The plumber has been here working on our hot water for the past 7 hours.  No wonder it’s going to be super expensive.  I cannot emphasize the extent to which I look forward to a nice hot shower.  I’m wondering if I will feel start to feel better after getting cleaned up.  Sometimes being dirty AND sick makes you feel sicker than if you were just sick all by itself.

H has stayed home with me today while our plumbing is getting fixed.  He’s been GREAT….entertaining himself while I grade papers and enter grades.  He plays with his trains mostly, and talks to himself, constructing complicated dialogues and relationships between the various trains.

I have some of our clothes packed for our early Saturday morning departure to WV.  The rest of the laundry will have to wait until the plumber is gone.  I have 2 classes to teach tomorrow, one from 2:00-3:15 and another from 3:30-4:45, which is quite possibly the worst time slot for a class right before spring break. A lot of students have already told me that they won’t be coming and I’m sure many more simply won’t show.  I wonder how much effort I should put into tomorrow’s classes.  Maybe I’ll come with some sort of fun group-based game that the students can play…maybe I’ll break out my neuropsychological testing bag of tricks and simply have them screen each other for dementia.  That’s always fun.

Earlier this morning, I had the pleasure of seeing a former colleague.  She is a full clinical psychology professor at my former institution.  Last year, we worked briefly with each other on a translational research project, and she even let me test some of the kids at the local elementary school.  She has 2 elementary-aged kids herself, and she came over this morning to pass down her son’s old clothes, along with age-appropriate games, books, and puzzles.  We had a nice discussion, and she asked me how my current job was going.  I told her that I like it–I like my colleagues, I like (but don’t love) the teaching, but that I am really looking for something more quantitative (and research-based).  I told her that I’m leaving my current position at the end of the year, and I told her about my usability plans.  She then told me that she’s working on a very large grant (which if funded, wouldn’t be ready for another few years).  She asked if I’d like to have a role in the research.  I told her that I’m keeping all options open, and that I would certainly consider it.  Why close any doors?

As far as the usability stuff goes—I’m coming along.  I’ve started a usability blog.  I will share the link here once there’s more to see.  I plan to use it as a springboard for reflecting on things that I read in the field.  It’ll help me get up to speed on some of the issues, techniques, and theories within the field.  I’ve almost finished reading The Handbook of Usability Testing, which is a GREAT book.  The parts about research design and test moderation are familiar to me—the parts about recruiting participants are not.  So, I have a few things to learn in that arena.  I’m starting to get more of a sense of what my contributions could be, and what sorts of things I’d be capable of doing.  I’m learning where the holes in my knowledge are.  That’s pretty important I think—knowing what you don’t know.

OK, time to check on the progress of the plumber.  A hot shower is the perfect capstone experience to this sunny, 18 degree day.