4-19-13

My three aunts came to visit! I started cooking at 10am this morning-- a two chicken stew. I ran to school and back several times, then was home at 4:30 to finish the stew. My mom and aunts came over for dinner and we had a great time! It was so nice to have them visit my house and me and Dan. My Aunt CaCoo gave me advice on curtains and stuff. Mom looks funnny in this picture because she was trying to stifle a cough.

4-18-13

 

Today was my last day teaching the kids at the Junior High. It went very well even though it was a rushed 5 days. It was good for me to teach the curriculum and find out the bugs in it before the summer workshops.

I met with my department chair today and found out what to do if I want to go up for tenure early. I'm still not sure, but leaning in that direction.

4-17-13

I don't have a photo for today, but I woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I got on my computer and finished writing an article I'd started and got it submitted to a journal by 6am. Then I went and taught the kids and the Junior High then I came home and slept!!! Meetings in the afternoon, and a classroom observation, and I found out the results from my tongue biopsy. No cancer. Autoimmune disease of the tongue. Dan and I decided to celebrate so we went out to dinner at The Hound. It was a full, busy day.

4-16-13

 
I taught at the Junior High again-- it's fun. Then I taught this evening too. The semester is almost over. I lent out my statistics book so had to take a photo of some pages so I could remember how to run Cronbach's Alpha on my Force, Motion, and Energy instrument.

4-15-13

Today I was so excited to teach at the Junior High again in the morning.
I'm thinking about maybe going up for tenure early and spoke to some full professors this afternoon to get their take on my idea. This is the view from one of them's office. Very nice!!!

4-14-13

I met with my graduate students today for 4 hours. We've been meeting each Sunday. One is working on her dissertation, and works full time so she needs the extra attention. The other is just getting started and needs coaching. Afterwards I worked on the gears for my newest curriculum idea. I felt like such a helpful and productive professor.

4-13-13

 
  Today I felt great. I gardened for quite a while-- pulling weeds from this section near the driveway. I'd like for this to be an iron fence, or even a wooden one. Chain link will have to do... and I hope to plant some flowering things here soon. It was a productive Saturday.

4-12-13

Today I woke up at 6:10am to get ready to teach a class at the Junior High School. I was so excited! The class went well, and then I rushed over to campus for meetings all the rest of the day. It was productive and I felt great. However, my desk at home is a bloody mess.

4-11-13

I got my picture taken today for the awards ceremony in two weeks!

Then I went to the doctor at 3:00 pm and got a chunk of my tongue cut out for a biopsy. I've had an ulcer on it for 4.5 months and it was time to find out what it was. That biopsy procedure was NOT fun. I'm so glad I got my photo taken first.

4-10-13

What a way to start the day back home.

4-9-13

We say goodbye to our host and chef for the week. What a fantastic vacation and conference wrapped into one!

4-8-13

Dan relaxes on the back porch of our little hilltop house.

4-7-13

Sunrise Sunday morning.

4-6-13

What a place to have a conference!

4-5-13

Yesterday was natural history day, and today was human history day. We visited Old San Juan and walked the European streets, drank the best latte I've ever had, toured two old forts, and just enjoyed the views and the breeze. Dinner with my friend CB from VT at a sushi restaurant. Yes, a sushi restaurant. It was primo.

4-4-13

Today we explored El Yunque, the only rainforest in the US. It was like a Costa Rican rain forest without monkeys and sloths. It was lush, loud, moist, high, and beautiful. We hiked way up a hill to the top of a waterfall. On the way down I spotted these two snails and studied them for a good long while.

Dinner with Igor and his wife, who arrived for the conference too.

4-3-13

I broke the migraine by taking extra doses of a medication yesterday and last night. This morning I awoke at 6am pain free, and we hit the road early for our flight from Atlanta to Puerto Rico.

I was stunned, amazed, surprised, enchanted by this US territory that is part Europe, part Costa Rica, and part typical USA. We arrived at our villa on a big hill overlooking the water late afternoon. It's like being on the set from LOST.

4-2-13

This is the email I got this afternoon during a most excruciating migraine and I thought that the juxtaposition between winning this award and being "with migraine" for two weeks was poetic.  Of course, I did work very had this year, and I was very honored to be selected for this honor. Sometimes I just wonder how I'm going to make it.

I was unable to teach tonight. The pain was horrid, and the fear worse-- that tomorrow will be bad too.

4-1-13

The mass production taking place in our house is amazing. Dan is producing 1400 of these motors mounted in Legos. He needs to solder wires on these.

I still have a migraine.

3-31-13

Easter! I woke up craving Peeps and chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies. When we got to my mom's house she had Peeps. Mmmm...

She cooked a fabulous dinner of prime rib, roasted sweet potatoes, rice and zucchini casserole, and we had a pear tart for dessert that had a layer of almond paste inside. It was so delicious.

Earlier in the day I started working on this chair. I really don't know what got into me. I felt good. I finished it in the evening and Squirt used it for his desk in his room.

Easter dinner table set for 11...

3-30-13

What do you get when a bunch of frat boys with sledge hammers have at your concrete patio? Do you have the top layer nicely removed so you can re-paint it? No.

You have a messed up patio. 

So I haven't been blogging lately. For the past two weeks I've been dealing with migraine on a pretty daily basis. It feels like the photo above- dark and bleak and stormy all the time in my cranium.

3-17-13

You wouldn't know, but this side of the yard was even more work than the other. There's a second set of steps to the right and I cleared out more honeysuckle and ivy than you can imagine. It's not anywhere near done. My hands are so sore and blistered even though I wore gloves.  The rocks you see here were not visible this morning.

3-16-13

I started working in the yard around 9am this morning. The mess was bigger than I imagined.

It was a beautiful day. I discovered a rock wall-- two of them, one behind the other, and cleared out enough vines to reveal the walls on the left side of the stairs.

Here you can see it better. Dan and I each put in about 4-5 hours of heavy work today.

3-15-13

Tomorrow we are going to do yard work and tackle all the vines and weeks and wild trees growing in this mess.
Today I worked hard on some articles I'm writing.

3-14-13

 

 

 

Happy Pi Day!
I hope Aza did something fun with her geometry students today.

Do you think the blue curtains would look good in the living room? We have ordered two chairs and they are a blue tweed.

3-13-13

 

Curtains!
I ordered these silk drapes from Pottery Barn.I think the color is good, but now I think we need to paint the window panels black like the kitchen.I'm going to photoshop and see if we should use this same color in the living room.

3-12-13

Long drive home. Slept in the back seat for a couple hours. Crocheted.

3-11-13

We drove out to the Lacassine Wildlife Refuge today.

A beautiful swamp, it is.

Here I am with my 91 year old grandmother--

She is quite spry for 91. Quite.

We went out to dinner in Jennings.

I worked on my afghan and went for a walk downtown. 

Vacation-- Spring Break

3-10-13

We went for a walk along the lake shore as a front was moving in. So windy. I got my finger in the photo, but thought it captured well the live oak, Spanish moss, and cypress trees. It rained most of the day. We watched old episodes of The Golden Girls tonight.

3-9-13

It took 8 hours to get here. We are in Lake Arthur, at my grandma's house. So many memories here. I guess I can't think of a place I can still go to that holds memories from so long ago. When we got out of the car in Grandma's yard I immediately was drawn back by the feeling of cool humidity and the earthy smell of moss.

3-6-13

Aza and kitten Lily had a snow day without power today. It was cold here in Alabama. I went to work and cried in my office between meetings.