In an attempt to save some money and not get all commercial this Christmas, we decided to do some serious baking and give Christmas breads as gifts. I baked a practice couple of loaves last week, and they were seriously good. Seriously. We gobbled them right up.
So today I spent THE. WHOLE. DAY. baking Hoska, a Chezch Christmas bread. It's beautiful, it's braided, it has fruit and almonds in it. Yum. Eight loaves of yum. We'll be mailing those suckers out to the family tomorrow and Tuesday.
In other news, I'm finished with my sed/strat class and came out with an A, which feels good. I won't be taking a course in the spring, as I'll be traveling all over the state collecting data for a new study. So... I figured I would miss too many classes to take anything.
Slogger's in the kitchen washing the dishes -- what a sweetheart.
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Saturday, December 13, 2008
An Open Letter to My Blog
Dear Beloved Blog,
I apologize. I know I made a commitment to you years ago to regularly update you, and I haven't kept up my end of that commitment.
In my defense, this has been a rough semester for me, with my teaching taking up the bulk of my energy and time. Paradoxically, the same classes that have been taking up most of my energy have given me the least back in satisfaction. Now that finals week is over and I can feel my fingers and toes again, I'm back.
I have been thinking about you! Many times, I have had experiences and thought "wow, I should blog that." Here are a few tidbits.
* I attended a small conference at the beginning of December that I haven't been to in several years. It's one I went to almost every year when I was in graduate school, and many of my friends from graduate school still go there. It was great to see so many old friends, and my presentation was fairly well received. But. I had some conversations about tenure requirements at different schools, and I have a feeling that the standards at High Plains U are relatively low, compared to the places my colleagues are getting tenured at. For a few days, this bothered me. But now I don't really care. The reality is that I have tenure here. I'm not looking for tenure anywhere else. And now that I have tenure I have the luxury to imagine my next really solid and long-term research project, without freaking out and grabbing every opportunity that comes along in order to get the requisite number of pubs. That's right: I'm talking about quality now, over quantity.
* As I mentioned, finals week is finally over. I made it through the semester, by the skin of my teeth, without cursing at my students. This I count as a success. Of course, I'll be grading until I'm about 80. Or until next Thursday, when grades are due.
* Today Slogger and I drove up into the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. That was fun, but since he's still recovering from his heart attack, and I'm dealing with persistent lung congestion, we're both kind of pooped.
* My brother and his wife, and the triplets, are coming to visit us the week after Christmas. Did I mention that we only have one bathroom? And that the triplets are all 5-year-old boys?
So, that's it for now. I'll try to do better in the future, and I sincerely apologize for the past.
Taking a deep breath,
Dr. Bad Ass
I apologize. I know I made a commitment to you years ago to regularly update you, and I haven't kept up my end of that commitment.
In my defense, this has been a rough semester for me, with my teaching taking up the bulk of my energy and time. Paradoxically, the same classes that have been taking up most of my energy have given me the least back in satisfaction. Now that finals week is over and I can feel my fingers and toes again, I'm back.
I have been thinking about you! Many times, I have had experiences and thought "wow, I should blog that." Here are a few tidbits.
* I attended a small conference at the beginning of December that I haven't been to in several years. It's one I went to almost every year when I was in graduate school, and many of my friends from graduate school still go there. It was great to see so many old friends, and my presentation was fairly well received. But. I had some conversations about tenure requirements at different schools, and I have a feeling that the standards at High Plains U are relatively low, compared to the places my colleagues are getting tenured at. For a few days, this bothered me. But now I don't really care. The reality is that I have tenure here. I'm not looking for tenure anywhere else. And now that I have tenure I have the luxury to imagine my next really solid and long-term research project, without freaking out and grabbing every opportunity that comes along in order to get the requisite number of pubs. That's right: I'm talking about quality now, over quantity.
* As I mentioned, finals week is finally over. I made it through the semester, by the skin of my teeth, without cursing at my students. This I count as a success. Of course, I'll be grading until I'm about 80. Or until next Thursday, when grades are due.
* Today Slogger and I drove up into the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. That was fun, but since he's still recovering from his heart attack, and I'm dealing with persistent lung congestion, we're both kind of pooped.
* My brother and his wife, and the triplets, are coming to visit us the week after Christmas. Did I mention that we only have one bathroom? And that the triplets are all 5-year-old boys?
So, that's it for now. I'll try to do better in the future, and I sincerely apologize for the past.
Taking a deep breath,
Dr. Bad Ass
Monday, January 07, 2008
Some Cool Things I Discovered Over the Break
1. Mozilla Firefox. I know. I should have discovered this a long time ago, but I didn't. I like it better than IE, though it doesn't work well for my E-Companion course author page.
2. IPod and Itunes. Footslogger bought me a Nano for Chrismas, and I luuurrrvve it. With a sloppy kind of love that makes me salivate over choosing new music and games, etc.
3. Watching tv online. I've already posted about that one, but let me repeat how cool it is to be able to watch tv shows online with a minimum of commercials.
4. Sleeping late. I can't stop doing it.
5. Starting my car remotely. Footslogger also bought me one of these for Christmas, and it's heavenly. I just point my little keychain remote toward my car, parked in the icy driveway or in the icy parking lot (wherever it is parked, there is PLENTY of ice these days). The car starts, warms up, and runs for 12 minutes. It's locked, so when I go out, I just unlock it, turn my key to On, hit the brake, and I'm good to go. Perfect.
5. Paperback swap. I post books I want to get rid of (paperbacks, of course). If someone chooses my book and I mail it to them, I get a point that I can use to choose someone else's book, which they will mail to me. This has ramped up my huge pile of To-Be-Read books exponentially.
6. Clipmarks. Makes it easy to blog about stuff I find online.
I'm sure there are more, but I just can't remember anything right now. I obviously spent too much time online during the break, and it's showing in terms of my lack of readiness for classes this semester.
2. IPod and Itunes. Footslogger bought me a Nano for Chrismas, and I luuurrrvve it. With a sloppy kind of love that makes me salivate over choosing new music and games, etc.
3. Watching tv online. I've already posted about that one, but let me repeat how cool it is to be able to watch tv shows online with a minimum of commercials.
4. Sleeping late. I can't stop doing it.
5. Starting my car remotely. Footslogger also bought me one of these for Christmas, and it's heavenly. I just point my little keychain remote toward my car, parked in the icy driveway or in the icy parking lot (wherever it is parked, there is PLENTY of ice these days). The car starts, warms up, and runs for 12 minutes. It's locked, so when I go out, I just unlock it, turn my key to On, hit the brake, and I'm good to go. Perfect.
5. Paperback swap. I post books I want to get rid of (paperbacks, of course). If someone chooses my book and I mail it to them, I get a point that I can use to choose someone else's book, which they will mail to me. This has ramped up my huge pile of To-Be-Read books exponentially.
6. Clipmarks. Makes it easy to blog about stuff I find online.
I'm sure there are more, but I just can't remember anything right now. I obviously spent too much time online during the break, and it's showing in terms of my lack of readiness for classes this semester.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
