Happy New Year

We are having a quiet day today, just hanging about the house (although I am still grading) and making cookies for tomorrow's dinner. The rest of the family went to see Apocalypto last night (I declined, not having any appetite for gore at the moment) and gave it a so-so review. I stayed home, ate popcorn, and watched my hockey team win.

I was having a problem with Firefox hanging a lot, and it was driving me nuts. Tried a bunch of things with no relief, but I think I've finally found the solution. I created a new profile, renamed the old one, and made the new one the default. Voila! Everything loads fast and easy, just as it used to. Yay!

If only grading these assignments was that easy. So many of the students just didn't think about what they were doing. Granted, they are having to take the user into account for what's probably the very first time, but hey--when you have 400 instances and one attribute has 312 unique values, that should give you a big hint about how to handle that attribute. Several had results where an algorithm gave 100% correct predictions, and never questioned why that happened. Anyway, I have 20+ to slog through, still.

One thing I wish our course management software had--a mailbox for each student. I don't want to clog up my e-mail account with files sent back and forth, and I don't want to kill a forest printing out their homework papers. So I did the next best thing. I made a restricted discussion forum for each student so I can post comments on their homework. We'll see how that works.

Mama Kitty has taken to biting my sweater now instead of just my buttons.

Oh good, very nice, and oh crap

Oh good: No cavities, and the dentist said I am doing a good job flossing. BUT (there is always a but) I need to do better. Sigh. Never good enough.

Very nice: I liked We are Marshall very much. Matthew McConaughy's very quirky mannerisms are a bit hard to take sometimes. But the story moves along nicely; there are very sad parts, very funny parts, and some inspiring scenes. Spouse and I were trying to remember if we had ever even heard about the Marshall plane crash, which took place when I was a junior and he a senior in high school. I don't remember it at all. Random note: the popcorn at this theater was absolutely the best movie popcorn I have ever had.

Oh crap: I was supposed to meet my sister for breakfast this morning, and I forgot entirely. She is ticked off, and I don't blame her.

On the annoyance front, I spent an hour yesterday waiting at the doctor's office for a duplicate blood work script. I had called ahead to ask if they could give me one, as I've lost it somewhere between the condo and here. They were exceptionally busy yesterday, which is the only reason why I waited so long. When I got in the car to drive away, I put the script in the book I was reading. That's when I noticed they only wrote it for one test, and left off the thyroid hormone test part. ARGGGHHH!

Today is another busy day. I have to go to the condo, take in the mail, look for the original blood work script, change into nice clothes, then go to my dad's church and help my mother set the table for the appreciation dinner they are hosting tonight. After the dinner, I need to upload the solutions for the uncollected homework I assigned my stats class over the break, finish grading the second homework assignment for my data mining class, and do some laundry. Tomorrow is Youngest Daughter's skating lesson, then we come back to HomeCity for the rest of the break.

Kitty Son keeps drinking the Christmas tree water. I guess he figures he can, since the tree isn't drinking any. I yell at him because I don't want him sick. But it does give his breath a fresh piney smell...

It's been six months ALREADY??

I have to go to the dentist today. I hate going to the dentist. My whole day is going to be spent waiting to go to the dentist because for some stupid reason I made an afternoon appointment. Usually I want to get it over with early, but NOOOOOOOOOO I had to get one for 2:45. Yuck.

Also, I can't find the script for the bloodwork I need done. I *thought* I grabbed it from the condo when we packed up to come back to HomeCity for the week, but apparently I didn't. So that means I have to call the doctor's office and get another script. Fortunately, the office is on the way to the dentist.

Kitty Mama escaped outside twice yesterday. Spouse said she is re-establishing her territory. At the condo she never tries to get out; but here, she is waiting for some unwary person to be a little bit slow shutting the door--and then she's out! It was cold last night so she didn't stay out very long.

Tonight we are going to go see We are Marshall and then get some ice cream. I love football movies, and I can't wait to see this one.

Christmas trees smell wonderful

and ours still does, although it doesn't seem to be drinking any water. It looks wonderful too.

Eldest Daughter left this morning to fly back to the City Too Very Far Away. She and her tin of Christmas cookies made it safely through security (we remembered to put some cookies aside for the hard-working TSA dudes) . She says the cookies were a hit at her workplace, even the ultra chocolate Deer Droppings, ha ha ha.

I miss her already.

But we had a marvelous time yesterday shopping for new clothes for her, having lunch with my friends A and N, and visiting with P and her family later in the afternoon. Then last night we got to see the Sabres annihilate the Capitols within the first 11 minutes of the game. Pretty cool.

So, what did I get for the birthday/Christmas haul?
McCullough's biography of John Adams
Steve Tasker's book
Marcia Bartusiak's Archives of the Universe
Biscotti-smelling oil sticks
Slipper socks
Nail care set
Christmas teapot
3-tier server with red-rimmed plates
Hershey bar
Gift certificate to Cracker Barrel
Hand-crocheted scarf
Hand-cut paper scene
Tickets to see Rocky Balboa with my Favorite Son
Tickets to see We are Marshall, and get post-movie ice cream, with my Favorite Spouse
Gift certificate to Barnes and Noble
Blue lapis heart pendant
Cashews
Set of towels for the condo
Godiva chocolate bar
Starbucks card
Teacup ornament

Of course ab~NMHHHHHJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJsolutely the best present of all was having my three kids home for the holidays (spazz attack there thanks to Mama Kitty, who walked on the keyboard en route to her usual perch on my chest, where she purrs, kneads with her sharp Mama Kitty claws, and bites my buttons).

Blogging on my birthday

It's rainy and grey and not snowing, darn. Looks like we will have a green Christmas this year. Double darn. Although that does make it easier to travel.

So today is my birthday. I was thinking this morning that at this point in my life I sort of expected that finances would be easier, I'd be established in a job for a while, I'd have a relatively nice house, drive a decent car, etc. Instead: I'm in my second year of my first full time job since 1983, and finances are still tight, especially around this time of year. Once again, we are crossing our fingers that we have enough money to last until the next paycheck and still get presents for everyone we need to get presents for. That doesn't leave much leeway for Christmas birthdays. We are going out to dinner tonight with my parents, and Spouse was calling me "Scroogette" for not wanting to invite my sisters, my brother, my friend and her parents, his sister and brother-in-law--but we just can't pick up the tab for that many people. As it is, we are paying for seven. I had told him I didn't want presents this year, that I would just rather put the money in the bank or pay off stuff. I hope he listened, because there's no room in the budget for extras.

The best present, anyway, is having my kids together for the holidays. I don't need anything, and I don't want more stuff. I have gotten to the point where I really don't have a problem walking in to boutiques and interesting stores and walking out empty-handed, saying "Wow, they had some neat stuff." As a matter of fact, although I still enjoy going to the big arts and crafts shows around here, my MO is that if I have to dust or clean an item then I won't buy it. I haven't bought anything in a long time!

We're heading over to my parents' house to see my niece and grand-niece, then getting supplies to make Christmas cookies, yum! Youngest Daughter has skating lessons this afternoon, then it's off to dinner. After dinner we'll go back to HomeCity and finish baking and decorating the tree. Lots to do! Eldest Daughter wants to take cookies back with her, so we need to find a secure way to ship them. Gluten-free cookies tend to be a bit fragile. She wants the green almond spritz Christmas trees, chocolate and vanilla pinwheels, and the chocolate-cinnamon-clove cookies we call "deer droppings". Spouse came up with that name as a way to keep more of them for himself, as the squeamish would be grossed out by the name and not want any.

My best friend and her family are in Cambodia for the holiday. I don't know how she finds these vacation deals, but she does!

And here a miracle occurs...


As we were driving into the campus, on our way to move Son out of his on-campus apartment, my phone rang. I handed it to Eldest Daughter to answer, since I was driving, and also because I thought it was Son. She answered with "Whatup?" and then laughed and handed me the phone. It was Financial Aid lady, telling me they had talked with their director and decided that they would reinstate the 10K.

God still answers prayers, and there are still miracles at Christmas.

So we are not moving Son (good, because it's cold and raining) but he is still graduating at the end of this quarter. That will save the uni some of that 10K after all.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

Eldest Daughter got here safely, yay! It is so good to have her home. We bought the tree, got it set up, and put the lights and garland on. We'll wait for Son and Youngest Daughter to help put the ornaments on. Actually, some ornaments are already on--the Star Wars and Star Trek ships that light up. Those are connected to our light strings. When we turn the lights on, all the sound effects start up and it's a very amusing cacophany.

The tree looks and smells wonderful and makes up some for the financial aid debacle. Still have not heard from them.

So tomorrow we leave HomeCity early in the morning, pick up my Dad's truck, and move Son. It's going to be a long, long day.

Being proactive

We've decided to take pre-emptive action with the Uni and do a couple of things to reduce the 10K deficit. We are not going to wait for Financial Aid to decide our fate.

Son is moving out of his on-campus apartment Friday and into the condo with Youngest Daughter and me. He is also all set to graduate at the end of this quarter. His adviser and his department administrator have been fantastic (by the way, Dr. B--I am not a swearing person, but your superbly profane rant on behalf of my son was very much appreciated!) and have assured him that they will make certain everything is in order.

The five of us will descend on the apartment Friday and clean it out by COB so he can turn in the keys.

I think it's safe to say this uni will never see one red cent from any of us. Customer relations does not seem to be their strong point.

On a lighter note, I have brownies, courtesy of YD. They are yummy. And, one of my co-workers gave me a beautiful business card holder for my birthday. That was so nice!

Well, that didn't go well

They are insisting that it was not a "mistake," it was a "miscommunication," and that they don't understand why we can't pay the extra money since now we only have one student in school and not two.

The amount of money we make is immaterial. The fact is, they are now telling us we have to pay an extra $10,000 over six months. I don't know too many people who can handle a sudden 50% reduction in income and still pay all their bills.

So supposedly they are going to "discuss it" and let us know by the end of the week.

That's going to leave a mark

Merry Christmas to us. It seems that the Uni Financial Aid office, may it fall into the pit, made a mistake in calculating Son's monthly tuition bill. A Ten Thousand Dollar mistake.

So now they say we owe almost $4000 in back tuition, and must pay, for the next six months, Five Times The Original Amount they said we would pay per month. This new amount is More Than One of My Paychecks.

We have several scenarios in mind to deal with This Problem, most of which involve blood, gore, mayhem, siege engines, and general unpleasantness. Tomorrow I shall confront the Bursar in its Den.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and prayers for Lady Eleanor, who has had a heart attack and is not doing well. She is a young 80 and we need her around a little longer.

Jaw-dropping student follies

I met a woman last week who teaches at a local CC. She was telling me about some of her students, who seem to be as bad (if not worse) than mine. One student, a woman coming back to school after being laid off from a local company, called my friend over to her desk after receiving her third quiz back.

Student (points to list of quiz grades: Quiz 1 = 92, Quiz 2 = 88, Quiz 3 = 74): Do you see this? Do you see what's going on here?

Teacher: Yes, yes I do.

Student: Well, what are you going to do about it?

Teacher: bursts into laughter and walks away

I am in awe.

My own students are proving to be mostly diligent, mostly paying attention, but there are always a couple...one, in an online class, has supposedly had difficulties accessing the Internet. Guess what? Dropping out of sight for a week in a 10-week quarter is guaranteed to cost you grade-wise.

Only two more days until Eldest Daughter comes home! I can't wait. We'll buy the tree when she gets here. She was thrilled to hear that. Because Spouse is congenitally unable to travel from Point A to Point B without stopping at Points C-Z in between, that means it could take longer to travel the two miles from the airport to our house than it would take to fly from her City Too Very Far Away to Home City. This inability to make a beeline home is a source of irritation or laughter, depending on if we've avoided getting roped/trapped/connived into driving with him or if we are stuck in the "just gotta make one more stop" hell with a bladder close to exploding. I've made four trips home from the hospital: three after C-sections, one after a thyroidectomy. Not one was a straight trip from hospital bed to home--we always had to stop for something.

Kitty Mama keeps monopolizing my comfy chair for her naps. She has serious claws and a tendency to be easily irritated, so we generally leave her alone when she is sleeping. I got all excited that she was vacating it, and was ready to plop into it, when I realized she only got down to vomit all over the rug. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Excuse me, Ms. Oblivious

Yes, I'm talking to you. The one who plopped a pile of jackets, gloves, and hats on the step so no one coming from this corner of the rink can get down the stairs. Did you not notice that the place you dropped your stuff is concrete, not wood, painted grey, and has a yellow stripe on the edge? See how it looks like the rest of the steps? Doesn't that tell you something?

Oh, and please stop your kids from going on and off the rink through the side door. There's a reason that door is shut. When your kid slams her own or someone else's fingers in that metal trap, don't say I didn't warn you.

Excuse me, Mr. Albatross Hot Pants Man? Yes, you. You in the ultra short denim hot pants that show everything when you do a one foot glide and stick your leg up in the air. You are scaring the children. No men should EVER wear hot pants, definitely not on the ice, and definitely not at your age. Actually, you are scaring more than the children. And please have someone videotape you when you are doing spins, and watch those videos. Tell your coach to help you find some more normal arm positions. You look like a crane--or an albatross.

Um, young man? Yes, you, the one who thinks it's funny to stagger all over the ice and fall right in front of people. You are either going to BE an accident or cause one. If you are unsteady on your skates, move to the wall. Don't stumble and flail your way across the middle of the ice where people are trying to practice spins and skating backwards.

Oh, and I don't want to forget you, Mr. Oblivious Dad. Those young ladies were practicing one-footed turns. Letting your little girl waddle her way right in their path, and not steering her away, was not only rude--it was dangerous.

Last, but not least, may I talk to you, young bubblehead girls? Yes, you. There's a convention that everyone skates the same way around the rink, and the middle is reserved for figure skaters practicing their moves. That's so people don't bang into each other. Don't be idiotic and skate the opposite direction. That goes for you too, Mr. Oblivious Dad. Skating backwards in the wrong direction is also a bad idea.

Glad we could have this talk. Have a good skate.

Yup, got yelled at

But not too badly. He was nicer this time, too, despite the stern warnings about weight and blood pressure. He wants me to check my BP several times over the next two or three weeks, and bring him the readings. Dang. Homework, and over the holidays too. Even *I* am not that mean! He also wants to recheck my thyroid levels to make sure the weight gain isn't from a lack of thyroxine, so that means bloodwork. I think the only thing he didn't frown about was my temperature. Thank God for small favors.

I stopped at the HomeCity house to pick up some stuff, and was totally grossed out by three things: the crumbs all over the dining room table, the nasty butter dish, and the tub in dire need of scrubbing. I know what I will be doing tomorrow.

Came back ravenous, because I completely missed both breakfast AND lunch. Answered 15 emails, including typing all three homework questions for a student who does not yet have the book (not his fault). Took a very short nap.

Now it's time to take Youngest Daughter for her yodeling--I mean voice--lesson. Tomorrow EARLY I have to be back at school for a graduate holiday breakfast. Seriously, why? And am I expected to dress up, or can I come in jeans and a sweater? After all, it's SATURDAY! After that, we have skating lessons, then back to HomeCity for the weekend. Busy times.

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday! I think we should celebrate our birthdays with another trip to Dutch Baby land. But maybe it would be a good idea to go after I go back for that BP check...

Off to the doctor's, probably to get yelled at

Last night I showed a really cool video to my class. Had a hard time getting the thing running, but it finally started up.

Youngest Daughter and Son went bowling together and YD got a "pseudo-strike"-- the computer gave her credit for a strike even though all the pins didn't fall down.

Got the departmental OK for a course in asset management that I've been working on. If it sails through the college's curriculum committee, we can run it in the spring. That would be great, because I think it's a good elective for a couple existing programs.

Today is payday, thank God. Now I can actually start Christmas shopping!

Take these evaluations, please!

The rest of my evaluations are ready, and I don't want to see them! The department is sending them over to my office tomorrow. I think I will shove them in a drawer and forget about them for, oh, maybe a decade. Youngest Daughter says I'm being a wimp. Yes, I am.

The other icky is that in the next month I need to meet with my chair and go over my plan of work for 2006, evaluate how I did, and write my plan for 2007. I did way more teaching than I had originally planned, and way less research as a result. I don't like the idea of rating myself, so I think I am going to leave that out.

One of my online classes is being really reticent, not posting much in the way of discussions. I need to light a fire under them, because this is not an engineering course and discussion is central to the class. It's only Wednesday. If I don't see some action by tomorrow night, I'm going to have to say something to get them moving. I have given them minimum requirements for discussion postings, but they need to do a lot more than the minimum to get the most out of this class.

My on-campus class is going really well so far, fingers crossed. Their first homework assignment is due tomorrow night, and so far eight have submitted their papers. My other online class has had some problems with the software, but hopefully things are fixed now.

Research-wise, I'm working on a couple of white papers. One is for my alma mater, one is for my current school. I'm hoping to get to the CUSUM paper soon, and do some data generation for that so I can get it submitted somewhere. I really need to get cracking on papers. I can't get up to Lisa's pace of one a month, but I ought to be able to churn out one every 4-6 weeks. It's a matter of focus and discipline, something I'm usually pretty good at but not so much lately.

Youngest Daughter and I went skating today, to try out her new skates (aka my Roomba). We both lasted about half an hour before our feet gave out. We'll try for 45 minutes tomorrow. My right skate has been bothering me, and I thought it was the skate--but today I had a sharp pain in the ball of my foot even though I had a hard plastic shield and a foam insert between my foot and the blade plate. Maybe it's not the skate, maybe it's my foot. That would be bad. But it got better as I skated, not worse as it did before I put the shield in. The skate is really tight with all that stuff in there, but it worked well enough that I could put in a half hour of solid skating.

One week until Eldest Daughter comes home! Yay!

Oooh, a present!

Today was our departmental Christmas lunch. Those of us with December birthdays got cards, and we all got black Polarfleece jackets with the school initials and our department logo on them. Really nice, warm, beautiful jackets!

I would like to fit in mine better, she says as she eats yet another brownie...

I just want to say

that these floaters are driving me nuts, and that sometimes I feel like I'm seeing through the bottom of a faceted water glass. I find myself reading with my left eye shut.

I sure hope this gets better with time. It's danged annoying. Then again, I spent most of last year wanting to tear my head off because the thyroidectomy scar itched and stung and was generally irritating, and it's much better now. So maybe there's hope for this eye thing and it will become less of an annoyance. Because reading is my Very Favorite Thing, and right now it's real hard to do.

Busy Sunday

Last night's banquet/performance thingie went okay, except that I played for 45 minutes and not the 30 originally planned. People came early!! I was to be the "background" music for a Nativity scene, and so I played just about every Christmas Carol known to man. Found out my limit for continuous playing is about 40 minutes, because the last five--wow, those mistakes were piling up like snow in Buffalo.

But, they seemed to not notice or at least were generous enough to not notice, lol. A good time was had by all.

Today is church, then bringing the xylophone home, then getting lectures ready to upload by midnight for my two online classes. Need also to do some laundry and vacuum the living room. My football team is blacked out today which means I will have to listen on the radio, except I have no radio. Hmm. That could present a problem.

Week Two of the quarter starts tomorrow. So far I've been inundated with emails from students who apparently don't read syllabi. I do hope that's not an indication of how the quarter is going to go...

Youngest daughter

is wearing my Roomba on her feet.

She has new skates, and wow---it took two hours for the fitting and molding and sharpening and waterproofing and the thousand other things that needed to be done to get her set up. It cost a bit more than I expected, but hey--she's worth it, right? Right??

I found a cool little music store in the neighboring town, and picked up another set of mallets (40% off! Neat!) for tonight's performance. I didn't think my yarn mallets were going to be loud enough, and the rubber ones too bright-sounding. The new ones are also yarn but around a harder core. We'll head over to the church early to try them out.

Just FYI, it's difficult to type with a cat draped over your hand and arm and lap and keyboard.

Oh duh

Just found the "moderate comments" thingie.

Oh well.

Anyway, Dad came with another guy to take my xylophone to the church for tomorrow's festivities. I told him to watch out for the resonators, and to drive carefully. He did, but just as they were turning into the church parking lot the xylophone fell over in the back of his truck! The resonators came out, the keys came off, it was a mess! Poor Dad, he thought he broke the instrument.

We brought it inside and got it put back together, good as new.

Then I ran to Uni to drop envelopes off for Son to give to his profs. He didn't have cash to buy stamps in the on-campus post office, and neither did I--but, I had all sorts of coins stashed in the ash tray in the car. I grabbed a handful and counted out enough to buy the 10 stamps he needed for his reference letters, got the stamps, and got everything to Son in time for his 2:00 meeting with his prof.

Since I was done with that, I thought it might be a good time to take Youngest Daughter to buy her ice skates. We drove about 20 minutes east of here to the skate shop, only to find out that we needed an appointment with the fitter first. That would have been good information to know ahead of time, ya think? Came back to the condo and took a nap. The fitter just called, so we will meet him tomorrow at 10. He suggested 8 a.m., but I thought YD would be less than pleased about that early a time, lol.

Tonight is her voice lesson and, afterwards, grocery $hopping with $on. Will be certain to EAT FIRST

Bright and shiny day

with about an inch of snow on the ground. The maintenance crew has already been by and shoveled my walk. How nice!

Got in about 40 minutes of practice on the xylophone for tomorrow night's Christmas banquet thing. I have to play for 30 minutes, so I think I've got enough material to keep going that long. The problem now is the bunch of floaters in my left eye, which makes it hard sometimes because I see notes where there are none, and the ones that are there get obscured. I haven't yet gotten used to the new fuzzies in my field of vision enough to null them out. Grrrr.

Anyway, now I am waiting for my dad to call and tell me when he wants to pick up the xylophone.

Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day. I didn't blog about it, but I thought about it all day. Spouse and I were talking once about how Pearl Harbor Day seemed very real to us, although we were both born over a decade after it happened. One of my engineering school friends got married on Dec. 7th, and I remember being surprised that they chose that date. But to her, it wasn't a big deal, I guess. I have this thing about dates--when it came time to have Son, I refused to choose March 15 for his birthday because it was the Ides of March. I mean, what mother would CHOOSE that date? It's one thing for a natural birth to take place then, but to choose it....I just couldn't. But I digress.

The pictures and film of the attack at Pearl Harbor still fill me with anger and sadness. Someday I want to go to the USS Arizona memorial and pay my respects to those brave souls who died there. To those who were at Pearl, my undying gratitude for your service. May we never forget.

Semi-traumatic day with a decent ending

On Saturday I started seeing little flashes of light in my left eye. At first, I thought it was a reflection off my glasses, or off my contact edge (I am due for new contacts). It didn't happen all the time, and there were no other symptoms.

Monday night on my way to the jewelry party, the flashing came more frequently but calmed down once I got to A's apartment. I went up to her place and was sitting in the living room looking at the jewelry catalog when I saw a big floater in my left eye. Over the course of the next half hour, I watched in fascination as the floater broke apart and dissipated (mostly) over my field of vision.

So Tuesday morning, first thing, I called my optometrist. He wasn't in, but his receptionist gave me the numbers for two ophthalmologists. I called the first one, and made an appointment for today, hopefully getting done in time for my appointment with my regular doc at 3:15.

I got there, waited, waited some more, got my eye dilated, realized I wouldn't be done in time for the second appointment, and called the doc's office to let them know what was going on. The lady who answered the phone was less than nice.

Fortunately, I do not have a torn retina. Doesn't mean I *won't* have one down the line, but right now I'm okay. I have to go back in three months to see the eye doc again, and he told me what symptoms to watch for. If those symptoms show up, I've got 24 hours to get to him and get my eye fixed. It's a nice side effect from 1) being severely myopic, and 2) being old. But thank God, I'm okay.

My appointment was for 1:40. I got there at 1:30 and left at 4:00. Went over to the regular doc's office and made a new appointment for next week. Good, because I am running out of thyroid hormone pills.

So eight hours later, I'm finally home. I have to answer a bunch of student emails and take out the garbage. Then I'm vegging in front of the television for the rest of the night.

Speaking of student emails, I got a page from one student that merely said "I need a course book. Thanks." No name, no salutation, no explanation. Does this person think I sell the books? Weird.

ACED IT!

Son absolutely OWNED the GRE!! He got a 660 on the qualitative part and an astounding 770 on the quantitative part. I am so proud of him!

My own personal GPS system

I went to a jewelry party tonight at a coworker's apartment. I don't usually "do" these things, but thought I should make an exception because I've missed a lot of departmental after-work social events. I had a nice time, got a chance to just chat with my coworkers.

Afterwards, I jumped on the expressway to head home. It had snowed and the road was slippery, but I'm a seasoned winter driver and wasn't worried about it. About half a mile after I got on the expressway I saw flashing lights ahead. Then more flashing lights. Then the traffic narrowed down to one lane. Then we were squeezed right off the expressway and onto city streets.

One problem--I didn't know where I was! I am not familiar with the city my Uni is near, and wasn't sure which direction I needed to go because I've always used the expressway. Called Youngest Daughter but she didn't answer the phone. So I turned to my faithful GPS system, Eldest Daughter, to get me home.

She quickly figured out where I was and pulled up a map to see where I needed to go. Thank God for ED and for speakerphones (driving while phoning is not allowed here)! She got me back to familiar territory and I got home safely.

Son will be in need of prayers, vibes, and good thoughts tomorrow around 1-ish, when he takes the GREs. He has been studying very hard and is very anxious about the results.

And, sad news from one of Spouse's fraternity brothers--his wife died last month from complications of diverticulitis. This poor guy has had a rough time over the years. I feel so badly for him.

Snow!

It's cold and snowing, and I swear it's cold enough in my closet to snow in there too. We're just getting a dusting, though, no biggie.

Made an appointment to see the doc Wednesday, mostly to get a prescription renewal for my thyroid med, but probably also to get yelled at for various and sundry sins of omission. Fun, wow. I don't think this guy likes me, but it could just be his manner.

Classes started today, and my online ones are "live" but no activity yet. It's too soon, of course. My calendar is filling up though, with committee meetings. I'm on two this quarter, the liaison committee for the new dean search, and the scholarship committee. The scholarship one is a temporary position; our usual department representative is on leave this quarter, and I am filling in for him.

Time for more tea, and to get back to work.

Are they MAD?

Tomorrow starts the winter quarter at my uni. I am teaching three classes: two online, one on campus. What I usually do is put the online materials up every Sunday night and set them to "turn on" at midnight. I have one online course uploaded and ready to go, and I'm finishing up the lecture for the second course.

I've gotten TWO pages--not e-mails, pages through our course management software, similar to an IM--from students in the last hour wanting to know if the course materials are available yet. One is a new student who is very excited about starting grad school. I told him that my best advice, based on years of experience as a grad student and a professor, was to relax and enjoy the evening. I hope he listens. As for the other student, I hope he has the same enthusiasm in Week Six. CHILL OUT, DUDE! ENJOY THE LAST EVENING BEFORE THE QUARTER STARTS! Not that *I* am enjoying it, I am working!

In other matters, YD has progressed sufficiently in her skating to need "real" figure skates and not the recreational ones she has been wearing. The coach said we should be able to get her into the lower end Rydells for $100-150. That's not too bad. The coach also said she should just fly with those, so I am anxious to get them for her. She is doing so well, and I get such a kick out of watching her skate. Pretty doggone cool.

On the paper--it is nearly done and needs a few additions here and there. Should have it to my co-authors by midweek. Yay!

Oops...


They've done it again.

You know it's cold in the house when...

the cat sleeps on top of the digital cable box that is precariously perched on the television.

But the reality of the dual household hit hard yesterday with the arrival of my power bill for November. I realize that it's a tradeoff--I either pay for this place in UniTown or I pay for commuting between HomeCity and here.

Stay in UniTown pros: Close to work. Don't have to live out of a suitcase, or impose on my parents. They were disappointed that we are not staying with them, and that makes me sad, but last quarter I taught two night classes--which meant that I was on campus three evenings a week (for one class, I adopted a blended model--an online component to take the place of the second class meeting). I had to spend most of my week in UniTown, which essentially meant that Youngest Daughter and I would have had to move in with them for 10 weeks. Living out of a suitcase for 10 weeks is really not a good situation, and also not fair to YD. Even though she is home-schooled and can study anywhere, she needed some stability--not to mention access to voice lessons and skating lessons. Additionally, my parents often care for my grand-niece and have her overnight fairly often. There's only one extra bedroom in their house.

Stay in UniTown cons: Paying about $1000 a month in rent and utility bills, money that I could use to either pay down debt or save for a house somewhere between HomeCity and here.

Commuting pros: Save some of the money I spend on rent and utility bills.

Commuting cons: My car is older, has a lot of miles on it, and is starting to show the wear in higher-cost and more frequent repairs. Even if I stay at Mom and Dad's a couple of nights, I'd still be putting at least 200-300 miles on the car each week. So if I kept commuting, I would have to buy a newer car, which means a car payment. Gas prices last year were horrendous, and I am still paying almost $40 a fill-up. Tolls have also gone up. Winter here can be brutal, and a 60-mile commute in a snowstorm is not a really exciting proposition. The time spent commuting really adds up. Plus, I can't even say that weekends would not involve a commute to UniTown, because my college sometimes schedules events on weekends, and YD's skating lessons here at UniTown are on Saturday afternoons.

So, the lesser of the evils, at least to me, is to rent a place in UniTown. Which brings me back to the cat on the cable box. I've got the heat turned way down in an effort to save some money. YD complains, but I tell her to put a sweater on over her tank top. She wears my bathrobe and wraps up in an afghan. It's not THAT cold!

Why not buy a place in between UniTown and HomeCity? Good question. Our house in HomeCity is nearly paid off, but because we live in a declining neighborhood actually IN the city, its value is barely above our original purchase price. Spouse's job is firmly entrenched in HomeCity, with retirement a good 7-8 years away. He can walk three blocks and be on the subway, with a 15-minute commute to his job. Moving farther away means he will need a newer car (his is getting close to its last tire tread) and while my commute would shrink, his would increase. I would still need a newer car as well. Also, there's no way we would have a mortgage payment anywhere close to the low amount we pay right now, so we'd have two car payments plus a mortgage higher than what I pay in rent at the moment. On the other hand, the neighborhood is not getting better, and the house is going to need some major work if we decide to keep it.

There's one other "city" halfway between HomeCity and UniTown, but frankly, I am tired of living in the city. I'm tired of dealing with the stress of living so close to other people. I want some space. And a barn. Also, MidCity is not an attractive place at all, with the same problem of declining neighborhoods we have in HomeCity. Spouse admitted there are only a handful of streets he would want to live on in MidCity. So why buy there? Why not find a place in the surrounding countryside? Well, Spouse is a city boy, born and bred. He cannot imagine living in a house that has a septic system or well water, or both.

So, we are at an impasse over this one. To add another roadblock, Spouse thinks we should wait until I find out whether or not I will get tenure. Since a tenure decision is at least five years away, I am not thrilled at the idea of either renting or commuting for that long.

Anyway, although it's chilly in here I still need to stop spending energy trying to figure out better living arrangements and get this paper finished. Despite my self-induced distractions, it's coming along fairly decently and I think it might actually get done today! Wow!

On the usefulness (or not) of student evaluations

Of the four classes I taught last quarter, I've now gotten evaluations back from two. These are online classes, and therefore the evaluations themselves are online (as opposed to the Scantron sheets we use for F2F classes). As a result, we get the summaries back quicker.

Getting evaluations is like going through an entire course with no tests, no homework, no papers--no way to know how the final grade is going to be determined. Sure, we know the questions that are going to be asked, and we know generally how well the class is going, overall, but we have pretty much no idea how students are going to "grade" us. Okay, a caveat on that. I know what the smaller classes will do. It's the larger ones that are hard to predict, although I can pretty much figure on a couple students who will grade me as an "A" and a couple who will take out their frustrations at not receiving the grade they believe they should get, and trash me. The vast middle--that's the unknown.

Anyway, for these two classes my evals make me look like Teacher of the Year. The big class will be the reality check.

So what are some of the things my students were asked to evaluate?

1. Clarity of the course objectives and how well they were met Okay. I'm cool with that. I list the course objectives on the syllabus, so they can go back and look to see if we met those.
2. Quality of the course media (videos, CD-ROM, print material, etc.) Ditto here. I use primarily PowerPoint lecture shows. I post pdfs of the lecture slides (printed as handouts), and, depending on the topic, may post some additional journal articles. HOWEVER--I did get a remark last year that my PP slides were "plain". If I could have talked to that student, I would have mentioned that we still have students on dialup, so I intentionally keep the bandwidth down on class materials. And, this quarter I had a visually impaired student, so I was careful with colors and font sizes and general overall "busyness" of the lecture slides. Plus, I'm a professor, not an entertainer. And none of the fancy schmancy animations will show up on the pdfs, so I'm not wasting my time dithering with silly stuff.
3. Effectiveness of course materials (textbook, handouts, videos, etc.) in helping you learn. Cool with this question as well. Except that I think students reading quickly may not catch the difference between the previous question and this one, and will think they've already answered it.
4. Value of course assignments (homework, laboratory work, papers, etc.) in helping you learn the course content. I like this question too. It's a way for me to tell if my exams, etc., align with the exercises I give the students. It would be nice, though, if students were given a chance to elaborate on what they found to be most/least helpful. This quarter I set up a discussion forum at the end of the quarter for feedback on assignments and got some nice suggestions.
5. Fairness of the standards used for grading Okay. Here I have a problem. What criteria is the student using to determine "fairness"? An A student is going to think grading was fair. A C, D, or F student may have issues. Maybe a better question is if the grading standards were clearly defined and consistently applied. For instance, in my syllabus I have a very straightforward example of how team grades are converted to individual grades. One student, who thought he should be graded on "effort", protested his grade and I am sure would have said my grading standards were not fair. He cannot, however, say that the standards were unclear or inconsistently applied. 7. Organization and preparation for course (planning assignments, announcing quizzes, etc.) Hm. In one course, I dropped an assignment because of time issues and, frankly, they'd done enough work. I guess I wouldn't ding an instructor on this one if the reason for changing or dropping assignments was explained. Now if an assignment was ADDED, that might be a different story ;-) Would this question presume that no one should ever use pop quizzes? 8. Receptiveness to student questions and concerns Another fuzzy question. But I'll allow it. 9. Helpfulness of responses to student questions and concerns Here is another fuzzy area. I'd rather change "helpfulness" to "promptness". The student who wanted to be graded for effort probably did not consider my response "helpful." But he got a thorough and prompt response. 10. Availability for individual assistance to students Okay, not a problem. 11. Use of teaching techniques and styles that encouraged your learning Okay, I guess...although again, maybe a better question would be to ask if the instructor used alternate techniques if a student had difficulty grasping a certain concept. Students have many different learning styles, and we can't be all things to all people. 12. Timeliness in returning graded homework Cool with this. 13. Contribution of electronic communications with the instructor and other students to the class and learning This one is in a category that critiques the course delivery technology, not the instructor. 14. Convenience of accessing course information and materials electronically Ditto to #13 15. Success of the course delivery system in creating a virtual classroom for teaching and learning Ditto to #13 16. Satisfaction with how much you learned in this course What is this question measuring? If a student skates through, doing the minimum, he will learn the minimum (or less). I don't think that can be laid at the instructor's feet. If the question is meant to tease out how meaty the course is, well--students aren't the best judges of how much material should be presented in a course. 17. Your background preparation for this course I like this question. 18. This course overall Eh. 19. The instructor overall Double eh. 20. How well you expect to do for the final course grade Good question here, too. It would be more helpful for me as the instructor to see individual responses instead of a summary, so I could look for the disaffected student grading me poorly because he is expecting a poor grade. If I got low evals for things from a good student, that would be a stronger signal that I needed to work on some things.

On the whole, this template is MUCH better than the evaluations we used at Alma Mater U. I am still a bit amazed at how cavalier the F2F process is, though, considering that this school places a large emphasis on teaching evaluations. At AMU, we were not allowed to touch the evaluations--student volunteers or department staff administered them--and had to leave the room while students were filling them out. Here, I get sent the forms, pick the day and time, and even end up taking them back to the department office if no students can do it.

So yeah, these questions aren't too bad. But I still hate evaluations. There's got to be a better way to do this.

Argh

Went to pay Son's tuition for this month and saw a HUGE number in the "Current balance" slot. It seems I neglected to fill out and submit the faculty waiver form. Gack.

And, on the subject of neglect, I still owe $7 for two boxes of Girl Scout cookies because when they were delivered all I had was a $20 bill and my coworker didn't have change. Now I have to go take out $20 from the bank and break it so I can pay for those cookies.

While I'm working on my paper, read this...

Mob Rule on College Campuses

More stories of thuggish behavior by students in our colleges. I can add a couple more--Mike Adams' experience at U Mass/Amherst (read more here), and my own experience at a debate between Ann Coulter and Janet Reno at my alma mater. While Ann is an acerbic wit who knows how to raise the hackles of those who do not agree with her, Janet Reno is no slouch in that department either. Guess whose supporters repeatedly booed, yelled, and otherwise tried to drown out the speaker? Guess whose supporters respectfully listened to the debater whose politics and opinions they did not share? If you guessed that Coulter's supporters booed, you were wrong. It was shameful. I sat in the midst of a bunch of Reno supporters whose constant yelling and comments made it all but impossible to hear a word anyone but Janet said.

But I'm not surprised, having lived through the Vietnam War conflict on a campus in a town whose main employer was the US Air Force. Bad behavior abounded, and not only by students. Ah yes, tolerance....and as another example of tolerance, just pay attention to how liberals excuse this behavior and turn the issue into an attack on conservatives who dare to bring these things out into the open.

Still plodding, and listening to Lagaan soundtracks

Met with a colleague this morning to talk about a possible collaboration on a white paper. Sounds interesting and definitely do-able.

Then met Son for a short lunch. Now I am working on the paper until 2 p.m., when I have to call a student who wants credit by experience for every quality course we have. Then I'll work on the paper again until 5-ish, when I will pick up Son and bring him home with me for dinner (and, the ulterior motive, help with emptying the Litter Locker which is exceedingly full).

Where am I on the paper? Well, the intro is done and polished. I am working now on Section 2, and am about halfway done. I should have that finished by tomorrow noon at the latest; then I will start chipping away at the next section. If I can make decent progress I should have it done by Friday.

Neeeeeeeeeed teaaaaaaaaaaa...........

Plod on, plod on, plod on

Getting this thing done a word at a time....slow but steady (like the tortoise!)

Made dinner, bought Son a Christmas present, paid bills, and worked a bit on one of my courses too.

Diving in

Time to get serious about these things I need to finish up. So far I've taken my medicine, washed up, cleaned the cat litter, have one load of laundry in the dryer and one in the washer, emptied the dishwasher and filled it up again, washed the frying pan, made tea, made the bed, cleaned off the dining room table, stacked my stuff next to the laptop, and connected the printer (also shook the toner cartridge, which is low). Still need to eat breakfast (in a few minutes) and empty the garbage (later; and what is with all the garbage? My goodness, it's just EVERYWHERE! Papers, catalogs--maybe because Spouse brings me all the mail from the house. He does not open anything, just dumps it all in a bag and gives it to me.)

Speaking of mail, I am still waiting for a nice reimbursement check for the conference I went to....

Anyway, time to get to work. Will check in later.

One week to finish it all

Okay. I was dumb, and actually put in my plan of work that I would finish two specific papers this academic year. Our year runs from December 1st to November 30th.

Guess what I have not finished? Guess what starts on Friday? Guess what else starts next Monday?

So this week I need to at least finish one of the two papers and send it off to co-authors, and get the first week's lectures done for my winter quarter classes. A daunting task, for sure.

Back home again

And I was good, I didn't get all verklempt when we left ED. We all met at Starbucks (I passed it and had to turn around and come back. ED said 'There they are! There they go!', lol) and had coffee/tea/root beer before we hopped on the turnpike and headed west.

Now I get to deal with mail, four days of unscooped kitty litter, and putting things away after the trip. At least that will keep me busy and not thinking about how much I miss ED!

Should have grabbed the brownies though...I am missing the brownies.....

Post-turkey day blogging, and the happy blueberry pie BEFORE we ate him

Here we are at Eldest Daughter's house, where we came, ate, and messed up her living room.

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful. ED picked me up at the hotel at 8:30 and we stopped at Starbucks for morning tea/coffee. Then we went to her apartment and started working on the stuffing for the turkey. We also made a loaf of quinoa bread for bread dipping (oh, YUM). ED got to use her new KitchenAid mixer for the very first time (MORE POWER!).

When the rest of the family got here we watched the Mouse on the Mayflower ("Oh, how terrible") and half the Lions/Dolphins game. Then it was time to eat! The turkey was perfect, the potatoes divine, the broccoli scrumptious, the stuffing mouthwatering. After dinner, we rested for a bit (read: napped) and then piled into the car for a short ride to ED's boyfriend's parents' house for dessert. ED and I had made two pumpkin and one blueberry pie, and the bf's parents had meringues, spiced pecans, and CREME BRULEE!! We had a great time visiting with them. Got back to the hotel around 10:30 or so.

Today we are making turkey soup for ED and generally just chilling out with her. Tomorrow we head back to UniTown and HomeCity and wait for Christmas to come when we can see our girl again.

Happy birthday to Lisa!

One of my all-time favorite nieces. Hope you have a great day! Sending lots of love and hugs from Uncle and me and all your cousins, who miss you lots and want to go on another fishing trip with you (definitely we would bring a hardier cooler). Check your school e-mail for your present!

About my student with the grading question--turns out I *did* send him an e-mail about the wacky file in the dropbox, and he *did* send me the correct file. But in the semi-weekly inbox cleaning (I cannot believe our e-mail accounts have such small capacities) I dumped it into the class archive folder. Had to fill out a grade change form today. Ditz.

Tomorrow we leave for Eldest Daughter's house. I remembered to bring her skates home from my office, I made two loaves of GF bread for stuffing, and I have the pumpkin, Polish sausage, and pumpkin pie spices. Reminded Mom to check in on kitties. Still need to pick up the turkey (today at 5 p.m.), clean out the car, gas up the car, check the tire pressure, make up some bags of bread mix, clean the dishes, fill up extra food and water bowls, leave the kitty food on the counter, and set out another litter box.

We come back on Saturday, so we have a little more than two days with ED. Not enough, but it will have to do. We'll get more time with her at Christmas, and maybe I can wangle a week in her general area this summer. That would be super!

Pre-turkey day turkey

I did a dopey thing the other day, and bought a fresh turkey. Not that buying a fresh turkey is dopey, but buying a fresh turkey so far in advance of Thanksgiving is dopey. So this morning I called the supermarket, put in an order for a fresh turkey to be picked up on Tuesday, and plopped this one in the oven. After all, we are eating at Eldest Daughter's, and she will want what slim pickings are left over. Half the fun of Thanksgiving is having leftovers, which means that every year when we eat at my mom's on the holiday I end up making a turkey for us on Friday.

So Spouse will be pleasantly surprised to see he has leftovers galore, and the makings for soup as well. I had to repack the freezer to fit everything in; my goodness, there's not room for so much as an ice crystal in there now.

One more grading question came in, this one from a student who put the wrong file in the dropbox three weeks ago (he submitted the assignment directions, not the assignment). I am not sure what to do about that; it cost him a letter grade, and usually when I see something wacky I let them know but for some reason I didn't--either I got distracted or forgot. The thing is, that assignment was graded within a week of the submission, so he should have caught the zero then. I should probably add a statement to the syllabus that if there are any questions about grades they have to talk to me within a week of the grade being posted. That syllabus is getting longer and longer.

Today Son came over for dinner and football, which was very nice. I enjoy his company and we have a good time together. He is getting ready to apply to graduate school, and his schools of choice are either in Florida or California. Youngest Daughter and I are very conscious of how little time we have before he leaves, and we are anxious to spend as much of it with him as we can. It's going to be very hard to see him go. I'm getting verklempt just thinking about it.

Tomorrow is a makeup voice lesson for YD, and a tire rotation for the car. NO MEETINGS! NO CLASSES! NO GRADING! Hurrah for breaks! Unfortunately, Tuesday I *do* have a meeting, but only the one. Then Wednesday it's off to ED's house.

Out of grading jail

I finished the grading yesterday, and within an hour of posting the final grades I had two emails from students who were unhappy with the results. One clearly did not understand the concept of percentages; she was convinced that a point or two increase in her exam score would translate to the point or two she needed in her overall average to get her an A. The other will most likely take the course over; I hope there's more effort this time to get the work done and actually study for exams.

Today is bread-making day, in preparation for next week's feast. When I was back in HomeCity I grabbed the smaller size bread pans instead of the usual ones--so the loaf that is currently rising is going to be pretty tall. I hope it gets done all the way through. When I take Youngest Daughter to skating today I have to remember to pick up sugar and unflavored gelatin on the way home so I can make a couple more loaves. I'd like to try amaranth bread if I can find a recipe; the gluten-free cookbook I have doesn't include one.

I found my new reading glasses but not the umbrella, so I bought a big one at the school's bookstore (with Son's discount, yay!). Also ordered a Christmas marimba book so I don't embarrass myself too much at the banquet.

Four days until I see Eldest Daughter!

Up, but not happy about it

Our interim dean called a meeting for today at 8 a.m. That is usually okay with me, but because of all the evening classes I taught this quarter, I've gotten used to going to bed later and getting up later. Ugh.

Got a third of the exams graded (that sounds better than "I graded 11 exams") and some of the better students didn't do so well. Considering that I give them a list of topics and tell them EXACTLY which algorithms they need to be able to work out, that's surprising.

I hope my coat has dried from yesterday's torrential rains. Son is going to get me an umbrella from his workplace this afternoon. Wish I'd had one yesterday.

Car repair cost $85; that includes the yearly inspection I needed by the end of this month. Fingers crossed that I can get through the rest of the year without more repair bills!

Notes from grading jail

I was woken up at 5 a.m. this morning to the unhappy yowling of Kitty Son, who began having a full-on seizure right in my bed. He hasn't had one in months and months. After the worst part was over we tried to help him cool down by putting water on his paws, because I had no rubbing alcohol in the house. It took about 15-20 minutes before he was recovered enough to stand and walk around. Of course by then YD and I were wide awake, and it took us a while to settle down and get back to sleep. Probably just should have stayed up and graded exams. I had to strip the bed and wash even my pillows, and I am pretty scratched up, including a nice hematoma, from holding him down so he wouldn't flip and flop all over the condo. Poor little guy.

Anyway, after the bad early morning, I drove to my parents' house to pick Mom up and take her to HomeCity for a Dutch Baby. Just as I got to their exit I noticed something on my dashboard. Yup. The "check engine" light was on. Again. After all, it's November and I haven't had my quota of car repair bills for the month! Sigh.

We took Mom's car to the restaurant, met up with my sister, and had a very nice meal. Came out to driving rain, and of course I do not have an umbrella. Drove back to UniTown, and Dad and I took my car to the shop to see what's up with the light. More bad news--shop owner says he will take a peek at it to see if it's something he can fix fast, because otherwise he is off all next week and won't be able to get to it. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. We are supposed to be going to Eldest Daughter's for Thanksgiving. Lots of prayers going up for the problem to be a minor, fast fix.

Dad let me borrow Mom's car, and I drove back to the condo. The rain was an absolute DOWNPOUR. I was completely drenched just in the short time it took me to walk from the car to the condo door.

On a subject completely unrelated, I had a bunch of forms sent to me last week by the tenure and mid-tenure committees. Nine faculty members are up for review, and I was supposed to comment on such collegial activities as class preparation, teaching effectiveness, regard for students, and knowledge of their subjects. Now, maybe I'm dense--but how on earth am I to know if they prepare their class materials well, give scintillating lectures, motivate their students to learn, or even know what they are doing? Are these questions that should be asked of colleagues? I told my coworker, who is one of the nine, that I would put down for class preparation "She never has Solitaire open on her computer". I mean, really. So eight of the nine forms I tossed; for the ninth I wrote that these questions were puzzling and unanswerable but I would be glad to vouch for my coworker's collegiality and her willingness to help new faculty find the coffee shop--plus, she shares her chocolate with me so I know she has to be a good person.

Okay, I've had my tea and chocolate cake and now it's time to get back to grading exams. Fun, wow. At least I'm warm and dry, and Kitty Son seems none the worse for wear.



PS I wonder, now that the Duke alleged rape case seems to be nothing but sound and fury, if people who were so quick to label the young men as guilty would acknowledge that there seems to be no case at all, and apologize for their hasty words and the damage they have done to these people.

Nah, didn't think so. Eight years ago a reporter for a local rag masquerading as a city newspaper made scornful remarks about a famous athlete who had just found out his newborn son could be suffering from cerebral palsy. "How horrible," she said spitefully, that this boy won't be the hero his father was--just too bad for this dad who she assumed only wanted to boast about his offspring's athletic prowess. A couple months later we all found out this poor baby had a fatal disease that would cause untold suffering while it slowly killed him. Did she ever write an apology to this grieving family, or write a sympathetic article about their struggles to give their son a good life while he was here? Did she cover their charitable events that supported a foundation dedicated to fight that awful disease, or the many things they did to help other families dealing with this devastating illness?

Nah, didn't think so. I wonder how she sleeps at night.

I wonder, too, how the DA sleeps at night. How long as it been since this incident and he still hasn't interviewed the alleged victim?

Stuck in grading jail

I finished all the presentations but still have 30+ finals and 11 or so reports to grade. One course is completely done, with final grades submitted. I'll start working on finals tonight--I spent today finishing up course outline forms and getting posters printed for my mom's Christmas banquet. Eldest Daughter created the posters, and they are absolutely gorgeous (even though she doesn't think so). Mom and Dad were awestruck when they saw the finished product. There's only one problem.....

The poster says there will be special music. Well, that special music is ME and Have I Done Any Practicing? HMMMMM? No? And why not? Grading jail is no excuse!

Tonight is a hockey game, so I will settle in with a stack of exams and start grading while cheering on my guys. I only have until Monday to finish all these things.

And tomorrow is Dutch Baby time (click here to read about the Original Pancake House and its signature yummies) with Mom, Younger Sister, and Youngest Daughter. Hopefully Big Brother will be able to join us, if he has a few minutes.

Then, unfortunately, it's back to Grading Jail for me.

Happy Birthday to my Mom! and a potpourri of other stuff

Today is my mother's birthday. She is traveling home from Virginia, where she and my dad went to visit my Aunt Ellen, so I can't sing the requisite three verses of Happy Birthday to her in person. She wants a Dutch Baby pancake, so I will take her to Home City to get one, probably Thursday, and meet up with my sister and brother who also live there.

Youngest Daughter had her Italian final this morning at 8:00. Her alarm woke me up at 6 a.m. Ugh! When we came back to the condo after my meeting was over, she went right to bed and begged me to work on the bed instead of sitting out in the living room. Well, that went almost exactly as I expected--instead of working, I conked out too along with Mama Cat who sat on my chest and drooled and purred and snored. I am looking forward to tomorrow, with its lack of meetings or classes or finals, so I can sleep in and work in my jammies all day.

Speaking of Mama Cat, I finally broke down and bought another pair of nail clippers yesterday. Son clipped her nails for me, and complained about the new clippers' cutting ability. Well, guess what I found this morning? The old clippers, hiding until I bought another, lesser, pair. Grrrr.

I keep losing things like that. I bought a new pair of reading glasses while in Pittsburgh. I had them yesterday afternoon at the hair salon where Son got his hair trimmed. Can I find them now? But noooooooooo. I also cannot find my umbrella. It rains almost all the time here in UniTown, and I can't find my umbrella! I had it last week---Double Grrrr!!!

My design class has their presentations tonight, and then I'm done for this quarter except for grading. I have 16 team presentations, 13 reports, and 34 finals to grade by Monday. Fun, wow!

Blogging On Veteran's Day

Never forget.

"On this day, in this month, at this hour, our nation remembers the moment when the guns of World War I went silent — and we recognize the service and the sacrifice of our nation’s veterans. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, our veterans have borne the costs of America’s wars — and they have stood watch over America’s peace. The American people are grateful to the veterans and all who have fought for our freedom." President George W. Bush, 11/11/2006.

Amen. Thank you to all who served, who are serving now, and who are studying hard in our nation's ROTC programs so you can faithfully serve in the future. We owe you more than we can pay. Not only have you borne the costs of battle, you've been maligned, insulted, and scorned at home. But the majority of us, we know how fortunate--no, how BLESSED we are to be guarded by such as you, and we salute you.

The ups and downs of academic life

Got back last night from my conference, where I delivered a passable talk that my former adviser said was very good. I'm not so sure, because he frowned at me through the whole thing, but he says that he was imagining himself doing this talk and realizing I did it much better. Ookay. I shall choose to believe him. There was a nice man in the back who was smiling at me and nodding, so I looked at him instead. I was the last speaker in my session, and the first one had overrun his time so I had to squish my talk a little. But it's over and done, another line on the CV, and I got to stop at Tracey's and have dinner with her. That was downright wonderful.

When I got home and checked my mountain of email (it's not so bad if I deal with it as it comes, but man! It adds up when I've not been online all day!) there was a pretty depressing review of my paper, ending, of course, with a rejection. Darn.

So one moment I'm up, the next I'm down. The old academic rollercoaster. But, I printed out the comments (minus one very snarky and odd one) and the paper, and will get on the revisions forthwith. Lots of work to do.

While I was at the conference I got appointed unanimously by my faculty colleagues (thanks, guys!) to a Liaison Committee for the new Dean search. That's not the search committee, thank God, but the committee that determines what we are looking for in a dean and spells out the strengths and weaknesses of the college. My chair says it shouldn't be a big time sink as long as I avoid getting stuck with tasks--in other words, don't miss any meetings. Har har har.

Uploaded one final exam and gave another today. The two online classes are done, all but the grading of final projects. So for the next couple of weeks I can focus on other things like research and revising the paper for a submission elsewhere. We are going to visit Eldest Daughter for Turkey Day and that will be a welcome break plus I cannot wait to see her!

Youngest Daughter made a devil's food cake tonight. Now, that's fantastic and tasty and all, but we ran up against one fundamental problem. We don't have any aluminum foil or plastic wrap to cover it with. Letting it get hard and stale would be a crime. Our first thought was to eat it all ourselves, but we soon came to our senses and realized that would not be a good idea. So we thought of calling Son and getting him to visit with several of his friends. Unfortunately he is swamped with work and can't come over. I solved the dilemma in a manner typical of our family--cover the pan with a plastic grocery bag! Hurrah! ( We collect plastic grocery bags for some reason--we even have a (well, actually more than one) "bag of bags" and use them for all sorts of things. If we had a nickel for every plastic bag we own....

Tomorrow Youngest Daughter has an orthodontist appointment so we are going to Hometown City. Since her voice lesson in Uni Town is canceled for tomorrow night, we can stay in HC until Saturday afternoon (when she has to be back for skating lessons). So we are going to a fish fry with the in-laws and then visiting the Russian Bazaar on Saturday. It's held by a local Russian Orthodox Church and is a great place to pick up amber jewelry, Matrushka dolls, and all sorts of Russian goodies. We can even tour the church, which is beautiful. A few years ago they added an onion dome, thanks in part to the money raised in their bazaars.

Mama Cat needs her nails trimmed again, but do you think I can find the scissors? Of course not!

Blogging from the conference

It's Day 3 of the conference and I am staying in the hotel for the day. I got to Pittsburgh at noon on Sunday, went right to the Convention Center, and met up with my friends from my alma mater. Sat in on a data mining session and my former adviser's talk, then met with him and another prof to get brought up to speed on a new project we are starting in January (consulting money, yay!). Then found my friend Karen (amazing that in a conference with 3-4000 attendees I managed to run into people I know!) and we went to dinner and hung out together until about 8.

My hotel, although not one of the conference hotels, runs a free shuttle to the Convention Center every hour. How cool is that! It saves me driving in Pittsburgh traffic and trying to find parking--not to mention PAYING for parking.

Last night there was a general reception at the Carnegie Museums. Karen had ridden the shuttle back to the hotel with me, and we drove to the reception from here. Good thing we ate at the Panera restaurant attached to my hotel, because the line for finger foods at the reception was incredible. We managed to grab bottles of water and went wandering through the museums. The geology section was interesting, they recreated a coal forest and had a huge layered rock wall with drawers we could pull out to see the different fossils found in different rock layers. The next area was the dinosaur section. Most of the dinosaurs are being repaired (one guard told us their cavities are being filled, ha ha) but there were a few still on display. The ancient marine life displays were cool, as were the boxes of butterflies and moths. They had a few Very Large And Scary Bugs which we passed by pretty quickly. We did not like the bird exhibit at all. They had several birds just lying there, not posed at all, with white eyes. One was a toucan--lying on its back on a little shelf with a box of Froot Loops behind it! It creeped Karen out and we got out of that section quick. I can imagine some little kid spying the Froot Loops and getting all excited about seeing Sam the Toucan, just to find old Sam lying dead on the shelf. lol

The Egypt section was small but nice for what we saw. For some reason that exhibit room was HOT and incredibly stuffy. Karen started having trouble breathing, and I was sneezing so we left that one too.

Ran into Mary Beth, who I met in DC at the DOE symposium four years ago, and she mounted a spirited campaign to get Karen to apply for an opening at her uni. It was uncanny, Mary Beth would say "I should find so-and-so to tell you about our great department chair" or some other aspect of their department, and poof! There was that person! After a while, Karen and I escaped to the dessert line (ooh, ginger snaps!) and while we were munching on our desserts guess who found us? Funny.

Some people were wearing these blinking parrot pins, and Karen wanted one. We asked one guy where he got that, and he said it was for a subspecialty conference in Puerto Rico next year. So I traded a drink coupon (since I don't drink alcohol) for the parrot, and gave it to Karen.

So far the conference has been fun, but now I need to get some work done. I have to finish up my presentation and write two final exams that I have to give on Thursday. Also, I'm kind of stuffy and sneezing. The last two days have been long, tomorrow will be long, Thursday will be long--so I'm going to lay low today. I may wander down to the restaurant in a few minutes to grab breakfast (TEA!) and work down there for a bit.

Signing off for now!

It's here! It's here!

The long-awaited headboard is finally here. The delivery men banged on the door and scared the cats.

Here is a picture of MamaCat enjoying the new headboard and the (almost completely) made bed. I couldn't finish making it because she was sleeping on it so nicely, but the flash woke her up. Oops!

I just realized I assigned the wrong chapter for one of my online classes--LAST WEEK!! I bet they are mightily confused. What a dolt I am.

Have to go to campus in half an hour for a lecture by one of my colleagues, and to hand in course evaluations.

My television is schizophrenic

For some reason, it's got a picture-in-picture. We can't figure out why, and we can't shut it off. So I'm watching the Sabres play Boston, and I see two rinks, but one is cut off on the top right corner.

And the Sabres won in a shootout! Yay! My birthday twin scored the winning goal. Cool!

Today was a day of meetings, starting with a town hall meeting with the uni president and provost bright and early at 8 am. Right off the bat the pres was asked a very tough question about why our dean resigned a few weeks into the new academic year. I don't know why he was blindsided by that question; it seems a no-brainer to me that anything so unexpected is going to be uppermost on peoples' minds. I have to give the pres credit, because after wandering up hill and down dale he finally answered the question. Now the next thing I want to know is why a former local politician was given a full professorship with tenure.....

My class gave their project presentations tonight. They were great! A couple went over the 10 minute time limit, but on the whole they were interesting projects and the students worked very hard on them.

Two possible consulting jobs are on my horizon; one is a joint project with my alma mater. I find about at the conference next week when I meet up with my adviser. The other is a white paper for a local company who contacted my school about working with them. Yay!

Eldest Daughter is going to be pleased, I have fresh pumpkin for her to make pies with for Turkey Day.

I seriously do NOT want to go to this conference

I want to stay home. My presentation is going to be crummy, I don't have anything much to say, and it's too much time away from Youngest Daughter and Kitties.

My mother will be coming in to make sure the cats have food and water, but she doesn't do litter scooping. Son doesn't have his driver's license yet, so he can't come over while I'm gone. Youngest Daughter has to stay with Son for four days (problematic if one understands how Son lives at the end of a quarter). I don't have my presentation even started yet.

And I feel like I'm coming down with a cold.

Can I stay home? Please?

Darn.

Anyway, Spouse is on his way over with some mail and other stuff to drop off. Tomorrow is going to be chock full of meetings and things. Friday the headboard is supposed to come, for sure (I will believe that when I see it). In the meantime, I need to be working on that presentation, for joy.

I NEED A VACATION!

Sunday night blogging

No football today, more's the pity. And my hockey team lost last night. Darn.

Let's see. What's been happening? Well, the headboard didn't come. They ordered the wrong size, so now I have to wait some more. Got all my lectures done for both online courses for the rest of the quarter. Did some work on two research papers. Practiced the xylophone for half an hour. Bought a pumpkin. Slept in for that extra hour.

Nothing much, and nothing too exciting, but just the usual plodding on.

And now it's time for bed again!

I am feeling virtuous--for the moment

An update from yesterday's not-done list:

1. Asset management course forms need revisions, per faculty meeting today DONE! (Update: I had to come back and strike this one out; it feels good to cross stuff off the list!)
2. Data mining class homework grading DONE!
3. SQC class homework grading DONE!
4. Any xylophone or bagpipe practice (has to wait until I am home)
5. Any research work (tomorrow is research day)
6. Headboard delivered and installed (postponed until tomorrow)
7. Rewrite of product design course descriptions and outline forms. (need to get a graduate bulletin first GOT IT!)

Additional items completed:
1. Data mining class presentations from Tuesday graded DONE!
2. Homework solutions uploaded for SQC DONE!
3. Grading finished for ITQ DONE!

What did and did not get done today

Did get done:
1. Course forms for a new intro to asset management course.
2. Lecture for robust design class
3. Emails answered and written
4. Kitty litter bought and the box emptied, washed out, and filled with fresh litter
5. Garbage taken out
6. Bed made
7. Dishwasher emptied and dirty dishes put in
8. Utility room vacuumed
9. Chapter 5 of blind book finished
10. Oil changed in car.

Did not get done:
1. Asset management course forms need revisions, per faculty meeting today
2. Data mining class homework grading
3. SQC class homework grading
4. Any xylophone or bagpipe practice
5. Any research work
6. Headboard delivered and installed (postponed until Friday)
7. Rewrite of product design course descriptions and outline forms.

I did find an old DOS game that was a favorite of mine--Project: Space Station. But I will be disciplined and not play it until I have done some of what I did not get done today. I will work on those things tomorrow. At least the grading had better be done tomorrow.

I just want to say....

1) Happy Birthday to Lisa!

2) I hate night classes.

There be a xylophone here

Spouse brought my xylophone to the UniTown condo yesterday. Yay! I've played it for a grand total of 30 seconds, but it's here and all cleaned up and mallets in place. He also brought a lamp and chair. I brought two dressers and lamps back with me too, so this place is starting to look somewhat furnished. Still don't have a sofa, but we are making do with Youngest Daughter's twin-sized airbed to lounge on.

Tomorrow my headboard comes. Need to straighten up that bedroom before then!

Yesterday I had a long long meeting with one of the department chairs about a couple courses I teach for him; about 10 minutes of that meeting were actually about the courses, ha ha.

Another paper airplane appeared in the chandelier. I wonder if they are being fruitful and multiplying? :-)

I was Dr. HandyMs this morning and took out the screen in my storm door and replaced it with the storm window. Not an easy task, as the screws were all stripped and (of course) it's raining--but the window is in, which means I don't have to worry about the inside door blowing open with the wind. It already feels warmer in here, too.

Tonight after class I must remember to buy clumping litter. I ran out last week and resorted to the regular stuff. Big mistake! It's dirty, kicks up too much dust, and is generally nasty.

Oh--our department chair got a grant for worker training and I'm on it. Summer salary! Yay!

The aftereffects of the October surprise

Back in Hometown for the weekend, and even though I had a good idea what things would look like after the storm, it's still awful to see. This city is known for large, beautiful, leafy trees. Well, now it looks like Paul Bunyan just went walking through and stepped on them all. I started seeing the devastation about 25 miles outside of town--trees bowed down to the ground, tops cracked right off, huge branches ripped off, leaving long white gashes down the sides of the trunk. A local cemetary's rows of trees look like sticks with broken umbrellas hanging off the sides. In some places, the debris is piled so high you can't see the house behind it. Despite a week of cleanup efforts, drivers still have to weave around huge stacks of branches and limbs. My brother- and sister-in-law are still without power; I called the utility company for them and the canned message says power "should" be restored by midnight tonight.

Spouse and I spent the afternoon yesterday cleaning up the refrigerator, putting the drain back in the chest freezer, and setting it back upright and level. We turned the dehumidifier back on to get the musty smell out of the basement. Fortunately we don't have any trees left on our property (except my lilac tree, which seems to be okay) and we took down the dead tree on our neighbor's yard last summer as a precaution. Good thing we did! It would have ripped the power lines off our house. The tree behind it broke off at about 15 feet and fell forward into the yard.

The unremitting rain has got to make it hard for utility crews to get things fixed.

Before I go back to UniTown today, I'm going to take a ride through the northern suburbs which were hardest hit, to see the damage for myself. It's sad to see trees destroyed.

Found a bunch of old crochet books in a dresser I am taking back with me. Wonder if Eldest Daughter would like them....