Bullets and a Question

Well, yesterday didn't quite work out as a blog posting day, because of my schedule. OK, that's just a sad excuse. The reality is that I am feeling such freedom from having turned in my grades, that I can't focus on any one thing for any length of time.

Some interesting tidbits from yesterday:

• I walked on the treadmill for an hour (largely because my jeans are feeling a bit tight around the middle and I know I need to be getting more exercise to loosen them up).
• Wrapped presents, cleaned the kitchen floor, and did sundry stuff to get ready for Christmas visit from City Girl.
• Red and I went to a coffee shop for lunch, so that she could get some grading done and I could work on my t&p packet, online course, and whatever else. I spilled my coffee, which came close to drowning her computer (but didn't! hallelujah!) and did drown her cute little backpack, and then I apologized heartily and profusely, over and over again, ad nauseum. We ended up talking so much -- mostly about my online course setup -- that she graded NO papers. But I did get a lot done on my online course. Red also gave me a great idea for the introduction to my t&p narrative. And she bought lunch! So it was an all-about-me type of afternoon...
• We got back to campus just in time to attend a surprise birthday party for our dean, which was nice. Strawberry lemonade and some really dense chocolate cake.
• Got home in time to actually cook dinner. One of my favorite casseroles, involving ground turkey and eggplant. Yummy. And it was an opportunity to cook dinner for my favorite person, Footslogger, which is always a treat.
• Spent the evening at Rowdy Friend's house with friends that I don't get to see often, drinking wine and eating cheese. Which reminds me, this recipe for Walnut-Glazed Brie was a huge hit. Easy and delicious. One party-goer said that it was "elegant." Since I'm almost never elegant, I was quite excited about this.

On the whole, a busy day, so I hope you'll forgive me for not blogging about whatever crap I said I was going to blog about the day before.

Oh, one question. It's the norm here to write a narrative to go in the reappointment/tenure packet every year. It's a tricky business, because one doesn't want to just restate what's already on one's vita. Usually I adopt some kind of theme for the year. Now this is my tenure year, so I'm trying to do a nice job of it, rather than throwing it together at the last minute, as I usually do. I am using my completion of the AT last summer, after many years of plugging away at it, as a metaphor for my tenure trudge in the introductory section. I would like to include a summit shot with that, although my dean frowns on this type of fru-fru in t&p packets.

I'm leaning toward taking it out, because of the whole dean frowning thing. But another part of me says Go Ahead and Take the Risk. It's a Small One After All.

What say you, internets?

Tune in Tomorrow

Before I head for bed and a few chapters, I thought I would check in and say -- I'll be writing more tomorrow.

I'm going to try to come up with something more interesting than that I've finished my grading. Something about happiness? the academy? academic happiness?

Back, After a Long Absence

OK, so I may have been overreacting a bit to the end of NaBloPoMo.

I haven't posted in weeks, largely because I didn't have anything worthwhile to say AND I was tired of daily posting AND I've been snowed under with grading AND I had to study for my final exam in FOG (finished, thank God, and I think I got an A). In fact, I'm still not finished with grading, though I expect to finish up on Monday and turn in my grades at the end of the day.

So in the meantime, Belle tagged me for a Book Meme. And since I'm a sucker for Belle (hey, what can I say? She leaves comments!) and a reading freak, I thought I would give in to the posting temptation.

Here's how the meme works. (Just on a side note, it's only been a short time that I've known what a meme is. Isn't that odd?)

The rules: List five books that you have read in 2007 that you love. These do not have to be books that came out in 2007, but books that you (re)discovered/(re)read in 2007 that have become or are important to you. Link back to the person who tagged you. Tag five others.

I have this funny habit of re-reading books that I love. So although some of these books are old standbys, I re-read them this year. Others were new to me.

Pride and Prejudice. During the summer, I read this book about 5 times. I don't know why I was so enchanted with it, but ... I guess there's a reason it's a classic.

Friday Night Lights. A friend loaned me this one, and I put it in my reading stack but never read it. Then when we were getting ready to leave for our backpacking trip in Maine, I was looking for a small book with small print. I must always have a book on a backpacking trip, and if I can get one that won't weigh much but will last me a week or so, that's good. This one was fantastic, as it brought back so much of my experience as a high-school student and a high-school teacher in Texas, dealing with football players and football coaches and football fans.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I re-read this one, too, several times. Characters make any book for me, and I loved getting closure on these kids.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. OK, this brings my fantasy freak out of the closet. Kudos to my neices (also fantasy freaks! hi girls!) for directing me to a brand new series! That is long! And has bunches more books for me to read! With dragons!

Which brings me to my final book, Eldest. This is the second in a young adult lit series -- and I both love to and have to read YA lit, because I teach courses in it -- that satisfies my hankering for dragons, heroes, and engaging sets of characters.

This year I also discovered Library Thing (which I'll be using in relation to classes I teach in future) -- you can see most of my library here.

Hmm. Who to tag?

Dr. Brazen Hussy, Eddie, Female Science Professor, Jen, and RV.

Saffron!

Your Score: Saffron

You scored 75% intoxication, 50% hotness, 75% complexity, and 0% craziness!

You are Saffron! Those other spices have nothing on you! You're warm, smart, and you make people feel really good (and with no side-effects!). You can be difficult to get to know and require a lot of those who try, but you're so totally worth it. *Sigh*

Link: The Which Spice Are You Test written by jodiesattva on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

The End of NaBloPoMo

December 1st! I made it! Now the questions arise:

• Will I continue to feel compelled to post every day?
• Will I actually have something worthwhile to post?
• Will my students actually take responsibility for their work? [oh, sorry, that's not about my blog, but I'm still annoyed!]

Whew. Very proud. Thank you all for reading and sometimes commenting.