I'd meant to keep a more accurate record of the summer, but I've hardly had a free moment since the start of summer session I. We're about three weeks in, only two more to go. (Pant pant).
Some of the things I meant to write down ---
I went geocaching a couple of weeks ago, and deliberately chose a strenuous hike to find out if it would kill me. Not too strenuous, just down from Lover's Leap at Cameron Park down to LOE's cache down in the ravine and back up again. I survived. It took me quite a while to get back up, but I made it. I think the real trick is managing blood sugar. Not an easy task when I'm exercising. Too little and the muscles starve (including the heart) too much and it reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood and the muscles starve for oxygen (including the heart). I could just lie down and rot, but I'll be d***ed if I'll do that. I've just got to figure out the right combination of water, electrolytes and carbs.
Luke (DrDogg) went along with me on this trip. I like to let him just run in rough territory, but he's such a pain. The minute he sees someone, he runs over and jumps all over them. He's great as long as he's on the leash though. I got about five caches. Not much considering my usual weekend count is 30-40. I'll get back into it soon. I've got to get to 2000 eventually. I've been at 19xx forever.
I did pass 300 hides though, that's something.
Last weekend I went down to Temple to pick up a few caches, and again I took DrDogg with me. He's not that great a companion unless the finds are well away from traffic. Otherwise he takes so much watching that it's hard to do any looking.
The chiggers are wicked this summer. Just a short walk through the grass and you've got dozens of bites. Enough to drive you nuts.
My main accomplishment is the maurer family website,
http://www.TheMaurerFamily.org. I wanted to make it "the web site of the century" and I think I've come pretty close. I registered the domain on a Linux/PHP server with a year's worth of add-free hosting for only $35. I uploaded and activated a number of open source scripts so now we've got a forum, blogging, real-time chatting, picture and file uploads, Wiki, Web mail, an appointment calendar, SMS messaging, a Family tree program, and a pretty cool guest book. We also have the ability to dynamically replace news blurbs about individual family members. I'm experimenting with a few other scripts, but I don't expect too many changes. I don't use the tools myself, I just like getting them to work.
The situation with the foreign students were were trying to admit has resolved itself. We got an exception to admit one, the other's GRE was just too low, but he's going to retake it. Maybe he'll make it the second time around. Class is now at mid-term, that's why I have time for blogging. I get a day off today, because I'm giving an exam, and don't have to prepare a lecture. Preparing lectures for freshmen is a hugely time-consuming process. You have to keep reminding yourself that they don't know anything, you have to explain everything.
Maybe I'll do a little more geocaching tomorrow.
