Sunday, rainy sunday...

It isn't snowing yet, so much for 4-6 inches, but it is icy. The poor willow tree in the back yard is covered in ice. I can hear the wind and the rain. All the animals are on their own today, no walks, no company in the yard. I am not stepping a foot outside of the house.

Tomorrow I have to go back to school for one week and then Spring Break! I wish it were next week, I am so unenthused about it all. On Friday, in a conference I almost told a student that she was absolutely correct. She has nothing to say. Don't worry, I was a good teacher. I'd never really say anything like that. Fortunately this week is full of presentations and I don't have to do much. Well, tomorrow, I'm giving a presentation of my own. One of my colleagues asked me to speak to her class. The class is reading My Stroke of Insight, so I'm going to tell them about my own stroke experience. I'm a little nervous about it all, but I said I would do it.

Anyway, since there is not much going on here today, I give you a meme. (I just assume these are "favorites." It didn't come with instructions.

A
- Available: for teaching
- Age: non-linear
- Annoyance: People
- Animal: (s) too many
- Actor: Huge Ackman
- Actress: Kate Winslet

B
- Beer: good
- Birthday: September 2nd
- Best Friend: Hamish & the CP
- Body Part on opposite sex: Wrists
- Best feeling in the world: Clean Sheets
- Best weather: Sitting on the deck weather
- Been on stage?: Not enough

C
- Car: Scarlette
- Candy: Chocolate & Nuts
- Cried in school: Not yet, working on keeping it that way
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Depends
- Chinese/Mexican: Vietnamese
- Cake or pie: Cake
- Country to visit: Czech Republic

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dream vehicle: Vespa
- Dance: Not enough

E
- Eggs: Yes
- Eyes: Brown
- Everyone has: A bellybutton
- Ever failed a class?: Nope

F
First crush: Mark something or other....I was told. The first I remember Chris Tomzack
- Full name: Somedayphd
- First thoughts waking up: Damn Puppy

G
- Greatest Fear(s): Burning
- Goals: Who needs them?
- Gum: I don't like to chew gum much anymore.
- Get along with your parents?: Usually
- Good luck charm: Clearly I need one.

H
- Hair Color: Whatever the bottle says.
- Height: 5' 5"
- Happy:
- Holiday: Bastille Day
- How do you want to die: What a ridiculous question.

I
- Ice Cream: Yes
- Instrument: Flute

J
- Jewelry: I like it.
- Job: Teaching

K
- Kids:
- Kickboxing or karate: Neither
- Keep a journal?: Never good at it.

L
- Longest Car Ride: Western Wa to Homer Alaska
- Love: My family and friends and animals.
- Letter(s): ?
- Laughed so hard you cried: "The dog was loose and still is loose."
- Love at first sight: Sure.

M
- Movie: LA Confidential
- Mooned anyone?: No
- Marriage: Is all about the good story.
- Motion sickness? nope
- McD's or BK: McD's

N
- Number of Siblings: 2
- Number of Piercings: 3
- Number:

O
- Overused Phrases: Post - ????
- One phobia: Falling down stairs.

P
- Place you'd like to live: Central France
-Perfect Pizza: pineapple/ham
- Pepsi/Coke: Diet Coke/ Cherry Pepsi

Q
- Quail: Never tried it.

R
- Reason to cry: Many
- Reality T.V.: No
- Radio Station:
- Roll your tongue in a circle?: Since my grandpa taught me as a wee lass.

S
- Song: Girl in the War
- Salad: with Bleu Cheese
- Shrimp?: Why can't they clean it properly?
- Sport?: Hockey
- Skipped school: Occasionally
Slept outside: Not recently.
- Seen a dead body?: Yes.
- Shower Daily?: Mostly
- Sing well?- Define well
- Stuffed Animals?: They've all gone to the dogs.


T
- Time for bed: Ideally - 9. Realistically - 12-1.
- Thunderstorms: Love them.
- TV: Of course.
- Touch your tongue to your nose?: Nope.

U
- Unpredictable: I'd like to think so, but not really.

V
- Vegetable you hate: cooked carrots. But, I love them raw. Go figure.
- Vegetable you love: Fresh Peas
- Vacation spot: Vacation?

W
- Weakness: Chocolate
- When you grow up: I want to work somewhere else
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you?: don't know
- Who makes you laugh the most: Robert
- Worst feeling: Nausea
- Wanted to be a model: Nope.
- Worst weather: Chilly, rainy, and blustery.

X
-X-Ray: Just to prove I can swallow

Y
-Year now?: 2009
-Yellow: Can't wear it.

Z
- Zoo animal: Sharks
- Zodiac sign: Virgo

Last person who:
-Went to the movies with you: DH
- You went to the mall with: I try to avoid the mall, but I think it was CP
- Went to dinner with: DH
- Talked to on the phone: My Dad
- Made you laugh: Robert

Understanding our courses...

Today at the book fair a first year TA said, "Do we have a critical thinking course?" Without even a pause I said, "Yeah, 101 & 102." There was a round of tittering from other first-year students. I found myself giving a much condensed version of last night's rant. Really, of all the changes being made...it should be ensured that everyone teaching 101 & 102 knows they should have a critical thinking component. Grr. Arrgh.

Irritation?

You know, when hiring/firing people I often find it best to just give them a schedule to let them know they've been hired. Certainly they wouldn't want to know they've been hired before they get a schedule.

At the watercooler...

Well, we don't really have a water-cooler, but my office will do.

Since my job was "simplified" late last semester, I've maintained a pretty low profile around the department. Once before the semester started I stopped by to say hello to the new DC. The other day, I commented that I hadn't seen her and I needed to stop by again so she knew I wasn't avoiding her.

Here's the deal - She is avoiding me. Really. She just walked through my office, which isn't supposed to be a pass through, looking for someone. Granted, she could have been in a hurry, but she barely even stopped to say hello. She didn't even give a reason for being in a hurrry.

Whatever.

I am not really upset by this. It's just intriguing that she doesn't seem to want to see me. Maybe she sense that their move was wrong, whatever its motivation.

FYI

I really don't believe that you didn't check your email or blackboard until 7:00pm on a school day.

New Year's has never been that important to me. Maybe it's because I've always been on a more academic schedule. In addition to the joys of new pens and notebooks for class, my birthday is at the beginning of the school year. So, it really is more of a new year for me than the arbitrary calendar date of January 1st.

So, all I can do is hope, pray, beg the gods of the multiverse that this week is not an indication of what it will be like to be 35. The fact that my birthday isn't really until next week gives me just the smallest glimmer of hope that this is just a bad send off of 34.

The pessimism may surprise you, but that' just because I spent Wednesday evening writing my academic genealogy to avoid looking at the following.

Yup, that is the ceiling of my kitchen. Wednesday morning, after an entire night of heavy rain, I woke up to a soggy kitchen table and a pretty new ceiling.

The best part came later when the DH went upstairs to check the Cat Bathroom, which is directly above the kitchen. He said he noticed the wall and then just touched the ceiling and his finger went right through.

Thursday, instead of going to sweaty yoga, I got to hang around the house to hear a contractor tell us that the actual problem was minor. In his words, "A 10 cent fix." The resulting damage is worth a little more. Fortunately, the in-laws can file a home-owners claim because it was weather related.

Today...today was going well. Until I decided to go to the bathroom before teaching the afternoon class. That was when the zipper on my pants broke. Now, these weren't just regular pants that have multiple fasteners. These were some really cute pants with a side zipper. In fact, they are the pants that I wore to our "reception" dinner at the Peppermill in Vegas after we got married the second time. The side zipper business means that the zipper was holding these pants up.

Fortunately, I happen to bring a change of clothes to school today. This is really a random occurrence. It was the only thing that saved me from having to staple my clothes together.

Yeah, that's my week. The ceiling brakes and my pants fall down.

Don't worry, I am well aware that in the whole scheme of the world my week wasn't that terrible. In fact, I'm still pretty fortunate -- my cats have their own bathroom for cryin' out loud! It was just one of those weeks.

Oh and about the cat bathroom. It's just that it's there and no one uses it, so it's the perfect place for the litterbox. Besides we have to do something to make up for the fact that we love the dog more.

Oh...and two more things....
First of all - while I appreciate that New Orleans is in the path of Gustav, but seriously people. Look at that map a little more closely and you can see that the good folks in Cameron Parrish, who are still recovering from Rita...yeah, you know the other hurricane that hit three years ago, are more in the line of that storm. Those are the Cajun Princess's people down there and they do not need to go through that crap again.

Secondly, the saving grace of this day has been my discovery of Black Hockey Jesus. I never thought I'd thank Redneck Mommy for taking a break, but I've discovered a lot of great blogs this week. I've spent this afternoon reading through the archives and I'm in love. Really. If the DH would trust himself enough to sit down with a pen I think he'd have a similar voice.

Well Laid Plans

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but the DH and I have been sharing a car all summer. It's partly an effort to save a little gas money, but also because his car is not in the best of shape.
It's the other reason I've often been stuck at home.

One benefit of having just one car is that I get to hone my skills at planning the most efficient sequence of accomplishing errands. It does my little Virgo heart good when I can make the first stop on my list the farthest from home and then work my way back. It makes both the DH and I really happy when we can use one car without having to do too many drop-offs and pick-ups.

Putting the finishing touches on the new teaching assistant orientation has required me to spend most of my time this week on campus. This hasn't led to the most efficient drop-off/pick-up schedule. So, for today I purposefully planned NOT to go to campus, because the DH had to work and there would be less running around if I didn't have to go to campus. Now...I actually have quite a bit to left to do on campus, but I figured not going there today would be okay because I could spend all day tomorrow there. I would go to campus around 8:ish do all my office chores, walk down the hall to my 10am meeting, then spend the afternoon running errands on campus while I waited for books to arrive.** After the books arrived I would head home and the DH could go to work.

It was a pretty damned good plan, if I do say so myself. As you can probably guess, that is not how my day is going to work. Nope. How do you thoroughly destroy such a beautiful plan? Move the 10am meeting to 11am and hold it off campus as opposed to just down the hall. Oh...and it's not just off campus, it's the equivalent of all the way home.

It wouldn't be so bad except that I really do have enough stuff to do that I need to go to campus before the meeting...and, because I have to wait for the books, I have to return to campus after the meeting. yeah. There goes my well planned day.


**Don't get me started on why I need to wait for the books. Just don't.

Confusion...

All I can say at this moment is that it sucks when someone else's flakiness results in confusion that looks like your fault. It particularly sucks when that someone is tenured and you are just a lowly TA.

And I thought I wanted this administrative type job.