Wrapping it up

I'm getting tired of the trip posts, but I can't leave it half done, so here's the rest...

From Derby we drove up to Keswick in the Lakes District. We stopped at Sizergh Castle on the way there, mostly to break up the drive a bit. We, of course, did another walk there. Should have been a short 2 mile loop, but we made a wrong turn and ended up wandering some fields in the wrong direction for about an extra mile or so. No pictures of the castle itself, as the exterior was covered with scaffolding and the interior was too dim for photos, but here's a shot of the grounds (or near the grounds...)



We stayed at Ellergill House - probably our favorite B&B of the trip. Room was simple but elegant, location was excellent, food very good (and they had veggie sausage!), and the owners were around our age. I think we just felt more comfortable there than at any of the other places. So thanks to Robin and Clare!

Here's the street we stayed on:



Main Street - a pedestrian zone - Moot House at the center there.



This is Jay's favorite sign:



One day we split up. Jay hiked Skiddaw and Barrow



and I walked up to Castlerigg Stone Circle and then back into town.







The next day we drove toward Ullswater and walked down to Aira Force.





From there we drove toward Windermere, stopping along the way so Jay could climb up Red Screes, since its elevation is listed as 777, which happens to be his birthday. We stopped in Ambleside for lunch - great little bakery/restaurant, whose name I completely forget, but they are apparently well known for their apple pie.

After lunch we ducked over to Hawkshead to visit Beatrix Potter's home. Unfortunately, the gallery was closed by the time we got there, but we drove up to Tarn Hows and walked around the lake before heading back up to Keswick.

AND FINALLY - York.

This was our first day of not-sunny weather, and we got lost trying to find the Guesthouse because we had a too-small map, and apparently the streets change name at every intersection. Eventually we just stumbled upon it by accident.



After moving in to the tiniest room imaginable (way up on the tippy top floor), we went walking on the walls.





York seems like an interesting place. I kind of wish we had spent another day there, but by this point, we were pretty much vacationed out. But really, how can you not appreciate a place that has signage like this:







From York we drive back to London, and between being tired and the weather being kind of crappy, we just stayed in at the airport Holiday Inn until it was time to leave (at 5am! Ack.)

Derby, um, Darby, dammit

Alrighty, onwards. We departed Holmhurst (which, btw, had the best coffee of the places we stayed at... or maybe just the most generous servings.. either way, I'd stay there again) and heading northwest to Derby, which I pretty much renamed the above.

We stayed at Thornhill Guest House, which I neglected to photograph. The room was very nice, and it had a guest kitchen and computer, which is partly why I picked the place. However, the location was not ideal for our intentions, and if I had it to do over again, I would have based us further north, perhaps in Buxton. But the breakfasts were tasty, the accommodations were lovely, and I was completely in love with the silverware. Sounds strange, but it was very smooth and nicely weighted, and the artist in me appreciated the sleek design. Jay, of course, appreciated being able to cook every night instead of going out. And I have to admit that eating out every night actually does get tiresome. And expensive.

Conveniently, there were several groceries within a five minute walk of the B&B, so we strolled on over to peruse our options.

As tempting as this looked, we stuck with tuna steaks and chicken.



The next day we drove up through the Peaks to Castleton, where we walked a 7 mile loop up Back Tor, around Mam Tor, and then back around the caverns on the other side of town.







We stopped in Bakewell on the way back to Derby, to pick up a famous Bakewell Pudding. Oh my god. Inedible. It was described to me as a tart with strawberry jam and egg custard. What was not mentioned was the three pounds of butter that must have been in the recipe. By the time we got it back to the B&B, it had soaked through the bag. It was also sadly lacking on the strawberry jam side. I would recommend enjoying one of the other treats the bakery has to offer.

Regardless, it was a cute town.



Next day, in the interest of not spending a lot of time in the car, we visited Kedleston Manor. Nice grounds - we enjoyed the long walk around the property and the tour of the garden and manor. Also a really neat old church on the grounds with graves of the ancestors of the family who still lives there going back to the 1500s or something ridiculous like that.



In the gardens, we saw some of the biggest rhododendron we'd ever seen.



And that's about all the excitement for Derbyshire. On to the Lakes!

Standing Stones (and sheep)

Pretty much everything on the trip, barring London and York, can be tagged "and sheep".

So, let's see, we're up to Sunday, May 20th...

We headed out from Salisbury intending to visit Old Sarum and Stonehenge and Avebury, but Old Sarum was closed because of some triathlon. Yes indeedy, imagine taking those narrow little roads of two way traffic with cyclists on your side of the road. Fun fun. Jay did fine, however, and I only had to shut my eyes once or twice.

We arrived fairly early at Stonehenge, fortunately. It wasn't all that crowded at 9:30am, but that soon changed as the big tour buses (coaches) arrived. In some of our pictures, you can't even tell that the place was swarming with touristas.





The reality looks more like this:



Then we drive a bit further north to Avebury, which has an even older, even larger stone circle, plus a nice manor house/garden and museum.



Here, as you can see, the sheep and the people can get right up next to the stones. The village of Avebury runs right through the middle. Unfortunately, the 4 mile loop walk we had intended was derailed due to current restoration of part of the site.



Jay especially enjoyed the garden. Just the kind of guy he is...



Next up, Derbyshire and the Peaks.

Wiltshire etc

As we departed London, we stopped back at Heathrow to pick up our rental car. There we had the unfortunate experience of meeting Claude at Europcar. Guy obviously either had mental problems or some sort of thing against Americans. Maybe both. He insisted in speaking to us in Spanish for some unfathomable reason (he wasn't a native Spanish speaker) and then asking snottily, "Did you have any idea what I'm saying to you?" Bizarre. And enough to make me never want to rent from them again.

Anywho, once we escaped Claude's clutches, the drive to Salisbury went remarkably smoothly, considering the whole reversed driving situation. It helped that it was only a two hour drive, and that it was pretty much a straight shot.

We checked in at Holmhurst Guest House



and parked our little Fiat Punto



before heading over to check out the Cathedral



and into town for dinner.



The next day, we headed south down to Poole and Swanage. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that it's Bournemouth on the opposite side of the bay behind me in the next picture.



We walked the Coastal Path about two miles west from Swanage and back. Gorgeous.







We ogled Corfe Castle on the way back,



but decided not to go in because we were getting tired and we wanted to detour out to see the Cerne Giant near Cerne Abbas. Not really on the way back to Salisbury, but Jay and I saw it in a documentary recently and we couldn't resist going a bit out of our way to get a first hand look



so to speak.

In the interest of not crashing anyone's computer, I'll pause here.

Next up: Stonehenge and Avebury.

Starting in London

Days 1-2

After a two hour delay due to thunderstorms in Toronto, we flew into Heathrow only to discover that our bags had not made the transfer with us. Fortunately, after the German adventure of 1997, I always carry the essentials with me: mascara and clean underwear.

We took the tube to Canary Wharf and attempted to call our friend T. Sadly, T was having cell phone issues and we couldn't get hold of him. Fortunately, I remembered the name of the back where he works, and we walked over to his building. This was probably easier without our luggage, so the delay wasn't all bad. The security guards outside the building probably thought we were nuts, but they allowed us to sign in and enter the lobby to see reception. T was quickly located, and came down to walk us to his flat. Yay!



We crashed right after he left - dead unconscious for about three hours. The airline claimed that our bags would arrive in the early afternoon, so we waited around. They told us that if we weren't there when they did arrive, the bags would not be delivered. I guess that was the one bad part about staying with friends instead of in a hotel. Alas.

We had intended to get in a bit of touristy stuff that afternoon, but five, six, seven o'clock and the bags still hadn't arrived. Eight o'clock, T came home from work, and we went out to dinner. Still no bags. But T's lovely girlfriend I got home jut as we were going out, and apparently, the bags were delivered five minutes later. Fricking airlines.

The next day, we hit the London streets.





Narrowly escaping exhaust fumes and other excreta, we made our way through Hyde Park to the Natural Science Museum.



Then over to Buckingham Palace





and through Green Park.



Then we hopped on the tube



and headed over to the Tower of London



where we declined to pay the $60 to go inside to look at old stuff. Instead, we walked over to the Tower Bridge.





Jay insisted that we needed to walk across the bridge completely before going back for the tour. I resisted trying to explain that the tour would require us to walk across anyway, mostly because of the greater pay off of watching Jay realize his silliness later. Heh. Love you, hon.

After that, we foolishly believed the map, and decided to find the tube station that was closer to T's place instead of the one that was closer to the Bridge. Much farther than we thought. This was also the point where it became clear that Jay's usually excellent direction is completely foiled by the presence of steel and concrete. Put the man in the woods, he's amazing. Put him in the city, and he will guide you in the wrong direction for days.

And that pretty much sums up day two. Days 3-5 coming soon.

Quote of the Trip

While walking down the streets of Salisbury...


Jay looks around and turns to me. "This kind of reminds me of an old European town."

"Now why might that be?" I ask, laughing.

--------------------------------

Real update to come. We had shockingly good weather until the last two days. The usual traveling hassles - delayed luggage, snarky car rental guy, screwy directions, one of the worst meals ever, roads that change name at every intersection - and some extremely pleasant moments as well. And SO MANY SHEEP. I have never seen so many sheep. In fact, I don't think I really believed there could be so many sheep in one small country. Sheepfest 2007. For real.

Whoosh!

Denver wedding was very nice - had a great time hanging out with two really neat women from college who I knew then, but not all that well. And it's always nice to breathe the dry air of the Mountain Time Zone.

Picture added: left to right - Sarah, Jess, and Kathryn the bride.




And now we're off again! Should be in London in about 15 hours. (Unless my sleepy calculations are totally wrong.)

See you in June!

First things first

Passport arrived! Jay called me while I was at the airport in Detroit (on my way to Denver for a wedding) to let me know that the FedEx guys pulled into the driveway at the same time Jay got home. Yay!

As another note of praise for Bernie Sanders's staff, Kelly called me to confirm that she had been tracking the package and that it looked like it had been delivered safely. I am in awe.

I have free wireless in the hotel here, but last night it was EXTREMELY slow, so I'm just now getting around to the tag Sue stuck me with. Gosh. So, seven random facts or habits about me...

1. I hate the telephone. When I was cell phone only for five years, it was not uncommon for me to use twenty minutes TOTAL for an entire month. I think it's because I'm not an auditory learner by any means, and that if I need to really listen and retain information, I either have to write everything down or else it will be pretty much gone five minutes after I disconnect, except for the general ideas. No wonder I prefer email.

2. I've always had really long fingernails. Not intentionally, but just because they grow really fast and are pretty strong. I can't stand for them to be uneven though, so from the time I was about 9 years old, I've always carried a nail clipper with me.

3. I don't know if I actually dream in color, or whether I just remember certain things as having particular colors. Last night I dreamed that someone braided extensions into my hair with long red ribbons. (Clearly, I've been watching too much America's Next Top Model.) I also remember a dream in which my then-boyfriend (not Jay) was sitting at the end of a driveway juggling a basket of blue oranges. (I'll leave the interpretation to you on that one...)

4. When I was in seventh grade, my best friend's mother (a professional artist) offered to give me private lessons for free after seeing my sketch book. How stupid was I to turn that one down. D'oh.

5. I've always been pretty shy, but sometimes I can fake an outgoing chatty personality really really well, and with no alcohol involved. It works best when the people around me are either also shy, or don't know each other either. (In other words, weddings are prime.) Other times I morph back into the little girl hiding behind mom's skirt. But I can put it on when needed. Good to know, I think.

6. The trip starting Tuesday will be my ninth trip to Europe, but will be the second time in England. However, on previous trips I only left London twice - once to visit a friend in Edinburgh, and another to visit a friend in Oxford. Both of those trips were in October, so I've never actually been to England when it wasn't raining...

7. I like cats. Jay says I am part cat. Cats like me. Unfortunately, ever since my childhood cat died in 1998, I have had a brutal allergic reaction to cat dander. First the skin that came in contact with cat starts to itch, then turns red, and if not promptly washed, will break out into ginormous hives that will spread across my body until I kick them out with a nice 5-9 day course of steroids. So when people ask if I like cats, I say, "Yes, but the steroids are a killer."

I think I might just love my elected official now

Or at least, I love his staff.

24 hours after my call to Bernie Sanders's Burlington office, I got a call back. The staffer spoke to the National Passport Agency people and they expedited my passport and are sending it Fed Ex. I even have a tracking number.

I'm still anxious, but not vomitously so.

And on the upside, my nervous energy allowed me to finish this next project in only 8 days.





It still needs to have a crochet edging added to the short sides, and then, of course, it needs to be blocked, but I'm pretty amazed at how quickly this went.

Cursing, much cursing

This is so not good.

I spent two and a half hours on the phone with the passport agency (most of that time on hold or cycling through the voicemail options, of course). Despite the fact that I mailed my renewal application at the end of February, it was not logged in until the end of March. It is currently being processed in New Hampshire. The guy I talked to sent an emergency email to the center and said that would most likely get my passport to me before we leave (IN EIGHT DAYS!!!!! yes, I need all those exclamation points because they're standing in for the cussing, okay?).

MOST LIKELY.

So I tried to make an appointment at the regional passport center in Boston. First available appointment? May 18th. We're supposed to leave May 15th. Not helping.

Either my passport shows up this week, or this trip might not be happening after all.

Guesswhat

I found a part time job for the summer.

No really. I shock myself.

I saw a sign in the window of a new store that's opening in the nearby metropolis (ha ha) where I do my grocery shopping. Experienced Knitter Wanted for Part Time Help. No job description, just a phone number.

And I called.

And the store owner called me back.

And I went in to see her with a bag full of my recent knitting (which I will eventually post pictures of, but some things are intended as gifts to people who read this so they will have to wait).

And she loved my work.

And even though she was primarily looking for someone to open the store every day (which I can't do), she wants me to be "an independent contractor" for the store, helping with knit samples, filling in for her or the other employee, and even teaching classes this summer.

How cool is that?

Pretty cool.

That's right. I'm brilliant.

Hah. (Thanks to Sue for the procrastination tool. Just 12 more research essays to go!)

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Just one thing missing

Woo hoo! Finally heard back from my London contacts and we are good.to.go! So we've got two nights in London, three in Salisbury (near Stonehenge, for you non-anglophiles), three in Derby, three in Keswick, one in York, and the last night back in London again. I also have our rental car reserved - can't wait to watch Jay drive stick backwards. Heh.

Just one thing needed though. My passport.

I sent in the renewal forms the last week of February. The forms said standard processing time is 6-8 weeks. Other people I've talked to have said that they received theirs in 7-8 weeks. Eight weeks would be today at the latest. And the passport could conceivably be in our rinky dinky post office right this very minute. However - and there's always a "however" - when I signed on to their website to check the status of my application, they are now claiming 10 weeks to be the norm. TEN. We leave in a little over 2 weeks. If it takes the full ten weeks, I won't get it until practically the day we leave. So if it doesn't show by Monday, I need to call and beg.

*imagine profanity of choice here*

I knew I should have forked over the extra $70-80 for expedited service.

Our Viewing Pleasure

Or displeasure, as the case may be.

Recently, Jay insisted that he, too, would like the responsibility of choosing movies via Netflix, so I set up a queue for him and allotted him one of our 3 at a time movie selections. So far... kind of hit or miss. He's done well with documentary selections, though they've centered around sex and profanity. (I'm a fan of both, of course, so that's fine.)

On the non-documentary front, he's not done as well. First there was Transformers: The Movie. Note that the remake, live-action version of this film is not yet released. That's what he though he was ordering. Nope. Instead, we received the 1986 cartoon version. Which I did enjoy... when I was TEN. We returned that one unwatched.

Last night we had Superman Returns. I think Jay summed it up well when he said, "It's like someone forgot to edit that movie."

Really, how does one make a dull movie about a comic book character? The only character worth watching was the little kid, and even he annoyed me at times. Gah.

gah

Jay got me sick, the meanie. Sinus something. I can hear the snot forming in my sinuses and my face feels like it's going to splinter off from my skull.

Guess what I'm supposed to be doing this weekend? Yes. I'm supposed to be grading research essays. Guess what I won't be doing this weekend. That's right: grading.

Which means that next week is going to suck as I try to get everything done during the week, but so it goes.

I find this appalling

News story about women as second class citizens

Actually, it's an article about the Supreme Court ruling on partial birth abortions which does not have an amendment allowing for abortion to preserve the health of the mother. Women as incubators.

This kind of legislation seems to be pushed through by holier-than-thou patriarchal nimrods who believe that pregnant women and their fetuses need to be protected from bizarre non-maternal instincts. Because, truly, there can never be a legitimate reason to kill babies, can there?

Do they really believe that women who have been carrying a child for six months or more are going to take the decision to terminate that life so lightly? I can't imagine the pain that has to go into that choice.

(Sorry if this seems stilted... what I really want to be writing involves a lot of profanity, and that would probably just detract from the message.)

Why do women lose rights to make decisions about their lives when they become pregnant? Why do other people think that they have the right to decide ANYTHING in a stranger's life?

Would these same people welcome a stranger who told them that they were not allowed to go to church anymore because some religions caused people to be violent in the name of their god? (Of course not, because those other religions are false, and theirs is true and good.)

Or is this all part of the War on Terror? Thems hates us for our freedomses... so we'll take away those freedoms (especially from the womenfolk) to solve the problem.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Happier Days

Work is still making me sick, but I'm ignoring that for now in favor of making reservations for our upcoming trip to England in May. (Last minute? Who, me?)

So far I have 4 of the 13 nights covered... still need to confirm Salisbury, Keswick, and London. (Derby and York are all set). London might be set, but my former French host brother who was living in London (and with whom I intended to stay) informs me that he's now living in Tokyo. Tokyo! Crazy kid. But he thinks he can hook us up with one of his London friends (who we've actually met before).

But anyway... enough fun. Back to grading. Gag.

Definitely not worth it

The trip to visit the folks was very nice - that's not what I'm referring to, never fear.

No, it's the job that's killing me. I haven't written anything except this blog (other than grading comments) since January. Sunday nights, I get so upset at the thought of going to work the next day that I feel like screaming. (Sometimes I do scream.) I'm having trouble sleeping. I'm gaining back weight that I lost.

I spent hours this last weekend looking at job listings in the area. I am either over qualified (cashier/deli worker/etc) or underqualified (surgeon/dean/sales exec/etc) for every single one of them.

Something needs to change.

In the meantime, I need to survive the last 4 weeks of the term. Not as easy as one might suppose.

Somehow it's appropriate that we leave on April Fools

The thing that irks me the most about living in the boonies is that the nearest airport is a two hour drive away. For our 9am-ish flight tomorrow, we have to leave the house by 5:45am. Meh.

But the earlier departure means that we will be arriving in Pittsburgh before 2pm, which is nice. Only other flight I could find with the frequent flyer miles I had arrived around midnight... never fun.

Blah blah blah.

Going to bed now. 5am comes way too quick.

The Raging Koala

See, I promised, and I occasionally follow through. (I'm still waiting on the kayak pictures, too. Not my fault - I swear.)

About a month or so ago, we were invited to a game night at a fellow faculty member's house. Much fun - best chocolate chip cookies I've had in ages - and a whole bunch of games I had never played before. One of those games was called ImaginIFF. The idea behind the game is that you roll the dice and based on the roll, one player is "it". Then the person who rolled the dice picks a card that reads like this: If player X was a house, what kind of house would he/she be? Then it lists six different options, and everyone selects the option they think best fits. Majority wins the right to advance on the board.

Everyone ends up as the focus multiple times throughout the game. Some options are more revealing than others, and it doesn't really matter if you're correct according to the player in question, only that you agree with what everyone else thinks about the player in question. Don't know if that made sense... but regardless... enough set up.

Two questions with me as the focus: "If Kate were an emotion, which would she be? Sadness, hatred, envy, love, lust, rage. Consensus went with "love". Safe and inoffensive, right? Guess which one Jay picked?

Rage.

And you know what? He's totally right. I have an insane temper. And I'm not using the word insane lightly, either. I can laugh off a lot of things, but when I get really angry, I become a different person. I don't have any control of myself when I get a rage on. It's genetic. Seriously. Why do you think I don't live near the folks? This, I'm sure comes as no surprise to the people who know me well. But I'm at least glad that I don't project that image to the people who don't already know and love me.

So that's the raging part. The koala part comes about in much the same way. The only funny part is that out of the choices (panther, golden retriever, palomino, crocodile, koala, and something else I can't remember) all but one person out of the eight who were there chose koala for me. Even the ones who didn't know me. I guess it's the ashy blondness, slight pudginess, and my undeniable cuddliness.

But when you put the two together: Rage + Koala ... slightly incongruous, non? And yet, oddly representative of my personality.

*Note to self: must find picture of berserker koala

Lazy Girl's Post

This is the blanket I made for my FIL and his new wife as a combined wedding present/xmas gift. That's a full-sized bed in the picture. I will never make a garter stitch blanket that big again. No no no.



I am working on a post about raging koalas... but that will have to wait until after I figure out what we're doing in class this afternoon... sigh.

Lacey Goodness

I started this on my birthday (March 6th). (Someday I will even figure out how to get my pictures in focus...)






That's one pattern repeat. I'm now done with three pattern repeats (as in, it is now about 3 times as long). The pattern is from Winter 2006 Interweave Knits magazine. The recommended yarn is a fingering weight merino. I'm using laceweight (finer than fingering) 100% alpaca. I'm really loving the way it is turning out. I'll post more pictures when I'm done.

Back to the grind

On the last day of my 30th year...

I really need to be prepping for class, but I didn't want to leave Grandma's obit at the top of the page any longer.

So, here's the easy way out:

This is the hat I made for K2's birthday last month. My own pattern.



These are the matching mittens.



And here's what happens after grading 30 english comp papers:

Marie O'Keefe Vorobely

My dad just called. Grandma died last night.

I met Grandma when I was just a little girl, 2 or 3 years old. She lived in the apartment complex opposite ours. She had other grandchildren - her sons' kids - and we all used to play together. I remember that she used to have the flavored ice cream cones - the cake cones that were brown, pink, or green. She wasn't biologically related to us, of course, but that never made her any less family.

Her first marriage was abusive, and with the help of her parish priest, she escaped and divorced. I can only imagine how bad the marriage must have been for a Catholic priest to actually condone divorce. She was a tough lady with a sparkle about her... my mom always referred to her as a leprechaun. The last true memory I have of her is from 1999 when I took her to a Dervish concert (Irish music) in Pittsburgh. She practically danced in her seat the whole time. She wasn't even five feet tall, but her spirit was huge.

That sparkle has been extinguished for many years now. Alzheimers took her mind and spirit long before her body died, but I still feel incredibly sad to know she's really gone. And her husband Sam will be devastated. I don't know how he's going to keep going without her. Their friends have slowly disappeared, unable to cope with Marie's slide. Grandma was always the social butterfly, and Sam was the cranky old man with the heart of gold.

I'm worried about how that heart's going to hold up through this.

But wherever Grandma is now, it has to be a better place than the one she'd been trapped in for the last eight years. So I'm going to picture her in her gingham square dancing dress with the fluffy petticoats and that impish grin and twinkling eyes.

I hope you're dancing with all the handsome young men. I hope they can keep up with you.

What I've been doing instead of blogging

Now, hopefully, I'll get this picture thing right the first try... here goes.

This is the belated xmas/valentine's present for my G'ma-in-law:



Note my teeny tiny desk and the resulting mess. Also note the brand new MacBook! Now, knitting lace is kind of nifty because it looks all soft and squishy (and far smaller than desired) when fresh off the needles. To change this, you have to soak it and then stretch it flat and pin it in the desired position like this:



I have more pictures to post, but I'll stop momentarily to test the process.

Snow Day!

****But first... HAPPY 23rd Birthday, Kar-baby! Enjoy the Big Day in the Big Apple!****

Now back to our regularly scheduled posting...

College was cancelled today because of massive amounts of snow! Yay! (To both news items - snow for skiing and a day without classes... what more could a tired adjunct in Vermont want?)

Of course, I still haven't gotten a passport picture taken, though I did pick up the form, and it's all filled out and ready to go. My errand time has been sucked up the last week or so by the Craft Night event I organized for this past Monday. I had to make flyers and get the student women to put them up, send out campus-wide emails, make a 4 foot by 6 foot banner to hang in the theater lobby, shop for supplies, harrass the staff and faculty women for additional supplies and money, and ultimately show up for two hours to help people learn knitting basics.

The event was really fun though - people who had to leave early seemed very sad about it. Students painted unfinished wooden picture frames and door hangers (the flat rectangular type that has a round hole for hanging from a doorknob), while others learned to crochet or knit. And now I have a list of ten names of people who want to start up a stitch'n'bitch group on campus. My next project...

So I am going to enjoy my snow day. I'm going to knit and read and play on the computer and not worry about anything school related.

Yes, I know it's just a comic strip

I read For Better or For Worse most days. Recently, at Christmas, one character rushed back into the house to save his just finished manuscript. So, obviously, the earliest he could have sent it out would have been a few days after Christmas.

Last week he gets a full book contract in the mail. RIGHT. He sends a manuscript, unsolicited, to a publisher, over the holidays... and they get back to him with a full contract in a matter of weeks? On what planet? Things can't work that differently in Canada. I won't get into the point that the book is supposed to be coming out in the fall...

Yes, I know it's a comic strip. Yes, I know that the creator is trying to tie up all storylines by the fall. Yes, I know that people should not be relying on comics for accurate representation or information.

But it still bugs me.

The Next Wave

The tail end of the flood of marriages is passing. We've been to a dozen or so weddings in the past 5 years. Our friends (and we) were all slow starters, relatively speaking. The first of my friends to get married was a Dartmouth classmate who married his childhood sweetheart in 2002 on labor day weekend. Five minutes later, two other dear ol' Dartmouth friends married each other. Since then, many more friends - college and otherwise - have gotten hitched. The last of my inner circle who wants to get married is doing so in Denver this May.

So now the next phase begins. The divorces.

In our completely non-scientific observations, we've noticed that the more people spend on the actual wedding party, the shorter their marriages seem to last. (We figure we're sitting pretty, having only spent $75, plus tea and dessert at the local coffee shop.)

Two friends who married on Long Island in the summer of 2003 (and whose wedding probably cost at least 1000 times what ours did) have recently filed for divorce. Two more friends who married "down the shore" in New Jersey in the summer of 2004 have a disaster brewing - both of them liked the idea of being married more than they liked each other. I can only hope they do the right thing and call it quits before the karmic debt skyrockets.

The only positive aspect of this is that the divorce wave is hitting before the baby wave did.

Of course, I hope I'm not speaking too soon...

Messin' with the colors

Decided I needed a new color scheme to go with the new photo. (Last photo has been up for 4 years... time for a change.)

Let me know if the colors look weird on your monitor. They're nice and mellow - kind of faded - on mine.

The Runaround

I'm back up and running, but unfortunately, some people are keeping me running around in circles. Bastards. Must be a conspiracy.

Today marks my second round of attempting to get a new passport photo taken so I can renew my (thankfully) expired passport in time for our trip in May. My expired passport features a picture taken when I was in college - 20 years old, wearing a plaid shirt and sporting slightly crooked bangs. I am truly delighted to be free of it. However. Last week I tried to get my picture taken at no less than three area drug stores (who advertise passport photo services) only to find that two of them had broken equipment and the other wouldn't be set up until next week.

Yesterday I received a generic mailing from the US Postal Services about local post offices that were now set up to take passport photos and handle the entire application or renewal process. On my way home from running errands, I stopped in at the nearest one.

Surprise! Despite the information on the mailer (and on the USPS website), that particular location won't be set up for passport services for at least another week. Grrrr.

The woman behind the counter assured me that another location near me (not really in my path, but only about 15 miles out of my way) was already set up. So I'll give it one more shot this afternoon. I guess.

This is not helping with my nightmares in which I arrive at the airport only to remember that I never renewed my passport and they won't let me leave the country. Not good dreams. :shudder shudder:

Computers and Viruses

Fortunately, while I have both in common, they are not otherwise connected.

The new computer came in on Tuesday - beautiful, shiny, fully functional - but I felt so crappy I didn't get it set up until Thursday. Tuesday started out with stomach cramps and a general feeling of grogginess. Wednesday shifted to fever and shakes. Thursday more of the same. Friday better but still shaky. Haven't been up long enough today to know if I'm feeling significantly better or not.

Meh. I seem to get sick at least once a term - usually right at the beginning. At least this time I have web access at home and a new computer that can handle all sorts of nifty features I was previously lacking. For instance... being able to post to the blog.

Earmarked

You know when you have money coming, extra money that you weren't really planning on having? Well, why is it that the money seems to get spent before it ever comes into your hand? Sometimes, several times over.

Jay calculates that we'll be getting about $1500 back in taxes this year... hopefully enough to supplement the traveling money my dad already gave us for the England trip in May.

Because of the additional class, I have two credits more than past terms, meaning I'll make about an extra $1600... which I have just spent on a new computer. Granted, I really needed the new computer, because it would have cost me about as much to complete all the upgrades to my current iBook, yet left me with a way too small screen... So. Educational discount plus 3 months same as cash... new iMac notebook is on its sweet journey to me. Mwah ha ha ha ha.

But really. There is no such thing as "extra" money. Not on this side of the middle class.

Bah

Apparently my aging computer (a 1999 iBook with a 2002 software upgrade) isn't compatible with the changes to Blogger, so I'm only able to post from work for now.

Enjoyed a visit from my younger sister (the one in NYC) this weekend and now I'm scrambling to get ready for classes starting Wednesday. Cobbling together a syllabus in two days for a course I've never taught - and which is taught very differently by all the instructors who do teach it - is proving to be quite interesting.

With interesting being a euphemism for other, more colorful words, of course.

Good news

We finally hooked up the web access at home, so I might actually return to more regular posting.

Then again... my teaching schedule for the spring term just got turned upside down. One section of the class I've been teaching is probably going to be cancelled due to low enrollment. Good news side is that I have been offered 2 sections of a higher level course, but that means scrambling to put together a new course (admittedly one with a very established curriculum) and grading about 50 student papers for each assignment instead of the 35 I had last term.

We shall see.

Things that are wrong with me

No, I'm not asking for suggestions, thanks.

I already have a few specifics in mind.

One, my hand! Owie! All the knitting has left my right hand and arm sore. Either an inflamed muscle or tendon or something, I'm thinking. The pain goes right from the base of my ring and pinky fingers to the underside of my elbow. Massage only makes it worse, but frozen cranberries (we're out of peas) feel really really good. In any case, I'm forcing myself to take a knitting hiatus until the pain stops. (Or mostly stops... whatever.)

Second, Farscape. People whose opinions I respect say this is a great show. We've just finished the 4th episode and are still waiting for the greatness to appear. Does the beginning just suck? Does it get better? Should I keep watching, or is this all there is?

Here's what underwhelms me:

It's a neat concept and the visual delivery is excellent.

But the writing! Ack! I mean, I've had beatings that were more subtle. If I want to be smacked around by moralizing lessons delivered with the finesse of a falling piano, I would go to church. Jay and I were both sitting there, rolling our eyes, yelling "We GET IT ALREADY" at the TV. Not a good sign. I don't know whether it's the writing, or the editing that's so poor, but we agreed that the episodes could be trimmed by about 20% without losing any meaning.

And LORD, I can tell the creators were muppeteers, because anything involving the muppet characters is extremely well done. Anything involving live actors clunks. Not that there aren't good lines, but they get lost in the dragging pace of delivery. It's as if they decided, if expressing an idea once is good, then expressing it four times would be even better.

So.

Any fans out there have opinions on whether the series resolves these problems as it progresses, or should we give up now and move on?

iPod Love

Jay got me a 2G nano for christmas and our neighbor filled it up for me - need to weed out some of it, but found a few new favorites. The Be Good Tanyas - love them love them love them. Something about the combination of their voices and the lyrics and everything. Makes me very happy.

Also got Hayseed Dixie's hillbilly tribute to AC/DC - hilarious. Ryan Adams - whom I'd never heard of, but who I'm really enjoying. Bunch of Gillian Welch and some Steve Earle. A few good Beck songs - a few I'm going to delete as soon as possible. (I tend to either love Beck's songs or hate them - not much middle ground.) Old 97's seem pretty good, as do the Jayhawks and Jim Miller & Buffalo Country. I'll have to keep listening... kind of got hung up on the Be Good Tanyas.

Good to have friends with connections.

Not so politely stolen from Devan

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.


1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer


And, you know, a few more of them sound really familiar, but I can't remember if I've actually read them or not. Might have. Might not have. There's a few on the list that I haven't marked as read that I would like to get to at some point, but I just don't read a lot of science fiction these days... more into fantasy, mystery, history.

I think I loved a lot of these books - as I was reading them. Some I've read over and over because they gave me what I needed at the time. Some of them I now loathe ( :coughThomasCovenantcough: ) and some I would still pick up and read again if someone ( :coughbastardexcough: ) hadn't stolen my copy ( :coughEnder's Gamecough: ).

I suppose that's my way of saying that I read all of these before the time I decided that finishing books that suck wasn't a good use of my time, that if I had hated them, I wouldn't have read them in the first place, but that I can't remember which of them I loved enough to indicate that either.

Yeah.

Happy Holiday (or not) of Choice

Jay and I are celebrating this year by not going anywhere for the holidays. We're staying home, sleeping in, not driving or flying or waiting in lines. Yay! What a great xmas present to ourselves, I say.

I've been finishing up the holiday knitting - done 2 hats, 1 lace scarf, 1 pair gloves, three ski bands - just one more hat to finish up, one set of gloves that needs the bezillion ends woven in, and I will be ready to ship out the packages. What, you say? By the time I send them it will already be AFTER xmas? Well, of course, silly. I'm sending NEW YEARS presents. Duh. (They might get there by then...)

I also have to finish the tail end of a queen-sized afghan that I've been working on since September, but I've decided that we'll give that to the recipients when we see them Jan 5th or so...

But after THAT is done? No knitting for anyone outside the house (ie: anyone not me or Jay) until Spring. Yeah baby. 'Bout time I got to keep some of the fruits of my labor. (I have a few things, but I realized that most of the knitting I've done in the last year has made its way out the door. Usually before I remember to take a picture of it, too.)

First on the in-house list? Another hat for Jay - something warmer and washable than the one he has now. Second? 1 chunky scarf for me, 1 lacy scarf for me. Finish pair of socks started in November...

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend (even if that just means an extra day off work for you)!

Comment experiment

Trying to figure out the switch from Haloscan to the Blogger comment system...

No Tears Yet

I just finished the end of term reviews with my students. No one's started crying yet - at least not while in my office - so I'll count that as a minor triumph.

Today was hard for me - had to fail two students who just weren't demonstrating the skills they need to succeed in the college level course next term. I always feel bad because they're always in such denial about their abilities that the failure comes as a shock. Often they've already signed up for the next class in the spring, so failing this class means they have to rearrange everything.

Granted, I know that failing them now is actually kinder than sending them on to fail the next class over and over. (The class I teach has no effect on grad point average.) Also, it is their responsibility to make sure they do demonstrate the minimum skill level in order to pass. SO they don't have anyone to blame but themselves.

But I still feel like the bad guy.

Season Seven

NO! Captain Tightpants cannot be a villain.

Whatever were you thinking, Joss?

I'm so disoriented.

(Watching the end of Season 7 of Buffy this week...)

Hope this doesn't suck

I just switched over to the Googlized version of Blogger. I really hope I don't regret it.

Anyway... on to some actual content, eh?

Today is the last day my class will meet. Yay! The reason for the early end is that the remainder of the week will be taken up with individual portfolio reviews in which the student brings all the work they did over the semester, and we look to see if they've made actual progress. For some students, this will take maybe 5-10 minutes. For others? Half an hour.

For the best students, this is merely a confirmation that they're ready to move on to the college level courses - a brief review to remind them what they've accomplished during the term. For the students who will not be passing, it's a chance to see exactly what they need to improve in order to pass the next time.

For the students on the borderline, it's most important. Sometimes I'm not sure until the portfolio review if a particular student should pass the class. Generally, even if the student isn't quite performing to standard, if they've shown great improvement, thereby indicating an ability to learn from instruction, I'm likely to pass them.

It's the students who are clearly performing below standards, who haven't shown improvement, but who do not understand this, are the hardest to deal with in the reviews. They don't understand why they're not passing - and I can't understand whether it's because of the same dimness that renders their work substandard or whether it's the result of willful denial of reality. Either way, those are the conferences I dread the most.

Except perhaps the conferences with the students who are probably capable of passing the class, but who have decided that because of their obvious and superior talents, they don't actually need to DO all the work. Little shits. They knew the requirements from Day One, but somehow decided the rules didn't apply to them. These are the abusive types, who shovel attitude at me all term, who try to go over my head to the department chair to "test out" of the class without "actually having to pass". These are the ones I hate. Personally hate. I don't want to pass them, because they don't really deserve it unless I rely on psychic grading to know what they *could* have done. But I don't want to fail them, because then I'd have them in my class next term. I may have to meditate on the solution to those students... preferably with a large glass of wine in one hand.

/rant

Maybe because it's finally snowing

Or maybe because I'm in the home stretch on this fall's classes, or maybe it was that one of my favorite students brought me a sample bottle of his family's homemade Shiraz, but I'm feeling less bleh today than I have in a long while.

I've been seriously dreading coming to work lately. I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, that the students aren't even interested in learning, that another term of this will kill me, etcetera and so forth - bad mojo all around.

A couple things have helped me not want to get all AK-47 on this place.

I finally managed to drop by one of the staff people who teaches the same class I teach during a block of time when she wasn't crazy busy. One of the hardest things about teaching is that you're pretty much on your own - it's hard to know if you're "doing it right" until you get the students' work as proof of their understanding. What makes these remedial level courses harder, is that sometimes, no matter what we do, some of these students are never going to "get it", either from lack of interest, effort, or ability. I have to learn not to take that personally. One of the other things that my colleague told me, that I hadn't really thought about before is this: these students are not happy about having to take this class, even though it's more a gift than a punishment, and they've never learned to separate the class from the person teaching it. So all that angsty resentment they've been projecting at me is not about me. It's about the class.

Must remember that. Must remember that. Must try to remember that. Ommmmm...

The second thing is that I do have some really great students - students who put in the effort, who ask questions, who show huge leaps of improvement, who bring me bottles of wine... I just need to focus more on the great students and less on the cranky, resentful, unwilling-to-do-the-work students. I'm trying. But it ain't so easy as it sounds.

And in any case - 3 more class meetings, then individual portfolio reviews, and then DONE!!!

50,104

That's it. I am so not doing this again next year. Four is enough.

Still alive

That's about all I can say for now.

Holidays were good - more on those later.

Behind on NaNo (~34K done) but still pretty confident of finishing.

Mind turned to mush by huge wave of grading. Hate grading. Need new job.

Check In

26K and counting on NaNo... but now I'm getting really behind on critiques.

We have a houseguest this weekend, an old college buddy of Jay's. Usually our little place feels cozy, but plenty big enough. Add a third person... really start to feel the lack of doors. The only doors in our place that don't lead outside are the ones on the bathroom and the closet.

I enjoy having company. It's always nice to talk to different people, especially ones as charming and well-educated as our current guest. But it's a rare person who can fit into an already small space without making it seem tiny. Kind of like my mother's idea of high praise - "I didn't really notice him much."

Oh crap... does that mean I'm turning into my mother? Ha ha. There are many things I think are awesome about my mom, don't get me wrong. But you know that saying about "if you can't be a good example, at least you can serve as a horrible warning"? It applies.

Agh! Must. Write. More. Words. Back to NaNo.

damn that grading thing

Losing valuable writing time to grading today... granted, this is theoretically why I get a paycheck from the college, but still. (And I "wasted" several hours knitting this week, too.)

I'm at 17000 words and counting. Don't have the exact count with me at the moment. Going pretty well - at least I'm not letting myself get massively behind this year. I learned my lesson writing 25K in three days at the end of the month in 2005. Not fun.

Writing at this speed reminds me of painting in my high school art class. First I block out the basic shape of a scene using dialogue (the underpainting), then I add character thought and movements and maybe a little detail here and there, and finish it with a gloss coat of description.

Back to the blank, white page...

Meep

That's what I say to Jay when I have nothing to really say. Kind of a substitute for "hello", I suppose. Though, come to think of it, I think that's what I set my email notification to back in college...

Anyway.

First meeting of the student women's group was interesting. A small turn out, but lots of good ideas. Our second meeting is Thursday, so hopefully we'll keep chugging along.

NaNo count is up to 8825 and I'm still working on it this afternoon. Day 6 should be at 10002 words to be on track, and I think I should be able to get there without too much effort. (Famous last words)

Back to work!

NaNoing

4371 words done.

45629 words to go.

Might be even quieter around here than it has been. (Is that possible? you ask.)

This will be my 4th year participating. Hoping that it's also my fourth time winning. Last year was a nailbiting finish and I loathed every minute of it. Hopefully, with a return to a familiar genre and cast of characters, this year won't suck quite as bad.

Distortion

Last night I was in the college's fitness center - a rather small series of basement rooms, but at least they're out of the rain - when I had the privilege of overhearing a most appalling conversation.

One guy and two girls were hanging on the treadmill next to mine, chatting about the sort of random stuff college students talk about, when the subject turned to bodies. Not surprising, I suppose, considering that most of the people in the gym were there to work on their physiques.

First they started to trash one woman they know because of her powerful build - "she's super strong, but she looks like a dude."

Then one of the girls started bitching about the fact that this other young woman doesn't see anything wrong with being naked in front of other people. "Like, gross."

This, of course, segued into her ranting about how no one would ever see her naked, not even her boyfriend. "I'm a lights out girl. I mean, just LOOK at these thighs. I think not." Girl in question was probably 5 foot 3, 5 foot 4 maybe, and I'd guess her weight at about 125-130 lbs. In other words, not a large person by any stretch of the imagination. Actually, I don't think of myself as a particularly large person and I have a good 20-30 pounds on her.

Now, I've been seen naked in all different lighting conditions, and not once has a guy ever said, "WHOA - your thighs look huge!" In fact, the response is usually more along the lines of "You look so hot. C'mere. Now." But enough about my sex life...

By the guy's awkward pause, cough, and shuffling of feet when the girl made her "I'm so fat and ugly" comment, I'm pretty sure he was thinking that he wouldn't mind seeing her naked in whatever circumstance she wanted to offer. Why are women so hard on themselves about things that don't really matter to anyone?

I wanted to say something to this effect to her, but one, the circumstances were totally wrong (her trying to impress friends, me panting and running) and two, people with distorted body images will never believe suggestions that don't fit their warped views. Learned that from a friend with an eating disorder.

I suppose that's a topic we might eventually address in the OurCollegeName women's group if that ever gets off the ground.

Sanity Check

My life up here in Vermont is still pretty isolated. Only slightly more so than it was in Salt Lake or at the Grand Canyon, but that slightly seems to make a big difference.

Part of the problem is that both Jay and everyone else we know seems to be extremely busy. Look at a college instructor's schedule, and you might see the 10-15 hours a week of class time, which seems like a light work load. But then you factor in prep time, and especially grading time, and the weekly hours jump up to 30-60. Add in the apparent faculty/staff shortages this term, which mean that many people are teaching "overload", or more than the usual 12 credits/term, and you end up with a definite lack of time for socializing.

Most of my recent conversations have been more snippets and sound bites, tossed out while running down the hall or past another faculty member's office. I can't remember the last time I had a sit down conversation with another adult with actual listening involved. (Though I did get a little fix of that while visiting K2 down in NYC.) So much for the slower pace of life in rural Vermont.

I've been so bogged down with grading my backlog of assignments for the midterm progress report deadline this week that I haven't had time for the outlets that keep me sane: this blog, my writing, my critique circle, good pleasure reading, and all the other little creative things that stretch my brain. The only thing I have kept up with (mostly) is my exercise schedule. The plan this term was to get a minimum of 6 1/2 hours of exercise each week. I've pretty much stuck to that - with nice results in terms of physical health and fitness - but that, too, takes away from my creative time. And for my mental health, that creative time is essential.

So what I've decided to do is this: I will schedule a certain number of hours on specific days to grade student work. I will not skip those times (procrastination is part of the problem) nor will I grade outside those times (must set boundaries). As for the balance of mental and physical exercise... I'm still trying to figure out how to strike a balance.

I've started mentoring at one of the local middle schools - I meet with a seventh grade girl once a week at lunch - and have volunteered to advise the second attempt at a Women at OurCollege group. (Last year, the advisor was a bit too... aggressive and scared away most of the interested women before the group could get off the ground. We're starting with a more social gathering type group, to branch out into specific discussion and action meetings as everyone gets more comfortable with the idea.) I'm hoping both of these actvities will help me feel more connected and not just stretched further.

(Oh - and it looks like I missed my 4 year blogoversary last week. Four years...)

Gasp

Drowning in midterm grading.

Gasp.

Must find a more efficient way to grade 35 mediocre to crap papers.

Gasp.

By this time in past semesters, I've been down to 20 students or less.

Gasp.

I think I got spoiled by small class sizes last year.

Gasp.

Not that I want the students to go away.

Gasp.

But the non-participators with attitude problems?

Gasp.

Them, I would not miss.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.