Month: January 2008

I can has Internets? No, I cannot has!

Well, my home modem is apparently borked. It happened last night and I called Time Warner Ripoff for tech support. The national folks were as helpful as they could be, but when they sent me back to the local folks, I waited on hold for 20+ minutes only to be sent back to national before I’d gotten a full sentence out. The second time around to the local folks was only a 10+ minute hold, but as usual, they couldn’t book a specific time to actually come (“any time” during Wednesday, “any time” during Thursday, or set time spans on Friday – I chose 3:30-6PM). I had to go with the set time spans what with having a career and all that jazz. (Though it was tempting to call in “sick” for Wednesday to get it back faster. Still, there’s that whole “substitute teacher planning” which would have been necessary. Blech.)

So I decided to spend an evening at Panera at Miller Lane in Dayton (well, not really in Dayton. Or in Vandalia. Or Huber Heights – this is sort of a no man’s land). Mmm, Jones cream soda! Broccoli cheddar soup! Some sort of turkey foccacia sammich. I’ll see about getting some of my coursework done, getting caught up on my friends’ list, and reading my daily webcomics. Tomorrow night? Maybe Night Sky cafe in Troy? Maybe conscript dad’s modem to my evil purposes. I haven’t decided yet.

Meme Sweet Meme

After a busy phone day (I spoke with my sister for over an hour today, followed by a nice call to elsaf while she’s in hospital and then another longish call to judiang to see how she was faring) I’ve decided to give my brain a break and do a simple meme which I gakked from bex77.

When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?
The living room.

Do you have a dishwasher?
Yup.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?
Whole house is hardwood floors now except the kitchen & bathroom which are some sort of non-wood flooring – laminate for the kitchen? Linoleum for the bathroom?

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?
On the counter in the block they came with.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer?
House, yay!

How many bedrooms is it?
Theoretically 3, but I made one into my den (where the PC is) and another into my library (where my books are – and where I’m typing this up on my laptop).

Gas stove or electric?
Gas, yay!

Do you have a yard?
Yup.

What size TV is in the living room?
37″ LCD, yay!

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?
Yup. Or else they’d get lonely!

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?
Nah, I don’t like coffee.

What room is your computer in?
The den. My laptop is usually in the library or by the sofa in my living room.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?
Yup. Lithographs of art by Anneke Wills (Doc7, Doc4, her self portrait, 2 garden pieces). I’ve also got a TV guide cover of Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. Some collages of friends & family, too.

Are there any themes found in your home?
The den has lots of Sylvester McCoy & Doctor Who stuff in it. The library’s theme is “books, cats, life is sweet.” Heh. My bedroom has some nice Inuit art on one half, but the rest of the room is rather random. I guess the house as a whole is Fandom Eclectic. 🙂

What kind of laundry detergent do you use?
Tide Free.

Do you use dryer sheets?
No, I use Downey in my main wash.

Do you have any curtains in your home?
Not as many as I should have. I have blinds in most of the windows, but they need curtains too. And my living room curtains are really looking like crap. I’ll get ’em sorted out eventually.

What color is your fridge?
White.

Is your house clean?
Rarely. Today is no exception.

What room is the most neglected?
Basement. It needs to be made into an unleaking thing and then made into a game room. 🙂

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?
The dishes in my sink are clean & drying. The dishes in my washer are dirty.

How long have you lived in your home?
This February marks year 10, yay!

Where did you live before?
With my parents. Before then for 4 years I rented half of a house in Eaton. Before then, with my parents. 🙂

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?
Nah.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?
I have two. Both in the kitchen. One’s for me to step on. The other’s for measuring food weight. Both are digital.

How many mirrors are in your house?
2. One in the kitchen, which I like to make faces at. The other, larger one, is in my bedroom and I often forget it’s there.

Look up. What do you see?
The ceiling of my library, the old ceiling light (which isn’t on), and my reading light (which is on).

Do you have a garage?
Yup. Yay!

‘Tis Monday

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to all!  We actually had to go to work today, although the kids were off.  It was a Teacher Work Day and thankfully, we were left to work on our own most of the day.  Which is just as well, because I finished grades a few minutes after my “go home!” time came (and went).  But yay, first semester is OVAH and my grades are all in.  Feels great to be caught up!

It’s always hard to get my head around the end of the first semester – it always goes quicker than you expect.  And the second semester – I have this fear I’ll blink and it’ll be over.  And as fast as it goes for me, it’s even faster (though for some not fast enough) for my seniors.  They’re so close to “freedom” and “the real world” that they can taste it.  Ah yes, the joy of “freedom” and debt and responsibility and working and all that.  Basically, you know, life.  🙂

My college classes have begun – Statistics for Professionals and a Curriculum class.  Although we have a research project we’ll have to design and implement for the semester, I think (for now) that it’s do-able.  I’d like to do something regarding children’s science books (not text books – things like the Magic School Bus books in the US and Horrible Science books in the UK), but I don’t know yet what I want to do (or if I have the time to do it).  For the Curriculum class we’ll be designing a curriculum.  And I think I’ll be able to use this for a practical purpose.  Next year, I want to dust off dad’s Advanced Problems in Science course and teach it.  The Science and the Public program that I’m getting my Masters in will be a perfect focus for it.  The point of the course was basically to help kids get “science” and be better consumers.  So I’ll work on the curriculum for that class. (I even intend to use children’s science books in Advanced Problems.  Can the HS kids spot the bad science if there is some?  And how would you handle that with little kids for whom the book was written?)

Anyhoo, it’s nice, as I said before, to not be drowning at work.  Heck, I’m not drowning, I’m raving! 😉  (Hint, look at the song currently playing.)

I hab a code!

For the first time since my broken arm in 2000, I took sick leave today for myself. Only half a day – I stayed during the periods with my kids, but then was feeling wishy washy enough to go home afterward. I had to get up at quarter ’til 5 this morning to drop mom & dad off at the airport – by the time I returned home, it still wasn’t the time I usually get up. So I figured what I needed most was sleep. After fixing a lunch of Mrs Grass’s Noodle Soup (my staple “I’m sick” food) I went to bed and slept 4+ hours. With assistance from kitties.

I’ll do supper shortly and then probably go to bed. Here’s hoping all of the sleep will help me get rid of this cold ASAP. I want to start working on my courses tomorrow evening (classes start this week for my Masters program) so I want to be better in order to make sense when I post. Heh.

Oh, to illustrate just what a wonderful place that I work is, when I told the HS secretaries that I was going to leave early, one of ’em offered to drive me home since she was heading home to lunch. Considering I was thinking “Damn, I should have worn my long underwear this morning!” on my way to work, I took her up on the offer.

2007 – the Year in Books

Two years ago, I had tried to set myself some goals for 2006. Although there are some goals which I haven’t done a good job with (exercising 20 minutes a day on my exercise bike), I definitely accomplished one in 2007 which has aided another longterm goal of mine. This summer, I finally got my floor-to-ceiling bookshelves put up. And that has certainly made the goal “read 30 minutes a day” a much more fun thing to do.

For the past several years, I’ve tried to read at least 50 books during a year. 2006 was the first year (since I’ve been keeping track) which I managed it with 54 books. Despite my slow start in 2007 (only reading 2 in January), I trounced my former “record” with 59 books read. I had hit 50 while still in November. 🙂 Once again, I’ll put the disclaimer in that I read all sizes & shapes of books. From college “textbooks” (How to Think About Weird Things) to children’s stories (Mars Needs Moms) – a book is a book in my book. 🙂 Audio books count too, but I only had 2 of those in 2007. (Big Finish plays, OTOH, are not “books” in my book. So they don’t get counted.)

So, on to some of my discoveries from the 59 books read in 2007:

Two “new” authors for me this year were Steve Hockensmith and Christopher Moore. Thanks to several “Buy 2 get 1 Free!” sales at bookstores over Spring Break, I wound up trying several authors, including these two. And I decided I need to check out more books by them.

Hockensmith is a relatively new author with two books out and one coming in February. Holmes on the Range is the first book, where it introduces us to Big Red and Old Red, a couple of “cowboys” who wind up in the center of mysteries. But thankfully, Old Red is a BIG fan of Sherlock Holmes (his younger brother Big Red reads them to him – several times) and is able to apply Holmes’ techniques out in the “Old West.” I also picked up On the Wrong Track later on in the year and enjoyed it as well. A nice mix of Western, Humor, and Mystery.

Moore, OTOH, has been around awhile, but I only discovered him last year during Spring Break. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal was probably the funniest book I’d read in years. It was “laugh out loud” and “slap the bed” funny. Several times I scared Lucy such that she’d jump off the bed and run & hide. As soon as I finished it, I loaned it to my folks and they enjoyed it as well. Since then, I’ve tried two other Moore books. Coyote Blue was enjoyable, but I think I’d’ve been more impressed with it if I’d read it before Lamb. A Dirty Job, however, was very dark and funny in the right ways. With Moore, you can figure he’s going to turn things on their heads, and as you can guess by the subtitle of Lamb, gods get to do handstands too.

In the (auto)biographical realm (which I don’t usually buy – this year was an exception), I discovered Frank McCourt. Angela’s Ashes was one of the most heart wrenching books I’ve ever read – but poverty through the eyes of young Frank McCourt was also often funny. As soon as I’d finished Ashes, I needed to read what happened next, so I bought ‘Tis and Teacher Man. In a way, I’m glad that I didn’t read Teacher Man before I started teaching. 😉 (OK, so it would have been impossible as it was written in 2005 and I started teaching in 1993.) I may have to consider checking out other autobiographies and biographies out there.

2007 was the year that JK Rowling finished the Harry Potter book series. I had seen the 5th movie shortly before the book came out. Then I read book 6 in two days to get ready for book 7. And then I read that in a further 2 days. I really enjoyed the book and how it tied up the whole series. I need to do another marathon read from book 1 on to book 7 – but maybe in the summer. 😉

I discovered in 2007 that David Sedaris doesn’t rock my boat (although Me Talk Pretty One Day wasn’t awful – I’ve just read other humorists that I enjoy more). Bill Bryson, OTOH, still entertains me (this year with In a Sunburned Country).

I could probably go on about more of the books I’ve read, but I’m getting antsy to play a bit more World of Warcrack before bedtime. And the good news about 2008 and books is that I’ve already got 6 under my belt. This is thanks to The Spiderwick Chronicles. I spent the last 5 nights reading the five books of the series. Quite fun books with beautiful illustrations. Tonight I’ll either start on Making Money by Terry Pratchett or First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde.

A good start!

So far 2008 is looking good. Sure, we’re only 3 days in, but my family and friends have helped, once again, transition from one year into the next, from one age into the next.

When I last updated my journal with something other than well-wishes for the new year, I got caught up to December 30th. Things have calmed down since then.

For New Year’s Eve, we got up at a decent hour in order to get elsaf off to a good start back home. judiang and I led Elsa & her car to Bob Evans in Troy for a nice breakfast. Then we hugged Elsa and bid her happy driving. And one of these days I’ll mail her the items she accidentally left at my place. Whoops!

I made a stop at Meijer on the way home for some supplies. Judi slept in the car, which is just as well as I sort of got caught up in the 50% off sales of Christmas items. I bought some snowman paper plates & napkins for my NYE gathering, plus a tree for next year (this year’s will be trash when I take it down – it’s fallen far too many times to be viable). When I returned home, both Judi and I napped. I had some chicken salad for lunch and then picked up the place. At quarter til 6 I ordered pizzas from the local joint with favorite toppings for all. The folks arrived a bit after 6pm and Aunt Becky at 6:30. The pizzas arrived between them.

While we munched on pizza, we watched that classic family favorite Murder by Death. Although it was very familiar to (and loved by) dad and I, the others were less familiar with it, but we all enjoyed it. Plenty of laughter all around. After the movie, we ladies gathered around the dining room table to play pinochle. I put Hot Fuzz on for dad to enjoy (which he did) while we 4 were playing cards. I had warned Judi to bone up on her pinochle skills before coming, but she didn’t, so we lost the first game. (Heh heh – not entirely true. Both Judi and me making bids we couldn’t cover is what made us lose the first game). In the second game, however, I wound up getting a double run, which I’d never seen before in my life. Wow – 1500 meld points! Crappy hands for the rest of the game meant that we lost that game as well, but wow, a double run!

After Hot Fuzz was over, dad switched over to regular TV and when there were 10 minutes left of 2007, we switched to Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year. We counted down with the folks of NYC and cheered, drank, and in the case of mom & dad, kissed the new year in. Dad took his champagne back home with him while we ladies finished our second pinochle game. At 12:16, my sister called to wish me a Happy Birthday (I was born 16 minutes after midnight) from Minnesota. She sang, along with the Bemidjii Chorus, Happy Birthday. (She said there was even a piano accompaniment, but alas, I couldn’t hear it.) 🙂

Mom and Becky left once the game was over and Judi and I straightened up just enough to get us through the night. I then headed off to bed.

I slept in until just before 10. Just in time to put on HGTV’s Making of the Rose Parade special. Halfway through that, I got dressed and washed my hair. While I was doing that, Lucy made my bed. Wow! (Well, when I returned to the room, she was looking smug and the bed was made, so it must have been her!) Judi, meanwhile, had put the sofa bed up, so I was able to plonk down with milk and chocolate donettes when the Rose Parade started. Yay – I watched the entire parade without interruption. It was wonderful.

Meanwhile, mom was busy slaving away in her kitchen making pork & kraut for the new year. We came over around 1:30 and I helped make the mashed potatoes. The four of us then had a lovely New Years Day meal. (In the Andersons, it was always a tradition to have pork & kraut as Good Luck for the New Year. When I was small, I didn’t like the meal. But at some point in my life, I realized that sauerkraut was a good thing. It’s the perfect birthday meal, IMO.)

After lunch, we had cheesecake cupcakes (mine with a burning candle in it). I made a wish & blew out the candle. Then mom gave me the present from her & dad. Yay! Money for a kik step stool from Demco! (I ordered it later that day – hunter green. Should be arriving tomorrow – woot!)

The rest of the day was a day of rest. We both napped, then I cleaned up the place a bit more. Then we returned to mom’s for some game playing. We played a few of mom’s new games. Swipe was more a matter of luck than anything else. But we all liked Phase 10 Dice, which was a cross between Yatzee and Shanghai Rum. We ate lots of my homemade Chex mix while playing.

Then Judi and I braved the blowing & drifting snow to get to Cold Stone Creamery for my birthday ice cream. (I’d had cake, now I needed ice cream!) I ordered the Peanut Butter Cup Perfection, but with dark chocolate rather than regular. Judi, who got sugar cream with coconut mixed in, bought my ice cream for me. Awww! Thanks sweetie!

Back home to the warmth of the house. It was Movie Time. We started by watching Wings of Desire (which, like Murder by Death, was a Christmas present from Amy). I’ve been a Peter Falk fan for years, and Wings of Desire was a flick I’d been meaning to see for quite some time. Thanks to Amy, I’ve now seen it. It’s a very sweet film, and Falk is great in it. 🙂

After that, I had the urge to watch Brazil (the Director’s cut). I’ve had the DVD in my collection awhile, but just hadn’t gotten around to watching it. We got it about halfway done when we both decided it was bedtime.

The next morning, mom called to say I should open the back door. I did that and she showed up with some coffee cake for both of us and some coffee & creamer for Judi. Yay for moms! I ate my coffee cake and watched the rest of Brazil.

We were slow moving that day, but around 1, Judi got all packed up and we headed off to Sakai for a nice Japanese lunch. Then I drove her to the Dayton airport and dropped her off. I was home before she’d gotten through to her gate, I believe. Heh. But the flight was only slightly delayed and she got home at a decent hour. Meanwhile, I decided to continue my movie kick and watched Hair, another flick I’d not seen in years. Then I decided I’d watch some Penn & Teller’s Bullshit (a gift from hergrace – yay Steph – thanks a billion!). I wound up watching all 5 episodes on the first disc. Whoops! (It was getting to the “just one more…” point.)

Today I got a bit of cleaning done and got 3 more episodes of Bullshit watched. The folks invited me to join them on a shopping trip to Sam’s Club and then to Gander Mountain. It was a fun trip (with many pairs of socks purchased) made all the more fun when we got lost trying to go from Sam’s Club to Gander Mountain. (24 minutes after we started on the trek, we drove behind Sam’s Club again…)

Now I’m busy downloading the patches for World of Warcrack (which Judi gave me for my birthday – evil evil woman!). I’ve got 10 days to try it, then 30 days from the retail box. They might not be consecutive – I haven’t decided yet. Classes start January 16th…