Takin' a breath

Whew! Even though we skipped the socializing part of yesterday evening (sorry to have missed you, Tone and b), I didn't get as much work done over the weekend as I had wanted to. So, after class this morning, I rode home, scarfed down a quick lunch, and then responded more papers all day. Just quit a little bit ago and scarfed down a quick dinner, and soon I will be off to my evening class. Just a typical Monday. I would wait until tonight to post, but I will have to be doing some teacherly housekeeping, I think (printing assignment sheets, &c.).

Here's today's link: a thrilling action film of the rock dam in the stream at the cabin:

Crack o' dawn!

Good morning! No, we didn't install satellite internet at the cabin and we're not hijacking the connection down at Whistlin' Jack's - we came back home last night, because the power went out. Yeah, I know - cabins are supposed to be rustic and all, so why would a power outage slow things down?

The Putnam Cabin is a bit of an odd case. It is indeed a rustic structure: it was built probably about seventy years ago, and the uneven floors and crooked walls show signs of progressive remodeling and additions all over the place. The walls are bare drywall and the furnishings would be rejected by Value Village; the few windows don;t let in much light, so it's pretty dark and cool inside most of the time. A hand pump in the kitchen used to provide water, but the well went dry or otherwise became longer functional, guest have to bring in water has or carry it up from the river and boil it.

But, the cabin does have electricity. An old fridge, a four-burner stove (with three functioning burners), and a microwave make cooking easy; electric lamps with bare bulbs illuminate the place, and in the winter, electric heaters supplement the fireplace. Perhaps because of this, the cabin does not have certain items that might be expected: hurricane lamps, coleman stoves, lanterns, or stuff like that. No, I don't know why not.

So when all the cabins in the area lost power in late afternoon, we were in a bit of a quandary. It seemed silly to leave the woods because we had no power. But while we could barbecue for dinner, Otis's naturopathic blood-sugar diet won't let her eat anything we could grill (we had brought some rice casseroles for her to warm up). And it was getting hard to see (and impossible to read or grade papers) inside the cabin with only decorative candles for light.

So, we came back. We had had one fine day in the warmth and the sun and the woods and that was good; we got home in the late evening, made some dinner, took care of business, and got set to have a fine day today at home.

Here are some pictures:

Woods


Me relaxing


Me working


Otis worshipping the sun, or something


We actually went into the river and starting build a rock pool


Otis pointing at frogs in the pond across the road

Hasty pudding

We'll, I'm off in a bit to LFP to do some school bidness with Mighty Mel (and others) and I'm not comin' back - at least, not until after the cabin trip. Same with Otis - she has a client and some errands and then she's picking me up and we're minivanning it eastward.

Catch you on the flip-flop!

Humppost

Actually, yesterday was humpday, and since my work week ends on Thursday, it's more like homestretchpost, but I like the look of that title.

I broke down and applied for a full-time administrative job yesterday. This adjuncting is wearing me down. Over the past two years, I have averaged 114% of a full-time load (compared to someone who has a permanent position). That doesn't bother be so much, even though I still don't make 100% of what a full-timer makes. What's hard is that since I have some quarters that are light, there are quarters that I work much more than that: the last four have run 180%, 160%, 53%, and 130% of full-time. It's a bit too much.

An admin position would mean no light quarters ever; it should also mean that I'm never working double for three months at a time, either. And I'm at a level where I should get a decent amount of vacation.

So, a I trying to convince you, or me?

Of course, another option is to stick with adjuncting and just work less, but I don't know if I am ready to let go of the income.

Ah, is there anything more boring that the problems of the privileged?

T-Shirt Poll Results

The Milk shirt was the most popular by far; it will be the next gray shirt. Sorting out the rest of the pack, old-school Atom grabs a new gray, while brand-new Diana Prince and the classic WW2 clinch will wait for the next two blacks.

Tuesday link

It's nicer now! Still summer but not so sultry. School is busy but fun.

Here's a video courtesy of YouTube:



A commercial selling one taco?
And a medium drink?
Without yelling?


How quaint.

Hot enough for ya? Monday memo

Man, I couldn't get that cliched, could I?

It was another scorcher yesterday, wannit? Nonetheless, Otis and I took a morning bike ride on the Sammamish River Trail, and clocked almost 24 miles. (It wasn't that bad, with several stops to wet outselves down at water fountains.) This brings my so-far B2K total to 915 miles.

In other news, we jointly or severally watered plants, responded papers, and rode around in the air-conditioned car looking for air-conditioned places with business to be taken care of: Depots of both the Home and Office variety, and Safeway; we even ate dinner out just for the climate-control, with Otis cobbling together some sort of meal from the pieces of the menu she was allowed to eat. In the evening, we spent some time at Barnes and Noble, not-buying books and not-sweating (although I did pick up a CD for school - Mozart Makes You Smarter!).

It's supposed to be milder today, which is good, since I have a lot to do between my morning and evening classes.

Check out the Group Blog for some upcoming action, eh?

Scatterday Saturday

Well, although it was a day that did its best to encourage indolence (yet another record-breaker), yesterday saw a lot of activity in these parts.

Fairly early, we joined Rye-N and Kris-10 for a scootering celebration of Kris's birthday. When we got fully underway, we had three shiny rental scooters, my dear ol' Basque-sheeped Ruby, and a big Honda sport bike cruising through Seattle with eight riders looking for touble, or at least coffee. We made some loops through the arboretum and down along the lake to Seward Park before heading up to Tamarind Tree for a late lunch.

As the sun grew warmer in the sky after a great meal, Otis and I had the leave the gang, which roared putted off towards Discovery Park. We swung through Fremont to stop by and see JJ, who was hosting the 85th Anniversary celebration of her Fremont Library, and had a nice chance encounter with MaryBee as well. Then it was home for TCB, and a dip in the poolette to cool off, and, quite frankly, a little nap.

We stopped off to catch up at the post-scooter party that was rounding off Kris's birthday, and then headed off to do some evening errands, but somehow wound up at a late showing of Prairie Home Companion, which we enjoyed but found ultimately unsatisfying.

Today promises to be just as full: we need to head up to LFP for some house-sitting duties, and I need to clock some miles on the pedal-bike (missing from yesterday's agenda) and maybe get some lesson-planning in. Doesn't look like it's gonna be much cooler today; let's just think about it as storing up sunlight for February.

Today's link: New Scientist had a report on the top ten robots in the wrold right now. You can read the whole article if you like, but you have got to check out this one video: the body movements of the autonomous dancing robots are amazing.

Mungo Jerry's got nothin' on me

(Psst: Post title = link!)

Wotta day! Both Otis and I are hanging out on the bottom floor of the townhouse, cuz it's the coolest place to be right now (and I don't mean hip). And after such a sultry summer day, cool is what we want to be. Every window in the house is open and we're trying to get the temperature down so we can do it all over again tomorrow.

We didn't let this weather slow us down, though. Well, actually it did slow us down quite a bit - who wants to move fast when it's ninety? But it didn't stop us, nosiree.

After brekkies, we loaded up the bikes and rode out to Magnuson Park. We found some dappled shade, I did some school reading, Otis swam in the lake, we had a picnic lunch - I even had an ice cream sammich from the ice cream guy. We rode there (and back) through Ravenna Park instead of taking the roller-coaster hill; it was an easier ride and much shadier.

When we got home we set up the "pool" in our "yard." The water was still pretty darn cold a little while ago, but it will sure be refreshing. (And Otis put tea-tree oil in the water, so it's practically the Fountain of Youth.)

Mighty Mel came by in the afternoon and we all headed up to Volunteer Park (with a stop for grub at an eerily empty IHOP) for a badminton soiree hosted by Dingo and Sachet. These two ladies were the catalysts for a heckuva good time! Johnbai, O, Soapy, Smilin' Silvio, and Erryk were there, as well as a whole bunch of folks I didn't know and some I sorta knew or more-or-less actually met, such as Yogabutter and Sushi-gal. There was shuttlecocking and frisbee-flying galore as we socialized, noshed, drank plenty of water (thanks, Soapy!) and sweated a lot, even in the shade of some convenient trees. What a nice way to pass a summer's day!

And so we're not completely textual, here's a funny photoshop courtesy of worth1000.com:

The still before the sizzle

Today was a great day, weather-wise (sunny and warm), teaching-wise (students doing peer review), schmoozing-wise (Dingo and J-Force), and bike-wise (fourteen miles on the B-G with Otis in the evening cool). Can't ask for much more than that.

After the ride, we went over to Whole Food Paycheck for some fruit and some nuts. It was thirty-seven dollars! Mercy sakes, that place is expensive.

Even though weatherundergound is only committing to 88 or so, all the local weather-types are saying nineties for the next two days. I think that means the pool is going back up!

Today's link, courtesy of Snopes, mostly for Johnbai.

Wonders never ceasing

Hey - Dingo blogged! Not on her own blog (which I think now qualifies as a "cobwebsite"), but on the LotU group blog. Check it out - it's all about the badminton.

That's all I got.

Voting time!

I have two gray t-shirts that are calling for graphics on them. Which two of these images should adorn my next two T-shirts? Vote for two in the box to the right.

(click for larger image)


(click for larger image)

Minimalist Monday

Since my posts on Mondays (and Tuesdays and Wednesdays) are all going to be the same for a while (taught in the morning, rode my bike, came home, had lunch, did lesson planning and/or responding, had dinner, taught in the evening, came home), I thought I would go the minimalist route three times a week and just post a link or a picture or something. But I'll put it a bigger font, so it looks more impressive. Here's today's:

I think that most of the Star Wars parodies I have seen are pretty lame, but this one is actually funny.

Summer Sunday

A good day today, overall. Cafe Maree is out of business, but I went to Peet's and got a lot of work done; as a matter of fact, I am 99 and 44/100 percent done with my weekend agenda. This week should be a little less stressy and I should be able to click some more miles on the bike (which I did not do today).

Otis and I did have a two-wheeled jaunt though, scootering to Magnuson Park for work 'n' play (I got my school reading done there). Mighty Mel's timing in response to a text-message broadcast was good enough to get her there for a bit, Soapy was just a hair too late to make it worthwhile coming by, and J-Force called merely to taunt; others were incommunicado. Maybe next time.

In the meanwhile, here's a link to a cartoon version of Mike (Hellboy) Mignola's Screw-On Head. It's mostly for Johnbai, but I think it's funny enough on its own for anyone.

Quickies:

Is the bai in Bai Thai (a restaurant down the street) the same bai as the bai in Johnbai?

My comics blog got 110 hits in one day after being linked-to by When Fangirls Attack. Wow.

Here's a NYT article that fills in some historical perspective on the Perry White line in Superman Returns that irked Soapy.

This - I don't know precisely what to call it - gallery is just beautiful, but I think Dingo will especially like it.

This offering from Craig's List is hard to resist.

Midday gold

Okay, so yesterday didn't turn out to be all that productive. I had a decent start in the morning, getting some stuff ready to work on, but then I took a walk down Roosevelt for a lunch meeting of the Leagyue of the Underemployed. After a delightful stroll, I met Dingo, Johnbai, Silvio, and Silvio's brother and sister (she visiting from Brazil) at Taste of India.

After some yummy curries and nan, the Silvios went off for touristy exploration and we remaining three headed down to Wallingford for a short geek-out at the local comics shop. I picked up my weekly assortment of testers (see the comics blog for details), Johnbai checked out some old titles, and even Dingo went looking for her favorite artists. Aside from momentary confusion from the clerk between Popbot and Popeye, the trip was successful - and even included Turkish club soda)!

Carless Johnbai was lingering in the RD prior to having to meet O at her bus from the east side, so we all dragged back to the townhouse to chillax. Otis came home, but too late for us to hold trials of Dingo's new badminton set. Johnbai was off to O and Dingo back to the hill and then a date with Leonard Cohen.

Otis and I went over to magnuson park for some sun, but stayed just a bit. I got a little more work done, and then we finally watched Broken Flowers. It was great.

That was a great day by any measure, but it didn't include a lot of productivity, so this morning I got up and jumped on the work with vim and vigor. I worked through the morning, and then took a luch break and went for a bike ride.

The bike ride was a highlight; since my overall tally has been off, at least I can celebrate an individual perfomance: this was a triple-dipple! Those familiar with my OCD ways will recall that this designation is applied to a ride with a length of at least 20 miles, a duration of at least 80 minutes, and an average speed of at least 15 miles per hour. I rode 21.2 miles in 82 minutes for an average speed of 15.5 mph.

It was really a sweet ride: I was tracking the splits, and here's how they stacked up:

First 30 minutes 7.94 miles 15.9 mph
Second 30 minutes 8.18 miles 16.4 mph
Last 22 minutes 5.06 miles 13.8 mph

Now here's the puzzling bit: the last segment inlcudes the ride up Stone Way from Lake Union to Wallingford, a slow mile-long hill on which I average about 8 mph, so it's logical that that bit's the slowest. But the first leg includes the ride down the Ravenna Hill, a steep, fast rollercoaster that I take to get to the Burke-Gilman trail. So why is that segment slower than the middle leg, which comprised only the flats of the trail, from Ravenna, up past Matthews Beach, and then back to the University? At any rate, it felt good to sustain a nice average speed over a full ride.

When I got back from the ride, I rewarded myself with a shower - and then got back to work! I completed one whole chunk of stuff, including computer uploading, and rewarded myself for that by taking Otis out to dinner at World Wraps (one of the few places she could find something that approximated the therapeutic diet her naturopath has her on).

I think tomorrow, while Otis is giving a massage in the morning, I will be spending a few hours at Cafe Maree near Green Lake responding papers; let me know if you want to join me (for the caffe, not the papers). I think I should get my reading done sometime in the afternoon sun, and I'll be all on track for the week.

Life is good.

More of the same

I still haven't had too many free moments. I went from class all morning at North to a planning meeting all afternoon in Bothell after lunch to a class all evening in Belltown after dinner.

On the bright side, I got my first paycheck for this summer load - that was pretty cool.

I have about 15 portfolios (old) and 50 papers (new) to assess this weekend, plus readngs and lesson planning. It's a lot, but not as much as I have had at times in the fall, so my goal is to actually get a bit ahead of the game. We'll see how it works out.

Late

I have pretty much been working steadily since the last post, mostly on school stuff and a little on house stuff. I'm still behind, but I should be able to bull through it all this weekend and get caught up; at least, that's the plan. I'll take time out for a League of Underemployed meeting, but that's about it.

*******

Did anyone catch this special about TinTin yesterday? I really want to see it - I'll have to search the listings to see if it's going to be repeated.

*******

When my buddies from high school and I turned 26 years old, we accepted that we were not true geniuses. After all, Orson Welles made Citizen Kane at age 26, proving his genius; we had done nothing comparable. Well, this article in Wired says that I might still be Alfred Hitchcock.

*******

I gotta go to bed.

Cranking around

Well, I was just perusing the ol' blogosphere and none of the Blogger accounts were showing any picture links. The system must be sick again. Meh.

Yesterday was afine day that included a scooter ride to magnuson park and a bike ride to Golden Gardens. Yay, summer.

Today was cloudy, cool, and work-filled. I am in the first of a six-week spell of teaching at both NSCC and AUS, and it is truly busy. I am already behind on my planned schedule of work, and the first day has only been over for 50 minutes. I have to get back in my hard-slogging, every minute counts mindset from Winter and Fall. Maybe this crappy weather will actually help.

Here's a picture that Otis wanted posted to complement Wheylona's Fartones:

Here's a link for all the Mundial Fans: click me.

And here's one for Johnbai: play ball!

That's all, folks!

Weekend update

Okay, so I didn't exactly get off to a running start on all my tasks this weekend. I had good intentions on Friday, and did tear my office apart as the first step in organizing all my lesson files, but then Johnbai called and I just couldn't resist joining him and visiting Jimmimoose and Dingo for a little frisbee in the park and a little browse of Value Village. And then I met J-Force for a late late lunch so we ould talk about the thrill of interviewing for new staff. And it wasn't too long afterwards that it was time for Otis and I to take a nice bike ride up to Third Place Books in LFP to get some miles in. And by then, watching a movie for the rest of the night seemed appropriate, so I finally got to see John Sayles's Brother from Another Planet. All great, but not necessarily productive.

Yesterday I was more successful. I leapt on the disorganized office, tossing old stuff and making new files for the keepers. I did the same thing for the computer files, eliminating duplicates and putting stuff where I could find it easily. I identified some potential activities, got all my roster set up, and created my quarter packets for each class. I feel ready to rock, now.

Today's chores invlove reading and sketching out some lesson plans for the week - all of which I think I might do in a park, ear water, enjoying this lovely weather.

And lest you think that yesterday was all work and no play, we did meet Gweekers and Mikey (and Sairy and Warry) who were visiting from Spokane (well, G&M were in to see S&W, who live up in Lynnwood). We took the cheapest harbor tour you can find - The Elliott Bay Water Taxi to West Seattle. It was pretty cool - there's a free Dart to Alki Beach, and we had dinner at a splendid Irish pub, and then walked back along the strand to Seacrest Park. Our strolling speed made us just miss one boat, but we sat at the waterside and had dessert and waited for the next. There was still time for late night coffee service back in the RD. A fine visit, with lots of reasons for celebrating all around.


Otis, Mike and Gayle ready to set sail


Otis liked this picture of the threatening ice cream man


A crappy photo of a great view

Working weekend

Well, I have a pretty ambitious agenda for myself this weekend. Most of it relates to school work but there's some house stuff on it; we're also expecting a visit from the Spokane contingent tomorrow. Let's see how high I can keep my voltage for how long.

But first of all, since this blog has been pretty text-heavy lately, here's a pic, mostly for Wheylona, since it's of her boyfriend:



(If you want to make your own Colbert Report Threat Down, go here.)

So, yesterday I had the "pleasure" of watching Gattaca twice, consecutively, with a three minute break between screenings. (I was showing it in class). It actually held up pretty well.

Afterwards, I had the pleasure of a lunch with Johnbai, Soapy, and Otis, and even though we went to the Greek place that wasn't the place that Johnbai was really thinking of, it was an okay place. I hope the boys got back to their cars before parking enforcement found them.

Otis had no parking headaches at lunch, since she walked to the restaurant, but she spent most of yesterday still on the mend from her migraine episodes earlier in the week, and was a bit fuzzy all day. Here's hoping for a clear-headed day today.

I probably should mention something about the B2K, eh? I stopped posting the daily updates because they were getting boring. I seem to be stuck at a pace that looks like it is going to get me to about 1700 miles this year. I'm at 762 miles right now; last year I did over 90% of my millenium after my LDL test at the end of July, and that seems to be about the same rate I'm clocking miles now. I haven't been able to pull it together quite as ambitiously as I wanted to, and I can't blame the weather or a broken toe this time around. The hardest bit now is keeping my motivation up as the likelihood of 2,000 miles gets slimmer. I have to remember that the real motivation is my health, fitness and green-ness; the other stuff was just for fun. So, I think I'll post the centuries and any other major milestones, but you probably won't see a countdown (count-up?) until the end of the season.

Okay, it's time to get to it!

Blurry

That's how I've felt the past two days - just a little out of focus.

Independence Day was a little odd. We started out early, heading up to LFP to spiff up the Putnam Compound for the return of the mater and paterfamilias. We had a too-expensive diner breakfast on the way and were there by 9:00 am - we were finished so early that when we got home we didn't know if we were coming or going. between my grading and Otis's business business, we just sort-of drifted through the day. We declined a BBQ invite from Johnbai cuz it was in Kirkland, but did round off the evening with a nice, long bike ride to Golden Gardens (with extra special rainy last two miles).

This morning, I realized that I had left my course book in LFP so I couldn't use it for class. I developed a substitute lesson, and then left it home when I went to school, and had to recontruct it in five minutes. Then when returning student papers, I realized that I had mislain two of them. I cut short my riding today to come home and try to get my stuff together.

I realize that I haven't done the usual administrative prep for a busy-busy quarter - making sets of folders for each class, setting up files of lesson plans - and it's showing. I think I need to devote several hours this weekend to arraying my waterfowl.

I didn't help matters that Otis had a severe migraine today and was a bit of a zombie most of the time.

At least tonight's class went splendidly. I am taking the class in a different direction from the last time I taught it, and I think it's going to work out great. I even remembered all my stuff!

All's right with the world

Despite the dire predictions of weather underground for clear skies and sunshine all week, it's raining right now.

I just went outside to feed the cat that we don't have: raindrops were darkening the gravel, plinking in the pool, and splashing kitty's bowl, not to mention fallin' on my head.

It's good to know some things never change.

:::::::::

Yesterday was the first of my split shift days: I taught from 9:00 am to 12:30 and then from 7:00 pm to 9:30. It actually worked out pretty well; if I can consistently use the midday break for eating, biking, responding papers, lesson planning, and eating again, I should be able to keep my work week compressed to three long days and half-day on Thursdays. Which means I will become a creature of the weekends, since doing stuff other than schoolwork during the week will be pretty much physically or temporally unpossible.

(The classes themselves seem to be settling in just fine - good groups of students so far)

I did miss out on a late night rendezvous instigated by Johnbai yesterday - just a little too fagged out after class. Hope y'all had a good time.

Tired, but in a good way

I guess I got used to Sunday night being just another night when wasn't teaching on Mondays during Spring. But now, Sunday night is once again for me, like for most other folks, the last gasp of the weekend before a work week starts in earnest.

The week that starts for me tomorrow is ratcheted up a notch in busy-ness: Week 2 of NSCC is also Week 1 of AUS. There is the saving grace of Tuesday's being the holiday, though.

I will need some grace, because I am worn out after this weekend. Yesterday started with some household work, and then Otis had a session so I left the house. I wandered around on my bike, got the DVD for the outdoor movie, went to the comic book store, stopped by to visit Dingo, pretended to do some school reading, and stuff like that. When I got home there was a short break before Otis and I had to head up to LFP to set up for the show.

If anything, this SOS was an even better success than the original. First of all, I built a bigger, better screen out of PVC pipe and a sheet, so the picture was pretty ginormous. We had the usual grub, including Blood Orange Drink. Attendance was high: Ms. Macha introduced the gang to Mr. Macha, who is recently arrived from Japan; J-Force dragged MaryBee from her sick-bed; Soapy enjoyed himself even though the movie had no explosions or female archers; everyone went after Dingo's melons; Hi-Lai & Welcome Matt and Sailor Sue brought terrible, wonderful chocolate stuff to compete with Otis's cupcakes; Jimmy the K and K-man Junior came for a rest after a day of biking; and even Kris-10 and Rye-N were there, sneaking in late while the ticket-taker wasn't looking.

After a group dance lesson and some other shorts, we settled in for The Wedding Banquet; it was an odd experience actually watching a good movie for a change. Many hands made light the work of cleaning up, and we actually got some late night visiting in afterwards.

That visiting meant a bedtime of about 2:00 am, so today I was tired and my hay fever was acting up. It was a fairly quiet day - Otis had a session and I was doing prep - but tonight we went over to the Zoo for an Indigo Girls concert. It was a mostly pleasant experience - a few crowd-related issues, but the weather and the music couldn't have been finer. Mad props and many thanks to Hi-Lai for the tix!

No more for now - time to hit the hay tonight and the ground running tomorrow.

And the summer keeps rolling along

Wasn't it a great day yesterday?

We started with brekkies at Whole Foods, which is always fun (and about all we can afford there). Otis was paying a visit to her grandma in the morning, during which I went down to the B-G and made another fast run from Gasworks to Matthews Beach and back (not as fst as JustJon, though). This was cool because we had wound up not riding on Thursday night after all, so I needed to turn some pedals.

After the ride, I picked both ladies up and we went to lunch at Chef Liao's on the Ridge. I do miss me that food, and we try to get back there frequently. We had just enough time for a nice lunch before Otis and I had to shoot down to Pioneer Square to help her brother load his apartment into one of those door-to-door moving crates. Not to bad a task: no stairs and lots of rolling carts, so we got a heck of a lot done in a short time.

That left us a good chunk of the afternoon to wander around in an ultimately fruitless search (even with telemetry from Dingo) for some massage supplies that Otis needed. On the bright sidfe, we did have a nice tour of the city.

Dinner held a pleasant surprise: we wanted to go out someplace air-conditioned and I had been hankering for a good, old-fashioned salad bar, so for a lack of othe roptions we decided to go to Marie Callendar's of all places. It turned out that there soup and salad bar deal was actually pretty good - at least, it hit the spot last night. A little too pricey, though.

We remained in consumer mode after dinner, and got some supplies for the Saturday night SOS and other housleholdy stuff on the way home. (We have added red kitchen curtains to the turquoise - orange - pale purple - deep purple - blue color scheme of the main floor.)

Mostly work today, I think, before the playtime tonight - hope to see ya'll there!