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!