That blurring line between work and not work

There've been a lot of articles about how the line between being at work and not at work is blurred due to email, cell phones, constant communication, and in academe, online courses - professors are communicating with students at all hours of the day and night. Here in Wisconsin, it's even brought us UW staff & faculty under some ugly scrutiny by state government auditors - since we feel like we are working all the time, we don't claim our sick & vacation leave enough, and I now have to do an extra "request for absence form" saying how many classes I will miss when I am going to be at a professional conference, even though I will be logging in and teaching my online course while at the conference.

I guess I always thought that the idea was that when you are in the type of job - like college professor - that you have attained because you have spent countless hours getting advanced degrees, in addition to all the time spent getting all those degrees, you are always thinking about your professional concerns, so no amount of hourly pay could ever possibly compensate for all that - hence you are salaried, and should be able to determine which travel and other activities are for work purposes, and which are for pleasure.

Anyways, right now I should be reading the 39 or so more assignments I have to go for my 60-person course, but the assignments are due at midnight; students are handing them in in the online dropbox even as we speak - so it's too depressing - as soon as I do two, the total I have left to do is increased by 3 ... better to do them tomorrow, when I am actually at work!?!

And do my food photography and writing on my "own" time ....

Since I got back from Washington, I tried a recipe from the NYT for strawberry tapioca flamingo. We liked it, but not enough people around to eat all four servings, so two may get tossed.

I also dished up a Farmers Market Foraging Dinner on Saturday:

Bruschetta (grilled bread, rubbed with garlic) topped with chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil
Zucchini marinated in thyme oil and grilled
Grilled Cremini mushroom and red onion skewers
Grilled hot Italian sausage
New gold potato salad with mustard, capers, and mint
Flag Cake