Sunday, February 23, 2003

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!

Saturday, February 22, 2003

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!