No Title for Thursday

It's hot! It's also quite humid. We ran the air conditioner for a few hours early this afternoon, because it was pretty miserable in here, but the breeze picked up and it's okay now. I managed to finish up my old census binders and got a new one (thank god), so I have work to last me through the weekend! I decided that the best thing to do, since this new binder is not far from my house, is to do the whole route on foot. Great exercise for me, avoids having to park and repark the car, lets me be more thorough in looking for information, and helps me get my hours in as well. I'm saving the planet! These are real houses now, not apartment complexes, so I walked nearly two miles today going to all of them. Man, I was exhausted by the end of it, but I did quite well. I still need eight more hours for the week, but that's really not bad.

Oooh, and I got my first census crazy today! I am not allowed to reveal even the tiniest smidgen of personally identifiable information, but I got a phone call from someone who wanted to get the questionnaire over with, but didn't want to give me much of anything to work with, not even names of people in the household. I am not entirely sure what the rationale was, either. Not having a name on my form is problematic, though, since I don't know how it will be categorized without one. After the call, I spent about five seconds on Google, mostly out of curiosity, and found most of the information the person did not want to give out. It's not like much of anything we ask on the Census is super-private information, after all, despite the fact that we are quite careful with it. I can't put anything I learned on the form, but the point is, it seems kind of silly to be so worried and paranoid when the information is right there. I think the media is making way more of the Census than is really there.

Let's see, other news. Oh! M had a meeting with his department head today at the school where he teaches, and he has a job for the fall! He'll be teaching a class online, which should be pretty neat. The teaching gig doesn't pay much at all, but every little bit helps, and it's really great for his resume. Teaching European History and teaching online will look really good when he's job hunting. We celebrated that good fortune and the arrival of my first paycheck by eating dinner off the less-than-$1 menu at Taco Bell, which had the happy side effect of keeping the oven off and the house cooler. I really like their Beefy Five-Layer Burrito, yum!

There is also a new Robert video up today on Vimeo. You can find it by clicking here. I think it's honestly the cutest one I've uploaded so far. It hasn't been easy to catch Robert smiling and laughing, but he surely does love playing with his daddy!