Licking the Dog

Its been almost a month since I last posted anything. I was sitting at the computer tonight, reading my pals blogs, and thinking that I needed some non-academic writing time. The past few weeks have been pretty rough. While NOT blogging, I:

• edited a textbook chapter that I had written a year ago. (what a ripoff, textbooks now have a lifespan of about 1 year)
• Finished a poster presentation/paper on GIS and tourism
• Completed a take home test in multivariate data analysis
• Researched recreation specialization theory for my dissertation
• put my pre-tenure review packet together
• Wrote 2 tests for my travel and tourism class
• and advised 20 students for spring 2008

I say all this because I'm pretty bummed that all this boring academic stuff has meant that my NaNoWriMo masterpiece pretty much got put on the back burner. One day, however, my fictional masterpiece about a disgruntled grad student/mom will be unleashed.

Speaking of leashes, I think maybe my maternal instincts are kicking into overload. Yesterday I found myself licking the dog's ear to determine whether or not he'd been pepper sprayed by the mailman. He had this reddish brown spot on his ear - wasn't pepper spray as it turns out - that looked suspicious.

I think I need a break - hooray for Turkey day!