Happy Thanksgiving!

maura @ 6:56 pm

Bacony kale & two kinds of stuffing. Now that’s Thanksgiving!

Edited to add: Looking at this on the day after, I feel like I should annotate it. Clockwise, from 12 o’clock: cranberry sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, traditional stuffing, turkey w/giblet gravy, bacony kale, cornbread + sage sausage stuffing, and roasted cauliflower.

i got nothing (well, okay, very little)

maura @ 10:10 pm

Observations About Some Things:

– I was on the reference desk for 2 hrs today which was really fun. Desk hrs are one thing I never feel like I have enough of — it’s such an immediate, tangible way to help the students. Today’s random highlight was a student in line behind the student I was helping find articles in scholarly journals who insistently suggested that student #1 use the internet because the library resources are too complicated. I tried to explain that you can’t usually find scholarly articles for free online, but she wasn’t having it. Luckily what she really wanted to know is where to find the books in the BF call number range, so she headed upstairs and student #1 and I found a few articles together.

– I’ve had terrible bloggers block for the past week for the academic library blog that I write for, but then I picked up a great article yesterday and now I think the block is gone, yay!

– Gus is No Longer Sick, and in fact is so well that he didn’t even complain about homework tonight, even the extra stuff he’d missed yesterday and Monday! At bedtime he asked me if I loved him “more than life itself,” not sure where that came from.

– I felt all better and stuff today so after work I came home and cleaned the house and did the laundry and did the dishes (Jonathan cooked all day for tomorrow) and took out the trash. Now I am tired, and it’s time to catch up on TV.

and your a to zed

maura @ 8:16 pm

Today I’m better enough to rejoin the living and leave the house for the first time since last Friday. Yippee! Still kind of sniffly, but definitely on the upside of the dreadful cold. Gus was home again today but is full of energy + seems fine and he better bet he’s going to school tomorrow, boy howdy! Just in time for handprint turkeys, I’m sure.

The past week’s twitters:

i’m always a bit melancholy after my last class of the semester. it was a great one, though, w/loads of student + faculty engagement.
about 6 hours ago from web

thanks for the tweet-out, @cunycommons and @mikhailg!
6:04 PM Nov 23rd from web

I am already tired of today.
1:46 PM Nov 23rd from web

@airwalker999 yeah, PM was the last miyazaki we’ve shown him. worked out okay, but glad we waited (he’s almost 8). he <3s castle in the sky!
10:55 AM Nov 23rd from web in reply to airwalker999

sick day. me = still need tea + hankies. gus = seems fine but can’t go to school until fever-free for 24 hrs. sorta seems unfair.
10:53 AM Nov 23rd from web

watching princess mononoke w/fever boy. hope it’s not 2 intense, been a while since i’ve seen. also, Y won’t children ever blow their noses?
7:25 PM Nov 22nd from web

@aegisnyc ooh, thanks for the tip! go see fantastic mr. fox, it was rad.
6:49 PM Nov 21st from web in reply to aegisnyc

i work at a college + have a 7 yr old = i probably say awesome much more than i should for a person of my advanced age. but how to stop?
6:49 PM Nov 21st from web

one upside of this yucky cold: spending some quality time on the sofa catching up on feeds + email.
11:40 AM Nov 21st from web

@alevtina sounds like a research opportunity for you!
10:04 PM Nov 20th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

Gus just told me that he likes warmish coldish days because they have a good sunrise.
7:26 AM Nov 20th from Echofon

@alevtina I never wore a suit for any interview. I did get a jacket to wear when I was tired of my 1 fancy cardigan, but skirt = good.
7:17 AM Nov 20th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

Poster sessioning http://twitpic.com/q4eap
1:01 PM Nov 19th from Echofon

this week is keeping up FAIL: work inbox 34, feedreader 87, home inbox 20-ish. bah.
10:20 AM Nov 19th from web

All praise the deity of Ricola! That one magical cough drop let me do two 75 min English 1 sessions in a row, w00t!
11:44 AM Nov 18th from Echofon

the perils of illness

maura @ 5:36 pm

One of the problems with being sick is that you end up with lots of time to think. Yes, you get to read all of your RSS feeds and answer lots of email and write in your journal, and all of that is good. But also (if you’re me, at least), you end up feeling a bit powerless and start to resent the ailing body chaining you to the sofa, just a bit.

Sometimes all that time to think + powerlessness can be a little dangerous.

Exhibit A:
Lying on the sofa these past few days has given me a new appreciation of how shabby it’s getting. I mean, it’s not surprising: the sofa is 11 yrs old and has endured almost 8 yrs of Gus and nearly 2 yrs of cats. I love it, really I do, with it’s comfy cushions and beautiful dark red cloth with subtle little swirlies (I believe Ikea called it Morby Red). But that sofa is definitely showing its age.

The stinky hippie in me wants to just get a slipcover for it — the guts of it seem okay, it’s just the upholstery that’s worn. But of course Ikea doesn’t make that sofa anymore (nor slipcovers for it), and a custom cover would almost cost more than a new sofa. So I started browsing on the interwebs (you evil temptress, interwebs!) and before you know it I’d convinced myself that the best thing to do is to just buy a new sofa. A new sofa! What a thought! It’s even available in red! And we could buy a slipcover AT THE SAME TIME, so as to avoid situations like this in the future! If we weren’t all sick we’d be at Ikea right now, I tell ya.

Exhibit B:
So a fellow Food Coop-member is writing an article for the Coop’s newspaper about the evils of plastic, and I’ve found myself newly-energized to try find substitutes for plastic containers and utensils that we use for food preparation and storage. We’ve been saving glass peanut butter jars to store things like oatmeal and beans, and have plans to get additional jars to store bigger things and for freezer/fridge storage.

But lunches, I haven’t really tackled the lunches yet. I mean, we use steel water bottles, but I’ve still been packing food in plastic for me and Gus. Gus usually takes a sandwich so we recently switched to wax paper bags, but then the sandwiches get squished. What to do?

Enter stainless steel lunch containers! Of course there’s a dizzying variety. For me I decided on a 2 tier nested set, and I picked up a new lunchbag too, since it was on sale. The containers I wanted to get for Gus were out of stock, sadly, but I’ll be back for them later. On my way out I couldn’t resist getting some stainless steel straws, because lately the only fruit Gus will eat is in smoothie form and we’re going through a lot of plastic.

Phew. I am going to work tomorrow, whether I’m better or not. Staying home is dangerous!

i haven’t even finished my halloween candy

maura @ 9:28 pm

Sick sick sick today, me + Gus both. So phoning it in tonight in many ways. For dinner we ordered avgolemono for me and cheese sticks for Gus and a gyro for Jonathan. Then we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Gus loved this song when he was a little(r) kid. So awesome.

i am tired

maura @ 9:13 pm

Short entry tonight because it was a long week. Lots of teaching and the faculty poster session and hanging up posters all over the place for our new course (which has two [2!] people registered for it already, hooray!). And then helping to run a bake sale at the talent show at Gus’s school tonight. And also I’m still sick. Because it’s good to have a sick person selling baked goods to children at dinnertime. Achoo! Have some brownies.

Now Gus is sick too, which kind of scuttles our plans to get him a flu shot this weekend. But it does support the new plan of me lying on the sofa all weekend getting better. So it’s a draw.

turn around, back again

maura @ 10:05 pm

For various reasons tonight I’ve got nothing much to say.

This weekend was busy.

Yesterday:
I taught a class. Jonathan took Gus to karate. I got tired of waiting for the house to clean itself so we cleaned it. Jonathan worked on his iPhone app. Gus played Pokemon Sapphire and shared many thrilling facts with us about various Pokemon. I wrote a long blog post about teaching that is boring to all but librarians. Gus finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and told us all about the parts that are different from the movie. I did some laundry. J made fried chicken for dinner (yum). J + I watched Fringe. I’m disappointed w/TV this fall, but that’s another post.

Today:
I took one of the cats to the vet to get the irritation on his neck checked again. The vet told me that the cat might have food allergies and we should switch him to a single-protein food like duck with peas. Since the humans in our house don’t eat duck with peas every night, I’m not sure why we should spend $38 a bag for the cats to. We’ll be finishing up the medication and seeing how it goes after that. Honestly, other than some scratching, the cat doesn’t seem all that bothered by the neck thing.

Then Gus and I went to the park so he could climb trees + run around a bit before a sedentary afternoon video game playdate. Jonathan and I finished cleaning the house and had some tea, then he helped me make a flyer to advertise the library’s course that I’m teaching next semester. We had yummy takeout empanadas and cupcakes at a neighbors house for her kid’s birthday. Gus played Scribblenauts with a pal there and they erupted into peals of laughter over the bazooka and earthquake they used to complete the level. I did more laundry.

And now it is time to sleep.

when you leave it will be cold outside

maura @ 9:54 pm

A week, a week, where has the time gone? I’d meant to blag about many things, like the way that I’m grumpy with this season’s tv so far or the reason I haven’t ridden my bike to work yet (hint: fear of theft. damn, there goes that post.). And also this morning Gus said to me, “Mom, the hamper’s getting really full, you’d better do the laundry” which for some reason just cracked me up.

BUT, today the student part of my research study started and while I am pleased as punch that so many students would like to participate I am tired from a long day of meetings + fielding student calls/emails/drop-ins. So I think it’s time for Twitter Tuesdays then bed.

Enjoy!

fair trade coffee is back in the bookstore, which makes me happy. about 8 hours ago from Echofon

@s_francoeur Sounds fun! I have an honors workshop in a few wks, would love to hear how yours go. about 13 hours ago from Echofon in reply to s_francoeur

when gus reads aloud he sounds exactly like linus in the old peanuts tv specials. it could not possibly be more adorable. 8:44 PM Oct 5th from web

@divanoir so rad! where’d ya get it? u r a nerd. :) australopithecus FTW! 12:33 PM Oct 4th from web in reply to divanoir

rain cannot stop the chocolate connoisseur http://twitpic.com/k4wln 4:32 PM Oct 3rd from Echofon

rain begone! was so looking forward to chilis and chocolates at the bbg. 2:27 PM Oct 3rd from Echofon

.@kgs yes! when google went down for a few hrs last spring it took our library site down, too, b/c of analytics javascript on our pages 9:03 AM Oct 3rd from Echofon in reply to kgs

now playing: lilys: ginger. even after all these yrs, this song still kicks ass. 9:03 PM Oct 2nd from web

thx to our awesome CLT, the new small library classroom is online + ready for workshop overflow. library instruction FTW! 4:52 PM Oct 2nd from web

.@lwaltzer hmm, not sure if I am ready for the heavy burden of research fame. 7:09 AM Oct 2nd from Echofon in reply to lwaltzer

blurgh, suspect i need a new avatar. pros/cons for using an actual photo of me? aside from having to find a reasonably good one, of course. 10:33 PM Oct 1st from web

.@cunycommons Awesome. Thanks @boonebgorges! 7:03 PM Oct 1st from Echofon in reply to cunycommons

.@What_Went_Wrong Awesome! I <3 that Postmarks single from a few years back. 6:58 PM Oct 1st from Echofon in reply to What_Went_Wrong

collection developing + listening to air: 10,000 hz legend. 4:06 PM Oct 1st from web

ah, the internets. from monkey diapers to pee-wee’s return to pet snails. that’s quality! clearly it’s time to shutdown the computer. 11:28 PM Sep 30th from web

everything you say, everything you do

maura @ 9:48 pm

Okay, that last post was kind of a bummer. Sorry about that. We finally turned on the air conditioner which helped enormously with the sluggishness I was feeling (and now it’s cooler again, phew). It’s been on so little this summer that I kind of keep forgetting that we have one (duh).

Last week we took a short but lovely vacation. We drove up to my dad’s in Vermont, stayed overnight, then left Gus there to frolic in the nature with my stepmother’s brother’s kids (who are about his age) while we hightailed it north to Montreal. Bonjour!

After driving an hour or so in the green hills it cracked us up that everything seemed to flatten out as soon as we crossed the border. Who knew so much mais sucre grew in Canada? We passed a hilarious pizza place called Arrete Papa! but went by too fast to get a picture.

We left a little later than planned so by the time we got to the hotel it was past lunch and I was starving. Montreal has a petite but tres charmant Chinatown that seemed about 50% Vietnamese restaurants, so we popped in for some pho + spring rolls, yum. Across the street was this awesome graffiti. Yay for recycling! If only my toilet paper was this happy.

After lunch we went to the library, of course! It’s a really cool huge library, 5 floors and very modern. An entire floor is devoted to music + movies (w/listening + watching stations), and another floor to the kids collection (also watching stations, kid-sized!). There was an art exhibit in the basement and loads of comfy-looking chairs and tables w/desk-type lighting + wifi everywhere. If I lived in Montreal I’d be there every weekend, seriously. Plus there was some more excellent graffiti in the alley near the back door.

We stayed in a small hotel in the historic part of the city (a birthday gift!). Among the lavender-scented soaps-n-things was a box of Everything. I know, seems small, right?

The next day we explored the city. This is the Palais de Congres (Convention Center) which looks like a kaleidoscope.

We walked through downtown which is just like every urban downtown (Starbucks? Non!). But on our way up the hill to see McGill University we passed this crazy sculpture of a crowd of people looking at something. All of the people in the front of the crowd are intently peering skyward, but as you walk towards the back of the sculpture things get kind of weird. Voici le petit homme mysterieuse! (I think I’ve got some gender issues in that sentence, oh well. High school was a long time ago.)

OMG there is an actual mont right in the middle of the city. After hoofing it up intense hills through McGill’s campus we got to the Parc du Mont Royal. These cool stripey rocks were near the bottom of the mont, and begged me to take their photo. How could I resist?

Then we climbed stairs/hiked practically straight up the mont, quite a workout. Luckily it was a gorgeous day, sunny but breezy and not too hot. The reward was this awesome view.

Then we had a little Mont Royal snafu. We wanted to head northeast out of the parc to the Plateau neighborhood to have lunch. But the parc is not very well-signed so in our efforts to not go back the same way we came up we kind of messed up and ended up walking forever only to emerge all the way on the other side of the parc BUT about the same distance from our destination as when we’d started, doh. All hail public transportation! We waited 15 minutes for a bus and were eternally grateful that it accepted paper money as well as coins.

I was starving (again) and exhausted by this point, and happy that we’d planned to eat at Cafe Santropol, a sort of funky crunchy crafty lunch place. There was an enormous garden and we snagged a table so far back next to the little pond that it was nearly hidden. And there was a tuba planter on the fence behind Jonathan.

This is my amazing and delicious sandwich, the Sweet Root: carrot salad with raisins and walnuts and curry on brown bread. Plus lots of extra fruits + vegetables. I’m getting hungry just looking at this, it was so good.

After lunch we thought about going to the archaeology museum, but I was too tired to read exhibit signs so we just went down to the river and hung out and read and watched the boats and people. There were some segway tours so of course we gawked at them, how could we not?

The next day we were headed back to the US, but not before going to the depanneur (= bodega) to buy a whole mess of chocolate bars in varieties not available on domestic soil. On our way out we stopped on two island parks in the St. Lawrence River. One was natural and one created for Expo ’67 (the world’s fair). Some of the old pavilions are still there and used for various purposes. This Buckminster Fuller-designed one was the US pavilion and is now a small environmental museum.

And then it was time to say Au Revoir, Canada. I’d like to go back sometime with Gus — we didn’t hit any museums and it seems like there’re lots of kid-friendly things to do. Not that he missed us, what with all of the canoeing and swimming in the pond and riding the alpine slide and making ice cream he did with his grandparents.

On our last night we made smores over a real campfire, though Gus preferred his toasted marshmallows solo. Because I hate marshmallows I just ate chocolate and graham crackers. Together we make a smore!

lose yourself in the sound

maura @ 10:00 pm

This summer’s been weirdly paced, slow yet fast. It seems like it’s just begun, yet it’ll be over in a few weeks. For me, at least — Gus doesn’t start school until Sept 9 because there is a rule that public schools don’t start until after Labor Day which this year is on 9/7, as late as it can possibly be. Maybe it’s because it rained all of June (and also I was strangely busy at work until well into June). And then it was cool in July (which I loved). But now it’s August and hot and I’m sluggish. All of which contributes to the fast slowness.

There’s also the thing about not having a lot scheduled at work which can sometimes perversely make it harder to get things done. It can be nice to have a couple of meetings, classes or ref desk shifts sprinkled around the week, just to have something to hang yr schedule on. I’ve gotten a fair amount done so far this summer — had a couple of big projects planned at work — but not as much as I feel like I should have. And I am still procrastinating weeding (tho I feel like I read/hear that everyone does).

But it’s a little scary to realize that there’s only a couple of weeks left to my summer. We’ve got one more vacation coming up and then it’s orientation + first week of classes. I’d love to have one more week of summer, one week for just research/writing. I’m in the middle of an article and have a bunch of smallish things to do for this year’s big research project and have a malformed mini-draft for another article and am trying to come up with a topic for presentation at a small local conference. And I’m sorely neglecting my personal academic/library blog. And I should write another post for the official academic library blog. Last week I thought I’d write about the slow fastness of summer, but now I can’t figure out how to do it that doesn’t sound all trite + whiny (which is the raison d’etre of this blag only, not the others).

I’m thinking about that whole “get up early + write” thing, the standard advice that all the real writers dole out. I try hard to force myself to work at night but in my old age I’ve realized that I’m a morning person. Gus’s current camp is really close to our house so the mornings will be more relaxed for a little while — this is probably a good time to try it. But of course then I will need to go to bed early, too. Funny how the real writers never mention that. Don’t they need sleep?