stopping by

Today was a "down" day--no teaching, no real big responsibilities. So I came in to the computer room to do a little searching (more travel coming up!) and then we all got in a pedal boat and pedalled down the River Isis. The kids and Mark tried punting a couple weeks back and decided not to submit themselves to that kind of humiliation again. So today we pedalled instead and it was glorious, simply glorious! It's our last week here and we're trying to fit in all the things we've not done yet...no way we'll get to them all, though.

Becca's post on packing spurred me to think about my own packing needs. I came here for two months with four pairs of shoes: two pairs of sandals (both are casual but can be worn with a skirt), a pair of clogs, and a pair of dress shoes (I have two black tie dinners to go to). No running shoes--I don't run. No walk/don't walk distinction between the shoes, except that I can't really walk far in the dress shoes (I did about half a mile in them--twice--and that was ok, but no further). I haven't worn socks since I've been here, despite occasional temps in the 50s: it's summer, and I don't wear socks in the summer.

I think, however, that both pairs of sandals will be toast at the end of the summer. I've walked two miles a day in them all summer and they are just not quite as nice now as they were at the start. Still, considering that at home I have a shoe rack hanging on my closet door that 1) doesn't hold all my shoes and 2) prevents the door from closing, I feel pretty good about my shoe limitations here.