon Kr@kauer. Swoon. Major, major swoon. Singular complaint: I read his other two books in audiobook form, and he read the other two himself. This one was some other guy.

Book #21: Pillars of the Earth. Someone please tell me why this book is such a big deal.

The Mr and I just bought some midnight blue raised panel shutters "to update the exterior of our home" (I looked for a picture to post, but they're all a little off). They're midnight blue, so we're painting all the outside doors to match.

Other than that, I've been... well, working (and reading, apparently). We've had some turnover in staff, and I was made the priest in charge of administration about a month ago to help with the transition, etc. etc. I can't figure out if I'm incredibly inefficient or if there is just a whole lot of work to be done.

Okay, so I'm pretty boring right now. How are you?

the long overdue post

You know how when you don't update for a while then the thought of updating becomes overwhelming? Yeah.

Voici a pic from the top of Notre Dome, taken on the long awaited, and highly enjoyable, Paris trip. It was so wonderful I resolved to take all of my vacation this year, rest of the staff be damned (I work with a former Franciscan who I actually really like but who doesn't take half of his vacation). I thought that jet lag, etc. would cancel out all restorative vacation benefits. Thankfully, I was incredibly wrong. This is also one of the first major vacations we've taken that didn't revolve around family. We forfeited two graduations to go on this vacation, and we definitely made the right decision, though some of the family, which is full of teachers, forgets that not everyone has three plus months off (my time off is generous; the mr's is not). Anyhow.

I have a writer crush on Jon Krakauer right now. I finished Into Thin Air recently (book #19), about the 1996 Mt Everest climb. It was fantastic. I'm just a huge sucker for someone who teaches me something while entertaining me at the same time. Next is definitely Into the Wild.

In other news, I said the invocation at a local women's grant giving organization. I purposefully wrote an inclusive one, as I thought the occasion warranted. I may have received some passive aggressive backlash from the president of the organization, who picked a question to ask the guest speaker-- a famous country music singer-- if she felt the need not to talk about Jesus. I may use this occasion to restart my very, very stale work blog.