Hello.
THE CONCERT WAS POSTPONED UNTIL AUGUST WHEN I CAN'T GO, GODDAM THEM TO HELL!!!!!!!!
Okay. I'm done with that.
All that's left is for me to read and grade my grad student precis/biblios. Blech. How much to comment? How to grade? It feels like this will be a kind of "do it" grade. I will evaluate how far they are in their research at this point, but I will save the majority of my evaluation for the final paper. It's just a matter of sitting down and actually reading them, ya know?
TD is going through a rough time. He's trying to get ready to come to be with me for a long, lovely time, but he's also stressing a bit. And he's having 2 family crises at once, which is no fun. I wish I could do something to help him, but all I can do is be there for him, so here I am. One fabulous thing is that we seem to have made it through our first long-distance year going strong and I'm insanely grateful for that.
I have a weird rash underneath my wedding band. Seriously, it's red and dry and itchy and when I take the ring off, there's something that looks like a burn in the place where the ring was. Has anyone ever had this from a ring that they wear and never take off? I've cleaned the ring and I've put lotion on the area, but it doesn't seem to be going away. Now I'm not wearing the ring and it's still puffy and red. The ring's gold and I've had it for 3 years, so it's not an allergic reaction to the metal...
Any advice, jewelry hounds?
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Random Bits of Fluff - Spring Break Edition
I leave for Chez Dutchman tomorrow and I have many things to do before then. Here's my life in no particular order:
1) Finished the conference paper I'm giving next weekend. Why am I not worried about this paper? Why am I so chill about it? It's not an *awesome* paper - in fact, it's the inaugural run of my "methodology" chapter of my book. I.e., I intend to stand up and say (slightly paraphrased):
2) I will be going from where it is warmish and sunny to the middle of the Arctic Circle.
3) I will bring exams with me to grade - so far they're disheartening. I'm not sure these kids are taking in anything I'm saying.
4) TD will be here at the end of next month for 4 months - and maybe more if he can take his sabbatical in the fall! I would love that b/c for me, the fall is the hardest time of the job market and if we are both going out, it would be great to spend the fall commiserating in person rather than on the phone.
5) I just ordered a pizza from Domino's online and they have a Pizza Tracker. My pizza is now in the "prep" stage. Weird and slightly cool.
6) I have to clean, do laundry, pack, get cat litter, pack all my conference, grading and teaching stuff (so I can plan classes during next week - what else am I going to do in the snow??).
7) My pizza is now in the "bake" stage!!!
1) Finished the conference paper I'm giving next weekend. Why am I not worried about this paper? Why am I so chill about it? It's not an *awesome* paper - in fact, it's the inaugural run of my "methodology" chapter of my book. I.e., I intend to stand up and say (slightly paraphrased):
"Here's how I'm re-reading (to an extent) this pertinent historical phenom. and here are 2 literary examples of what I mean. Do you buy it?"And then they will say "yay" or "nay" I assume. But I'm not worried about it! I usually worry a lot! Perhaps I'm getting my academic sea-legs? Perhaps I have confidence in my project? Nah.....
2) I will be going from where it is warmish and sunny to the middle of the Arctic Circle.
3) I will bring exams with me to grade - so far they're disheartening. I'm not sure these kids are taking in anything I'm saying.
4) TD will be here at the end of next month for 4 months - and maybe more if he can take his sabbatical in the fall! I would love that b/c for me, the fall is the hardest time of the job market and if we are both going out, it would be great to spend the fall commiserating in person rather than on the phone.
5) I just ordered a pizza from Domino's online and they have a Pizza Tracker. My pizza is now in the "prep" stage. Weird and slightly cool.
6) I have to clean, do laundry, pack, get cat litter, pack all my conference, grading and teaching stuff (so I can plan classes during next week - what else am I going to do in the snow??).
7) My pizza is now in the "bake" stage!!!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Random Bits of Fluff - Christmas Edition
I have a post coming on teaching writing, but I haven't the stamina for it at the moment. Here's what's what....
1) Mountain Escape was wonderful - we ate awesome food (risotto with gorgonzola and radicchio!) and shopped 'til we dropped (literally: I stumbled several times under the weight of my bags).
2) Sappy bullet point: TD and I love being together. It's so lovely to be walking along and turn and see him walking there, too. And now for the really sappy moment: I was reminded often this past few days of that Journey song that goes:
You should fill in the soulful guitar at the appropriate moments.
3) We must go out for another shopping excursion today, then it will all be done. Ho, Ho, Ho.
4) I need to finish writing this damned article! I've got one last section to add in (I found some helpful articles that will provide a good counterpoint to my argument. But I have to write that tidbit up and pop it in there. And then write a conclusion.
5) When TD is here, he cleans out the catbox for me.
6) I did not get the summer grant I applied for, but I need to write up 2-3 more little grant apps within the next few weeks.
7) And I need to write up my first graduate syllabus. Whee!
8) But now I need to eat breakfast. At noon.
1) Mountain Escape was wonderful - we ate awesome food (risotto with gorgonzola and radicchio!) and shopped 'til we dropped (literally: I stumbled several times under the weight of my bags).
2) Sappy bullet point: TD and I love being together. It's so lovely to be walking along and turn and see him walking there, too. And now for the really sappy moment: I was reminded often this past few days of that Journey song that goes:
"Being apart ain't easy on this love affair.
Two strangers learn to fall in love again.
I get the joy of rediscovering you...
Oh [TD], you stand by me.
I'm forever yours...faithfully!"
You should fill in the soulful guitar at the appropriate moments.
3) We must go out for another shopping excursion today, then it will all be done. Ho, Ho, Ho.
4) I need to finish writing this damned article! I've got one last section to add in (I found some helpful articles that will provide a good counterpoint to my argument. But I have to write that tidbit up and pop it in there. And then write a conclusion.
5) When TD is here, he cleans out the catbox for me.
6) I did not get the summer grant I applied for, but I need to write up 2-3 more little grant apps within the next few weeks.
7) And I need to write up my first graduate syllabus. Whee!
8) But now I need to eat breakfast. At noon.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
R.B.O.F. - Random Bits of Fluff
1) Okay - Julian kind of rocked today. I take all the credit, of course. I did seriously revamp my years' old notes and it seems to have put the spark of life into that stale, old lecture. Can we keep the momentum going?? Hmmmmm....
2) I'm endeavoring to eat healthier because.....because....because I need to lose weight! OKAY. There. I've said it...trauma..... Anyway, my doc and I are working together on it. I'm so ashamed of my eating habits - and I have to keep track of them so that she can advise me better nutritionally. So, I'll write something down and then qualify it to the hilt. It looks something like this:
Day One:
*and we all know that "with Mogwai, comes great responsibility."
Sigh.
3) I'm on a search committee this year and I need to start reading the applications before we get 90 of them and I can't ever read them all before the First Vetting. I am excited about seeing what other applications look like, which will leave me feeling either pretty darn good about where I fit in last year or in the fetal position under the conference room table thanking the gods that I actually, barely managed to get a job...
4) I just freaked out on a phone solicitor. I'm not proud of this because I know they're all highschool and college kids trying to earn beer money. But I hate it when you pick up (my caller ID works only sporadically and TD's number shows up with the same tag as the sales calls) and you say "Hello??" five times while the automatic dialing thing relays the call to the human. And then you hear people talking in the background and finally you hear the person saying, "Um, is this...uh...Midweevil Oman?" GRRRRR! So, this time the human was apparently talking to his pals in the background and wasn't expecting his quarry to pick up and not immediately hang up the phone in disgust. I actually heard someone say, "Dude, so, what're we doin' tonight???"
Then I snapped and screamed into the phone - "If you're going to call and annoy someone, at least answer the goddam phone right away, JEEZUS!" (*slam!*) Of course, this impotent bit of raging will have no effect whatsoever on how many of these things I get. I need to get on that "Do Not Call List" thingy...
2) I'm endeavoring to eat healthier because.....because....because I need to lose weight! OKAY. There. I've said it...trauma..... Anyway, my doc and I are working together on it. I'm so ashamed of my eating habits - and I have to keep track of them so that she can advise me better nutritionally. So, I'll write something down and then qualify it to the hilt. It looks something like this:
Day One:
12 Coke Zeros (but they're sugar-free, and that's good, right?)
Salad with blue cheese dressing (but it's *homemade* blue cheese dressing! No preservatives! And I only use a dollop....a big dollop, but only one dollop...)
Bag of popcorn (late night munchies - does it count after midnight? Am I like a Mogwai* in this respect??)
*and we all know that "with Mogwai, comes great responsibility."
Sigh.
3) I'm on a search committee this year and I need to start reading the applications before we get 90 of them and I can't ever read them all before the First Vetting. I am excited about seeing what other applications look like, which will leave me feeling either pretty darn good about where I fit in last year or in the fetal position under the conference room table thanking the gods that I actually, barely managed to get a job...
4) I just freaked out on a phone solicitor. I'm not proud of this because I know they're all highschool and college kids trying to earn beer money. But I hate it when you pick up (my caller ID works only sporadically and TD's number shows up with the same tag as the sales calls) and you say "Hello??" five times while the automatic dialing thing relays the call to the human. And then you hear people talking in the background and finally you hear the person saying, "Um, is this...uh...Midweevil Oman?" GRRRRR! So, this time the human was apparently talking to his pals in the background and wasn't expecting his quarry to pick up and not immediately hang up the phone in disgust. I actually heard someone say, "Dude, so, what're we doin' tonight???"
Then I snapped and screamed into the phone - "If you're going to call and annoy someone, at least answer the goddam phone right away, JEEZUS!" (*slam!*) Of course, this impotent bit of raging will have no effect whatsoever on how many of these things I get. I need to get on that "Do Not Call List" thingy...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Random Bits of Fluff
Arrived home today after a weekend with friend and Medieval Pop et al. It was a very nice weekend, but I'm happy to be home! I took a 4 hour nap today and I'm still tired and going to bed momentarily. Medieval Pop got me a totally beautiful onyx pendant with little diamonds around it. I'm stunned and how good he is at picking out jewelry! And the Dutchman ordered flowers for my birthday to be sent to MP's place - almost as nice as having him there. I will see him this Friday when he flies into town for our 2-year wedding anniversary!!
Tomorrow, I need to:
1) Take Furball #2 in for her periodic urinalysis and bloodwork - we must make sure her one kidney is doing well. I'm always terrified for the time when the tests won't come back okay, but I'll take it as it comes.
2) Write a mid-term for Wednesday's class.
3) Work on my article more, which is now due in early January.
4) Go to the weekly meeting of The Activity.
5) Scoop the cat box. Actually, I'll do that now...
Aren't you glad you read 'til then end?? :)
Tomorrow, I need to:
1) Take Furball #2 in for her periodic urinalysis and bloodwork - we must make sure her one kidney is doing well. I'm always terrified for the time when the tests won't come back okay, but I'll take it as it comes.
2) Write a mid-term for Wednesday's class.
3) Work on my article more, which is now due in early January.
4) Go to the weekly meeting of The Activity.
5) Scoop the cat box. Actually, I'll do that now...
Aren't you glad you read 'til then end?? :)
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Random Tidbits of Fluff...
I have had a thoroughly productive weekend! First, I went to the grocery store and have bought the ingredients for a big batch of mushroom risotto and spaghetti, both of which will warm up nicely for lunches. Also, Advisor brought a bottle of wine and a lovely boule of country bread with her from a bakery in Grad School City, so I bought some roast beef and jarlsburg cheese for sandwiches. I already feel like I'm detoxing!
Advisor's visit was truly fun - she's very low maintenance and completely understand if my need to work and plan classes this weekend. After all, she's the one who was goading me to maintain a work ethic all these years - I think she was secretly pleased when I said I needed to do work. I met some of her old friends and then last night we watched "Hannibal" on TNT and laughed at all the gross parts. We also talked a bit more about my project - I told her I needed to work up my book proposal and she looked at me quizzically and said, "You already have one!" - "That two page thing I used for the job market??" I asked. "What else???" she laughed. I guess I just need to send the thing out...
Also, I got accepted to the small but totally germane to my project conference I'd applied to and finally finsihed and submitted my proposal to the NCS 2008 conference (and not a moment too soon I might add). I'm trying to stick to 2 conferences this year and only proposing things that directly relate to my book. Finally all the grant apps and paper abstracts are in - woo-hoo!
I also spent practically the whole day doing The Activity - at first I was resentful about the rehearsal time, but I actually enjoyed it - it was like my panicky, tenure-track-addled brain could shut off for 8 hours.
I'm trying so hard not to get over-excited about TD's job opportunity close-by. I'm still applying for the position at Dutchman U and we're still keeping our eyes open for other positions together - we're pursuing all options until one of us signs on the dotted line! But I feel at peace about our situation for the first time in several years (not about things between us - that's always been fine - but about when we could move forward with our lives together). I realize how lucky we would end up being if this works out...and then I deliberately think of something else...
And last but not least: should I buy a gorgeous cashmere sweater that I saw? It's black and exquisite...
Advisor's visit was truly fun - she's very low maintenance and completely understand if my need to work and plan classes this weekend. After all, she's the one who was goading me to maintain a work ethic all these years - I think she was secretly pleased when I said I needed to do work. I met some of her old friends and then last night we watched "Hannibal" on TNT and laughed at all the gross parts. We also talked a bit more about my project - I told her I needed to work up my book proposal and she looked at me quizzically and said, "You already have one!" - "That two page thing I used for the job market??" I asked. "What else???" she laughed. I guess I just need to send the thing out...
Also, I got accepted to the small but totally germane to my project conference I'd applied to and finally finsihed and submitted my proposal to the NCS 2008 conference (and not a moment too soon I might add). I'm trying to stick to 2 conferences this year and only proposing things that directly relate to my book. Finally all the grant apps and paper abstracts are in - woo-hoo!
I also spent practically the whole day doing The Activity - at first I was resentful about the rehearsal time, but I actually enjoyed it - it was like my panicky, tenure-track-addled brain could shut off for 8 hours.
I'm trying so hard not to get over-excited about TD's job opportunity close-by. I'm still applying for the position at Dutchman U and we're still keeping our eyes open for other positions together - we're pursuing all options until one of us signs on the dotted line! But I feel at peace about our situation for the first time in several years (not about things between us - that's always been fine - but about when we could move forward with our lives together). I realize how lucky we would end up being if this works out...and then I deliberately think of something else...
And last but not least: should I buy a gorgeous cashmere sweater that I saw? It's black and exquisite...
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
State of the Medieval Woman Union...
We have downgraded to MedWomCon Level 2 - "Guardedly Optimistic with a Side of Slightly Cynical"
First off, I have finally killed the junky asshole mosquito who has been biting me for 2 days. It bit me on the sole of my left foot, dammit! Who the hell ever heard of that?? But, he has gone the way of the dodo. And I did the savage dance of joy when he went down.
I also have found a new, local, totally extra-curricular, non-university related Activity (taking the nomenclature from dearest Hilaire) - it's not the same Activity as Hilaire's former Activity, but it's fun and it's 2 hours every Tuesday night and during said Activity I can think about nothing but the task at hand (i.e., no fretting about work, teaching, etc.) And it's done with other people and there's no TV involved. I feel like such a joiner - I love it!
TD and I have planned a trip to the mountains nearby in December - it's only for 3 days, but I am inexplicably giddy about it! It will be a totally decadent trip - we're staying in hands down the most gorgeous Bed and Breakfast I've ever laid eyes on and in one of their poshest, most glorious rooms. They have scone french toast, peeps! I'm all aglow. And the locale we're visiting is lovely and will be so beautiful around Christmas time. I envision much staring at the fire, walking in the woods, sitting out on the porch with Christmas lights twinkling and hot cocoa. Siiiiiigh. I feel relaxed just thinking about it. I think this will keep me going through this long semester!
Now, I must plan class for tomorrow and eat sour gummy worms.
First off, I have finally killed the junky asshole mosquito who has been biting me for 2 days. It bit me on the sole of my left foot, dammit! Who the hell ever heard of that?? But, he has gone the way of the dodo. And I did the savage dance of joy when he went down.
I also have found a new, local, totally extra-curricular, non-university related Activity (taking the nomenclature from dearest Hilaire) - it's not the same Activity as Hilaire's former Activity, but it's fun and it's 2 hours every Tuesday night and during said Activity I can think about nothing but the task at hand (i.e., no fretting about work, teaching, etc.) And it's done with other people and there's no TV involved. I feel like such a joiner - I love it!
TD and I have planned a trip to the mountains nearby in December - it's only for 3 days, but I am inexplicably giddy about it! It will be a totally decadent trip - we're staying in hands down the most gorgeous Bed and Breakfast I've ever laid eyes on and in one of their poshest, most glorious rooms. They have scone french toast, peeps! I'm all aglow. And the locale we're visiting is lovely and will be so beautiful around Christmas time. I envision much staring at the fire, walking in the woods, sitting out on the porch with Christmas lights twinkling and hot cocoa. Siiiiiigh. I feel relaxed just thinking about it. I think this will keep me going through this long semester!
Now, I must plan class for tomorrow and eat sour gummy worms.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Random Update
So, I haven't been trapped under a large piece of furniture - I just haven't been at all in a blogging mood for over a week. Maybe it's because the semester has begun and I've been launched into an odyssey of trying to balance work and teaching (more on how to do this later...if I figure it out at all...). Also, TD has been in town and I've been spending my time swinging between total happiness in having back my domestic bliss and arguing about all kinds of things (welcome to the world of "long-distance luv"). This most recently consisted of us talking about adding TD to my bank account (i.e., making it a joint acct.) when (not if) we move back together. He said he also thought it would be nice if we had a joint acct. and then separate individual ones. Of course I flipped out and read all this as him not trusting me with his money, wanting to keep things secret, etc. I know, I know...paging Dr. Overreaction. Other than that, we've been spending some time with my new colleague friends (who are lovely and delightful) and watching a lot of TV (which is no different from what I usually do).
So, here's he deal. We looked at TD's joblist (the beginnings of which are being posted) this afternoon and two of the local universities are hiring in his field! These are extremely good schools and I'm hoping that another one is also going to be hiring (one that is very comparable to where he is now). But, this bodes well and I would like to request that my bloggy friends please keep all appendages crossed for us! I know that these are only job ads and that there's still a long row to hoe, but at least there are local openings.
Other bits of random fluff:
1) I have Santa Claus in one of my classes. He's a spherically-shaped older student (much older than me) and he has the tendency to "ho-ho-ho" at my lame jokes. We'll see how the semester shapes up, but I have the feeling that he has my two front teeth and I want 'em back by Christmas, dammit!
2) They clapped when I chanted Old English.
3) I have purchased a water fountain for the Furballs - TD thinks this is crazy, but I've noticed that they've been drinking more. Since we moved in, they've been drinking out of the bathtub because it drips. So, the fountain (a.k.a. our "water feature") is meant to interest them in a healthier way. But they're so cute they go up and bat at the water a little with their paws and then drink a little. TD says it sounds like an old man taking a leak.
4) I have two conference abstracts to write this weekend, but I bet only one of them gets done (the other isn't due for a month).
5) I met with my first grad student yesterday and it was fun - I'll be advising part of their thesis.
That's pretty much all the news that's fit to blog! My life continues on at break-neck exciting speed!
So, here's he deal. We looked at TD's joblist (the beginnings of which are being posted) this afternoon and two of the local universities are hiring in his field! These are extremely good schools and I'm hoping that another one is also going to be hiring (one that is very comparable to where he is now). But, this bodes well and I would like to request that my bloggy friends please keep all appendages crossed for us! I know that these are only job ads and that there's still a long row to hoe, but at least there are local openings.
Other bits of random fluff:
1) I have Santa Claus in one of my classes. He's a spherically-shaped older student (much older than me) and he has the tendency to "ho-ho-ho" at my lame jokes. We'll see how the semester shapes up, but I have the feeling that he has my two front teeth and I want 'em back by Christmas, dammit!
2) They clapped when I chanted Old English.
3) I have purchased a water fountain for the Furballs - TD thinks this is crazy, but I've noticed that they've been drinking more. Since we moved in, they've been drinking out of the bathtub because it drips. So, the fountain (a.k.a. our "water feature") is meant to interest them in a healthier way. But they're so cute they go up and bat at the water a little with their paws and then drink a little. TD says it sounds like an old man taking a leak.
4) I have two conference abstracts to write this weekend, but I bet only one of them gets done (the other isn't due for a month).
5) I met with my first grad student yesterday and it was fun - I'll be advising part of their thesis.
That's pretty much all the news that's fit to blog! My life continues on at break-neck exciting speed!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Random Bits of Deep Fried Fluff (With a Side of Chili Cheese Fries)...
Why fight the random? Accept the random. Own the random. Flaunt the random.
1) S'okay. After what can only be described as a huge snafu with Steve Madden where I bought two pairs of my favorite ballet flats for $19.99 a pop (down from $69.95 people!) and the frickin' shipping label came off and so the shipping people sent it back to Steve Madden who then promptly re-stocked them, I became cross with the lady on the telephone. It wasn't pretty and I'm not proud of badgering the poor woman, but these shoes are massively on clearance and I have the most common frickin' ladies' shoe size on the planet! I can't bear to think of how close I came to NOT getting these. Fortunately, she found the pairs in stock (barely) and they're re-sending them at no cost to moi. I think I must have made her tear up a bit (probably because I was frothing at the mouth and expressing my ardent incredulity about why they re-stocked the clearance shoes rather than simply slapping a new label on the box and sending it out again. I mean, I purchased them - so I must want them, yes?). Anyhoo, because of the mental anguish I suffered during this 10 minute conversation (when I thought those red patent leather beauties had slipped through my talons), she offered to give me 20% off of my next Steve Madden purchase. Now, that's not cold hard cash, but it's better than a kick in the head. And I am a fan...
So, my question to the blogosphere: I need to have these in my closet, yes?
They're plum. Suede. With a kicky little bow. They would be $56. The other shoes are seriously the most comfy things I've ever had on my feet. Must make them mine, yes? Please, no tough love. How about if I wait for my first paycheck? (These aren't on clearance and aren't going anywhere I hope)...
2) In order to get a driver's license in this state, I have to re-take the written exam. The last time I took this test was 18 years ago. I'm sure that traffic law has been revolutionized since those Dark Ages, but why I gotta take it again? Groan. It will be me and 35 barely post-pubescent boys who smell like Clearasil and fear.
3) This year, I will be making more money than I've ever made in my life. And I'll also be poorer I think - there are so many bills. Bills that used to be shared with the Dutchling. Bills that know where I live and that will come and haul me off if I don't pay them. Bills....damn Direct Loans for giving me all that money. (This observation in no way negates the urgent necessity expressed in Bit of Fluff #1)
4) Tomorrow I have vowed (by Grapthar's Hammer for those Galaxy Quest fans) that I will begin writing the *Article* - I will write something, even if it's just the title and a bunch of random words strung together (Lemming! Gartersnake! Ratchet! Flagellate! Pogo stick!). Updates regularly.
1) S'okay. After what can only be described as a huge snafu with Steve Madden where I bought two pairs of my favorite ballet flats for $19.99 a pop (down from $69.95 people!) and the frickin' shipping label came off and so the shipping people sent it back to Steve Madden who then promptly re-stocked them, I became cross with the lady on the telephone. It wasn't pretty and I'm not proud of badgering the poor woman, but these shoes are massively on clearance and I have the most common frickin' ladies' shoe size on the planet! I can't bear to think of how close I came to NOT getting these. Fortunately, she found the pairs in stock (barely) and they're re-sending them at no cost to moi. I think I must have made her tear up a bit (probably because I was frothing at the mouth and expressing my ardent incredulity about why they re-stocked the clearance shoes rather than simply slapping a new label on the box and sending it out again. I mean, I purchased them - so I must want them, yes?). Anyhoo, because of the mental anguish I suffered during this 10 minute conversation (when I thought those red patent leather beauties had slipped through my talons), she offered to give me 20% off of my next Steve Madden purchase. Now, that's not cold hard cash, but it's better than a kick in the head. And I am a fan...
So, my question to the blogosphere: I need to have these in my closet, yes?
They're plum. Suede. With a kicky little bow. They would be $56. The other shoes are seriously the most comfy things I've ever had on my feet. Must make them mine, yes? Please, no tough love. How about if I wait for my first paycheck? (These aren't on clearance and aren't going anywhere I hope)...
2) In order to get a driver's license in this state, I have to re-take the written exam. The last time I took this test was 18 years ago. I'm sure that traffic law has been revolutionized since those Dark Ages, but why I gotta take it again? Groan. It will be me and 35 barely post-pubescent boys who smell like Clearasil and fear.
3) This year, I will be making more money than I've ever made in my life. And I'll also be poorer I think - there are so many bills. Bills that used to be shared with the Dutchling. Bills that know where I live and that will come and haul me off if I don't pay them. Bills....damn Direct Loans for giving me all that money. (This observation in no way negates the urgent necessity expressed in Bit of Fluff #1)
4) Tomorrow I have vowed (by Grapthar's Hammer for those Galaxy Quest fans) that I will begin writing the *Article* - I will write something, even if it's just the title and a bunch of random words strung together (Lemming! Gartersnake! Ratchet! Flagellate! Pogo stick!). Updates regularly.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
The Pictures
Sisyphus was wondering what our little alien spacecraft/grill looks like - here are a couple of pictures!
(the aliens had already disembarked before we fired it up...)
AND, because the hits just keep on coming, here is a picture of our new furniture delivered this morning:
Whaddya think? I still need to get a living room rug to "tie the whole room together" (to quote Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski) - I'm thinking of a natural fiber woven rug - maybe sisal. And my mom's bringing out some pictures in early August one of which will be hung over the couch.
Sorry not much more of substance - got the new HP book today but still need to finish re-reading the previous one. We're going to go wash our filthy car!
(the aliens had already disembarked before we fired it up...)AND, because the hits just keep on coming, here is a picture of our new furniture delivered this morning:
Whaddya think? I still need to get a living room rug to "tie the whole room together" (to quote Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski) - I'm thinking of a natural fiber woven rug - maybe sisal. And my mom's bringing out some pictures in early August one of which will be hung over the couch.
Sorry not much more of substance - got the new HP book today but still need to finish re-reading the previous one. We're going to go wash our filthy car!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Random Bits O' Fluff
Haven't felt much like posting lately - just trying to get everything together and unpacked so that TD and I can relax a bit before he leaves on Tuesday (*sob!*). Here's my life in those oh-so-enticing bullet points. On second thought, I want to call these little morsels something more palatable than bullet points. How about canapes? Hors d'ouevres? Basically, this is my life in the yummy finger-food form of your choice...
1) We have unpacked my office up at school, hung pictures, etc. It took us from 8pm to midnight last night. I had 9 very heavy boxes of books and files and I had to raid the construction zone around the building next door to my department to get a wheelbarrow to take 3 boxes at a time up to my office. Yep, a dirty wheelbarrow (actually it only had some dried cement in the bottom). I was trying to look very casual as I burgled but I'm not sure it worked - I got a lot of strange looks. Especially because my department is in a new and very nice building. But, there wasn't any detritus trail left behind, I returned the wheelbarrow to the work site and TD and I didn't break our backs any more than we needed to!
2) Tomorrow we get our new couch and living room chair! Joy! My butt will be happy...
3) We are getting ready to grill steaks on a little grill we got from IKEA that looks a little like a silver spaceship. It's tiny and round with little legs that stick out.
4) I continue to love it here - except we saw one of these things (called a waterbug hereabouts) the other night - I know that this will to a certain extent give away my region, but it was so horrible I had to blog it. The horror...the horror....
We've taken steps.
1) We have unpacked my office up at school, hung pictures, etc. It took us from 8pm to midnight last night. I had 9 very heavy boxes of books and files and I had to raid the construction zone around the building next door to my department to get a wheelbarrow to take 3 boxes at a time up to my office. Yep, a dirty wheelbarrow (actually it only had some dried cement in the bottom). I was trying to look very casual as I burgled but I'm not sure it worked - I got a lot of strange looks. Especially because my department is in a new and very nice building. But, there wasn't any detritus trail left behind, I returned the wheelbarrow to the work site and TD and I didn't break our backs any more than we needed to!
2) Tomorrow we get our new couch and living room chair! Joy! My butt will be happy...
3) We are getting ready to grill steaks on a little grill we got from IKEA that looks a little like a silver spaceship. It's tiny and round with little legs that stick out.
4) I continue to love it here - except we saw one of these things (called a waterbug hereabouts) the other night - I know that this will to a certain extent give away my region, but it was so horrible I had to blog it. The horror...the horror....
We've taken steps.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Progress...
1) Made some room in this crazy apartment by stacking already filled and sealed boxes into the hallway. This makes me feel immeasurably better.
2) Made a big honkin' pot of beef stew - will have enough for lunch and even dinner tomorrow (I could eat it for several days and not get tired of it).
3) Splurged on cable services at the new place - got HDTV and a DVR box - hot damn! Law and Order with no commercials!!!!!!!!
4) Cleared out safety deposit box and turned in the keys.
5) Did laundry.
Um. Not much else...
2) Made a big honkin' pot of beef stew - will have enough for lunch and even dinner tomorrow (I could eat it for several days and not get tired of it).
3) Splurged on cable services at the new place - got HDTV and a DVR box - hot damn! Law and Order with no commercials!!!!!!!!
4) Cleared out safety deposit box and turned in the keys.
5) Did laundry.
Um. Not much else...
Friday, June 22, 2007
I'm a pack rat...
I know that Friday Recipe Blogging (as well as pretty much all posting of substance) has been de-railed a bit from all of my galavanting around the world and then (more recently) sitting in front of the boob-tube watching hours of HGTV. My life right now is kind of taking place in bullet form, so why fight it?? I have sent out emails to try to get the Tuscan recipes we made while we were there. BUT, at the end of this post, I will include a recipe for a special sauce that we had a lot while we were there - it's a specialty of Tuscany.
So, yesterday I had a minor fender bender that was my fault - I was pulling out of a parking lot and the guy I was pulling behind hadn't moved up as much as I thought - I waved at the woman who let me in, and then promptly bumped the guy's tail end. It left a miniscule scratch on our car, but it dented the corner of this guy's fender. He gets out of his car and started yelling at me and - blogosphere - you would have been so proud of me! I just calmly told him not to yell and to pull off the road into the parking lot and we would exchange info. When we got out of our cars, he was still yelling and I told him again, very calmly, not to be rude and that I apologized and that I would take responsibility for it - it was my fault. So, he calmed down, we exchanged info. and that was that. I called my insurance company to report it and got a claim #. So I called the guy I hit to give him the info and he was SO apologetic! He kept saying how sorry he was that he yelled at me and he thanked me profusely for calling to give him the updated info and for being so on top of things. He also apologized for neglecting to ask me if I was okay or if there was any damage to my car, etc. Hell, you'd think he was the one who hit me!
In other news, I have been packing away. I've been going through all my office materials and separating books and files into "home office" and "school office" - I just have so much shit. Also, I decided to take the 25 pounds of course pack copies that I've had for teaching the last 5 years and go up to the Dutchman's office and scan them into PDFs. These are pieces that show up on my syllabi regularly (Havelok the Dane! The Life of St. Margaret!) and now that I have PDFs, I can just attach them to Blackboard or WebCT whenever I want and I don't have to worry about copyright issues and the expense of a course pack. Dee-lightful!
Hmmm...let's see....what else? Not much, I'm sad to say. It's summer and things just float by...
Okay, here's the recipe:
Pappardelle with Wild Boar Sauce ("Pappardelle al Cinghiale"):
- 5 oz. of porcini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 8 oz. wild boar ham (you might be able to get this at a specialty store, but if not you can substitute prosciutto and pancetta)
- 4 oz. salted domestic pork (from the shoulder!)
- half cup of olive oil
- quarter cup butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1.5 cups good red wine - shiraz preferred
- 1 shot glass of good grappa
1. Mince the onion, carrot, and pork meat in the food processor
2. Add oil and butter to a sauce pan and fry the mushrooms and the minced ingredients (with salt and pepper)well.
3. Add the red wine and grappa and stew the mixture on low with the lid on for about 30 minutes (check every ten minutes and stir it).
4. The last 5 minutes, heat it up to high and let the liquid reduce to get a thick, meaty sauce.
5. Serve over pappardelle with shaved parmesan cheese.
So, yesterday I had a minor fender bender that was my fault - I was pulling out of a parking lot and the guy I was pulling behind hadn't moved up as much as I thought - I waved at the woman who let me in, and then promptly bumped the guy's tail end. It left a miniscule scratch on our car, but it dented the corner of this guy's fender. He gets out of his car and started yelling at me and - blogosphere - you would have been so proud of me! I just calmly told him not to yell and to pull off the road into the parking lot and we would exchange info. When we got out of our cars, he was still yelling and I told him again, very calmly, not to be rude and that I apologized and that I would take responsibility for it - it was my fault. So, he calmed down, we exchanged info. and that was that. I called my insurance company to report it and got a claim #. So I called the guy I hit to give him the info and he was SO apologetic! He kept saying how sorry he was that he yelled at me and he thanked me profusely for calling to give him the updated info and for being so on top of things. He also apologized for neglecting to ask me if I was okay or if there was any damage to my car, etc. Hell, you'd think he was the one who hit me!
In other news, I have been packing away. I've been going through all my office materials and separating books and files into "home office" and "school office" - I just have so much shit. Also, I decided to take the 25 pounds of course pack copies that I've had for teaching the last 5 years and go up to the Dutchman's office and scan them into PDFs. These are pieces that show up on my syllabi regularly (Havelok the Dane! The Life of St. Margaret!) and now that I have PDFs, I can just attach them to Blackboard or WebCT whenever I want and I don't have to worry about copyright issues and the expense of a course pack. Dee-lightful!
Hmmm...let's see....what else? Not much, I'm sad to say. It's summer and things just float by...
Okay, here's the recipe:
Pappardelle with Wild Boar Sauce ("Pappardelle al Cinghiale"):
- 5 oz. of porcini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 8 oz. wild boar ham (you might be able to get this at a specialty store, but if not you can substitute prosciutto and pancetta)
- 4 oz. salted domestic pork (from the shoulder!)
- half cup of olive oil
- quarter cup butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1.5 cups good red wine - shiraz preferred
- 1 shot glass of good grappa
1. Mince the onion, carrot, and pork meat in the food processor
2. Add oil and butter to a sauce pan and fry the mushrooms and the minced ingredients (with salt and pepper)well.
3. Add the red wine and grappa and stew the mixture on low with the lid on for about 30 minutes (check every ten minutes and stir it).
4. The last 5 minutes, heat it up to high and let the liquid reduce to get a thick, meaty sauce.
5. Serve over pappardelle with shaved parmesan cheese.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Random Bits O' Fluff
I don't have much to report hereabouts. Things are just cruising along nicely - I'm getting excited about the move and looking online WAY too much for complementing furniture (endtables, lamps, I need to buy a new dining room table and chairs...).
I did a microscopic amount of work yesterday (in that I opened the folder that my notes, articles, outlines are in) - but, delightfully (or maybe not considering my procrastinating ways), I found out yesterday that the article wouldn't be due until the end of January instead of the end of the summer. The collection has been pretty much accepted by the publishers, but the deadlines for contributors have been pushed way back. However, I've made a pact with my friend, who's editing the collection, to exchange article drafts by end of November early December. So, I'm desperately trying to resist seeing this as a license to veg!
I bought a new phone the other day because a new one was the same price as getting new rechargeable batteries for both handsets. Go figure.
What I really feel like doing is beginning to pack up my office, winter clothes, etc. Maybe I should just do this, huh? I finished both of my syllabi for the fall already, but other than that, my head just isn't on work!
We're going out to yummy sushi tonight with friends.
I pre-ordered my Harry Potter book to my new address, which pleased me greatly.
I have a slight headache....
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
"Blah"gging...
Sorry for the relative blog silence. I feel like I had things to tell you but I've forgotten.
Lately, we are feeling just a teensy bit overwhelmed over at Chez Bloggez Moi (a.k.a. "Medieval Woman HQ" or "The Dutchman's House of Pancakes"). TD is only one step down from a full on nervous breakdown about his paper and the 17 core exams he has to grade (this will determine whether the baby economists will be able to continue on in the Ph.D. program!). We are also leaving tomorrow at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to a far away airport and get on a plane and go to Dream Academy City. Once we land in DAC, we will rent a car, drive an hour and a half and go directly to Human Resources at DA to fill out paperwork. We will also hopefully stop by the department before they close and see my new office, get all the stuff lined up (course enrollments, desk copy orders, etc.), perhaps chew the fat a bit.
Then the next day solid will be spent looking at apartments. I'm renting in one of those new complexes (I'm spoiling myself with central air and a pool...), so I've printed out floorplans, directions, etc.
The move itself will be interesting - it will involve crossing an international border, probably having our U-Haul examined with a fine-toothed comb, the Furballs poked and prodded, the Dutchman scrutinized before he can get a travel visa, etc. Then we still have a two-day drive to get to DAC.
In the midst of all this, I am planning my syllabi for next semester (I've given up on trying to get that article started before we go) and we're also trying to find a one-year car lease for TD to take over.
Yesterday, I took the Furballs into the vet to get their yearly vaccines and to get a print out of a health certificate and their medical records for the trip. They were pissy as usual when they go there and I had them sitting on a bench in their respective carriers in the waiting room while I got all the records and paid the people. A woman came in with a great big, stupid-looking black lab* on a leash and waited to be helped. I looked over and saw that the dog was sniffing around the waiting room and wagging its tail. I looked away for a few seconds and when I looked back, I saw the dog standing a foot away from the furballs and then he instantly lunged at the carriers, barking, snarling, clawing, biting....! I screamed at the woman to get her dog back and she pulled him away and looked a little miffed at me, saying, "I didn't even know there was anything in those!" - I was so shaken and furious I actually said, "Well, lady, it's a vet's office, the chances are a pet carrier is going to have PETS in it - keep your damn dog away from my cats!!!" The vet techs didn't ask her to sit down and hold her dog's collar or anything - all they said was "the cats are fine" and everyone in the office looked at me like I was a crazy over-reactor! These were those flimsy little mesh carriers - if the woman hadn't pulled that frickin' dog off, I could have easily torn through it and killed one of them! A pox on that woman...
I've already found a nice, quiet little cat hospital in Dream Academy City, so I'll be happier to take them there.
I won't be blogging much until we get back this weekend!
*Quick PSA: I actually like dogs and labs in particular, but this one was a brute!
Lately, we are feeling just a teensy bit overwhelmed over at Chez Bloggez Moi (a.k.a. "Medieval Woman HQ" or "The Dutchman's House of Pancakes"). TD is only one step down from a full on nervous breakdown about his paper and the 17 core exams he has to grade (this will determine whether the baby economists will be able to continue on in the Ph.D. program!). We are also leaving tomorrow at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to a far away airport and get on a plane and go to Dream Academy City. Once we land in DAC, we will rent a car, drive an hour and a half and go directly to Human Resources at DA to fill out paperwork. We will also hopefully stop by the department before they close and see my new office, get all the stuff lined up (course enrollments, desk copy orders, etc.), perhaps chew the fat a bit.
Then the next day solid will be spent looking at apartments. I'm renting in one of those new complexes (I'm spoiling myself with central air and a pool...), so I've printed out floorplans, directions, etc.
The move itself will be interesting - it will involve crossing an international border, probably having our U-Haul examined with a fine-toothed comb, the Furballs poked and prodded, the Dutchman scrutinized before he can get a travel visa, etc. Then we still have a two-day drive to get to DAC.
In the midst of all this, I am planning my syllabi for next semester (I've given up on trying to get that article started before we go) and we're also trying to find a one-year car lease for TD to take over.
Yesterday, I took the Furballs into the vet to get their yearly vaccines and to get a print out of a health certificate and their medical records for the trip. They were pissy as usual when they go there and I had them sitting on a bench in their respective carriers in the waiting room while I got all the records and paid the people. A woman came in with a great big, stupid-looking black lab* on a leash and waited to be helped. I looked over and saw that the dog was sniffing around the waiting room and wagging its tail. I looked away for a few seconds and when I looked back, I saw the dog standing a foot away from the furballs and then he instantly lunged at the carriers, barking, snarling, clawing, biting....! I screamed at the woman to get her dog back and she pulled him away and looked a little miffed at me, saying, "I didn't even know there was anything in those!" - I was so shaken and furious I actually said, "Well, lady, it's a vet's office, the chances are a pet carrier is going to have PETS in it - keep your damn dog away from my cats!!!" The vet techs didn't ask her to sit down and hold her dog's collar or anything - all they said was "the cats are fine" and everyone in the office looked at me like I was a crazy over-reactor! These were those flimsy little mesh carriers - if the woman hadn't pulled that frickin' dog off, I could have easily torn through it and killed one of them! A pox on that woman...
I've already found a nice, quiet little cat hospital in Dream Academy City, so I'll be happier to take them there.
I won't be blogging much until we get back this weekend!
*Quick PSA: I actually like dogs and labs in particular, but this one was a brute!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Random Bits O'Fluff
Oh god - why can't I get really started writing this stupid article??? I'm in fifth gear avoidance right now and I'm beginning to sink to the lowest forms of daytime TV (The Price is Right) in order to avoid the gigantic 600lb. pink gorilla in the corner wearing the "Write Your Damn Article, Loser" t-shirt (yes, my gorilla is pink. Isn't yours?).
But, wtf. There's blogging to be done. And leftover chili to be eaten. And toenails to re-paint. And naps to be taken after a full 9 hours of sleep.
Here's my life in .357 magnum bullet form:
1. Some of you might know about my inherent fear of student evals. In fact, there's one class's evals from a couple of years ago that I still haven't read because I'm such a wuss. Actually, my evals are usually pretty good - but this class was TOUGH, so I've filed it under "open when hell freezes over." So, I got my evals from this last semester and they were truly lovely. There was the usual couple saying that the professor assigned WAY too much reading and one even said that my confession that I had prepared for a few lectures the night before and had looked on the internet to confirm something was "unecessary". I feel like giving that kid a huge wake-up call titled "I have a life outside of your class, yutz!" I consider preparing the night before to be actually working ahead - at least I'm not making it up as I go...
But about 96% of them left me with a warm fuzzy glow, especially this one: "This was the kind of course that made me want to go home and talk to friends about the things I've learned." I'm going to have that tattooed somewhere... However, this was the funniest one - it was for my FANTASY LITERATURE class: "I like fact. There was almost NONE in this course. I wanted more."
?!?
I knew I shouldn't have indulged in all those crazy rumors about Tolkienian elves and unfounded speculations about the real relationship between Harry and Hermione. When will I stop and just convey truth to these eager young minds?? I'm weak....
2. I've talked the Dutchman into doing a "tester" quit smoking day. It was scheduled for today, but the crazy look of stress he gave me this morning (he's writing a paper from scratch to present at a big prestigious conference soon) caused me to put it off for a couple of days. Out of solidarity, I've consented to give up Coke Zero for the day as well. I'm really not sure about the wisdom of this. I feel like I'll be much harder to handle off Coke Zero than he will be off nicotine. I'll keep you posted...
3. I spent all yesterday online and on the phone researching apartments in Dream Academy City and setting up appointments for when we're there visiting next week. I have 9 set up but I'm thinking that I need more. What would you say is an adequate number? I hate thinking about living there alone...
4. The collection I published my first article in has just been reviewed for a smaller, subfield specific journal. The review was overall pretty good, but the reviewer made a comment about my paper that was somewhat dismissive and slightly laced with snarkiness. Of course, this comment was completely missing the true point of my essay - oversimplifying it and acting like I wasn't saying anything new. Now, I wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel, but I was saying something about this text and its readers that hadn't been said before. Grrrrrrr! I'm making a "faceless reviewer" voo-doo doll out of paper clips and old copies of Cosmo. My petty revenge will be swift and relatively painless.
5. I feel like I should cook dinner tonight because I haven't actually done any work today whereas the Dutchman has been working his little wooden shoes off. But I haven't a clue what I should cook. He will eat anything. What can I cook that would not require me to move much at all? Chinese take out...
Saturday, June 2, 2007
The Prezzies and The Randomness
One of the best things about coming back to North America from Europe is that the time change makes you get up early - I feel like I can get *so* much done in a day - except that I have absolutely no work ethic at this point.
First off, I asked for everyone to send me ideas about what they'd like me to bring back for them - I realized yesterday as I was uploading, labeling, and organizing photos from the trip (I anal-retentively do this right when we get back because otherwise I can't remember which church is which) that I neglected to take pictures of the food-stuffs that I promised! However, whenever we got a cheeseplate (chevre! pecorino! buffalo mozzarella! camembert!) I always thought of you, Hilaire!
Squadratomagico, I actually did keep my eye open for some white truffle oil, but I couldn't find any! However, the pasta I had one night in Florence (at a little cafe looking out on the Duomo) had black truffles in it (along with a lovely cream sauce over bowtie pasta).
Dr. Virago, we had croissants and cafe au lait every morning in our hotel in Paris. And, on our last night in Paris, we went to a chic restaurant called (in English) "The Cow on the Roof" (hee, hee!); we had an amazingly fantastic meal - the Dutchman ate escargots almost every day we were there (I watched) and I had the coquilles saint jacques with a creamy mushroom risotto and a chocolate souffle for dessert. Top all that off with a half bottle of Moet and a bottle of burgundy - that one's for you!
JB, let's talk about the wine - dear god! First off, I noticed that the wines in Europe (Paris especially) are much more subtle than the ones you can get where I live. We drink a lot of Chilean, Argentinian, and Spanish wine here (because it's the wine we can get most reasonably priced) and it's a lot richer than the wine we drank there. The D's father came down to meet us in Tuscany for a night (he's on a driving trip all over France and Italy at the moment) and he brought us all kinds of fantastic wines. But we couldn't drink them all (even thought there were 10 of us!) - damn the airlines not letting us bring liquids on board! Here is proof of one of our valiant efforts one night:
Sisyphus, I did actually see a lot of awesome doors - and I did take a picture of one - I'm a sucker for architectural shots. This is an old door (not sure how old) in the little town nearby:
Morgan, I did see a lot of lovely manuscripts (especially at the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris) but of course they wouldn't let me take any pictures! However, I did snag a picture of a medieval tapestry, so this one's for you:
NK, crepes and gelato were consumed often and very happily! When we had dinner in the lovely medieval town of Lucca one night, on our winding way back through the oldest part of the city toward our car, we stopped at a particularly nice gelato place on a square overlooking the main church. I had passionfruit and coconut gelato - yum! And the most interesting crepe-y thing we had actually wasn't in France, but in Italy - one of the Dutchman's first courses one night was "crespelles," which was filled with cheese, a little cream, and some asparagus and mushroom slices (*thud*)!
And finally, Dayna, your present was actually the one I took pictures of - gargoyles! Here are two of the best:
This one is on the Duomo in Pisa:
And these guys were on the medieval church of St. Merry in Paris:
And, Sisyphus, in response to your comment on my previous post - I did have a gorgeous Italian all ready to bring back with me (I won't go into the details of how I snagged him - it was a very complicated plan which involved a bag of these yummy almond biscotti cookies, a big net, and a tranquilizer dart) - but he wouldn't fit into my carry-on luggage! And we were already over the limit on our checked bags - do you know how much they charge you per kilo for that shit????
So, now to a list of funny random things that happened or that we saw on our trip. This list was composed while we were sitting outside at a little cafe in Paris just a block away from the Eiffel Tower - we were drinking *the most expensive* Kronenbourgs (French beer) on the planet and watching the rich Parisians walk by.
1) Most random question asked to us in a French bistro: (In French) "What is the population of Japan?" - we were stumped. But I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it's 127,433,494 (2007 estimate).
2) On our way over to Europe, we took a red eye to Paris from Home City before we had a long layover and caught our plane to Italy. When we landed at Charles de Gaulle at 6:15am, what did we see on the grassy patches in between the runways? Rabbits. Tons of rabbits. I'm talking about hundreds of rabbits here. As the plane taxied to the gate, they all hopped away from the plane as it passed by. If you think about it, it's actually quite a safe place for them to be - they don't get onto the runways themselves (a big swathe of concrete isn't that enticing for a bunny) and it's not like they're going to get spooked and hop in front of a 747 like they might on a regular road.
3) When we were at Montmartre (which is on a very steep hill in Paris), we were wondering how the hell people moved into their houses when they were on such steep streets and then on the fifth floor of the building. At the time, I was puffing my way up towards the Sacre Coeur and was wondering how the hell they'd make it to their front door. Then, as if from on high, we saw the answer:
This is a moving truck with a little platform furniture elevator on it. While we watched, they loaded a dining room table, a couch, and assorted chairs on this contraption and lifted them up to the big windows of this apartment.
4) In Italy, there were many many tourists (obviously) - we were for some reason constantly getting caught in groups of Japanese tourists who panic if they're seperated from one another by a stanger. So, we ducked out of the fray for a bit at Santa Croce and had lunch and what did we then see going by? A group of Japanese tourists riding along the bumpy Florentine streets on Segways! It was very surreal...
5) In the little town near where we stayed in Tuscany, there was a nice grocery store and the butcher loved to speak English - particularly *American* English, he said, and was so happy to hear that I was American. So, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth (or a friendly, pro-American butcher for that matter who will give us extra prosciutto and not charge for it), I was the one who ordered our stuff. One day we were there buying something and he was also getting us some cheese - in the middle of trying to figure out which cheese was which he tried to explain the difference between two of them. He kept saying something in Italian and making a gesture like he was gently squeezing a sponge. I blurted out, "Oh! You mean this one is mushy?!?" - he cackled with delight and called out "Mushy!" at the top of his lungs. Then for the rest of the time we were there, we would hear him yelling "Italian something something something Mushy! something something..." - when we finally left, he said "I love mushy Americans!! Ha, ha!..." So, I take credit for teaching the Italian butcher a little more English...
More posts to come!
First off, I asked for everyone to send me ideas about what they'd like me to bring back for them - I realized yesterday as I was uploading, labeling, and organizing photos from the trip (I anal-retentively do this right when we get back because otherwise I can't remember which church is which) that I neglected to take pictures of the food-stuffs that I promised! However, whenever we got a cheeseplate (chevre! pecorino! buffalo mozzarella! camembert!) I always thought of you, Hilaire!
Squadratomagico, I actually did keep my eye open for some white truffle oil, but I couldn't find any! However, the pasta I had one night in Florence (at a little cafe looking out on the Duomo) had black truffles in it (along with a lovely cream sauce over bowtie pasta).
Dr. Virago, we had croissants and cafe au lait every morning in our hotel in Paris. And, on our last night in Paris, we went to a chic restaurant called (in English) "The Cow on the Roof" (hee, hee!); we had an amazingly fantastic meal - the Dutchman ate escargots almost every day we were there (I watched) and I had the coquilles saint jacques with a creamy mushroom risotto and a chocolate souffle for dessert. Top all that off with a half bottle of Moet and a bottle of burgundy - that one's for you!
JB, let's talk about the wine - dear god! First off, I noticed that the wines in Europe (Paris especially) are much more subtle than the ones you can get where I live. We drink a lot of Chilean, Argentinian, and Spanish wine here (because it's the wine we can get most reasonably priced) and it's a lot richer than the wine we drank there. The D's father came down to meet us in Tuscany for a night (he's on a driving trip all over France and Italy at the moment) and he brought us all kinds of fantastic wines. But we couldn't drink them all (even thought there were 10 of us!) - damn the airlines not letting us bring liquids on board! Here is proof of one of our valiant efforts one night:
Sisyphus, I did actually see a lot of awesome doors - and I did take a picture of one - I'm a sucker for architectural shots. This is an old door (not sure how old) in the little town nearby:
Morgan, I did see a lot of lovely manuscripts (especially at the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris) but of course they wouldn't let me take any pictures! However, I did snag a picture of a medieval tapestry, so this one's for you:
NK, crepes and gelato were consumed often and very happily! When we had dinner in the lovely medieval town of Lucca one night, on our winding way back through the oldest part of the city toward our car, we stopped at a particularly nice gelato place on a square overlooking the main church. I had passionfruit and coconut gelato - yum! And the most interesting crepe-y thing we had actually wasn't in France, but in Italy - one of the Dutchman's first courses one night was "crespelles," which was filled with cheese, a little cream, and some asparagus and mushroom slices (*thud*)!
And finally, Dayna, your present was actually the one I took pictures of - gargoyles! Here are two of the best:
This one is on the Duomo in Pisa:
And these guys were on the medieval church of St. Merry in Paris:
And, Sisyphus, in response to your comment on my previous post - I did have a gorgeous Italian all ready to bring back with me (I won't go into the details of how I snagged him - it was a very complicated plan which involved a bag of these yummy almond biscotti cookies, a big net, and a tranquilizer dart) - but he wouldn't fit into my carry-on luggage! And we were already over the limit on our checked bags - do you know how much they charge you per kilo for that shit????
So, now to a list of funny random things that happened or that we saw on our trip. This list was composed while we were sitting outside at a little cafe in Paris just a block away from the Eiffel Tower - we were drinking *the most expensive* Kronenbourgs (French beer) on the planet and watching the rich Parisians walk by.
1) Most random question asked to us in a French bistro: (In French) "What is the population of Japan?" - we were stumped. But I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it's 127,433,494 (2007 estimate).
2) On our way over to Europe, we took a red eye to Paris from Home City before we had a long layover and caught our plane to Italy. When we landed at Charles de Gaulle at 6:15am, what did we see on the grassy patches in between the runways? Rabbits. Tons of rabbits. I'm talking about hundreds of rabbits here. As the plane taxied to the gate, they all hopped away from the plane as it passed by. If you think about it, it's actually quite a safe place for them to be - they don't get onto the runways themselves (a big swathe of concrete isn't that enticing for a bunny) and it's not like they're going to get spooked and hop in front of a 747 like they might on a regular road.
3) When we were at Montmartre (which is on a very steep hill in Paris), we were wondering how the hell people moved into their houses when they were on such steep streets and then on the fifth floor of the building. At the time, I was puffing my way up towards the Sacre Coeur and was wondering how the hell they'd make it to their front door. Then, as if from on high, we saw the answer:
This is a moving truck with a little platform furniture elevator on it. While we watched, they loaded a dining room table, a couch, and assorted chairs on this contraption and lifted them up to the big windows of this apartment.
4) In Italy, there were many many tourists (obviously) - we were for some reason constantly getting caught in groups of Japanese tourists who panic if they're seperated from one another by a stanger. So, we ducked out of the fray for a bit at Santa Croce and had lunch and what did we then see going by? A group of Japanese tourists riding along the bumpy Florentine streets on Segways! It was very surreal...
5) In the little town near where we stayed in Tuscany, there was a nice grocery store and the butcher loved to speak English - particularly *American* English, he said, and was so happy to hear that I was American. So, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth (or a friendly, pro-American butcher for that matter who will give us extra prosciutto and not charge for it), I was the one who ordered our stuff. One day we were there buying something and he was also getting us some cheese - in the middle of trying to figure out which cheese was which he tried to explain the difference between two of them. He kept saying something in Italian and making a gesture like he was gently squeezing a sponge. I blurted out, "Oh! You mean this one is mushy?!?" - he cackled with delight and called out "Mushy!" at the top of his lungs. Then for the rest of the time we were there, we would hear him yelling "Italian something something something Mushy! something something..." - when we finally left, he said "I love mushy Americans!! Ha, ha!..." So, I take credit for teaching the Italian butcher a little more English...
More posts to come!
Saturday, April 28, 2007
"Funny" Student Tales
Whew! I'm DONE. I finally finished grading all my papers and finals - I will submit my remaining grades on Monday. I must say, I'm a little lost as to what to do next. Work, yes. But I'm kinda stymied...I'll think of a game plan tomorrow.
Other random bullets of crap are:
1) If I had my own personal anthem, it would be "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. The Dutchman is ROCKING OUT to this song in the kitchen while he's doing the dishes right now (and I'm blogging).
2) I'm getting new glasses. I've decided that my old frames look a bit too Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton late-80s vintage. So, I'm upgrading to stylish new specs. They are more rectangular and are silver on the top and ear-pieces, but they have no frame on the bottom. My prescription has changed a bit over the past few years, too.
3) In intend to shop a bit this summer to beef up my teaching wardrobe - any favorites??
4) We're eating leftovers tonight and I'm not thrilled.
But now to the title of this post. I was thinking today as I was in the Grading Zone plowing through the last of my exams about all the different student anecdotes I have collected over the past few years. I've got quite a few from this semester, but one stands out in my mind from a couple of years ago. First, let me say that I have taught at a lot of different schools - visiting positions, adjuncting, grad school, etc. This particular gig was a one semester thing and I was teaching a course at a local college with a lot of students in it. It was a medieval literature in translation course and we were reading a lot of classics - lots of Arthurian stuff.
So, I had one student in the class who was actually developmentally (he had a documented problem) and socially challenged. From the first day, this student responded very strongly to the material in the course and developed a rather serious attachment to me (ostensibly as the young female purveyor of the course material). He would inevitably come up to me after class and ask if I thought about medieval literature all the time and if I fell in love with each story anew when I read and taught them multiple times. I was like, "sure, kid." I tried to be nice, but firm about the boundaries that he was desperately trying to cross on a daily basis. He once told me that he wished he could drill a hole in my head, take all the information out, photocopy it, put the information back in, and then plug up the hole. When I've ever told anyone that, they inevitably say, "well, at least he plugged the hole up!" Sometimes he would tell me that he really wanted to touch my hair.
Around the middle of the semester, he began to share with me his steadfast belief that he was a reincarnation of King Arthur. At first I didn't respond, then I tried to tell him that it was all very interesting, but did he have any questions about the literature I could answer. Then the drawings began to arrive. They were of extremely busty women wearing medieval-ish garb. Think of a cross between Barbarella and a medieval beer wench. When I asked him why he'd given me this rather odd and highly innapropriate drawing, he said, "you don't recognize yourself?" Yep. He was convinced that I was a reincarnation of Guinevere, the adulterous queen herself.
After weeks of asking him to stop, reminding him that Arthur and Guinevere's relationship wasn't entirely auspicious, discussing the issue with the Dean and various other administrative folks, he finally got the message and left me alone.
I've always wondered whatever happened to him and if he developed an attachment to another professor. I never felt truly scared or worried about him coming after me (he was confined to a wheelchair and I lived far away). But it was his feeling that he could and should tell me anything that made me feel weird. He seemed to know that touching my hair wasn't something that he could do - but that didn't stop him from telling me that he wanted to. He was aware of the boundaries and wouldn't cross them physically, but he would acknowledge a *desire* to cross them. I look back on this as a funny story from my teaching past, but for another professor - or with another student - this could have been a very traumatizing scene.
Other random bullets of crap are:
1) If I had my own personal anthem, it would be "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. The Dutchman is ROCKING OUT to this song in the kitchen while he's doing the dishes right now (and I'm blogging).
2) I'm getting new glasses. I've decided that my old frames look a bit too Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton late-80s vintage. So, I'm upgrading to stylish new specs. They are more rectangular and are silver on the top and ear-pieces, but they have no frame on the bottom. My prescription has changed a bit over the past few years, too.
3) In intend to shop a bit this summer to beef up my teaching wardrobe - any favorites??
4) We're eating leftovers tonight and I'm not thrilled.
But now to the title of this post. I was thinking today as I was in the Grading Zone plowing through the last of my exams about all the different student anecdotes I have collected over the past few years. I've got quite a few from this semester, but one stands out in my mind from a couple of years ago. First, let me say that I have taught at a lot of different schools - visiting positions, adjuncting, grad school, etc. This particular gig was a one semester thing and I was teaching a course at a local college with a lot of students in it. It was a medieval literature in translation course and we were reading a lot of classics - lots of Arthurian stuff.
So, I had one student in the class who was actually developmentally (he had a documented problem) and socially challenged. From the first day, this student responded very strongly to the material in the course and developed a rather serious attachment to me (ostensibly as the young female purveyor of the course material). He would inevitably come up to me after class and ask if I thought about medieval literature all the time and if I fell in love with each story anew when I read and taught them multiple times. I was like, "sure, kid." I tried to be nice, but firm about the boundaries that he was desperately trying to cross on a daily basis. He once told me that he wished he could drill a hole in my head, take all the information out, photocopy it, put the information back in, and then plug up the hole. When I've ever told anyone that, they inevitably say, "well, at least he plugged the hole up!" Sometimes he would tell me that he really wanted to touch my hair.
Around the middle of the semester, he began to share with me his steadfast belief that he was a reincarnation of King Arthur. At first I didn't respond, then I tried to tell him that it was all very interesting, but did he have any questions about the literature I could answer. Then the drawings began to arrive. They were of extremely busty women wearing medieval-ish garb. Think of a cross between Barbarella and a medieval beer wench. When I asked him why he'd given me this rather odd and highly innapropriate drawing, he said, "you don't recognize yourself?" Yep. He was convinced that I was a reincarnation of Guinevere, the adulterous queen herself.
After weeks of asking him to stop, reminding him that Arthur and Guinevere's relationship wasn't entirely auspicious, discussing the issue with the Dean and various other administrative folks, he finally got the message and left me alone.
I've always wondered whatever happened to him and if he developed an attachment to another professor. I never felt truly scared or worried about him coming after me (he was confined to a wheelchair and I lived far away). But it was his feeling that he could and should tell me anything that made me feel weird. He seemed to know that touching my hair wasn't something that he could do - but that didn't stop him from telling me that he wanted to. He was aware of the boundaries and wouldn't cross them physically, but he would acknowledge a *desire* to cross them. I look back on this as a funny story from my teaching past, but for another professor - or with another student - this could have been a very traumatizing scene.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Random Bits of Emotional Musings and Existential Crises
I've been wanting to post a bit more about our trip to grad school city and the host of emotional reactions - both good and a little tough - that attended our trip.
First off, seeing our friends who are still in the area even after we finished school (and who will be there for years) was so wonderful and it brought home a bit the old truism that school friends are made far more easily than colleague or "grown up" friends. The Dutchman and I have moved around quite a bit over the past couple of years and in my past three teaching situations I was on the fringes of a department and university (i.e., as a VAP and an adjunct). I was happy to have these positions (god knows!) but socially it was a real low point - I naturally wasn't a part of the culture of the department, never went to meetings, and my office was usually off in a different building, etc. The school where I'm at now is slightly different because I made an effort of introducing myself to the colleagues in my field here and it's been nice.
But being back "home" for a few days reminded us of how much we loved being with our friends, who are all in either gone on to academic jobs or other professions in the area but with whom we still have a lot of fun. We don't gripe about the difficulty of grad school and dissertating (as we were wont to do before), instead, we talk about our work, our careers, etc. and still have an amazing connection. Even though most of us "survived" grad school together, that's not even remotely the only thing we have in common. All in all, I guess I realized that I didn't have to go back in time to a nostalgic, sometimes gruelling, past in order to enjoy these friendships. They have continued to develop long after grad school is over and they've survived the intervening geographical distance very well. This is great because I know we'll always have them, but it's tough, because - dammit - I want them all the time!
This brings me to my second emotional musing, which was also brought into sharp relief through this trip: babies. We made the rounds to see all our friends and two of the couples had new (2 months) and new-ish (7 months) babies that we'd never seen before. They were fantastic, lovely little nippers and it was just a giant ball of fun to hang out with all of them - with the adults drinking margaritas and beer, eating velveeta and salsa "cheese" dip, and helping our friends' 4 year old put together a dinosaur puzzle while trying to keep my margarita glass out of grabbing range of the baby I was holding. It was a wonderful time.
Just before we left for our trip last week, we heard that some of our closest friends, one of the Dutch couples we're going to Tuscany with this summer, are expecting a baby in November. This is one of the Dutchman's closest and oldest friends - they got married a month after we did. We were completely overjoyed for them, but after we got off the phone with them, we both cried.
Pretty early on in this last hiring season I knew that I wouldn't have a fourth job market in me - at least not now. As time went on and the options naturally began to narrow, we sat down and gave some serious thought to what we would do if no job offers were forthcoming this year. We knew we could count on a 3-year contract here that would pay very well, but would not be renewable. So, we decided that if the Dream Academy didn't come through, we would stay here for the next few years and start trying to have a family in a few months. It felt good to have a game plan in any event - I stopped trying to think about the implications of my actually getting the job and then *taking* the job. When I did get the job I was overjoyed personally and professionally - in the back of my mind has been the nagging issue that we will be living apart very soon, but to be honest, the happiness of being able to begin my career outweighs that on most days.
But when we heard about our friends and saw all the babies, I remembered in a very visceral, emotional way that another part of that game plan was also being put on hold indefinitely - having a family. Now, intellectually I know that I'm still young, I have lots of time, and that it's much better for me to start my career now rather than divert it in a significant way. With my new job I have options and security and the opportunity to teach and conduct research in my own field. Staying here with a 3-year contract means teaching a lot of courses I'm not really trained to teach and hitting a brick wall in the near future.
The trip last week combined with the news from our friends hit both of us very hard with the realization that we can't start a family right now. Ironically, almost right at the moment we both decided that we wanted to try for a baby (literally in January), I got offered the job a week or so later. [*cue Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic"*] Hopefully we can in the near future, but it could take years for us to live together again - it could also take one year. Who knows? Either way, we're not able to do it now and it saddens us both.
Why couldn't one of us have wanted to be a real estate agent? Or something we could do just about anywhere??
First off, seeing our friends who are still in the area even after we finished school (and who will be there for years) was so wonderful and it brought home a bit the old truism that school friends are made far more easily than colleague or "grown up" friends. The Dutchman and I have moved around quite a bit over the past couple of years and in my past three teaching situations I was on the fringes of a department and university (i.e., as a VAP and an adjunct). I was happy to have these positions (god knows!) but socially it was a real low point - I naturally wasn't a part of the culture of the department, never went to meetings, and my office was usually off in a different building, etc. The school where I'm at now is slightly different because I made an effort of introducing myself to the colleagues in my field here and it's been nice.
But being back "home" for a few days reminded us of how much we loved being with our friends, who are all in either gone on to academic jobs or other professions in the area but with whom we still have a lot of fun. We don't gripe about the difficulty of grad school and dissertating (as we were wont to do before), instead, we talk about our work, our careers, etc. and still have an amazing connection. Even though most of us "survived" grad school together, that's not even remotely the only thing we have in common. All in all, I guess I realized that I didn't have to go back in time to a nostalgic, sometimes gruelling, past in order to enjoy these friendships. They have continued to develop long after grad school is over and they've survived the intervening geographical distance very well. This is great because I know we'll always have them, but it's tough, because - dammit - I want them all the time!
This brings me to my second emotional musing, which was also brought into sharp relief through this trip: babies. We made the rounds to see all our friends and two of the couples had new (2 months) and new-ish (7 months) babies that we'd never seen before. They were fantastic, lovely little nippers and it was just a giant ball of fun to hang out with all of them - with the adults drinking margaritas and beer, eating velveeta and salsa "cheese" dip, and helping our friends' 4 year old put together a dinosaur puzzle while trying to keep my margarita glass out of grabbing range of the baby I was holding. It was a wonderful time.
Just before we left for our trip last week, we heard that some of our closest friends, one of the Dutch couples we're going to Tuscany with this summer, are expecting a baby in November. This is one of the Dutchman's closest and oldest friends - they got married a month after we did. We were completely overjoyed for them, but after we got off the phone with them, we both cried.
Pretty early on in this last hiring season I knew that I wouldn't have a fourth job market in me - at least not now. As time went on and the options naturally began to narrow, we sat down and gave some serious thought to what we would do if no job offers were forthcoming this year. We knew we could count on a 3-year contract here that would pay very well, but would not be renewable. So, we decided that if the Dream Academy didn't come through, we would stay here for the next few years and start trying to have a family in a few months. It felt good to have a game plan in any event - I stopped trying to think about the implications of my actually getting the job and then *taking* the job. When I did get the job I was overjoyed personally and professionally - in the back of my mind has been the nagging issue that we will be living apart very soon, but to be honest, the happiness of being able to begin my career outweighs that on most days.
But when we heard about our friends and saw all the babies, I remembered in a very visceral, emotional way that another part of that game plan was also being put on hold indefinitely - having a family. Now, intellectually I know that I'm still young, I have lots of time, and that it's much better for me to start my career now rather than divert it in a significant way. With my new job I have options and security and the opportunity to teach and conduct research in my own field. Staying here with a 3-year contract means teaching a lot of courses I'm not really trained to teach and hitting a brick wall in the near future.
The trip last week combined with the news from our friends hit both of us very hard with the realization that we can't start a family right now. Ironically, almost right at the moment we both decided that we wanted to try for a baby (literally in January), I got offered the job a week or so later. [*cue Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic"*] Hopefully we can in the near future, but it could take years for us to live together again - it could also take one year. Who knows? Either way, we're not able to do it now and it saddens us both.
Why couldn't one of us have wanted to be a real estate agent? Or something we could do just about anywhere??
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Checking in from the ether
I'm still alive! I still exist! And I still....don't have much to blog about or much time to do it!
Classes = over tomorrow - hallelujah!
Leaving on Thursday for 5 days in grad school city - will see JB while there, yay! It's all about the cheesecake...
End of term papers? Haven't even looked at them and I've already had one of the THREE sets for a week. I'll dutifully bring them with me on my trip, but something tells me they won't be done.
Finals = not written.
Laundry = half done
Cat box = scooped
Hair = highlighted (Oh, wait...I forgot my usual answer...."yes, I'm a *natural* blonde"...)
How are you all bloggers??
Classes = over tomorrow - hallelujah!
Leaving on Thursday for 5 days in grad school city - will see JB while there, yay! It's all about the cheesecake...
End of term papers? Haven't even looked at them and I've already had one of the THREE sets for a week. I'll dutifully bring them with me on my trip, but something tells me they won't be done.
Finals = not written.
Laundry = half done
Cat box = scooped
Hair = highlighted (Oh, wait...I forgot my usual answer...."yes, I'm a *natural* blonde"...)
How are you all bloggers??
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