Cuica

My friend Mike had to put his dog Cuica to sleep today. I met Cuica in 1998, and she was usually such a good dog, but she would get bad when she was around me. She liked to jump on me and lick me. I'm so sad to hear about Cuica.

Cuica had to train Mike's puppy Daisy (born in March 2006, I believe) on proper doggy etiquette. They didn't always get along, but Cuica is such a good dog, so she eventually enjoyed having a playmate and young puppy to mold.

It's Really Happening

It seems that my sister will be getting married tomorrow at 5 p.m. I hadn't said anything about this before because I wasn't sure if it would actually happen. She and Christian were able to get the marriage license on Tuesday. It will be very small, in the minister's parsonage. The big(ger) ceremony will be next December 29. Most of you will not be invited.

My Christmas Day

We had a nice, quiet Christmas at home. We slept late--we went to the 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service at church, which didn't get out until 12:20 a.m. Then, we had to count the offering, which took awhile because of various clerical errors.

We ate our meal around 12:15 p.m. and opened presents afterwards. We didn't have a lot of presents this year. Jessie got a lot of free or nearly-free stuff that I've collected over the year, including stuff from conferences (the Grace Hopper Celebration had a lot of loot, like a Google and a Microsoft t-shirt) and underwear from Victoria's Secret that I had free coupons for. I even reused Victoria's Secret bags and tissue paper to wrap the presents. Frank asked if I would spend money on Christmas next year, after I have a job. It depends on how many conferences I go to and how much free stuff I get.

Mom gave me some socks that I had bought earlier this month. When I unwrapped them, Mom asked if I liked them. I acted disappointed. "Well, I wouldn't have picked these out for myself, but they're okay." I said the same thing about the Hallmark ornament I got--"Tuxedo & Snowball". I've collected all of the ornaments in that series featuring a penguin and a polar bear.

Christian had his first taste of turkey, which he said tasted like goose. That didn't go over well with Mom because she hates goose. She dropped her fork. Jessie tried to explain to him that wasn't a compliment. He said, "German goose!"

Christian says that Sydney walks like a German soldier--kicking her front feet out. When I relayed the message to Dad, Dad said, "Do German soldiers prance?"

Sydney looked around for laps to sit on. She tried out my lap, but I am wearing zippy pants, which she doesn't like, so she left quickly. She tried out Christian's lap for awhile (and she looked pissed about it the whole time), but he moved too much, so she left. She came back to my lap eventually, but she still doesn't like the pants, so she didn't stick around.

Everyone took too-long naps after we opened presents. When we woke up, it was time for supper and dessert, which we didn't have after dinner. And, then, there was more discussion and laughter and good times had by all.

My Favorite Joke of Christmas Eve

Jessie talked about how much Christmas music (in the form of cds) Dad has in his car. Dad makes lots of mixes. She said, "He had this many cds. And that's just what I saw in the back seat--I didn't see the front seat." I said, "That's what she said." Then, Jessie and I high-fived.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas, if that's your thing! Otherwise, I hope you have a very nice Monday!

Making everyone feel at home

It's a full house at the Sprenkles in Dallastown, PA.

Jessie and her fiance Christian are home (our home, not his) for the holidays, until January 5. I'll probably return to Newark before then.

I called everyone to supper last night by saying, "Das weinerschnitzel est ready!" Jessie snarled, "Is it going to be like this all week?" I didn't think I was being insulting. I was trying to make him feel more welcome.

Mom is excited about the ice bucket she got as a white elephant gift. She's looking forward to keeping the fuzzy navels cold on New Year's Eve.

The Legend of "Silent Night"

Dad's most recent children's sermon:

(as the kids are coming up) Did I ever tell you that I used to have a Christmas dog? Do you know what a Christmas dog is? He was part pointer and part setter - a pointsetter. Now we'll have to see if I'm too embarrassed to go on.

We have some musical instruments in church today that aren't ordinarily in church. What are they? (guitars, banjo, mandolin) This reminds me of a Christmas legend. Do you know what a legend is? It's a story that's based on truth that may have been changed as it is told and re-told.

In 1818, Joseph Mohr was the assistant minister at a church in Austria. He decided that he wanted to write a new Christmas song. This may have been because the church organ was not working, but we don't know that for sure. So he called his friend Franz Gruber who was the choir director and played guitar. "Hey, Franz." (Mike as Franz) "Hey, Joe." Let me put this (imaginary) phone down because they didn't have phones at that time. (Mike said, "They just had to talk loud.") "Hey, Franz, I would like to write a new Christmas song. This would be different from most of the Christmas songs we sing in church because it would be played on guitar, and it would have German words. Do you want to help?" (Franz answers) "Sure."

So Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber wrote a song they called "Stille Nacht". They wrote a guitar part and they wrote German words. They wanted to write banjo, mandolin, and bass guitar parts, but they didn't have enough to do everything they wanted before Christmas - it's a Christmas tradition. On Christmas Eve, 1818, at the midnight mass in (get this) St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, they sang "Stille Nacht" to the music of one guitar.

The song slowly spread and became popular - first thru Germany, and then thru Europe, and then all over the world. It was translated into many languages. The English version of the song is "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". No, it's "Silent Night". And let's sing it like they did in 1818, played on one guitar. (And we sang one verse.)

Gossip Travels Fast

Today, I had my first on-campus interview. I had another traveling misadventure, but this one wasn't my fault. I don't want to talk about that right now. It was a very good interview. (Well, I don't know what they thought, but I was impressed and could picture myself there.)

Since this was my first interview, I had to get used to the new suit (I went with the blue one--the colors of the suits below were actually brown and navy) and new shoes. My pants are a little long and my shoes are a little big, so my pants kept getting caught in my shoes. I thought I was being subtle as I adjusted.

A later interviewer asked, "Is your foot okay?" Me, what? "I thought I heard that you were limping."

I am soooo smooth. And, wow, news travels fast on a small campus.

Jonathan Coulton

I'm on a Jonathan Coulton kick. I may have to purchase some music.

This one goes out to my sister and others blessed with a healthy butt. Technically, I don't think this is a cover, but I'll have to ask Dad.

Are they teaching this in school?

This song makes it easy to remember the presidents.

To my international readers, I mean in the American schools.

Code Monkey

Finally! A song about being a code monkey!



Another person did a dance to the song.

Thanks to Mike for the pointer!

A Poll: Which Suit?

I bought two suits, and I'm trying to decide which one to wear. Please excuse the goofy looks on my face. You usually do.

Merry Christmas, You!

Courtesy of Mom, here's a little Santa fun.

Everybody's A Critic

Last night, I sang only with "O Holy Night" on last night's Studio 60. I sang along horribly, off-key and high-pitched. Syd turned and yelled at me. Then, she came over to see if I had swallowed a bird or something. She kept trying to sniff around my mouth to figure out what was going on. She cracked me up, so I could barely keep singing.

Tonight, I played a little of "O Holy Night". It seems like Sydney doesn't like the song in general. But, she didn't come running over to investigate until I started to sing along again, and she again tried to look into my mouth for the source of the horrible sound.

An Update on Dad

They had to do a biopsy (or something) on Dad's thyroid to look for cancer.

"My thyroid was fine. They'll even put it back if I want them to."

Code word: Savory

A few weeks ago, Frank's sister-in-law made pumpkin fudge. Frank described it as "savory". I asked what that meant. He said that it's sort of spicy (you know, pumpkin spicy), so you can't eat a lot of it. It's not like chocolate fudge.

I decided "savory" was Frank's code word for "yucky". It's kind of like that Seinfeld episode where they refer to the ugly baby as "breathtaking", and no one recognizes that adjective as insulting. He can say that the food is savory and excuse himself from eating any more.

The rest of Frank's family didn't really touch the fudge that he brought home to them. I tried to advertise the fudge: "It's savory!" When I did that one too many times, Frank warned me that I was getting savory.

Wise Bets

Andy won $1,000,000 on a bet with his sister that the Steelers would make it to the Super Bowl last year. He doubts he'll ever see that money.

This year, Andy made a bet of $250,000 that the Steelers will repeat in the Super Bowl. You'd think that wasn't a wise bet, considering the Steelers' season. But, as Andy explains, "When you have $1,000,000 to blow..."

My James Bond

Frank and I saw Casino Royale over the weekend. There was a scene where James Bond reminded me of Frank. (Or Frank reminded me of James Bond?)

Warning: Spoilers

Bond lay dying because he didn't have the defibrilator set up correctly to shock his heart after being poisoned. The chick arrives after Bond passes out and is able to shock him. Bond wakes up and asks, "Are you okay?"

That's totally Frank. A couple times, I've been working, and he falls asleep next to me. He starts to snore, and he wakes himself up and asks me, "Is everything all right?" or "Are you okay?"

That's my James Bond.

My Rough Day

You know you've had a rough day when you can't decide what the dumbest thing you did today was--and one of those things was scalding your hand.

Honorable mention for dumbest thing: put a student's grade sheet on the lid to my salad, which had salad dressing on it. That was easy to correct.

This morning, I heated up my some water in the microwave. The cup I use is pretty tall, so it's kind of close putting it into the microwave. It's even tougher getting out. I ended up spilling a lot of water on my hand and my hand has a pink tint to it now--especially between my fingers. I put cold water on my hand immediately, and I keep putting cold compresses on it.

Tonight, on the way home, I was waiting to turn left. The traffic light on the road that I wanted to turn onto changed. Someone stopped short, and the car behind them squealed and blew their horn. After my light turned green, I started to make my left turn and looked over at the near accident. I'm not very familiar with that intersection, and I started to turn before the median and into oncoming traffic (which was still far away). Luckily, no one was behind me, so I was able to turn around and go around the other side of the median.

A Little Bit of "Muppets Tonight"

Seymour: I'm Seymour.
Pepe: I'm Pepe.
Seymour and Pepe: We're two of a kind.
Pepe: I'm a little bit forward,
Seymour: and I've got a big behind.
Pepe: Hey, Seymour, what do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhino?
Seymour: Gee, Pepe, I don't know.
Pepe: Ela-if I-know. [Even the laugh track didn't think that was funny]

Self-Flatulation

Mike and I were talking about schools and jobs, as we so often do because we're in direct competition with each other for jobs. He said that the job announcement of a school with a religious affiliation came out. He said that they're not as religious as another college that requires statements of faith with your application. For example, he said, "They don't require self-flatulation," as he gestured like he was whipping himself. I repeated, "Flatulation?" He got a little embarrassed as I cracked up. He said, "Lock yourself in a closet..." Of course, he meant "flagellation" but that's going to crack me up for a long time.

Happy Birthday, Jon!

It's Jon Stewart's birthday! I knew I was forgetting a birthday!

To the ____ (noun) of my _______ (plural noun), I wish you a ______ (adverb) _______ (adjective) and maybe a little __________(noun).

My Newest Favorite Frog

Zoos are trying to save the tiny endangered frog.

Fix-it Frank Does It Again

Frank was able to fix my laptop again. He googled for something that I didn't and restarted the computer while holding down option (I tried two other restart methods) and then we could
eject the cd. The site he found said something about if your computer goes to sleep while burning or ripping a cd... That's not what happened for me, so I'm not sure who or what to blame now.

At least I didn't have to go to the geniuses to try to get them to figure it out.

UD Game

On November 18, I attended the last University of Delaware game of the season; the game was probably the last while I'm a student. (Keep your fingers crossed!) The Blue Hens played the Villanova wildcats. It was hard to cheer against Villanova--whose colors and mascot match Dallastown's (my highschool). The Blue Hens lost, 28-27, after jumping out to an early 20-0 lead.

I took lots of pictures at the game. Frank and I sat at about the 10 yard line on the away side of the stadium. The Villanova mascot and cheerleaders were below us:


When I tried to take another photo of the wildcat hoisted on the cheerleaders' shoulders, some jerk stood up in front of me and blocked my shot:


I noticed that everyone around me was standing a cheering--because Delaware had just scored in the end zone. I sat there, laughing at what my obsession with mascots had lead me to, while everyone else cheered for their team.

Another Problem with the Laptop

I was playing one of my dad's cds in my laptop, when all of a sudden, the disk drive stopped spinning (it was loud) and iTunes wouldn't respond. So, I `force quit` iTunes and then ended up needing to restart because iTunes wouldn't quit completely. When I restarted, the cd wasn't showing up on my Desktop. It didn't show up in iTunes either. I couldn't eject the cd. I tried restarting and holding down the trackpad, which should eject the disk, and I tried running firmware and saying 'eject disk'; those didn't work either. I looked at my System Profiler, and it says that I have no Disk Burning device. That's baaaad. I'm doing some more searches, but I'm afraid that the next 9 months will be a series of mishaps that will render my laptop completely unusable. Remind me to back up all of my data...

Pre-Thanksgiving Hoopla

My dad had his thyroid removed Tuesday morning. I came home Tuesday night to try to help Mom out, but no one was home when I got home around 8 p.m. Mom called around 9 to tell me what had happened. Dad was getting ready to leave when Mom came. But, while Mom was there, she said that it looked like his throat was getting more swollen, and then she saw blood coming through his bandage. The nurse called another surgeon into the room. They opened up Dad's incision in the room while Mom was there. (Well, she wasn't in the room for long.) Dad told that it definitely hurt when they did it. And, then they took Dad to the operating room again.

The surgeon thinks that the clip (or something) that was on Dad's incision came off, which is why he started to bleed. They put in a drain to fix him--he had this box-like thing under his shirt.

Dad had to stay overnight in the hospital. He didn't come home until about 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Dad seemed in good spirits, though, when he called me in the morning and when he came home. Mom complained that Dad couldn't take a shower until Friday. She reminded him that he still had to wear deodorant. Dad explained, "I have a prescription for a hat," to hide his greasy hair.

After all that hoopla, we took it easy on Thursday. We had a pretty small meal (roast beef, mashed potatoes, and peas) and hung out at home. I graded most of the day--better to get as much done now because it will be busy as the end of the semester winds up and the job interviews start.

MadLib ______ (adjective) Birthday Wishes!

To Jenn, whose _______ (noun) made me seem _______ (adjective) in contrast.

To Shannon, my ________ (noun) in __________ (noun), who had so many ___________ (plural noun)

Laptop Update

My iBook turned 3 last month, so of course it's having problems now. To catch you up, the laptop wasn't showing red anymore. When I hooked the laptop up to an external monitor, the display was fine, so it was definitely a hardware problem.

Frank and I went to the Apple store. After hooking up the laptop to an external monitor, the Genius said that he'd have to send the laptop out, which would cost $280. Frank questioned the genius about the possible causes of the problem. I don't remember the genius's answer. Frank asked why it wasn't just a pin. The genius said that that's not how the laptop's screen works: if a pin is loose, then the screen would get no signal.

So, we came home and thought real hard about my options. I was bummed--I need my laptop to last about another 9 months. On Sunday, Frank looked up directions for operating on the laptop. After finding the right tools (he didn't even realize that he had the right tools), he opened up the case where the screen is. He pulled up the foil tape and tightened the connections. He rebooted the machine and Sydney's pretty picture (in full techni-color) filled my screen again. Whew. That was lucky. That was the limit to how far Frank was willing to go to fix the problem, and--thank goodness--that was enough.

Footnote: I'm using "genius" as Apple uses the term, but I'm leaning towards using "genius" as I did in reference to Manager Ray Miller--the misunderstood Orioles manager/genius.

Breaking News

My $.75 cheese grater shaped like a fish might be crap.

More on Mount Holyoke

I saw my name on a flyer:

This is the puppy I saw outside of the computer science building:

Sydney's Adventures

Sydney has been on many adventures in the apartment.

She allowed Frank to keep her warm:

She investigated the bath tub:

Frank helped me clean up my apartment before my parents visited in October, and he accidentally created a kitty loft:

How I Screwed Up

I'm back from Mt. Holyoke for an invited talk. It was quite an adventure. It all started around 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning. I thought I left in plenty of time to reach the airport. I had done a similar trip to the airport in early October to go to San Diego. My flight was earlier than in October, so I left earlier. But, it was raining, and traffic was bad, so my trip took 30 minutes longer than usual.

I parked in the long-term parking and took the airport-parking bus to the terminal. I had to doublecheck which terminal I had to go to. I got to the terminal at 9, and my flight was at 9:40. OK, no problem.

I got up to the self-service check-in and realized that I did not have my purse! I thought I had left it in the car, but I remembered that I left it on the bus.

I talked to the clerk and she told me to call the busses, but that she would be able ot get me on the 11:15 (the next) flight. I tried calling the busses, and thatdidn't work, so I had to flag the next one down. When the next bus finally came, I told the driver my sob story. He called in but couldn't get an answer from my bus driver. He thought I should ride with him the whole route--back to the main desk--and the other driver would leave my purse there for us to pick up. I thought I should wait for my bus to come back around, but I didn't really have much of a choice.

So, by the time I went the whole route on the bus, it was 10:15. My plane had been delayed by 10 minutes, but that wasn't enough. I talked to the new guy at the counter (I couldn't find the lady I talked to). He said that the 11:15 plane was overbooked and I couldn't get on that one. Crap, crap, crap. I pleaded and eventually he put me on standby.

I rushed to the gate, and the 11:15 plane was delayed, so it wasn't going to leave until 12:40. The next flight was at 1:30 (also oversold), which would mean that I would not get in in time for the talk.

Eventually, people boarded, and the counter lady started putting the stand-bys on board. She wasn't going to let me on the flight. I was the last person on the standby list. (I think that wasn't fair; I'm pretty sure the first woman I talked to screwed me on that. I could have checked in without my id. They don't check id until security.) I begged and talked the other standby woman waiting into letting me go.

After that, my trip was pretty uneventful. The talk went well. There are some things that I need to work on, but overall, I think the talk was good. After the talk, I went to dinner with the two professors. I learned a couple more tricks before I go on the job interview circuit.

When I stopped to buy a pretzel today, I realized that the money in my wallet is gone. They probably got $50, which is usually my spending
cash for the month. I had more in my wallet than usual because I had gone shopping over the weekend and paid cash--using my birthday money. So, I'm really upset that they got my birthday money. I know, I know, it could have been worse, but I'm still bummed.

And, finally, something is wrong with my Mac. It seems like it's not displaying red. I tried restarting it. I also tried searching on the web for solutions. I'm running out of ideas.

Jack & Jill Alumni

One of my favorite shows during my early graduate school career was Jack & Jill. Remember: that clever WB show where "Jack" was the girl and "Jill" was the guy?

A bunch of the Jack & Jill alumni are in shows or movies. I knew great things would happen for them.

• Amanda Peet (Jack): Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
  
• Sarah (sic) Paulson (Elisa): Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
  
• Jaime Pressley (Audrey): My Name is Earl
  
• Justin Kirk (Barto): Weeds
  
• Ivan Sergei (Jill): last season - Charmed; I'm sure big deals are on their way
  
• Simon Rex (Mikey): um, so, not so much anything this year... He was in Scary Movie 4. I don't know what happened with him in What I Like About You.
  
  

Even Josh Hopkins (Matt, the messer up of Jack & Jill) is on Brothers & Sisters, but he always plays the messer up of relationships (Cold Case, Pepper Dennis, so we'll see how long he's on B & S.

So Fast!

Look at me! I'm so fast!

No Filter

The other night in the lab, I said, "There's a cricket on the floor!" It was late, and I was tired, and I didn't have time to check before I blurted it out. It was just some mulch, but I thought I had seen it move. Emily was worried and asked me how I was doing. I was fine but embarrassed.

It made me think of other times that I didn't make use of the filter between my brain and my mouth.

There was the time in the lab--shortly after I started working with Frank--and I declared, "There's something in my pants!" It turned out that somehow I had a size sticker inside my pants leg. I was pretty embarrassed that time, and I ended up drooling on the floor. Awesome.

Then, there was the time at my desk in my biology class during my sophomore year when I asked, "Am I on fire?" My leg was feeling very hot, and, since I was in a science lab, I thought it may be a possibility. My deskmate Quin gave me a very hard time about it. He seemed to think that being on fire should not have been my first guess. I have more Quin stories, but I think I'll save them for later.

Sydney's Christmas Gift

Kitty Kristmas

The Healthy Snack

Lori said that she was giving out a healthy treat for Halloween--Play D'oh. I said, "Kids are not supposed to eat that." She claims that she knows they're not supposed to eat it. And then she repeated that it was a healthy treat.

Making Up for Bad Luck

The Delaware Humane Society is giving free spay and neutering to black cats for Halloween.

Get the Door! It's the Kitty!

Anyone who knows Sydney knows that she sometimes has "crazy spells" where she goes a little nutty. Usually she runs around the apartment. Sometimes, she bangs on the patio door or the window, like she's trying to dig her way out or tries to stick her too-big paw in the very slight crack between the patio doors. More recently, she has attempted to get out the front door. She stretches very tall to try to bat at the door knob. She can only get one paw up there, but she's trying to figure out how to get both.

Poor thing. When she finally turns the knob, she'll be crushed because the door is still locked. Mom said that that was mean. I asked, "So, I should unlock it?" She said yes. I agreed. If Syd manages to turn the knob, I will go over and unlock the door and let her out. She earned it. I haven't decided if I'll help her back in or make her figure out the door knob again.

Congratulations, Jessie!

Jessie got a 1 on her English proficiency test. That means that her English is excellent for a German.

My New Sport

When I went to the gym today, I walked past a racquetball court, where one girl had a lacrosse stick and a volleyball and the other girl returned the "serves". It's my new favorite sport.... I'm guessing. It's a great game in theory.

Frank proposed an extreme version--using a bowling ball. I took it one step further: the lacrosse stick is on fire. Frank acted like that was too much. Too extreme for him? Wuss.

FRYBRID

On my way home from Malvern, I saw a car with the license plate "FRYBRID". The plate totally made sense when I saw the sticker "Runs on 100% Vegetable Oil." The car connoisseur that I am, the only thing I can tell you about the car is that it was gray. (I spelled "connoisseur" correctly on the first fry! Er, try!)

How I Spent My Birthday

Thank you for the happy birthday wishes!

I had a nice, quiet birthday. I had lots of little celebrations Saturday through Wednesday, which may be why I feel like I almost missed my birthday. I'm just being ungrateful, but I kind of wanted something a bit bigger.

I went to visit Frank. I met him at his brother and April's house, and then we went to Frank's work. His two-year-old niece Ava was very happy to see me. When Frank told her that we had to go to work, she suggested that he go to work and I stay. (Frank's feelings were a little hurt, but, let's face it, I am fun.)

Ava especially liked my striped purple shirt (from my "real web page"'s front-page). She pointed out, "Sara has colors. Sara has stripes." She also noticed, "Sara has a clock on her arm." She would follow me around and repeat what I said. (Had to watch my language.) Frank gave me a card with a cat and fish on the front (like Syd and her short-lived pet Mario) and wrote a message inside. Ava asked me to read to her about the cat and the fish.

I brought Ava a stuffed hippo from Madagascar. She was a little scared of it, so that didn't go over well. I then flooded the bathroom, which Frank and April cleaned up while I read to April. Then, it was time to go to work. So, in a short period of time, I terrified Ava, flooded the bathroom, and then said, "Smell you later!" Give me a break, it was my birthday!

Happy Reggie Jackson Day!

For the first time in 29 years, I didn't wake up at 6:12 a.m. to acknowledge my birthday. Allergies were bothering me last night, and I just plum forgot when I set my alarm! When I woke up this morning, I had to think really hard to verify that it was my birthday.

You know, I think the above statement is inaccurate. I don't know when I started the 6:12 wakeup, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do it when I was 1 year old. Or even 8 years old. So, maybe it's only been 15 years...

My Favorite Picture of Us

Yes, it's also the only picture of us. Frank dislikes the picture because of what I'm wearing. We argued about what I was wearing before the photo was taken, and we can relive that argument everytime we see the photo. I jokingly suggested we get a Glamour Shots photo instead, and I think he likes that idea. I don't know why his approval bothers me...

Love Your Body Day

It comes as no surprise that UD is celebrating Love Your Body Day on my birthday.

Sara at the San Diego Zoo

Sara, monkeying around:


Here's the featured baby panda:


This silly polar bear put on quite a show. He loved that water jug and pushing it on his face.

The Type of Sense of Humor that Takes Getting Used To

While we were in San Diego, I became closer with all the people on the trip. Besides Emily, I didn't really know any of them very well. Sherol told me that she went to the beach with her friend and that there was a surfing contest. I asked how she did. She kind of stopped then said, "I don't surf!" Sherol told me that my sense of humor took awhile to get used to. (I had a couple similar comments before too, but I can't remember them.) I don't know why "funny" is hard to get used to. Anyway, she wants to introduce me to her from Elice (I don't think I'm spelling that right) because she has a similar sense of humor. Elice sounds really cool.

Rashida said, "You know you are a lot of fun." Duuuh.

New Song List

Dad was thinking about the best songs with colors in the title. Specifically, he was thinking about the colors of the spectrum:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet

Dad thinks that he has some winners with "Orange Colored Sky", "Mood Indigo", and "Violets of Dawn". The others require more thought.

Jessie responded, "Yellow I would think would be easy: Yellow Submarine. Or are there others with yellow in the title?"

To which Dad said, "In my defense, I would like to say Duh. Good call."

Other nominees:

Red

Red Rubber Ball
Lady in Red
Red Skies at Night

Green

Bein' Green (frontrunner)
Greensleeves
Green Onions
Green Tambourine

My Trip to San Diego

I'm posting from San Diego. (Ain't the internet grand?)

I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I was in the Ph.D. Forum. I'm always a wreck when presenting. This time the feedback was basically "well-structured, well-delivered talk; needs to make eye contact; needs enthusiam; nice smiles." I'm still processing this feedback. We'll see how I factor it into my talks and into my job talk.

The highlight of the trip was seeing Sally Ride give a great talk. Childhood heros are so cool. I'm disappointed that I didn't get my picture taken with her for my Christmas letter. I'll have to talk to Patrick about making that picture for me.

At the end of her talk, there was a Q&A. The final question was "Seriously: do you or have you ever owned a Mustang?" She laughed and said that the question had dogged her her entire life. It took me a second, but I figured out what the reference was. (Hint)

I will have to post a picture of the polar bears at the San Diego zoo later. I don't have a picture with me and the polar bears either.

While at the conference, I got to reunite with some former and current Dukies. I found out that I have more loyal followers than I thought. Makes me a little writing-shy, but I'll get over it.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hope you have a great day!

A Little Politics

Dad reports on the election campaign, from a Pennsylvanian perspective:

WGAL is monitoring election campaign ads. The latest is a Santorum ad where he identifies 7 Casey supporters who are under investigation. WGAL says 1 of the guys is dead at the current time. Only 1 of the 7 has contributed to Casey's senatorial campaign. But get this - *2* have contributed to Santorum's campaign. WGAL has different categories for the ads, like "true" or "misleading". This one was called "false". Ben Whatshisname (the reporter) was sorta apologetic about that, but he said their rating was fair.

The Full Story. You can also find stories about Casey's also-controversial ads.

Artist/Song Same Name

Dad likes to make musical lists, like songs that mention Bob Dylan or songs remade by someone and the remake does better than the original (this happened a lot in the 50s, when white groups covered songs by black artists). I suggested that Dad do a list of songs whose artist is the same as the title. The only I knew was Big Country's "Big Country". Dad and Jessie came up with more. Here's our list:

• Big Country's "Big Country"
  
• They Might Be Giants' "They Might Be Giants", on Flood
  
• Yellow Balloon's "Yellow Balloon"
  

A close contender: The Chairmen of the Board sang "Chairman of the Board".

The Color

Sorry about the colors. Blogger beta just made the functionality to change the template available.

Job Search

It's September, and already, I need to start my job application for a job that won't start until August 2007. Typically, I thought applications weren't reviewed until January, but Gettysburg College posted that they would begin reviewing applications immediately. And, that was two weeks ago. Well, at least, all I need to do is finish my dissertation. And start my dissertation. And be a teaching assistant for two classes.

As part of preparing my application, I've been working on improving my web presence to look a little more respectable. I think I need a nice photo for my front page, but I haven't had a good picture in awhile. Frank and I played photographer/model over the weekend to try to get some decent shots to choose from. I got bored/grumpy pretty quickly. Frank pleaded, "Don't be that kind of model."

Here are my choices.

That's enough for now. I need to eat a lettuce leaf. (Definitely not spinach.)

The Shirt

At the beach last weekend, Frank and I frequented a pizza place. I noticed that one worker was wearing the same sparkly shirt she had the day before. Frank replied, "It probably wasn't clean then either."

Black Nerds Unite

I saw that bumper sticker on an orange Element. I had a little black envy because I thought that was such a fun bumper sticker. Not that I'm a nerd.

She's Got Legs

Here's a quote from a book Dad is proofreading that he liked:

We have to have faith in ourselves. I have never met a woman who, deep down in her core, really believes she has great legs. And if she suspects she might have great legs, then she's convinced that she has a shrill voice and no neck.
-- Cynthia Heimel

Headline

What a treat! News from Mom!

girls,
this morning I saw a headline which made me smirk--
Kurd tells of Gas Attack at Saddam"s Trial.

Isn't that somewhat personal information to pass along?

Mom knows her audience!

My Siblings

Before I was born, my parents had two cats, Gaby and Samantha. Gaby died shortly after I was born, so I don't remember her. Samantha lived to be just short of voting age (18, U.S.), so I spent 16 years with her. I told my parents about Kitten Wars, so Dad looked for some pictures of the girls.



Gaby ("Sissy") is the calico front and center. Samantha ("Baby") is the tough tabby in the background. Dad claims that the perspective makes them look a lot different in size, but they were only 2 months apart in age.

Dad knows he has a better picture for Kitten Wars, but he's not sure where it is, so stayed tuned for more cat photos.

Getting "New Blog" Started with Some Crap

Some bird hates me or my car. On Friday, I found my car defiled by a bird--twice. From the size of the defilement, Frank thinks it was a hawk. Or a pterodactyl. I don't think I have done anything to anger any hawks or pterodactyls recently.