At the end of the school year, both my desks typically look like something even a hardcore hoarder would consider excessive and in need of an intervention.

On my desk at school I’ve got student assignments I plan to keep as future examples for future students; student assignments I need to give back to current students; and student assignments that need to be shredded and burned.

I’ve also got stacks of leftover worksheets and folders full of final exam rough drafts.

On my desk at home, I’ve got stacks of notebooks that are currently in use; stacks of notebooks that have been used but need to be photographed and reviewed; and stacks of notebooks, some of which arrived only today, that need to be used to that they can be added to the stack of used notebooks that need to be photographed and reviewed.

Somewhere in the piles are pens that need to be reviewed, pens that need to be sold and bottles of ink that need a new home. There are also random bits of electronics, old batteries, and a cup full of pens.

Eventually, once the school year is over, all this will be cleaned and organized. Well, most of it anyway.

The last stack is a mobile procrastination stack of various forms of work that, in theory, is intended to shame me into finishing the projects. However, they stack too easily and that makes them too easy to move out of the way.

As it is my signature Japanese dish, sort of, I had planned to make gumbo today. There were, however, some complications.

Recently, I discovered that an online store had a version of andouille sausage and that got me thinking about gumbo. I ordered the sausage and mentioned to She Who Must Be Obeyed that I was not only in the mood for gumbo but in the mood to cook it. Then, today, when I planned to cook it, She Who Must Be Obeyed sat down at her computer and started looking up recipes. I kept assuring her that I already had a recipe but she kept researching researching and telling me things I already knew.

Because of this, the gumbo never got made.

As I pondered and pouted, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually know SWMBO when I first made gumbo with my adult class. She didn’t join until after that and I don’t remember her being at the festival where I made it for the town. As a result, she may have never actually had gumbo.

Now it’s a moral imperative that I make it If she likes it, she’ll start making it herself. If the doesn’t like, well, at least I’ll get to eat it.

I woke up early, as if I had to go to work early, but then got to relax when it was clear the marathon hadn’t been cancelled. Granted, this is kind of complicated.

Despite Thursday being the only snowy day since last November, nothing stuck and nothing froze so my students got to enjoy a nice run in sunshine, whilst I got to enjoy hunting in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, on the school website, this is indicated by an announcement that nothing has changed. It doesn’t announce the marathon is a go, it just says that whatever the schedule is, nothing has changed. As a result, we, the foreign staff, exchange a lot of direct messages to confirm what is and is not going on.

I went down to Kingdom Note to pick up a bottle of ink for a customer and, oddly, not buy anything for myself. I did, however, look around a bit before running away as swiftly as possible.

That short adventure was followed by shoe hunting. (Note: I could have ordered the ink, and paid shipping, but since I needed shoes, I decided to make it Daddy’s Day (few hours) Out.

Because shoes my size are both rare and expensive here in Japan–my weight loss allows me to buy clothes, not shoes—there are only a few ways to for me to buy shoes: import, at a price, or trek down to Tokyo and hunt at a shoe store in Gotanda that specializes in non-Japanese sized shoes. At a price.

Of course, they didn’t have exactly what I was looking for, but I did find something and it cost less than a small car.

The main problem with being able to track deliveries is that, despite what the software tells you, you’re still subject to the vagaries of the delivery service.

I’d planned to go out today, but had to wait for a delivery. As fate would have it, the delivery (a new printer) didn’t arrive until the evening. Of course, if I’d decided to go out, I would have been greeted on my return by a note saying I’d missed the delivery. (Yes, I am convinced that the delivery man is watching me.)

When the delivery finally came it was actually two deliveries–I’d ordered something this morning that arrived the same day. However, by then I didn’t have the energy to 1) disconnect and move my old printer; 2) connect and install the new printer and 3) figure out what the heck to do with the old printer.

Instead the new printer is sitting in the living room taunting me. (Yes, I’m convinced it is taunting me.)

Tomorrow, I plan to finally go out. If the printer lets me.

We all stayed home today, which was kind of fun, but we were all lazy. Well, technically I worked, but I didn’t move much.

With our oldest down with the flu but every now and then she wakes up to eat a little food and huff a bunch of Relenza from a device that looks like it should be holding mints.

Luckily, this evening I had to tell her three times to go to bed and all of those were met with a grunted “uhyah” which is her way of simultaneously acknowledging and rejecting the instruction and calling the instructor an idiot. That said, she went to bed pretty quickly, which means she’s not 100% yet.

I spent the day finishing final marks and putting off writing recommendations. (I don’t enjoy writing formal letters, especially when other people’s futures rely on it. More on that in a future post.) I was busy, but didn’t have to move very far.

Our youngest didn’t do much. She Who Must Be Obeyed did some running and got mad at our youngest for not doing much.

Tomorrow I have a little work to do (or to put off) and then I’ll be done with my university classes. If we’re all home together again, it could be interesting.