Couple of minor notes from my world.

The landscapers showed up to start installing the sprinkler sorry, “lawn irrigation system” yesterday and the house is a complete mess. Ray was nearly despondent thinking about how long it’s going to take the grass to grow back over the trenches in the front yard (maybe not as long now that we can water the entire lawn daily without having to think about it?). On the other hand, they cleared out a good chunk of the front flower bed, which is overgrown by ivy, weeds, and the agave plants that are trying to take over everything, so that’s less work for me when I eventually get around to re-doing it.

$250 and half an hour later, I have a new windshield. It even has that über-80′s blue tint streak at the top – I love it! (Seriously. My car has the smallest sunshades in existence and I’ve wanted some sort of tinting up there to block out the afternoon sun.) I need to get my windows tinted, too. Actually, what I need to do is get my oil changed but … well, maybe that’ll be a weekend project.

Natalie and I got our notice this morning that our session has been accepted to the Big Annual Conference in November in San Diego. Yay! We were convinced that our past acceptance rate had to do with the crap-tacular location of the Big Annual Conference and that when it was in a cool location we didn’t have a shot in hell. They even put a little note in the acceptance saying that we had one of the top reviewed proposals and that the overall acceptance rate was less than 40% … I ought to check with some people I know to see if they all say that. But still, San Diego should be fun. I haven’t been there since I was, like, 10.

In the same vein, it turns out that I also get to go to Kilgore, Texas, in a couple of weeks. I’m less excited about that, but it’ll just be an overnight trip. I’m looking forward to the drive, since East Texas is pretty to drive through, and I’m pleased at the opportunity to head out into that part of the state for work since it’s pretty much the definition of “under-served.”

Other than that, it’s a typical Wednesday. Lisa and I have to go to a bogus “Campus Safety Meeting” this morning which should instruct us in absolutely nothing new, but at least it will get me away from the office for a couple of hours …

Tags: cars, conferences, Home, landscaping, lawns, san-diego, Travel