There Goes Thursday

Normally Thursday is my "day off" by which I mean I can try to work on my research or update my CV or lie on the floor staring at the ceiling or whatever else needs to be done to keep me sane on a weekday.

This afternoon I have to proctor a midterm for a colleague. I had a choice: I could give the midterm today or teach about vector fields tomorrow. And I have to do stuff around the house to prepare for my parents' short notice visit.

On one hand I'm going to do the passive-agressive thing (heavy on the passive) and not clean the bathroom. It is super-nasty, and any good daughter would clean the bathroom. But it is so nasty and my mom is such a neat freak that even if I cleaned to the best of my abilities it still wouldn't be up to her standards and she would accuse me of not cleaning and then re-clean it herself. So I shall not bother.

And I also have to go to the hardware store so that I can buy screws so that I can install shades on the guest room windows. I had hoped to put up the shades after reinstalling and painting the window trim, but my trim-painting is way behind schedule. But this I will do.

Previous houseguest was a homeless relative who showed up on the porch one day this spring without notice, so he did not get any special consideration in terms of house-cleaning and shade-installing. He stayed for a week helping out with home improvement projects and hogging the computer to work on his web page. Yes, the homeless have web pages; I'd link to it, but he's obsessive about checking his stats, and I don't want him finding this. (If you're really curious, email me, and I might send you the link.) He then was given bus fare to another city and sent on his way. (He's living with another relative now.)

I prefer visits from my parents, but I'd like them even better if they weren't so exhausting.