Random thoughts

• Higher education in Colorado is woefully underfunded, with Colorado ranked #48 among the states for spending per student (spending $3364/student, compared with #1 Wyoming’s $13,425/student). But the public still believes that higher ed got a big chunk of money when Referendum C was passed in 2005, although of the $334 million higher ed was promised, we got only $76 million. Depressing.
• We had a wonderful Father’s Day. Lily and I made a gourmet picnic dinner (potato salad with roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives, goat cheese, and oregano vinaigrette; sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, grilled vegetables, and pesto on ciabatta; mint lemonade) and we all went up to Red Rocks Park for a good part of the day. It was hot in Denver, but breezy and warm at Red Rocks, and butterflies were everywhere. Lily practiced some of her 101 Dalmations lines on stage at the amphitheater.
• My 38th birthday is tomorrow. A month or so ago I had thought I’d throw myself a party, but then after a couple weeks of having a low key summer, a party just seemed like a lot of trouble. With the unbloggable and highly emotionally exhausting events of last week, I am so relieved that I am not having a party tomorrow. But I am still planning to have a huge party when I turn 40.
• I’m reading Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Very snarky in a good way.
• A package I mailed to my sister-in-law on June 4 was supposed to arrive by June 11. It just arrived yesterday, June 16. I will never know what the package did for those extra five days, but I find myself utterly curious. Did it go overseas? Was it stolen and then the thief was overcome by guilt and brought it back? Did a mail carrier just lose it somewhere and it finally turned up? Was there some postal event at one of the stations the package went through that threw off delivery for a few days?
• I found another stash of books in the basement--probably around 60 books. Ugh.

tags: academia  books  education  lily  me  organizing  whatever  

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