Messiness

Okay, so Wednesday was a no-class day at NSCC, but Cascadia was up and running. I stayed home and worked/fiddled around all morning, then I headed up to Bothell after lunch, only to find that they were going to be closing early, which meant that my second class wouldn't meet at all. I went ahead and held the first class, but only ten students were there.

That's when all this offically got annoying.

Wednesday night was fine, and when the snow started late in the evening it was really pretty, but I knew it wouldn't last. Waking up to the raining skies and slushy streets today was actually a relief. My classes weren't quite up to full speed, but there were enough students to make it worth going with the lesson plans and making some real-live teaching and learning happen. Huzzah!

The quarter is going to end a bit scruffily because of all this, but what the heck.

Had a good day today after work. I ran some errands and then came home and made a nice little vegetarian hunter's stew (a gatherer's stew?) with some apple-sage field roast sausage. It turned out really nice for an improv. Otis and I went out for a bit, just to see the sky (the sun came out!) but came back quickly so she could dive right back into a big pile o' papers she is grading. (Oddly enough, my workload is light right now, but will hit hard next week when the quarter ends.)

I made a fresh salad for dinner, and we were graced with the company of Ms. Matcha and Surfer-T, who were in the neighborhood and stopped by for a little visit. Otis is still grading.

This is my new favorite blog.

Singing a snow delay song

So, the website is saying that NSCC won't start today until 10:00 am, and since my classes are at 8:00 and 9:00, well - you do the math, as they say. I'm having a cup of tea and enjoying the early-morning chill. Actually, I did program the furnace the other day and it comes on just before I get up, so it's really comfortable. Of course, the gas fireplace has punked out again.

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty futile exercise in instruction. I got to school fine, but only 30% of the students showed up for my 8:00 class and less than 20% (four, to be precise) at my 9:00 class. As an instructor, I am torn between going ahead with the planned lessons, to honor those who made it in, and using some supplemental learning activities, to keep the class together as a whole. I made the latter choice yesterday, and now today is going to be a no-nothing day. The remainder of the quarter is going to be a little tight, especially if it snows again today and tomorrow is another cancellation. I usually leave myself a little slack in the English classes as far as lesson plans go, but this quarter there are a number of presentations in different classes that are jamming up. Ah, well, we'll figure it out.

Otis and I did head out yesterday, to an appointment on Capitol Hill. The main roads were fine, but it was still icy in a lot of places - I don't think it ever hit 32, did it? We had lunch at Ballet and even stopped at the Value Village (which was cold inside!) before coming home.

When we got back to the RD, we saw some surveyors on the block, and it soon became apparent that they were figuring out the property lines for the lot next door and setting monuments in the pavement. It looked like a top-drawer operation, so I imagine we'll see a multi-unit development next door soon. I was told the place was to be torn down by January; that seems likely, with this prompt activity.

Out own property development has been successful. I have posted a picture of the cathouse-boxes. I mentioned yesterday that we heated one of them (there's an old heating pad in the one that is near the outlet) and that's where Mountie has settled in. Yes, two cats hang about now, but while Selkie was adopted, Mountie is more of a charity case. He's a cranky, smelly old street cat, but we feed him and try to give him a place to get out of the elements. He wouldn't settle in as a house cat - he doesn't have the people-savvy that Selkie demonstrated from the get-go, and Selkie wouldn't let him share the house anyway (I can't begin to imagine the literal pissing match that would take place). So, we have Hal Linden and Tony LoBianco, and still no litterbox.

And just so this isn't a complete wall of text, here's a picture of me in my current mood:

Still no snow day

Yesterday was a weather mix-n-match. No worries getting to North in the morning, although student attendance was a little light. I had no prbelm getting up to Bothell, either, but the empty parking lot told me a lot of the north-end students had taken the day off. Emails and attendance bore this out, and I ended the last class a little early.

This turned out to be a fortuitous choice; the drive from Bothell south on Lake City Way was a royal mess. It was snowing pretty hard, things were slick, it was congested, and things weren't helped by people who just gave up trying to drive and sat in their cars in the middle of the road with their flashers going. What is that all about?

Then, at about 85th Street, it just cleared all up, as if the weather front was sitting right there. From the Roosevelt Safeway south, it was just flurries and wet roads. I had no problem getting to Antioch, but again, the attendance was really light.

Selkie got me up at 5:30 today, and an early check showed that North was not closing for the day. So, since I was up, I left plenty early. It turned out to be an easy ride in - 5th Avenue was pretty clear all the way - so I am having breakfast and blogging.

Dingo reported her walking-home adventure last night in the comments on the previous post. Does anyone have any other reports from this "snow event"? (At least they're not calling it StormWatch '06! - or maybe they are.) Anyway, it'll be fun until the rains come back in a few days.

Cat note: Selkie spent all night inside and had a very brief morning jaunt; Mountie spent the night in his little (heated) house and was spunky this morning.

No snow day

Good thing I got everything done anyway.

Last night

Weekend vampire

(As I type this, NPR is playing a story on basque sports, like stone-lifting and wood-chopping. Agur, Wheylona! (Is that right?))

Yesterday was mostly papers, papers, papers: both Otis and I had stacks to plow through, and plow we did.

We did start off with a nice walk down to the U-district before we hunkered down, and took a break in the afternoon to head over to the purgatory of Home Depot. That trip secured some planter boxes which we adapted for use as cat-houses, in an attempt to keep the critters (Selkie, the indoor-outdoor cat, and Mountie, the outdoor-outdoor cat) happy over the winter. They also keep our front entry looking decent.

We had the good fortune to meet Gweekers and Mikey (and assorted kith and kin) down at the Blue Star for dinner. One of our dinner companions, five-year-old max, graced Otis with this lovely portrait of a (not terribly threatening) vampire:

We still managed to have sweet dreams.

Back to work!

And another long day!

The cat got me up again this morning, and after cleaning up the dishes I looked outside to see him on top of the shed, perched on the edge as if he were a forward scout scanning enemy lines. We are still observing/working out the relationship between Selkie and "the outside cat," the semi-feral brown tabby who is the only other cat that Selkie lets on the property (we feed him, but he mostly keeps his distance). Selkie seems to enjoy the company pretty well for a while, but then gets all territorial and starts swatting the other cat around. I think today he is exhibiting that latter behavior.

Anyway, yesterday, or "Recovery Day," as I have heard it called, was another long good day for us. It started off fairly early with a walk to and around Green Lake in the morning chill. It was bracing and made us feel less like little tofu sausages after the feast on Thursday. That being the case, we immediately followed the walk up with a big breakfasty brunch! Gweekers and Mikey had come over from The Spoke (along with momma) for the holiday, so they picked us up and we all headed down to Silence Heart Nest for vegetarian goodness. We had some nice catching-up time that lasted well into the afternoon.

Upon our return home, we saw activity at the house next door: folks were boarding it up and fixing the fence and stuff like that. I talked to them and it turns out the place has sold and is planned to be torn down in January; they were securing it further to make sure nothing untoward happened in the meanwhile (Mikey speculated that it might have been a condition of the sale). It was unclear if another private residence is going up or another townhouse property; I would guess the latter. So, I guess that's a good thing.

We took care of business, art, and naps in the afternoon, and then headed out for an evening with more Putnams: specifically, Otis's brother and his wife (who couldn't make dinner on Thursday) and the mater and pater. We had dinner at Aqua Verde and coffee at the new shop next to Araiya's, and then caught Casino Royale at the Neptune. Good, long day.

Now, for today: well, there has to be a lot of responding papers in it, so I know it'll be long; whether it's good or not will have to wait.

Shout out to JustJon: I don't know if we technically Bought Nothing, since we did have to pay for meals and a movie, but we did avoid the whole Black Friday craziness in spirit, anyway.

Shout out to Yojimbo and Johnbai: Yeah, Casino Royale is that good. Daniel Craig is indeed muy macho. But if I never have to seen another dramatized game of Texas Hold 'em again, it will be just fine.

Long day (and I mean that in a good way)

Wow - what a day! The First Extemporaneous Thanksgiving Pumcake Brunch was a rousing success, leaving little but crumbs in its wake:

It turned out that we had a pretty full house. Dingo, E-rik, and Silvio kicked off the proceedings, bringing along ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls as well as Dingo's pumcake batter. Kris-10 and Rye-N squeezed in some waffle time between all their holiday festivating, and JagGirl arrived with her apple crumble and her new beau, Dvd, our instant expert on classicval music and other stuff. Old pal Stella brought a new face, too: Della, another delegate from North of the Lake, known to me from Cascadia for a long time but never before a player in our games. Della didn't have to bring a fresh pineapple to contribute to the feast - her company was treat enough - but she did anyway. Even Johnbai and O made time to join us before heading east to family-land, and brought with exotic cheeses and bread to counterpoint out sweet buffet.

Dingo's pumcakes were the hit of the show, although the coconutcakes got a bit of play, too. I think I was the only purist around, so there's lots of leftover plain batter for me!

There was a whole lot of eating going on (appropriate for the day, I guess), but even sweeter than the food was the meeting and greeting and talking and laughing as new faces met old faces and ideas were shared and problems solved and the world made a better place through intercourse. Otis scored a hit with her choice to big-wall-spectrate Disney's Fantasia during the proceedings; it provided a great backdrop for the party (except when the nekkid lady centaurs came on, at which point it was forefronted).

E-rik and Silvio say "hi" to shutterbug Otis


Dingo hides from her culinary fame
as Johnbai sits mesmerized by good animation


Dvd, JagGirl, and Della share drinks and laugh


The whole magilla

We could have gone on all day, and we we sorry to have to shoo people out so we could get ready to leave for our next event, the traditional dinner up at the Putnam Compound in LFP.

It was a wonderful evening with the Putnam family and friends, highlighted by Otis's sweet animal-totem blessing before before the meal. The cherry on top was the presence of Ms. Macha (about as preggers as a girl can be) and her happy hubby, Surfer-T. After baby-makes-three arrives (any minute now) we hope to be seeing a lot more of them.

Poppa and momma to be

The weekend continues, with both work and play, and I am as thankful for one as the other.

And I aplogize for the cheesy, homeowners-association-newsletter style captions, but it's early.

Happy Thursday!

Here we are, on Thanksgiving Day, perhaps that most 'merican of all holidays, with a history that pre-dates even Independence Day. We could (and should) problematize this holiday, rooted as it is in the first steps of European imperialism on the North American continent; all human eneadvor is problematic, isn't it?

The History Channel has a new documentary on the Mayflower colonists. A Christian Science Monitor article explains how all the modern Thanksgiving traditions stem from just two passages in the records of those early English religious separatists from almost 400 years ago.

We could also look at the idea that thanks-giving is a universal ritual, and that the North American tradition is just an extesnsion of the ancient harvest festival ritual. There's a lot of truth to this view, but modern attempts in the U.S. of different thanksgiving traditions don't ever have the horsepower of "Turkey Day."

Or we could get all hip and cynical about it, like these guys.

Me, I'm just going to spend the day being thankful for all the privilege and good fortune I was lucky enough to be born into and enjoying the company of all those folks who make my life special.

And, I'm going to eat Pumcakes.

PS: I apparently got the traditional Thanksgiving nap out of the way last night; I slept through most of the Madonna concert that Otis was watching on TV. That's why there was no post yesterday.

Toesday

My toes are in red woolie socks right now.

Teaching all day yesterday and then teaching this morning and a meeting this afternoon. Another semi-long day tomorrow and then a looong break. Yay!

Didja see the lightning and hear the thunder and feel the rain today? I saw the lightning with my eyes closed, that's how bright it was! And the rain came down sooo hard and there was even hail. But it only lasted a few minutes.

After the big rain, but still in the regular rain, Otis and I went to the Freedy M in Ballard. We needed to look for some house stuff and thought we would do grocery shopping at the same time. It turned out to be a bad idea. We didn't find the house stuff and the grocery shopping took forever; we had forgotten about holiday shopping, and the aisles in the store are too cramped, and the people in Ballard drive their carts the same way they do their cars.

I had a phone call from the east coast earlier today, and found out that my sister, her ex-husband, and their son are all getting married to their new partners within six months. I thought that was a bit unusual, but maybe not.

That's all I got!

Taking a break

That's the picture of me in my gimme-hat at the movies the other night*, with Otis in the backgound, but really, that's the mood we're both in right now.

Yesterday, Otis had a two-hour special at 10:00 am; while she was giving the massage, I went for a walk around Green Lake and did some errands.

Today, we went out in the early morning rain for breakfast at Silence Heart Nest.

Other than those two items, our agendas have essentially been full of responding papers and doing house stuff all weekend. We haven't really gotten out of the house much, and haven't socialized at all (except when Yojimbo stopped by for a minute on his way to Casino Royale), and have generally been hard-working slugs. Otis has been plowing her way though what seems like a brazillion "what's-my-mandala" papers; at least I have had the luxury of switching from class to class and doing lesson planning as well.

Hey, maybe I'll go crazy and walk to the store for milk -- life in the fast lane!

See youse Tuesday.

*A big ol' thanks to Dingo for forwarding that picture today,
from the test email completed at her place the other night!

Slow day, fast food

I don't like having class on Friday - I don't think anyone does - so I try to do something different or fun in my Friday classes. This week, the activities I tried actually seemed to work pretty well: the students woke up, got engaged, responded, and, in one class, wrote some funny stuff. (The othr class designed their own assignment.)

After class, the day unfolded deliberately. Otis and I did work (she's still wading through a ton of papers herself), had lunch, did work, took a walk, and so on. I was pretty sleepy all day; I think the cat disturbed my sleep more than usual this week.

We kikcked it off the evening when Stella arrived so we could carpool up to Capitol Hill for moovie nite. We met Dingo and walked over to Pho Cyclo, where we joined Sachet and Johnbai (and were joined by Soapy). After topping off with tofu, we walked back down Broadway to the Harvard Exit to watch Fast Food Nation.

I think Bummerman is going vent his spleen about this movie at length, so I will only say that it was disappointing on almost every level: pacing, narrative arc, character development, and even music. It's a shame, really - the movie, like the book, could have delivered an important message, but aside from one terribly affecting sequence towards the end, the entire film is pretty much a waste of time. Even in a town like Seattle, where viewers are likely to be predisposed to liking the film, the audience was restless, unengaged, and unhappy.

Nonetheless, the cinema experience was not a complete loss. There was a stack of free baseball caps on the lobby table, promoting some car, so we each snagged one. Viz:

(My picture and Soapy's got lost in the ether when Sachet tried to send them from her phone to the email, I guess.)

After the film, we retired to Dingo's pad for tea and sweet cookies and conversation; it was nice to end up in such a warm and welcoming pace, and it made a nice change from a late-night IHOP.

Jobby McJobber

So, I just finished applying for that training coordinator job with the city. It was an electronic application, and once I figured out the ins and outs, it was quite smooth, actually. I'm not sure I am even a match for this job, but I was rejected by the Ferry System today (not even an interview!) so it was all about the getting-back-on-the-horse business, I suppose.

Consolidating the job situation still remains the holy grail for me, although even I am getting tired of my ongoing conversation about it. I can remember some few times in my many careers when I wasn't actively looking for a change in my employemnt status and I could just think about the work at hand; those periods never seem to last too long, however.

And what really gets me is how much there is to think about with just the job(s) that I have: teachers are constantly assessing their practices, revising syllabi, trying out new lesson plans, hoping to figure out that magic formula that will actually work and make learning happen. Even if a teacher gives up on that quixotic quest, there's still just the mainenance and updating of instructional materials to worry about. I have lessons and exercises that were oh-so-current and hep a few years ago but which now get blank stares or uninterested yawns from students.

Oh, somebody call me a waahmbulance, eh? Today was a good day: the sun shone bright on my old Washington home, my classes went well, and I got both a nap and a walk in this afternoon; who can complain?

So, on a cheery note, we were thinking of having a Thanksgiving Day community brunch/elevenses. Would there be any takers out there, or are y'all heading off to bigger doings? Otis and I will be joining with the Putnam clan, but that's not till the evening. Lemme know, okay?

Speaking of the Thanksgiving holiday, Otis has once again adopted another turkey, who gets to survive the season and play in the fields at Farm Sanctuary.

This is Sunflower:

"Sunflower looks forward to a sunny day, when all turkeys can run freely with all farm animals."

Sounds like a communist to me.

I'm here

Last night, after a typical longish Wednesday and an atypically long commute home, Otis wanted to watch a movie-length version of her new guilty pleasure, the TV show Medium. So, I essentially crashed on the couch all evening, which was fine, since I wasn't really capable of too much else. I did manage to invite y'all to the movies, though...

Another long day

Well, we know that Mondays are always long for me - first class starts at 8:00 am, last class ends at 9:30 pm, a total of five classes at three campuses - but I usually make up for it with a short Tuesday. Not today!

I had my 8:00 and 9:00 am classes, came home for just a little bit, and then headed down to Antioch for a three-hour program meeting. After that meeting, I had an invidual meeting with another instructor with whom I will be team-teaching. Then I walked from Belltown to the downtown library (which I still don't like the looks of) before meetng Dee-Dee from the 'Couv, who was in town for a conference, at the Crowne Plaza. He and I bussed back to the RD to meet Otis for hors d'ouevre and a walk down to Taste of India for a wonderful meal; the engaging conversation didn't stop the whole time.

I just got back a little while ago from dropping Dee off at his hotel. I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed.

Apres moi, le deluge

Man, is it raining.

Hey, what's wrong with this picture: it's Sunday night, my bags are all packed for the morning and Otis is grading papers because she's behind. That's a little backwards, innit?

One of the things that got Otis behind (just a little) was out stopping by to say goodbye to JJ, who is off in a few days for a new job as the number three administrator in the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Library system. Classy to the end, JJ's Seattle send-off was down at 10 Mercer, and we briefly joined the scores of well-wishers getting their last bits of JJ goodness. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I'm sure the miracle of the intarweb will keep us connected to JJ, even hemitranscontinentally. Here's a pic of JJ from the last Oscar do, looking suitably triumphant:

Speaking of pictures, Sachet sent along some pics from Librapalooza. I felt inspired and made some animated gifs - click the links at your peril.

Prom king and queen open prizes

Teddy bear mug shots

Rockin' raft o' ladies

Otis got bamboozled today - she's replacing the lavender at her business entrance with bamboo, and picked up the pots of starts today. Tip o' the hat to Farmer Scott for the recommendation.

We spent last night with the Putnam Pater and Mater celebrating the former's birthday. More "good" Chinese-American food. There were Top Pot doughnuts for dessert, though!

Other than that, the rain has kept me mostly umotivated and underactive. I did get a lot of work done, but it hardly seems a fair trade.

Spotty

No, it's not a new mascot, it's a description of the postings lately. You would think that with an extra day off this week, there would be lots of adventures on which to report, but no. I spent most of the day yesterday reading and listening to NPR. There were a lot of Veteran's Day specials, and since Otis and I had watched Fog of War (the McNamara documentary) Thursday night, I certainly got my fill of deconstruction of the Vietnam experience; parallels to the current adventurism in Iraq made themeselves apparent.

Last night was movie watching of a different sort: we had a nice gang over for a Big Wall Spectration of Gosford Park. We were joined by Sachet, Johnbai, O, Calhoun of the north and his sister Dibs, and a breathless Stella (sandwiching the visit between another movie date that day and emergency response training the next morning). The movie was good but the company was better, and several million extra credit points to Dibs for bringing brie!

This is mostly for Neds, even though she STILL hasn't posted about her birthday party. Here's some photos I found on the net of London then and now. I wonder if the old facade is still under the Sanyo sign?

Kybbulz 'n' bittz

Those must be Pet Foods from Space, cuz they're spelled all funky...

So, the election day elation continues. It looks like the Dems have the Senate as well as the House: maybe there's actual cause for actual hope. I'll keep pretending so anyway.

Yesterday was the semi-long teaching day, but it turned into a good one. I had been feeling rather head-against-wallish in the classroom lately, not seeing much learning occurring, and slowly coming to the conclusion that "students are stoopid!", which is definitely not a good place for a teacher to be positioned. Well, people actually talked in the reading discussion yesterday morning, and some of them even made sense, and when I handed back papers in the next class, people read my comments and responded to them by asking questions and such. This sort of good stuff continued through my Cascadia classes, and when I assessed papers last night at Third Place Books, a lot of them were really good, despite the students' having had such a negative reaction to the writing task. So I had great classes today, which was easy since it was peer review day and all I had to do was listen to classical music and watch the students confer. But I'm in a much better mood, really!

After class, Otis was occupied so I scrounged up lunch partner and the lottery winner was Johnbai. We had a nice meal at Ballet and in an hour settled all outstanding issues relating to comics, politics, and personal relations. Uh-huh.

This is a three-day weekend for me, and for once I'm heading into it all caught up. I should be able to make some progress and give myself a decent workload next week. There's a good deal of social stuff, too: check the Big Blog for a BWS movie.

Rockin' the vote

You may not recognize her in her rain gear and giant hat, but that is our very own Activist Otis (with sign-waving action) doing her bit this morning to get out the vote. She was recruited into the effort by Welcome Matt and Hi-Lai (there to the right) to have folks on one of the Fremont pedestrian bridges over Aurora. (The pic appears on the P-I website [#6 under "more election photos"] and might be in the paper tomorrow.)

Otis's contribution must have been enough to turn the tide nationally, since as I sit here, the Dems have taken back the People's House, and the Senate is still up for grabs. It is hard to view this national trend as anything but a repudiation of the current administration, its policies, and its hypocracies. While I don't see this a new broom sweeping clean or even a breath of fresh air, it might at least be a check on the downward slide this country has been taking, and for that alone, there is cause for hopefulness. If only the D's would take a cue from the people and grow some backbone.

I did my part and exercised my franchise right after class this morning. With all this new-fangled postalized voting, I still prefer to make my way to the polling place and discharge my responsibility in a public place with my fellow citizens. There is something about a polling place that makes me feel more respectful than just about any church I've been in. Although it might just be the cafeteria of a middle school or the foyer of a community center, it is an important place with a noble purpose, a simple and profound embodiment of the best that our system can be. I think I'll keep going down, unless and until voting in person becomes another quaint memory, like cashing a check at the bank or paying the utility bill at the gas company.

What a productive day!

I checked everything off my weekend list, except for the two items I deliberately moved to Tuesday, and it's still early! I could even whack at schoolwork a little more, but I think I'll be doing something else instead - perhaps filling out a job application for this position. Can I work in the Mayor's office?

The black ink cartridge in my printer is running down. Otis bought a new printer (complete with ink cartridges) recently, for about five bucks more than it costs me to buy a black cartridge and a color cartridge for mine. Hers is even an all-in-one; it scans and makes good photocopies. The replacement cartridges for it only cost about half as much, too. I was tempted to just switch over, until I checked and saw that her cartridges produce fewer pages overall, and since I really don't need the other features, I'll just stand pat for a while.

And here's a little video I saw some time ago but haven't shared yet (I think).

Drip, drip

What a soggy day it was yesterday. It created, for me at least, a mood that was...subdued. Not depressed, not cozy, just quiet, with a lowered energy. I read a bit and worked some but the day generally just felt slower and softer. Otis was in and out with different bits of business, but I spent most of the day inside, listening to the splash of raindrops on the skylights. We did take a jaunt through the rain at dinnertime for some pho, but that was about it for me.

Today will be a just as quiet, I imagine, but a little more focused, I hope.

Behind again

Class today was swell - the students were writing an in-class essay, so I got to assess their prior work while they were completing their current work. I felt so awesomely on top of stuff!

Good thing, too, since I sort of blew off the rest of the day, and got only about 3% of my planned assessing done. I'm going to blame it (not really) on Dingo, who came over for tea (hot) and homemade muffins (hers) and lunch (Thai) and visiting. It was really good to see her, since she missed the spooktration.

Once Dingo set the bar high for the day, reading papers didn't seem like an appropiate follow-up, so Otis and I went out to Target. Otis got some stuff for work and play (including a new rug for the massage room), and I got me one of them apple wedgers that Johnbai was on about the other night. It really is slick, although the Honey Crisp in the fridge was so massive it wouldn't fit through.

After all that excitement and some wedged apples for dinner, Otis got all artsy and bloggy and I found plenty of stuff to do that didn't involve schoolwork. I guess I could still get some done tonight, but that's hardly likely, is it?

Speaking of Otis blogging, the Healing Nest has a little personality quiz thing going on. Check it out.

And speaking of links, here's a news story (that I got from JustJon) that says I should go get that doctorate, if only to stay even with inflation.

And speaking of boots, I'm outta here.

We just watched a movie...

and Tokyo Godfathers was great. It's funny, exciting, action-packed, funny, touching, complex, sad, funny, and fun. Just wonderful.

And for a change, I was not neglecting work to play: no, no, no, I did my assessing for the day this afternoon, as the rain pattered down on the roof and Otis snoozed on the couch. I felt as if the quarter was a little out of control, so, as Kevin Bacon said in Tremors, I got me a plan! I rearranged some lessons and assignments to give myself a little slack, and then made a daily do-list for the next few days, and I should be all caught up next week - enough to head over to Spokane for a quick visit if the pass is clear.

Booyah!

The day after Halloween night and the night of the Day of the Dead and the day before All Souls' Day

So, we had a little spooktration get-together last night, but none of the pictures came out, except the one Otis took of me in my hakana, and it would be unseemly of me to post just a picture of myself, but okay, if you insist, just this once:

So, it was a small group, but an awesomely cool one. Soapy was "in costume" as a Seattle Pedestrian. J-Force came in her Supergirl shirt (from Librapalooza) and brought a big bowl of not fun-size but serious, full-size candy bars. MaryBee joined us through the miracle of wireless telephony! From out of the bowels of the past (and the depths of the Water Escape tank!) came Scotty Tuxedo, accompanied by Gina Tiara, gracing us for only the second time ever (but not the last, we hope).

I was a fun night, and The Changeling was a smart, scary, stylish flick. Popcorn and Bat Pee and Bailey's ice cream and laughs and talk: all the ingredients for a great night were there, excepting, of course, those last minute cancellations (illness, fatugue, and fatigue) Sachet, Dingo, and Stella. Good times.

I got nothin' besides that. Working still; still behind in work; blah blah blah. Today was the halfway point of the quarter, so it's all downhill now.

Here's a spooky pic that is not by Mike Mignola.