Work, work, work

Just like Cinderella.

I put in an awful lot of 14 hour days this week, getting lectures ready, re-doing my adjunct's slides so they are more readable, writing a conference paper, answering e-mails, and writing my self-evaluation for last year and my plan of work for next year. Oh, and meetings. And more meetings. And even more meetings.

I got pretty much nowhere on the Tudor pincushion. Not just because of work, but also because I did a lot of "un-embroidering." So today I spent the morning putting stitches in instead of taking them out. Here's how far I've gotten. I wish I hadn't put in all that outlining, as it gets in the way of the continental stitch (the filling). Oh well, live and learn.


Last weekend I took out the gold wire in the spot sampler and replaced it with the real gold thread. I think it was easier to do the heavy chain stitch and looks better. The left pic is the real gold, the right one is the "fake" gold.

In the "Oh cool!" department, I just got my copy of Guideposts and there's a story in it by one of my friends. I had no idea!

I have a lot of reading to do today--a thesis, several conference papers--and three lectures to get ready for Tuesday. I get to go to the Uni president's house Tuesday morning for breakfast; the bad part is that I need to leave my house by 6 a.m. to get there on time. He has monthly breakfast seminars, and this one is on cybersecurity which is the subject of three of the five grant proposals I've written since January. So I guess I should go! But man, that is early even for me.

TV shows that did not improve with age

My spouse has discovered a channel that runs old 50s and 60s B&W TV shows. When I get home on the weekends, I get to sit through the long list of episodes he's TiVo'd for us to watch. Some are shows I loved as a kid, and now--oh man, the acting is terrible, the sets are lame. Definitely not as I remembered them!

Mr. Ed: How old is Wilbur Post anyway? For a newlywed, he looks a bit long in the tooth. Of course people dressed "older" then anyway, but still....Ed is as funny as I remembered him, though.

Patty Duke: Umm...some really archaic gender stuff going on there. When I was a kid, I didn't pay much attention to the actress playing Patty's mom, but she is just charming.

Sea Hunt: Such dramatic music! My goodness. Some really implausible plots. Beau Bridges looks more like his dad than Jeff does.

Highway Patrol: Does Broderick Crawford ever 1) take his fedora off, 2) wear anything but a suit, and 3) ever speak slowly enough for humans to understand him? The last episode we watched involved boys playing with guns, and one gets shot--and of course, before they call the ambulance, they call Highway Patrol. Yep, that makes sense.

Bat Masterson: Dunno. They keep pre-empting him with paid programming.

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

In a weird coincidence, after I heard about Elizabeth Taylor's death this morning, I went out to my truck to drive to work--and when I turned it on, my CD started to play.

The song? "How to Handle a Woman", sung by Richard Burton.

Weird.

Happy birthday, Son!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Son,
Happy birthday to you.

May you live long with us,
May you live long with us,
May you live long, may you live long,
May you live long with us.

Njech nam zhye stolat,
Njech nam zhye stolat,
Njech nam zhye stolat Son,
Happy birthday to you!

We miss you tons and tons--sending love from Nana and Papa, and many many hugs and squeezes.

I have survived Week Two

But man, am I wiped.

My immediate reaction post-tenure letter was fatigue. Mom and Dad took me to Olive Garden to celebrate. I thought they'd be gone to choir practice by the time I got to their house after class, so that was a pleasant surprise and we had a great time. Spouse and I went to Outback last night for a celebratory dinner, and ordered from the Red, White & Blue promotional menu. Outback donates some of the proceeds from that menu to a fund for our troops, so we were anxious to go there. Yummmm, steak and a bloomin' onion.

Today I took care of some small things with my three classes and emptied two boxes full of "stuff". Now that I have tenure, we are definitely moving (where and when still to be worked out, but sooner than later, and eastward toward UniTown) so I need to clean out the accumulation of 28 years and three kids. Small baby steps, but it's a start.

Oh! More exciting news! I got tickets for Son and I to watch the launch of Endeavour on April 19th. We will be at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Not as good as the Causeway, or the Visitor Center, but way better than trying to find an empty spot on some beach. Can't wait!

Needlework stuff is going slowly. I think I am going to remove the gold wire from the spot sampler and replace it with the real gold thread; I'll use the gold wire on the pincushions, since those won't be behind glass. I've started the Tudor pincushion but only got this far because 1) my chart of the design is really faint (printer needs new toner) and I couldn't see the symbols for the different colors, and 2) I didn't print out a key of what symbol goes with what color. I only knew what color to do the outlining, so I did that--lazy person that I am, couldn't be bothered with firing up the computer to actually look at the instructions. My new laser toner cartridge came last week, so I need to install it and print out the chart again (plus a key, duh).

Tenure!

They waited until the last minute of the last hour of the last day, but finally the letter came. I couldn't get it until after my 4-6 p.m. class, but I finally got the thing.

And I got tenure.

If anyone had told me 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, that I would be a tenured professor with a Ph.D. in engineering, I would have thought they were crazy. But here I am, associate professor Dr. Mom, tenured.

Wow.

God is good!

Happy Pi Day!

Mmmmmm, pi.

The first week of the term

is utterly exhausting. Meetings, class, getting used to standing for two hours at a time and talking--ugh. I am beat. This quarter I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I get to go home (usually) after my class ends at 6 on Thursday evening.

Youngest Daughter is here with me in UniTown, and we are spending as much time as possible together. Went to Olive Garden for dinner last night, and we will have the leftovers tonight. Yum... Today, had lunch on campus and then Starbucks at the local mall where she picked up a pair of shoes.

Still no word on tenure.

This past weekend I put the first of the gold in the spot sampler. I think I made the chain and twisted chain sections too small; maybe I will do larger sections of that later, when I have the rest of the goldwork stitches in.

Youngest Daughter is home!

So good to have her here. The kitties are happy and so are we.

Movie time tonight, and some quality time in the kitchen teaching her to make soup as good as her dad's.

Grant is submitted

Final kitchen wall repair is done.
Embroidery part of the Secret Project is done.
One conference paper is done.
I am really tired, wonder why?

Here is the count for this academic year (beginning September 2010) so far:
External grants submitted: 4
External grants planned for spring: 1
Internal grants submitted: 1
Conference papers submitted: 2
Conference papers in progress: 1
Conference abstracts submitted: 5
Journal articles submitted: 1
Journal articles in progress: 3
Courses taught: 4.5 (one is a 2 credit class)
Courses planned for spring: 3
Students planning to defend MS projects: 3 (so far)

Writing grants is exhausting

I am so sick of these things. Sigh.

For a change of pace from writing, I mopped my new kitchen floor this morning. Need to clean Youngest Daughter's room a bit, before she comes home Friday. It will be wonderful to see her but I am sorry my break is ending. ("Break?" she says. "What break?")

Ten weeks to Commencement....

Still no word on tenure. 13 days left.

Apollo 13 is a great movie

to have on while writing grant proposals.

The Big Push is on with this one. I've worked on it for three solid hours, now it's time for lunch. Switching to Gettysburg for the afternoon session.

Speaking of Apollo 13, I stepped out on a limb and bought airline tickets to go see the April 19th launch of Endeavour. Sure hope the launch date doesn't slip, as I will have to do some juggling with my classes just to make it there for the 19th.