While cleaning out the cat box this morning, I started thinking about Lil' Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks. I mean, why is he called "Warbucks"? I'm sure someone out there knows. I'm guessing it is to show that he made his money in wartime. Perhaps he was a gun runner, a mercenary? Or just had a factory that made cannons? But if so, why is he pictured as such a sweet guy in the end? Shouldn't he be this horrible evil man who lurks around in corners, twirling his moustache and casting lecherous glances at innocent young women? Instead, he adopts Annie, who turns him into a big ol' softy.
Then I started wondering what would happen when she got to be Teen Orphan Annie . . . she turns a bit rebellious, she starts picketing his ouzi factory, she runs away from home (after a big shouting scene in which she calls him a despot and throws a priceless vase into the garden) to . . . San Francisco. There she takes up with a young man who lives in the park and makes money by playing a guitar and a harmonica. That'll serve him, she thinks! Now I'm poor again!
This move from liberal to conservative to liberal again makes me wonder -- as a teenager I was extremely conservative, with lots of Republican views on money, society, gender, race, etc. Now the older I get, the more liberal I become. Isn't that a bit backward?

This morning I woke up early (due to a phone call from my hiking husband 8-) and then decided to watch the rest of the movie I started last night in bed, drinking coffee. Felt all cozy and comfy with my cup of hazelnut coffee and the quilts pulled up around me, watching an action flick. With Antonio Banderas, no less. Then some friends and I went for a walk out in the mountains. One of the things I love about living on the high plains is our proximity to beautiful mountain spaces. It was a treat to get out, walk around, watch the aspens turning color, and soak up some nature for a change. Only too soon it was time to head for home. Tonight I'm going to a volleyball game (UW vs. UNLV, I think) and then coming home for a good night's sleep before heading into the office tomorrow (yes, I know it's sunday tomorrow) to get some writing done there. I've begun to realize that my putting off writing this article from my dissertation is because I KNOW it will be badly received, at least by some. Makes me want to turn my hand to something that's a sure thing, but the only thing that might be would have something to do with NCLB, standards, assessments, etc. Nobody wants to hear now about cultural and social literacies, multiliteracies, approaching literature with a critical eye, etc. And I'm not interested in working on much else. Perhaps the writing project work I am going to be doing soon will be a nice middle-of-the-road type of research project. At least I should be able to get something published on it!

Well, it's Sunday, and I managed to spend the whole day crocheting a doily and watching television. However, when I begin to get down on myself for this, I simply remind myself how hard I work during the week. There's a lot of stress there, right? So I deserve some down time, right? And it's not as if anyone is going hungry in my house or the bills aren't getting paid. So back off, conscience!
In the meantime, I managed to also get up to date on Footslogger's web page (see www.trailjournals.com/footslogger) and to update his pictures there. Only three weeks until he gets home -- and about damn time, too.

This morning I purchased my new pack. Yahoo! I got an Arcteryx bora 60 LT, a lighter weight and smaller version of the pack I carried in 2001, the Arcteryx bora 80. After I got finished culling out the stuff I didn't need in 2001 (I started with about 53 pounds of weight and ended up carrying 35 to 40) I was hardly using the space in that big pack. I sent the top home, and I had to cinch the thing down like crazy. Anyway, I found a really good deal on the pack I wanted at a website called Mickie's Place. They didn't charge me any tax or any delivery cost, plus they had the pack on sale for much cheaper than anywhere else I could find it. I'll be using that pack when I head out to the trail in May to hike from Damascus to Waynesboro. I'm both excited and nervous about that trip, although the excitement far outweighs the nervousness. This is a very different type of experience than that I had in 2001, when I spent the last two months before my thru-hike began asking myself, "Can I really do this? What am I doing? Should I just quit? What if I break my leg?" and other silly questions.

Woke up this morning to snow on the ground. A few hours ago there was blue sky everywhere, and I thought it would be perfect for skiing. But now it's starting to cloud over -- more snow again, I guess. We still might go up to Snowy and ski for a bit -- assuming I get to feeling better. Mark thinks I'm not drinking enough water, and he's right. So I have my thru-hiking Nalgene on top of the counter next to me, complete with encircling bands of duct tape (just in case) and it's full of water. My goal is to drink the whole thing within the next hour. Should be able to do that without sloshing too much.
I'm also thinking of doing some writing this morning on my multigenre piece on multigenre -- so far, I've done a list of genres, two lesson plans, an evaluation, and I have plans for a dialogue. So on that dialogue, who should be talking? Myself and Tom Romano? Tom Romano and . . . my science head? Or within myself, it could be my science head and my art head -- I've had LOTS of conversations like that -- especially while writing my diss.
Also started playing around with Nudist (qualitative analysis software, not a porn site!) last night.It's not exactly self-evident as far as how to use it, but the more I mess around with it, the more I understand it. I would like to get enough of a sense of it to do some more analysis of that old tutoring study this summer; and I would also like to be able to use it in conjunction with my class sometime this semester. Hard to teach something when you don't have a clue what it's all about!

I've been sick for almost three weeks with croup. CROUP! I ask you, isn't that a child's disease? I'm not a child, I don't have any children, and I'm almost never around children. Apparently, however, the virus that causes croup is sneaky as hell. It first hit me with a sore throat, then laryngitis for a few days (during those few days, of course, I taught an in-service on content area reading and a graduate class on qualitative research -- it's quite interesting to teach with no voice!). After the laryngitis came the coughing, the swollen throat, the fever, the difficulty breathing. Not at all nice. I am now on the mend, however, having taken loads of steroids and antibiotics. I'm still on an inhaler, but every day I feel stronger and more healthy.
Today, in fact, I plan to go have lunch with my husband and several of my fall semester students, who are now student teaching. Mexican food. Margaritas. A whole host of salty foods. Love it!