Fall semester is finally over! I have given and graded exams and fielded a few grade complaints and attempts at negotation, as is typical. One person actually wrote asking if there was “anything we could work out.” Let me just answer that with a resounding NO. But let’s move on.

I am so happy that winter break is here! It’s really become my favorite time of year since I’ve been teaching full time. It’s the only break I have from classes (I teach all summer); the weather is finally cool; my birthday and Christmas and New Year’s are all right in a jolly, festive row. What’s not to love?

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Even my Rosemary bush has gotten into the spirit.

I started the break off right with a great birthday date with the guy and then a small get-together at my house the next night. It was great knowing that all of my work-friends were done for the semester as well, and we could all relax. I do love to have a house full of people and food and happy chatter, and so much the better if there are christmas lights, cupcakes, and glasses of champagne and bourbon-spiked nog.

Today was just as festive: I spent the day buying the most luxurous, self-indulgent gift I could think of: two new tires, two new windshield wipers, an oil change, and a wheel alignment. As Donnatella and T-Mobile would say, “TREAT YO SELF.”

I apologize if I already subjected you to that joke on Facebook earlier today. To make up for repeating the same content here, I present you with the TREAT YO SELF video:

Aren’t you glad you saw that? I thought you would be. Honestly, I just completely adore Parks and Rec. It is hands down my favorite comedy right now. I often watch the episodes again during the week while I’m waiting for the new one to come out! My favorites are “The Fight” and “Pawnee Rangers” (the latter of which is the source of “TREAT YO SELF”) (yes, you have to write it in all caps).

And here’s one more little thing for you: while I was stuck in Wal-Mart waiting for them to finish working on my car, I had the time to browse around and inspect pretty much every single item available for sale. While I restrained myself and did not purchase any nail polishes, Justin Bieber posters (seriously, they had like ten versions), or cheaply made granny panties, I couldn’t pass this up:

Yes, a dog sweater for my little Eegs. His fur still hasn’t grown back yet and it’s winter, dammit. Dude needs a sweater; I’m sure you will agree.

UPDATE: As I went to publish this I made the biggest rookie blogging mistake ever! I clicked “update” on the new version of the theme without saving my custom CSS, so now my design is busted. I’d previously widened both the main content column and sidebar, and now when I tried to do that again in the new version, it bumped the sidebar down to the bottom. You can view this problem in action if you look at the main page (individual post pages don’t use the sidebar). I think it’s a margin or padding problem, but I’ve monkeyed with the numbers as much as possible and can’t fix it. I’ll take another look tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, if you have any CSS suggestions, I would be super thankful! CSS is here.

UPDATE AGAIN: I think I (mostly) fixed it! Whew. Google led me to a blog with a tutorial on widening the sidebar, which explained some of the relative width/percentages to me. I’m used to working* in pixels, so percentages threw me off.

*HAHAHAHA, as if I do this often or have any idea what I’m doing at all. So not the case.