Yesterday was kind of hosed – it started with 4 advising appointments back to back, the first in-person, so I had to be in the office by 8:00 AM, the rest by phone.
Then I dashed off to a meeting at 11:00 – deadly stuff, HR policies – but they gave us lunch.
I had just enough time to go to Starbuck’s for a coffee – I found myself craving one of their flat whites for the extra richness of the 96% fat free whole milk. It was good, but not as good as when I make one of my stove top espresso maker lattes with good Organic Valley whole milk. But it was free! When I tried to pay, my Starbucks app had logged me out, and while I was fumbling around getting logged back in, the kid at the register said, “It’s OK, I’ve got it”. I thanked him, but not too loudly, since I didn’t want to get him in trouble.
I took my free coffee and marched up Bascom Hill to Bascom Hall, where my next meeting was, where there’s a nice vestibule area, with tall counters, where you can plug in your laptop. This second meeting was pretty deadly too, governance and budget issues, spawned by our evil governor. The 2015 – 17 WI biennial budget not only proposes huge cuts to the University, it also repeals Chapter 36 of the state statutes, which is where tenure for faculty, shared governance – our procedures for involving everyone, faculty, staff, and students, in running the University, the definition of the University itself – is all spelled out.
Got out of the second meeting, strolled back down the hill to get my bike, and made the mistake of going into my office and trying to clean up email. That took about an hour, and made me late enough going home that I scrapped my dinner plans. I was going to make BBQ ribs & tofu, and greens with peanut sauce. I got a small rack of ribs – about 8 bones, in my last pig purchase. Instead, we went to the wood-fired pizza place at the “nice” shopping mall. Which was good, we split a salad and 2 pizzas, three ways. One of the pies had salami, artichokes, and fresh mozzarella, and one sausage and fresh mozzarella – the fresh cheese made bottom crust a bit soggy, but they were still good. I had a small glass of slightly fizzy red wine, Gragnano frizzante – that was good, too. And, this dinner option had the added advantage of being next to the grocery store so I could pick up a bag of food for Megan’s cats.
Espresso pot with cat for scale
