Olives

Today, I am going to be trying to accomplish a helluva lot at the U, in a very short time frame.  It is a jam-packed day:

• I have to get a variety of experimental solutions made for some of my research students.  These are for a couple of new projects I have started with a handful of new UNDERGRADUATE research students.  They need considerably more "hand-holding" than do the graduate students.  But, they are a good bunch.  
• I have to get caught up on a fair amount of grading.  I have approximately 200 papers to read/grade (thankfully, I am smart enough to have only SHORT papers in my bigger classes). I also have to score and analyze an exam I gave in embryology (a smaller sized class).  I am hoping to upload their scores today, if possible.  
• If I can get to it, I should do some writing.
• If I can get to it, I should do some animal husbandry work with my rodents.

Then later in the afternoon, I need to:

• Go to a visitation for a work friend who lost her Mom recently.  Her Mom was in her upper 90s, but it is still always very hard.  
• Another rehearsal tonight before the big gig tomorrow.  I am still nervous as hell about "Excerpts from The Polar Express", and I would like to try to eek out some additional practice time before going to rehearsal tonight.

Tomorrow, before the big "musical gala"... my wife and I are hoping to spend Saturday "dunging out" the house in advanced preparation for the the upcoming Thanksgiving Day Celebration.  If we can get the house up-to-snuff on Saturday, it will make next week.... especially the work-part of the week.... a helluva lot easier and less stressful.  But,  we would also like to swim, and we would like to go to Saturday Mass (if the timing for when I need to show up for the "gala" permits it... which I will learn tonight at rehearsal).  

As far as my pipes go, I am rather at a loss for words.  Hell, that is actually incorrect.... I have too damn many words..... ideas swirl around in my mind all of the time about this.  To even attempt sorting through the back-and-forth, up-and-down, round-and-round thoughts and ideas I have about finding a potential method to, in a regulated fashion, return to  my beautiful pipes and pipe tobaccos..... to get all of these thoughts down….. would likely take hundreds of pages of text. 

But, in a nutshell sort of fashion..... a) I (obviously) very much want to be able to have a pipe or two or more, but b) I am not sure I have the fortitude nor the stamina to maintain a "regulated" approach to pipe smoking…. unless I have actual physical "barriers" to regulate this (such as the trip to a distant city).  If I simply were to say... "Ok, self.... you may have one pipe each month." and it could be at home, or just about anywhere in the day-to-day.... I do not feel confident I would successfully force myself to abide by the rule. I can see myself wanting to whittle down the pipe interval (because, heck, at home it WOULD be incredibly easy to do so) regularly.

I was going to run outside this morning with my headlight as it was 52 degrees F (~11 C), but it was starting to rain.  I just did not feel up to running in the rain and dark.  So, I went to the indoor court (10 miles; ~16km).  

Oh.... why "Olives" you may ask?  It was the first thing that popped into my mind as I was thinking about a potential title.  I absolutely love olives of any shape, style, sort.  If I allowed myself to do so, I could easily eat an entire can/jar/container of olives every day. 

My Mom had told me often over the years, how when I was just a toddler of two years old or so…. when she was introducing me to new foods and new tastes, she was surprised at how at that very young age,  I showed very strong fondness for two foods most kids are at best neutral about or actively dislike:  

Olives..... I still love them to this day.

Cucumbers..... Today, I could easily eat 2 or 3 big cucumbers a day if we had them at home.   

And even though my Mom introduced it to me later (apparently ~4 years old), I also showed a similar, very strong fondness for grapefruit. 

PipeTobacco