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So remember last week or so when I said we drove over by Yellowstone? I thought I'd give you a couple of pics of what we saw, behind a cut to be dialup friendly. Now back to writing. Di | | |
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So we drove out last weekend. All in one day. Sixteen and a half hours. Yes, we're crazy. So we drove into the land of heat. And trust me, it's been hot. Not as hot as it could be, but plenty hot. Kids were excited to see the rest of the family, and have been going non-stop. The whole point of the trip was a reward for my son to put his head under water while swimming, and today he made a milestone in my brother's pool; he held his breath and not his nose and swam. Very exciting.
in the meantime, I've been chasing kids and visiting family, trying to get some writing done and generally get in some R & R. I wanted to get some reading done, but haven't. Mostly I've eaten too much, swam tons, and slept a bit.
But I've also been mulling ideas. Hoping they come to fruition. Soon.
Hope you guys are having fun.
Di | | |
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So everything's going okay until I get a call during my class (phone set on vibrate and luckily It's during the first break because otherwise I'd wait til break to answer) and it's my husband. Napoleon-girl (NG) apparently has been into the household cleaners. Did she drink some? He doesn't know. I drop everything, go running home (literally, since I live close to campus). Get home. NG is happy as a clam, though she cannot figure out why daddy's freaking. All she says is sorry. So we call the doc, then poison control. Turns out the cleaner she may or may not have drank wasn't that bad, and she'd didn't get much, if she got any at all. So we were to wash her down, get as much drink down her as we could, and watch her. After an hour, they checked back in and since she wasn't showing symptoms, called it okay. We kept watching her awhile, then put her down to nap. She's done very well since then. In the meantime, we rechecked all the childproofing and fixed what had become too loose.
On a more or less positive side, my dad came out of his neck fusion surgery okay. Loopy, but I got to talk to him. It was very nice.
And now, anon.
Di | | |
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It snowed today. Started around noon and we ended up with about 6-8 inches. Heavy wet snow. Now, you have to understand that we live in the rockies in high mountain desert. We have cactus here. Prickly pear. We don't get a lot of precipitation. And a lot of the snow we get is so dry you can sweep it away with a broom or use a leaf blower to get rid of it. You can't usually make a snowball out of it without using a squirtgun to add water.
But not today. It's wet snow. Real snow. So tomorrow we sled. Should be fun. Because the snow will melt in a few days, or we'll have tons of ice. One or the other.
Paul Youll is doing my cover. www.paulyoull.com Wow. Just wow.
Di | | |
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This weekend I got Things Done.
I caught up a year's worth of financial statements in my recordkeeping.
Did my copy edits (my copy editor ROCKED by the way.
Cleaned my office and filed many things
Threw away many things.
Folded two loads of kid laundry
Read the book I assigned for class.
Had chai with a departmental colleague and had a great discussion
Had friend over for dinner and made fajitas
Played with the kids.
Did some writing.
Recolored my hair.
and some other things I don't remember.
Di | | |
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Yesterday we had spring. Got above 60. All the snow went away, and I could swear I could hear the stirring of sap in the trees and the twitching of grass roots under the ground. Seeds were quivering and for weeks now hordes of geese have been returning. This morning, we were back to winter. Snow. Brrr. Then about midday, spring returned. Warm, snow went away. Went into a store, came out, winter was back. Snowing. With this sort of odd fog as the warming ground and the colding air (yeah, not a word but I like it) were spinning out this mist over the mountains. Beautiful.
Also, yesterday was the end of the block. Class over. New one begins on Monday. Lots of work to do in between.
A big furry spider tried to jump on me in the shower this am. I do not like showering with spiders.
Di | | |
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So I'm trying to decide today if I should go to school and teach or not. Problem? I may have strep throat. Yes, I know, again. But apparently I should have changed out my toothbrush after having it a few weeks ago. Apparently I may have given it back to myself. Yeah, again, I know, dork. Which is not to say for sure that I have it. But I sort of think maybe the sore throat, fever, nausea, slight neck pain, feel of having a rock stuck in my throat, and general malaise, might indicate it. Might just be a virus. I'm obviously up and about. Grading papers and prepping for class. But, do I go spread my disease or stay home? I have a doctor's appointment for after class (earliest one I could get of the day--but welcome to small town Montana where you can call and get a same day appointment). Ever read David Quammen? He's an essayist, along the environmental track, and often very funny, always enlightening, and oh, yeah, he's from Montana. Anyhow, essay I assigned for yesterday, and which we are working on more today: Spatula Theory. It begins . . . No doubt you've often asked yourself, over the years, why it is that owls don't have penises.One of the most fabulous opening lines ever. And then here are more great things from the essay: To be equipped with a penis (actually, that word by its strict definition is specific to mammals) or penislike organ represents no elite evolutionary attainment . . . . This is one of the few anatomical features that a man shares (pride yourselves, guys) with a nematode or a mite.
Spiders do their mating with pedipalps, another form of modified leg, to which sperm is applied from a separate male orifice, like guacamole on a chip, before insertion.
A snail also uses a sinuous, groping tube, not quite so long as the barnacles, but still remarkable in that it's extruded at will, like a randy idea, from an aperture on the snail's head."There is so much more that is funny in this essay. Eruditely funny. I love it. As for writing . . . some is getting done. I think part of the issue has been that I lost my sense of the language of the sea for awhile (which I had to learn in the first place) and so I'm trying to get back to a place where I can think from the perspective of someone who lives at sea most of the time. Which means trying to absorb not only technical terminology, but also slang references. I have a bunch of books that I dip into regularly, and hope a lot of the language sticks. I still need to pick up a few more--it's been a thousand years since I read RHD's Two Years Before the Mast (two? I can hardly remember), and I should pick up some more Conrad and London. The novels help it stick more because they allow me to experience the words in relation to the sea and ships. And now, I shall go back to grading papers. And deciding if I should inflict my disease on my students. Hmmm. Di ETA: OH. MY. OH. Loss for words. Courtesy of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) suricattus and be aware that it's wrong. Wrong. So wrong. Funny. Not at all something to see in the office. But. Funny. In such a wrong, wrong, wrong way. | | |
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Okay, first, I made every effort not to think about the books and think about the show as a show, not a take off of the books. So, I enjoyed it, as far as it went. I'm interested to see how they develop the characters (which is why I try not to think about the books because a show simply cannot stick with the books for the long term, even if it wanted to, which I doubt it does.) Some things were thin--but there's only so much you can cram into the first show, so I'm not complaining about them. I liked the flashbacks in so much as I think it did a lot to establish Dresden's character and past in the simplest terms, and to establish the High Council and the fact that there are other 'big' things looming out there besides just the episodic bad event of the, oh, current episode (nothing like redundant language to make a point, is there?)
So if you watched, what were your thoughts?
Di | | |
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These are true:
Good things come to those who wait.
Bad things come to those who wait.
But knowing whether to wait or act is . . . an art.
So anyhow, there's my philosophy for the day. First week of the three and a half week block down. I'm exhausted. Largely because I kept picking up illnesses over the break (because my children seem to be Petrie dishes) and also this week has been such a shift in my schedule. Not to mention teaching in three hour blocks. I'm teaching afternoon blocks this semester, which I don't usually do. I tend to choose mornings so I'm fresh. But I am getting up early and walking my son to school (with my 2 and a half year old daughter), coming home, showering, prepping my class (and if time permits writing) then off to pick my son and his buddy up and walk them to their pre-school (and in this case postschool), up to my office hours, then a handoff of napoleon-girl to her father (who's taking classes this semester), and off to teach. Then pick up the son, bring him home, and attempt an hour or so of writing. Fix food, play with kids, get them into bed, and then try to squeeze in a little writing, if I'm not grading something. Then bed, rinse and repeat.
You'll notice there's not a lot of writing going on. I have to get that figured out. But I'm so tired by the evening that it's hard to get my brain moving. There's a faculty forum tonight with margaritas involved. I'm highly motivated to attend.
The bad news, someone I really wanted to blurb my book can't. Or won't. I'm not sure. Isn't going to, at any rate. Sigh. On the other hand, Patricia Briggs gave it an awesome thumbs up. I'm also working on getting the first Cipher chapter up and readable on the website. It's halfway readable, but I've got to put in paragraph breaks and it doesn't like smart quotes/apostrophes, so I'm changing those. But if you want to wrestle through it, go ahead. Otherwise, I'll let you know when it's actually readable. It's under the Cipher tab.
Di - Tags:a day in the life
- Mood:exanimate
 - Music:Bonnie Tyler--total eclips of the heart (oh, it's the 80s!)
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I have not fallen off the face of the planet (since of course it is flat). No, I've begun teaching again and the first week is always slaughteringly busy. Hence my not poking my head up much. I am teaching the freshman composition course this block, called Foundations of Language, and tomorrow the first essays come in. Should be exciting. And while feeding my daughter a bit of my bread today, I nearly had my finger bit off. When she eats, she means it.
Di | | |
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Tonight the weather channel is calling for it to drop to -26. Blink. Ick. | | |
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So today we got up to make a trip to Costco. It's a journey. It's about two hours away, depending on the roads. We'd been fearing the weather, because we were being threatened with high winds and heavy accumulations of snow. Good news? No snow on this side of the divide. Bad news? Yeah, high winds. Seriously.
First, we live on the east side of the Divide. Due north is Butte, which is west of the divide. The divide is not straight. We live in the middle of the Rockies, which are hundreds of miles wide, really. So we were lucky. No snow today.
The skies were amazing. The clouds were gun metal blue. At one point, ahead of us the clouds were blowing so that they looked like the smoke of a huge forest fire. The birches and cottonwoods gleamed like silver in the morning light, and the willows were brilliant yellow. I used to live in the midwest where there was really no color in winter (except for evergreen trees). But in Montana, the trees are colorful, and then you have the bush willows in the bottoms that are crimson.
The truck was pretty okay on the way--had a tail wind. All the semis coming over the passes from Butte were caked in snow. It was kind of surreal because there was almost no snow on the mountains around us. On the way home, we were heading into the wind and getting bounced all over the road. In Montana, it's good to have one of those ridiculously large vehicles with four wheel drive. Much safer. Seriously.
So home again, and now to work.
Maybe it will snow tonight. Arctic air coming in a couple of days. Brrrr.
Di | | |
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I have a friend, whom some of you know, who has a knack for picking The. Worst. Movies. Ever. to watch. Case in point--Boxing Helena. Sure, Julian Sands, eye candy. What could go wrong? Uh huh. This is one of those that you watch disbelieving that it can get worse, and then, it does. You want to poke your eyes out, you want to turn it off. But can you? Oh, no. You must keep watching. Like an accident on the highway.
As it turns out, apparently I have a knack for such choices too. The movie had Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson . . . The Big White. It should have been good. It was . . . not. What was funny was that we kept watching, waiting for something funny, and when it only got worse and worse, THAT was funny--that we kept watching (and thinking of you, Meg). Holly Hunter WAS damned funny though.
Do you guys remember that movie that came out awhile ago with Dan Ackroyd, John Candy, Chevy Chase and Demi Moore--called Nothing But Trouble? Wherein which Dan Ackroyd plays this bizarre judge (and they put a nose-piece on him shaped, I do not kid, like a penis--I really kid not.) It was a bad movie. Funny in that same horrifying way, but not as intended. Well, My sister sent that for Xmas one year. And this year she sent Earnest Saves Xmas. I'm thinking of sending her Boxing Helena and The Big White. Begin a "who can give the worst movie" gift exchange.
What tops your worst movie ever list?
Di | | |
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There was an article in the paper yesterday about the Novovirus, which apparently is what I had. Convenient that they told me what it was. I already knew what it did, mind you, and the prevention advice was a day late, dollar short, as it were. But much better today. Could have been worse. Could have been hospitalized. Apparently a lot of folks around here have been.
So here's a question. I'm thinking about Myspace. My publicist (mine, right, and a whole bunch of others' really) suggested it strongly. I've never had the time, but maybe at the moment I could. Does anybody hang out there? What's it do? What's it like? I know I had several students this block who at the beginning of the three weeks swore they never would get involved, and then the next thing I know they are addicts. So what's the draw?
Di | | |
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Today I finished my grading and turned in my grades. This even though I'm sick on the couch. If I don't move too much, my stomach doesn't protest. The kids are happily not sick, but of course they are energetic and I can't keep them from getting into much trouble. I'm hoping they don't find too much. Did I mention my husband is also prostrate on the couch not moving?
I picked up Shana Abe's The Smoke Thief and read it yesterday. It's a fun historical romance with the fantastic elements. The major weirdness is the shifting in and out of the two lovers' heads in paragraphs and inside scenes (e.g. headhopping.) This is entirely expected in romance novels, but what's interesting is that if you have a fantasy with romantic elements, you can't do it. But if you have a romance with fantastic elements, you can. What's weird is the line between.
The Smoke Thief is a fun read, very romantic, and with some good interactions between characters. It's a good by the fire sort of read and good for when you're sick.
And now I'm going to go back to work on my writing. I hope. Or I'm going to become a puddle on the couch. I wonder if I ate something bad?
Di | | |
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So. Christmas was a good day. Kids had a great time, and Santa was kind to them. There was the kitchen set that both can't seem to leave alone, the play swords, the race track, and oh so much more. And the best gift for my husband and I was getting to watch them enjoy themselves so thoroughly. Next year we will be going to Disneyland with my entire family (parents, brother, sister, and all their families). It will be exhausting and fun. For my parent's 50th anniversary. Which raises the question. I'm starting to think of something good to do for them for their 50th and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated as you think of ideas. Awhile ago I did a couple of collage pictures for them of our life on the ranch (did it when we moved off) and used most of my early picks to do that. Now I'm thinking of something that involves getting pics of their early married lives and doing something with that. Which means contacting friends and family, I think. So dinner was ham, mashed potatoes, olives, pickles, carrots, rosemary bread, pears, peas and I forget what else. Followed by huckleberry pie, baked by my husband. It was oh soooooo gooooood. There was also napping and more playing and eventual bed. Yay bed! And today back to physical therapy, and a repair on my laptop to bring back the wireless card (I'm writing this from said laptop now) and more playing and some leftovers. And oh, yeah, soon as I'm done here, finishing grading for my last class and entering those grades. And then writing. How was your Christmas (if you celebrated)? Or in general, what have you been up to? I met a guy at PT today who wrecked his four wheeler this weekend and so had an elevated leg Christmas. His knee is HUGE. We're hoping we'll get snow soon so we can go sledding. It's been sort of dry the last few weeks. And you'll be noticing some new icons, courtesy of kaigouwho is spoiling me with so much cool stuff! Di | | |
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So today hopefully I'll be back online at home. He'll bring a new cable modem and we'll see what works. Hopefully it doesn't cascade through the system, wreaking much havoc.
This weekend got cold. Cooooooold. There were parties galore, with much alcohol and more sweets, and there was Christmas tree hunting in the mountains in the cooooooold. Came home with a tree, but it's very dry on account of the drought, so hopefully it holds up through Xmas. We've dunked it in a bucket of water in the hopes it will suck some up before we put it up. It still has pinecones on it, so at least that's an added decorational plus.
Without the net, I've been writing a fair amount this weekend in between parties and etc. Which only goes to show what a time suck the net can be.
My hardcore anti-myspace students have now succumbed and ramble on about it constantly before class starts. They pride themselves on being hard-drinking tough-guys. And they are addicted to myspace. Hee.
Di | | |
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We're playing with the website and the journal now both, so don't adjust. Sooner or later it will settle down.
My son is much better today. Yesterday he was a slug and got lots of sleep. Slug in that sense of not wanting to move even a little, poor guy. But today he's a bit more energetic with all his internal body functions working as advertised for the most part. I suspect there will be much lego-building today. And hopefully his little sister won't terrorize him too much.
Did a reading last night as part of a rapidfire style reading. Was the best reading I've ever done. You know, more like storytelling. So I was happy. Read the first few pages of The Cipher.
Okay, so you know those 2 lb blocks of cheese like say, Tillmook cheese loafs they sell? Imagine opening it, cutting off a slice or two, and putting it into the refrigerator. Imagine a certain, curious and frightening silence indicating the 2.5 year old is UP. TO. SOMETHING. You go look. Imagine finding her in the kitchen with the fridge door open gnawing on a 2 lb block of sharp cheddar. Imagine that not one or even twice. I must get a lock or something . . . .
Di | | |
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So my head is mush. Mush I tell you. Corn mush. Boiled cabbage mush. Clumpy wheat mush. And if any students are reading this, no I haven't graded papers or finals yet. No.
So yes, gave the final yesterday, and I collected papers. I had one student who decided he wasn't going to pass just simply not do the final or turn in the paper (worth a whopping 40% of the grade, making it entirely possible to pass the class). My question is always, if you weren't going to do the work (throughout) then why bother? Why not just sleep in?
I also have two added children under my care today, while hubby and buddy go hunting elk. Cross your fingers. I love elk. Want some. But the children are . . . lively. I'm trying to be. Uh oh, I think they are approaching my office. Where they shouldn't be. Ah, chased them down.
I've been working on the synopsis for my . . . thing. The working title is Lifedebt, and I have no other good titles and have not. It's something I wrote while writing my dissertation, and it's way too long and I've been revising it, and I think it will work (now that I've figured out more about the villain) but I still have no title, and it bothers me. I've had other working titles, but none that worked. I think one was "The Arrival Hour." HOw dismal is that?
So anyhow, apparently I have to go ride herd some more. I shall end this and be off. Oh, and reply to the previous post. Cause I need to.
Di | | |
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Today and yesterday I had in my custody four children six an under. I was watching two for a friend, and two are mine. Good kids all around, but today they got . . . tired. Tiresome. Tiring. YOu make me tired. Go to sleep already!!! Seriously, they got up way too early (before 7:00) and without any sugar at all, were zinging around the house like they'd inhaled a twelvepack of jolt cola. Add to that that around 11:00 things got progressively more whiny and teary on most every front, I wanted to poke my eyes out with a fork. But wait! That wasn't all!
Add into the mix . . . the grading of midterms. Some totally ignored the assignment. Some did very well. I'm so pleased with the very wells. But grading some of those that totally ignored the assignment--which is to say, did not write about the correct topic, did not approach the correct topic in the required manner, or just went on a tangential rant, well, you get it. And some said it with crappy grammar and mechanics and spelling, which only adds annoyance.
So I'm taking a break so that when I go back, I can be fair. You know that generally these students are quite sharp. When they speak (those that do) they are definitely on target and thoughtful. So for some, either they just didn't feel like putting in the effort, or they were in another reality when reading the assignment.
On the other hand, I've been reading the Lies of Locke Lamora. And so far, it's really good. I've got that "wish I wrote that good" sort of envy. The thing that makes the most impact on me is the worldbuilding. Just richly textured. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.
I need a nap. I won't get one. But I want one. At least the two supplemental kiddies went home and mine are safely esconced in bed. Yay bed!
Di | | |
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