OT: The up-side of housecleaning

[Duck on Wheels]

Houff! What a job it was washing every nook and cranny, waxing the floors even under and behind the utilities. But the one fun part of emptying out and cleaning the apartment was emptying out the freezer. HAD to finish off that last pint of Babcock Ice Cream (coffee and truffles). Must not waste! Must not waste! ... Oh dear. Did I hear waist? Noooo, nobody said waist, did they?

[crazycanuck]

Umm..i'm not mentioning waist...nope...I'm sure it tasted yummy...

Are you moving or was it just plain old housecleaning???

c

[Duck on Wheels]

Moving. Sabbatical year is over. Two weeks vacation in CA, then back home to Norway. :) Oh, and then meeting in South Africa, class reunion in CA, back to Norway again, meeting in Switzerland, and THEN back to Norway for a couple months stretch before the next meeting (Vancouver in November).

[Trek420]

You see why I said she neeeeeeeds a Bike Friday? :)

[Lise]

You are one peripatetic duck! What an interesting life. Have a great time! I'm so darned glad that the internet is truly the world wide web. And yes, I agree, a Bike Friday seems to be in order! Looking forward to hearing your world-wide adventures. :D L.

[DrBee]

Enjoy your trips and the meetings! And how very mindful of you to not waste the ice cream - with all that cleaning, you earned it anyway :)

And yes - it would appear that you NEED a Bike Friday!

[MomOnBike]

There is no up side to housecleaning.

/grumpiness

[kelownagirl]

I found a housecleaning solution this week - my youngest daughter needs money. I need a clean house. Problem solved. First weekend that the house wasn't a disaster area on Saturday morning so I could ride without feeling guilty. :D Too bad she's moving to Vancouver in a month.... :(

[Bad JuJu]

I found a housecleaning solution this week - my youngest daughter needs money. I need a clean house. Problem solved. First weekend that the house wasn't a disaster area on Saturday morning so I could ride without feeling guilty. :D Too bad she's moving to Vancouver in a month.... :(

Kelownagirl, maybe you can "borrow" someone else's daughter. I recruited a friend's daughter who needed money, and she's been cleaning my house biweekly for a couple of years now.

DH dogs me all the time about paying to have the house cleaned (p.s. he's one of the reasons it's such a chore), but I've gotta say that when I come home in the afternoon and the place is fresh and clean, it's worth every dime. I get to pay a reasonable rate and she gets some much-needed cash--it's a win-win. So start asking your friends if any of their kids need money.:)

[crazycanuck]

Duckdear,

As the end of your sabbatical nears, what was the best part? K...i know the answer is biking but what else????

Is it ok if i ask what your profession is? Prof at a uni?? I can't remember...

c

[Trek420]

cc,

I'll let DD (dear duck) answer the rest but she's in the air right now headed for the left coast and Sonoma for a couple weeks.

Duckless is a Sociology professor.

[Duck on Wheels]

Sorry I've been off line for several days. It's given me time to think about your question tho'. I'd say half a dozen things stand out as high points of the year. In no particular order:
* Driving from San Francisco to LA and back with a van-load of Norwegian grad students, especially the southward drive with my own crew from my new project. I only wish I'd been able to get my Mom to come along as "tour guide" and to visit friends and family. No "ageism" in these two groups, so she'd have been a welcome member of the crowd.
* The progress my project crew has been making in my absence. I was a bit worried about taking off on sabbatical right after starting up a $2 million project, but the folks I've hired are brilliant!
* Being able to make half a dozen visits to California. Mom was going through a house remodel and a sad adjustment to widowhood and it's felt good to be here often and see that she's making it through. I also got to see Trek420 more often than usual, and other family members. Not least at a big wedding (cousin's son) where I met some more distant family I'd never met before ... and of course the cousin's new in-laws.
* Working with a colleague in Madison on a paper. She's also an associate on my big new project. She and I, together with two of our respective grad students, now have a paper just about ready for a conference. I've learned so much from the process and it's been gratifying to see that the project's basic idea is working out.
* Finally getting a clear plan for the book I've been struggling to visualize for 6 years now. I've now got an outline, an order of chapters (mostly already published but will have to be revised), and a draft intro that I've presented at a seminar and got good feedback on. It should now be doable over the next couple of years, even if it's in between teaching and other research work. That was the main goal for the year, although I only got to it in the last couple of months.
* Presenting a paper in Santiago, Chile and later this month presenting another in South Africa -- two countries, two whole continents, I've never visited before. I got two days post-conference to do touristy things in Chile (bus tour to Valparaiso, and wandering about on my own in Santiago). I'll get nearly a week in Durban (better sign up for some outings pdq, they advise against wandering about on ones own).