I feel like I need to preface these three titles with, "Hey Hubby! This is not a subtweet! They just look interesting."

I love professional conferences. They are a great chance to learn what's happening in my overall industry plus I get to make some connections with people. As  long as there is funding available (either mine or from my institution), I will try to make it to as many conferences as I can. It's one reason I'm always putting in speaking proposals.

As much as I love conferences, I have one major gripe. Now, I want to be clear that I understand that organizers have a tough job. They need to select material and fill a day in a way that satisfies their professional development goals and makes the conference seem like a good deal. But, that usually ends up with a conference day that starts before 9AM.

Can we please stop starting conferences before 9AM? The conference I attended this week, technically, started the day at 7:45AM. Yikes! Most conferences start at 8AM or 8:30AM.

These early start times are problematic on so many levels. First, it excludes locals who likely still need to do daycare/school drop-offs, commute, or take care of work responsibilities. Plus, not everyone can stay at the conference hotel. Some out-of-towners may need to find transportation to the conference location. Next, the time zone change is rough for people travelling between coasts. Sure, an east coaster going west will gain some sleep, but west coasters coming east are going to be running on fumes (if they slept at all). Also, it makes it nearly impossible to fly in the day of the conference. Most folks are going to be forced to come in the day before and pay for a hotel. This is not always easy for those from organizations with limited means.

Finally, if there easiest an opening keynote, those early sessions tend to be sparsely attended. I always make an effort to engage and pay attention to the presenter because they worked just as hard on their material as everyone else. Plus, as someone who has presented in an early morning session, it's hard to talk to a room of people who are still yawning or trying to sneak in breakfast. Plus, the doors make a lot of noise when latecomers open them to sneak in.

So, let's all make a pact to  start our conferences no earlier than 9AM.

I'm in Texas for a conference where the heat index is over 100. The conference rooms, as per usual, are about 62 degrees. I am happy that I had the forethought to bring a pashmina to act as a blanket when I'm inside.

Here's what else was good this week:

• Snack dinner (big hit with the kiddo)
• All my flights were on time
• My hotel room is HUGE (there's a full corner couch!)
• Attending a non-library focused conference
• Metro is running more trains making commuting easy
• Getting to cheer on my colleagues when they get good news
• FaceTime
• Kiddo still adores her little purple hippo stuffy
• Tossed together a veggie pasta dinner with our farm share produce

I read a lot of books with my kiddo. Kid Reads is a biweekly look at what we've enjoyed recently. ​

I get on a plane at 8:30AM tomorrow and I haven't even touched my packing. I should probably get on that...

Here's what I am working on:

1. AGLS Conference Presentation: I'm jointly presenting a session on the scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to general education. We did a brief run through of our session today and talked about where we would let the audience participate. I just need to finalize my bit of notes and make sure I've got everything printed out. Then I need to get ready to head to Austin.
2. Embedded Librarian: We're doing more embedded librarian work this semester. I'm in nine classes and we're starting to get into the meat of the semester. I'm conducting several reviews each week to stay on top of the classes to recommend material related to what the students are working on. I'm also meeting with professors to discuss the live library instruction I can offer. This is more instruction work than we've done for a few years, but it feels great to reach more students.
3. Database Trials: Our library is demoing three different vendor databases and tools right now. I've been sending a lot of messaging trying to get faculty to try them out and send us feedback. I've got one more week to get them to let me know what they think. Of the three, there is one that I think we should definitely make a permanent part of our collection... I just need to get the faculty backup to help make our case for funding.
   

This feels like the most random collection of titles. This is why I love getting lots of book newsletters. You never know what you'll find.

I love it when I discover that I don't have to do something anymore. Cancelled meetings? I'm a fan. Can skip an errand? Awesome. A work project is no longer a thing? Great! Husband takes care of something? Fantastic! I always have plenty to do, so when something gets knocked off my to do list, it's a plus.

One nagging item on my to do list was to figure out why we were paying for two condo insurance policies. About two years ago (that's how long I've been procrastinating this), I discovered a weird charge in our mortgage account. Through a chat with our bank, I learned that it was for insurance. That insurance name did not match the name of the policy I knew we had. So, I put "figure condo insurance out" on my to do list. 

All I would need to do is find both policies, compare them, decide which one to keep, and then cancel the extra one. But, I didn't want to. It just felt like too much adulting.

This week, while reviewing documents with my husband, we realized that the insurance charges in the mortgage account exactly matched the insurance we originally thought we had. The dates were the same; the charges were the same. The only thing that was different was the name. A quick dash to our insurance provider's website showed that the policy was "paid in full." A few more detective clicks and we realized that the "second" insurance we thought we were paying was actually just our only insurance which was directly paid out of our mortgage account. The way our mortgage account named it was different and that's why we thought we had two policies.

So, two years of procrastination and 15 minutes of work yielded a scary item getting knocked off my task list. Love it.

I love working from home when the weather is glorious. I've got the windows open and this room is a perfect 71 degrees and 52% humidity. Plus, I get to hear the birds sing and the breeze blow through the trees. It is the perfect way to end the work week.

Here's what else made me happy:

• "Hermie! Time to wake up!" - what our kiddo said as she started our robot vacuum
• Audibling dinner and making frozen pizza one night
• Having a good chat with my colleagues while we waited out a fire alarm in our building
• Discovering that hand sanitizer is a really good mosquito bite treatment
• Hot coffee
• Letting the kiddo scooter to the new cookie store in our neighborhood
• Talking to students at an orientation event
• Texting with friends 
• Booking my travel for the Library Marketing and Communications Conference

Radiant Sin
Katee Robert

I started reading book four in the Dark Olympus series a few days ago. By this point, I've learned that the series is fairly formulaic. The leads are forced to be together. Then each book has it's own spin on the kind of romance. Finally, all of that is set within a broader narrative of what is happening in the city of Olympus. It's entirely predictable but it works. I will read this series until the very last book.

*Books shared here may be affiliate links for Bookshop.org

Short one this week as our kiddo oh-so-lovingly passed along some common daycare crud to me... just one week before I have to travel for a conference.

Between sniffles, here's what I'm working on.

1. Faculty Promotion Portfolio - This is over (for now) but I spent 20 solid hours writing and gathering evidence for my faculty promotion portfolio. As I mentioned on Friday, it was a HUGE frustration but rewarding in the end.
2. Slide Decks - Never again will I host two webinar series in a semester. One series is about navigating the information landscape directed towards students. The other is our teaching research series for faculty. This is one of the outcomes of our research assignment design project. Faculty are already teaching research and we want to help them do it effectively while relieving some of their teaching burden. Between those sessions and my four conference presentations, I'm living in PowerPoint. I am getting really sick of stock photos.
3. Financial Advisor Prep - We're going to meet with a financial advisor this week. It's our first time so we're doing a lot of prep work. That includes gathering documents and statements, filling out some questionnaires, and trying to figure out what, exactly, we want our money to do.