wigwam field trip tomorrow!

maura @ 9:44 pm

Also student interviews for my research project. And a billion other things. About which I will write more then.

Because tonight I am tired. Among other things, today we went to the zoo and ogled 6 adorable tiger cubs. And you can ogle them too! Right here.

(Seriously, click the dang link! They are ridiculously cute, you must see the video.)

clean and sparkly

maura @ 10:37 pm

The bathroom is finished! Well, that’s a tiny exaggeration: it’s about 99% done. The contractor has to come back on Monday and install the shower rod and do a couple of other minor things. But we’re almost there. It’s very, very pretty — I know this is awful, but I almost hate to turn it over to Gus and the cats now. Maybe they should use the other bathroom and Jonathan and I can use the new one.

Today we spent most of the afternoon cleaning and other final renovationy stuff — Jonathan painted the back of the door and put grout sealer on the floor and shower walls. I’m completely pooped, but it’s really nice to have all of the renovation dust gone and the house (mostly) back to normal. Gah, why is renovating such a dusty business? The tops of the ceiling fan blades were a horror.

I was going to be all super crazy cleantastic and vacuum the books, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I must be deficient — we have a real vacuum and a little handheld thing.* Each has multiple attachments and I tried a couple but just couldn’t make it work any better than a dust rag.

* I find it equal measures fun and sort of offensive that our handheld vacuum is bright yellow. Fun because yay! fun colors are fun! But offensive because I suspect that the manufacturers made it yellow to try to attract the male market: “if it’s yellow, it’s like a tool, and guys like tools!”

Gah, books collect so much dust. So. Much. Dust. I am still sneezing, even hours later! Which is making me think about doing another book purge. I feel kind of guilty about bringing some of my weird, semi-out-of-date archaeology books to the public library to drop them off, but I’m not sure what to do with them otherwise. But really, I work in a library, why do I need so many books in my house, too?

and this one’s from the phone

maura @ 10:26 pm

Gus makes fun of the cat.

lunchtime poll

maura @ 10:23 pm

Gus had no school today, so he and Jonathan came to have lunch with me and visit my new office. Everyone liked the two old globes (there’s a second one on the desk in the workshop room right outside my office) and the fantastic old fashioned switches + fuses that came from one of our engineering departments (I’ll have to get a photo of them soon).

We went to a Polish diner for lunch, which I often forget exists because I typically bring my lunch. Pierogi FTW! I’d warned Jonathan that it wasn’t as good as some of the East Village joints, but now I’m not so sure that’s true. J ordered a Polish specialty we’d never had before — lazanki — which was egg noodles, sauerkraut, ham, and mushrooms. The plate came out and he said “it’s Polish yakisoba!” Which it totally, totally was. And delicious, too. Here’s a photo.

Then tonight I realized why I’ve been jonesing for Polish food. A place opened up a couple of blocks from our house called Polish Bar. When the sign went up before the place opened my heart leapt: why of COURSE, who wouldn’t want to sit on a barstool and eat pierogi and pickle soup? Sign me up! But, sigh, it turned out to be just another nail salon. I’ll take sauerkraut over a manicure any day of the week.

last week we feasted

maura @ 9:13 pm

…on delicious pizza. And because it was my turn, I wrote a few hundred words about it. But not here. Elsewhere.

dear universe

maura @ 11:03 pm

Seriously, what do I have to do to get some more time in the day? Who can I bribe to make sleep unnecessary? I’m working on lots of super interesting things right now, but I may be just a tiny bit overscheduled. A smidge, perhaps. And my child, despite apparently being overly fond of negative numbers, has not yet built me a time machine. Which I feel is kind of a rip-off, actually. I mean, what is the good of having those small, agile hands and that boundless energy if not to build me a time machine?

two sides to every story

maura @ 10:52 pm

I’m so grateful that the mornings are brighter now that daylight savings is past. We have to get up at 6:15am this year to get Gus to the schoolbus on time, and those cold dark mornings were tough.

On the other hand, it always makes me tired when it’s so super post-falling-back dark in the evenings when I’m heading home. I’m finding that the older I get, the more I value sunshine (and the more awake I feel in the daytime).

Sometimes I think it would be cool to do the seasonal sleeping thing and sleep more in winter and less in summer. But the eXtreme busy of the fall semester doesn’t really support that, you stinky hippie.

he’s crafty

maura @ 9:54 pm

Okay, I know it’s a cop out to post a photo on day 7, but I’ve got a bunch of stuff I want to finish up before bed tonight and unfortunately a lengthy blag post isn’t one of them.

Instead, take a look at what Gus made today:

It’s a waddle dee from the Kirby videogames. More specifically it’s from the new game which is called Kirby’s Epic Yarn. All of the characters are outlined in yarn and the background is all fabricy — it’s really pretty. He’s in the obsessive mode he sometimes gets into and is utterly unable to want to do anything other than watch videos on YouTube of folks playing this video game. (Except when he’s reading those Gahoole owly books, which he’s also totally into.) And today he spent a couple of hours sewing little characters from the game, like this guy.

His birthday’s in a couple of weeks and doubtless he’ll get the game. Here’s hoping he hasn’t burned out on it by then.

what should i wish for?

maura @ 11:04 pm

Music music music: I’m in a music rut again. It started at the end of the summer, my summer of female vocalists, when I slid into the fall (which was itself very summery, anyway) on the coattails of Janelle Monae’s first record. But the weather’s changed and I’m giving the gals a rest. The problem is that I haven’t figured out what can replace them. The past week or so I’ve been listening to Joy Division,* but sometimes they bring me down, man.**

* Except while I’m working/writing, when it’s mostly Air these days. Which led to a funny today when we were having brunch w/an old friend of mine from archaeology school and they played an Air song and I immediately had this very visceral feeling that I should be working.

** Gus is fond of watching videos of people playing videogames on YouTube, and he discovered a hilarious British guy who sounds exactly like Neil from the Young Ones narrating as he played Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It’s too much, and he keeps saying things like: “Here come the seagulls, oh no! I hope they don’t poo on me” which sends Gus into fits of giggles.

What should I listen to? The other day I was home doing some work and Jonathan was listening to some indiepoppers or another, and I felt like a hugely old lamebutt because I didn’t know who they were. And he replied “oh yeah, I downloaded some mix from some indiepop kid.” Why am I not downloading mixes from indiepop kids? If you were an indiepop kid, what would you tell me to listen to?

surprise art

maura @ 9:29 pm

I was crabby on my walk to work this morning, tired + out of sorts. It’s been a long week. Superbusy at work. Rainy and yucky yesterday. Gus went camping w/school which is always fun for him (and us!) but is also very strange (quiet house!). And I’m having weird, waking-up-before-the-alarm insomnia lately, which is just infuriating.

So there I was, grumble grumble grumble on the way to work, when I rounded the corner onto the plaza near my job only to see that new public art had been unveiled since the last time I walked to work. There are at least 3 big sculptural pieces, including one that’s a series of glass boxes w/stuff inside that sort of reminds me of Louise Bourgeois. I didn’t have time to look closely (9am meeting) or take pictures today but will soon. And now you have something to look forward to in a future post, yay for you!

It was surprising how quickly my mood lifted when I saw the art. Art in the morning, it’s a mood inoculation! Need to find a way to stumble upon art every time I am grumpy.