BiddiesInMyBrain

::amused:: Ice Storm In the Forecast

Memphis is in a dither (and you've never seen anything like a dither until you've seen a Southern city facing an ice storm forecast - especially a dingbat city like Memphis.). City schools let out early (1:30 pm) even though the weather isn't forecast to hit until midnight. (yeah. ::giggling::) They are warning people off the streets. They are threatening dire consequences to life and limb if you even venture out to look up in the sky in your backyard later tonight. Heavens to Betsy, the sky will be falling soon. Literally, it appears.

So where did Crash go? 

The liquor store.

Duh.

Melissa also needed to go by Target on the way back from the doc's office, so I picked up some frozen dinners, two things of eggnog, a tin of Poppycock, two bags of Tostidos with accompanying queso... and some of my favorite movies off the $5 racks.

We're set for days.

And I might even sit on my front porch and watch the cars pile up at the intersection. Just because.

That's *if* the dire warnings actually come to fruition, that is. Because 99% of the time, Fried Chicken Little is just plumb wrong.

My Memphis is My Voice

I am so thrilled! One of my students and his colleague put this together for a Memphis tourism contest... I helped him *a little* pointing him in the direction for some background material and research... and this is the result of their combined efforts.

I am just... thrilled! Go! Watch! It's only 3 minutes long!

This Week

I have had an extraordinarily difficult week. And no, I don't particularly want to talk about it. It's just been ... hell... and I have had a tough time getting more than 3 hours of sleep each night.

So, I've decided that for the first time since August, I am taking tonight and tomorrow off. Completely.

No school work at all.

Period.

I am going to be a computer junkie, a movie junkie, and a snuggle-in-bed junkie.

Crash won't be here most of the time... and I am just going to lounge around. Doing. Nothing.

Because if I don't, I am going to go out of my mind.

That is all.

:::glowing:::

Went to church yesterday for the Ingathering / Water Communion celebration... it was a packed house and ever so wonderful... Rev Bill talked about Angels Among Us by example of bullies and those who stand up against bullying. I could really relate to it because I was heavily bullied as a child and young adult - I was shy, wore glasses from second grade up, was way ahead of my class when it came to academics most of the time, and dressed unlike most people (I didn't have "in" clothes)... and every time I tried to make inroads with the kids in my grade they just laughed and made me feel horrible. What did I do? By the time I was in fourth grade *I* was the bully. I just couldn't take it any more. Most people look at bullying as conflict resolution... but really it is something else entirely and has nothing to do with conflict; it's a matter of respect (and self-respect). Rev Bill let me borrow his copy of Letters to Olivia, a moving book from which he took a great deal of his Homily inspiration. It's a book about self-affirmation, and affirmation from anonymous people who were - dare I say Angels? - who wrote to a heavily bullied girl in California to help her realize that she had worth and dignity. Such a tremendous story.. and I can't wait to read it. I was moved to tears by Rev. Bill's homily and it was one of those moments where everything *clicked*. Thank you, Bill.

Crash and I also went to dinner at the Macaroni Grill. I had the most incredible Lobster-stuffed Ravioli... OMG - to die for. Crash had a seafood pasta dish... and they gave us an anniversary chocolate cake on the house with a candle in it. I teared up completely when one of the wait staff came over and sang the most gorgeous classical Italian anniversary song. She sang like an angel and I was so moved. Not this Chili's thing of coming over and hollering a song and clapping, but a lovely, lovely song, just for us. I am tearing up just thinking about it.

Then, we went over for the last try on The Project for this cycle. I didn't even have a glass of wine - I was too stuffed from dinner to even think about it. ::grin:: We're really hoping - the excitement is building, and we test on the 21st. ::fingers crossed:: Keep up with the whole thing over on Another Handmaid's Tale over on blogspot. Aiiiieeee!

Today is a study day... I haven't even gotten dressed yet and it's two in the afternoon. Need to be thinking about that soon as I need to head to the Universary in two and a half hours. SO MUCH to do on my homework, and it's just terribly hard to concentrate sometimes. But, I am forging ahead on old Rufus, and the Stats homework. It's just the dissertation stuff that is falling by the wayside a little bit - and that just cannot happen. After Wednesday (which is the due date for the Rufus first report) I can finally hit the dissertation Indepedent Study really, really hard. It's just that I have had such early deadlines with everything else.

Must go... have a great day, y'all.

I'm Officially Insane

I've attended or taught eight classes, had five doctor or vet appointments, and five other appointments this week... it's been insane. It may sound like no biggie to some of you, but some of these appointments were three hours long - and the majority were between an hour and a half and two hours. Not counting travel time.

Lots to study. Am writing a biography of Rufus King for one class, mainly from primary sources, and doing dissertation research... and lots of work for the stats class. And it's a short week this week. Further, I am on three committees, and two of them met this week... and I filled in on another on Friday pending elections for someone to fill the spot. It's just been crazy. Next week's not much better - all my time keeps getting filled, and not with homework. I've got to call a stop to it. Now.

And, I was up until six this morning working on readying my new laptop for use today - I needed to be up and running first thing today since I have SO MUCH to get done today and tomorrow. Short night's sleep. But I got everything transferred from the old laptop to the new one just fine and am pretty well ready to back up everything to the backup drive and get the old laptop ready for Crash. But not today.

Hobbes-kitty had a low blood sugar ep yesterday - had to get Karo syrup on his paw for him to lick to stop him from shaking so much and reduce his insulin intake. He's fine now, but we watch him closely. We've finally found a variety of moist food he likes (thank goodness) and he mioauws when he wants food, so that helps, too. The flip side of this? Jen the greyhound is terribly, terribly jealous of all the attention his arch-enemy has been getting and is acting out with her toilet habits. If it's not one thing! Then, we had a trauma taking Hobbes' blood sugar last night... took TWELVE TRIES. His pads just don't want to bleed for us... and I think the styluses (stylii?) we have are too thin or not long enough - we just couldn't get a good sample. Need to ask the vet what she uses. However, the really heartbreaking part is that Hobbes was so terribly patient - just let us poke away at him without protest (unlike the hissing, spitting, clawing, biting hellion he is over at the clinic). And then when we let him go, he purred and rubbed up against us. All was forgiven. ::heart breaks:: Sweet boy. Oh, and his blood sugar was 140 after all that. Not the 364 at the clinic the day before. ::phew::

Made homemade from scratch split pea soup last night. Just had a hankering for it - and have ever since Crash bought the spiral smoked ham a couple months ago. It's been sitting in the freezer since then, just staring at me, and a couple weeks ago we glazed it and cut it up into manageble pieces, and froze it again. I pulled down three bage of it, including the hock, a couple of days ago and made a gallon and a half of soup last night. It's divine. I *love* split pea soup, even in the summertime. Yum.

There's not much else going on... will be reading until late into the night tonight - need to pick up an obscure book from the university library tonight, and then will really be off to the races. So much to do. And truly - so little time to do it.

Home Again Home Again

Jiggety Jig!

We got home yesterday, about 5:15 - easy traffic across the I-40 bridge coming into Memphis, though we were a little unnerved by all the huge fires in eastern Arkansas. No clue what they were doing, but we saw at least 10 HUGE fires start and then get put out as we were driving from Little Rock to the state line. So weird. Couldn't figure it out - and nothing on the radio, so it must have been something business-as-usual - but what?

Came home and found everything in order - except that one of the burners on the stove had been accidentally jiggled in the morning when our house sitter came over and gas had been seeping into the house all day - freaked us out, but no harm done, thankfully. Took a good airing out, but all is well, and the kitties are just fine.

Turned in someone for driving erratically in a company van in western Arkansas, too... they had a "How Am I Driving?" sticker on the back of the van, so we told the folks at the 800 number just how they were doing! We've never done that before, and it was a little unnerving - Crash actually called it in, but it just had to be done - this woman was nuts. Driving 69 in a 70 - then 80 - then right on our butt (within a car length or two) for a mile or two - then slamming on her brakes and swerving out into the passing lane to pass us doing 80 - and doing the same with semis and other cars. For 25 or 30 miles. We finally had a opportunity to get the number down just before she got off the interstate. Hope she gets the book thrown at her.

The earache has subsided a lot, but I still went to the doc today - and she is sending me to an ENT on Friday... this has become chronic and must be dealt with by a specialist (another one???) at this point. Sinus infections and ear infections for six weeks straight? No thank you. We'll see what the ENT says and go from there. Can't believe the number of specialists I am collecting.

ANYWAY... about the trip! It was INCREDIBLE!! Two train rides (yes, I will get the pics up tonight or tomorrow - I took more than 250 and it will take a while to get through all of them), fantastic food (True Grits AKA the Shrine to John Wayne... and the SLV Brewing Company, both in Alamosa, CO, serve terrific food, and the home-cooked meals at Dad's were FANTASTIC), unparalleled company (gotta love my dad and stepmom, and my uncle)... and the wildlife. Saw deer, elk, TWO BEARS (I only saw one - a yearling - and saw it within about 20 feet - YIKES - Crash saw the second, larger one, from about a 1/4 mile), bighorn sheep, antelope, golden hawks, eagles... just incredible. But I am very tired - drove all but three hours of the 19 home - and with the earache, I am just beat. As I said, it will take me some time to get all this up on the website - and I will not be posting anywhere near all of them - just some select few of them - but you will get the idea. This was perhaps the most incredible trip I have taken in the past decade... really amazing.

It's good to be home to the kitties and Jenny, though. And my own bed and soft, soft sheets. But I surely do miss the mountains something awful. Did you know it was in the 40s at night and in the 70s during the day where we were? ::poking at all y'all who've been suffering through the nineties::. Yeah. But I'm in the land of the double and triple digits now too, and am looking back wistfully on the weather, the scenery and the company. What a treat.

More later.

ADDENDUM: Forgot to mention the hummingbirds - probably between 18-23 at the feeders at the house, dining on a 2:1 sugar:water ratio. They were going through 8 cups of sugar/water mix every DAY AND A HALF when we left, and that wasn't even peak season. WOW. And so many different colors and varieties of hummingbirds up there. Just beautiful.

Colorado High!

I am just in love with Colorado - had forgotten how much in love with it I have always been and being here is like a homecoming.

The only hitch? My allergies are in full force and I am having a terrible time with them - sneezing constantly. NEVER before have I had that problem, but this visit I am just having awful congestion - as is Crash. BUT, we're mananging, and getting out and having a wonderful time.

We got here day before yesterday after well over a 1700 miles in my car in two weeks - and another 1000+ to go before we get home next week. I can't keep track of days - no clue what day it is when I wake up - none - but I go with the flow and look to my PDA to make sure I am on track with the day's events.

Speaking of events :::grin::: So far... we have gone to Canon City and done the Royal Gorge Route Dinner Train The food was great and the selection of wines we had were from a local winery called the Abbey Winery which was a Benedictine Abbey until it closed in 2006. Very tasty wines - not world class - but very tasty. There are other wines in the area, but that was what I wanted to try. ANYWAY. I have a few pictures up in the Colorado '08 Album 

Today was a lazy day for the most part - we (just the two of us) watched much of the sunset from the topmost room in the house and loved every minute of it. Took up sushi, wine, cheese, crackers, two kinds of melon, a fruit pie... and just basked in the constantly changing scenery as the sun shone differently in the valleys and on the hilltops and mountains. SO restful. So peaceful, hearing the hummingbirds racing around and the wind through the aspens. ::smile:: I miss this place when we're not here.

Tomorrow we'll be helping Dad around the house, then wandering here around the property and nature conservancy that surrounds it. The next day we are going very early to a secret spot to watch bighorn sheep, mule deer, elk and a couple other animals. Have to do that *very* early in the morning. Then coming back here around 11 to get ready to go on a picnic with my family and then come home and go KAPUT. The following day is travel to Alamosa so we can take the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad from Antonito, CO to Chamas, NM. CANNOT WAIT!

More tomorrow, I hope!

Random Update

OK, so I'm a little jot and tiddle late with the news and wanderings:

Men's basketball at the U of M advanced to the finals last night!!! We're playing Kansas on Monday night. Oh my! GO TIGERS! RAWR! The neighborhood burst into absolute lunacy when the final buzzer went off, and there was a strong police presence around the University District, including MOUNTED POLICE! They were so cool! AND, I am not certain about this, but at least I haven't heard of any reports of outbreaks of violence in the area following either Final Four game. Now it's wait-and-see until Monday. ::biting nails:: I just never expected to turn into a hoops fan. ADDENDUM: The undergrad class for which I am grading has just been canceled for tomorrow - the prof is wise, knowing that NOBODY will be there - at all - and we are scheduled to be covering the run up to the Civil War - crucial material. YAY, though!!! Means I only have two commitments tomorrow - spread out by one at 8:45 in the morning and one at 2:30 in the afternoon.

Charlton Heston has died. All I am wondering is: can we pry his guns from his cold, dead hands and turn them in to the police for destruction now?? And, as one of my dearest friends said, his best ever line was "MOSES! There's a man among the sheep!"

Another friend and lovely, sweet, dear person (all our friends are that way! Love it!) M stopped by midway through the game yesterday and watched the second half of the game with us. She may be moving into the n-hood - we are so excited and hopeful. It would be a WONDERFUL thing. Anyway, we went out to dinner (yeah, we found someplace quiet, with minimal tv and lunatic fan interruption - a favorite Chinese/Japanese restaurant), and had a terrific time. I had the best egg drop soup *evah* - this is the kind of chicken-broth-egg-drop-and-corn-soup that I crave when I am sick... it's even better than my own homemade chicken noodle stuff, and I am blatantly and hopelessly and egotistically biased toward my homemade soups. Too bad we didn't have much of a cold winter - I would have made so many more.

See GI doc in the morning. Maybe we can move forward with all this nuisance tummy stuff. I have written a LONG one-page single-spaced summary of the past two weeks in 11-point font for them - something I hope will help more than just the usual Q&A. (Heh. It just dawned on me that as a historian I can't manage to write something in less than a two-page double spaced paper. LOL) We've also been cutting out all lactose-bearing products we can think of, too, so Crash is buying me soy milk - the Costco brand - and it actually tastes great on my cereal... yay!

Reading a wonderful book right now - expressively written and extremely well researched - called No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith written by dear mentor and friend, Dr. Janann Sherman. I never expected to love an academic book so much - but I do, and if you ever want to know more about the first woman to run for president on a major party ticket, you simply must read this (not to mention that she was the person who stood down McCarthy in the Senate, and she was the primary force lobbying for women's rights in the military in the 1940s-1970s, etc, etc, etc... really remarkable person). The book is academic, yes, but it reads like a really good novel... just carries you. I keep forgetting to take notes, I am THAT engrossed in the reading. Serious thumbs up, y'all. I think it's in its third printing now.

Don't know much else. There is plenty on Google News and Beacon Broadside to rant about, but I have too much to do today to sit here and rant at the moment... though I promise to get back to that in the next month or so - school's out at the end of this month. I love school, but *cannot wait* to breathe a little more.

Windows are wide open and I am enjoying the cool breeze while still in my sexy white cotton jammies. Yeah... sexy white cotton - those words *can* go together. ::giggle:: At least Crash thinks so!! Speaking of white cotton jammies: I slept like a log last night - 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm today and was *very* confused when Crash woke me up after church - I thought he had not yet left and was gobsmacked when he told me it was 1 pm. LOL I don't think I moved once from about 4 in the morning until I got up this afternoon... I needed the sleep, I guess!

Back to this book. I may finish it in my second sitting today - I read in bed until - literally - I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. You can only fight a sleeping pill so long when you're snuggled in comfortably. ::looking forward to THIS!::

Have a great afternoon! I may see you again after Crash's choir performance tonight (I'm expecting good stuff!) but if not, I'll catch you sometime tomorrow... quite likely after the game if not before as well.

ADDENDUM!: I FORGOT!!! I judged the finals for TN State History Day yesterday, and MY were they terrific!!! So proud of all the participants, and it was really hard judging first round - and the runoff judges really struggled over their choices. That's a *good* thing, y'all. GO, YOU BUDDING YOUNG HISTORIANS! YOU JUST GO!!!