Boy, I have not posted here in a long time. Sorry about that. I think most of you will have seen my somewhat more regular facebook updates. The quick synopsis:

We moved.
We're mostly but not entirely unpacked.
We started our new jobs.

I've just finished my first block course on my new employer's block schedule. In brief: classes meet every day, for three and a half weeks; it's the only class the students are taking, and the only class I'm teaching. Then everyone moves onto a new class.

It's an interesting adjustment. The block has its own rhythms, which are both like and not like those of the standard semester. My personal experience was:
week 1: high energy and enthusiasm for me, high to moderate from the students. Exploring what this new class is like is intriguing for everyone.
week 2: student energy drops precipitously; I get tired from trying to keep them going
week 3: everyone is sort of treading water; students miss class without explanation
week 4: vanished students re-appear; collective energy seems to rise as we all make the push to finish up
I really enjoyed my students, fortunately, and most of them told me they liked the class. I hope the evaluations will be both useful and positive.

On Monday I'll start teaching a totally new class. The first class I taught was a 300-level course for majors with 15 students; the new one is going to be a 100-level course with about 25 students. It should be an interesting change. I'll have a non-teaching term after the coming course, and by then I'll be good and ready for it, I think.

(I meant to post this shortly after we moved, but got distracted.)

Dear now-former neighbors,

I really feel obligated to thank you for livening up our spring and summer. In spite of all the stuff we had to do, we would have been significantly more bored without hearing your conversations and arguments. I still haven't figured out how all of you are related to each other, if at all, but piecing together your stories proved an interesting puzzle. So I have a few things to say to some of you individually.

To the very angry young woman:
You're right, you do have a lot of problems. They appear to include drinking, depression, pregnancy, and that guy you are involved with (married to?). I wish you the best, and I'd like to respectfully suggest that it may not be the worst thing in the world if the guy does leave you. And if you're avoiding hospital care because you fear he will, I'd also like to suggest that may not be a good trade.
PS. You're right, your relatives probably should not be calling your therapist to ask questions about your meds. That's not cool.

To the guy:
Ragging on your wife/girlfriend is not going to fix her depression. Also, have you noticed she's visibly pregnant? She probably has good reasons for wanting to rest.
On another note, I do appreciate your making sure that your kid doesn't run into our car on his bike. You seem to yell at him an awful lot while he's riding his bike around the driveway, though. Have you realized that he is just imitating you when he rides around in circles making "vroom vroom" noises? It is actually a lot noisier and more annoying when you ride around on that motorcycle you are constantly fixing up.

To the kids:
I am sorry all the adults in your lives spend so much time yelling at you and telling you not to do things, although they're of course right that you need to stay away from the street. You might consider being nicer to your kitten, instead of yelling at it, too. I hope someday you'll move somewhere you actually have a yard to play in instead of just a big driveway. I also hope at some point you encounter adults who model healthier gender relationships.

To the kitten:
We really wanted to take you with us, you friendly adorable little thing, although I do think the kids would have missed you. You would have hated being cooped up in our car for a couple of days with strange cats and humans you didn't know very well. I hear you have made friends with everyone on the block; I hope one of them succumbs to your charms and gives you a permanent home. That way the adults in your household will stop trying to give you away to everyone who shows an interest.

Sincerely,
your former neighbor

The movers came today and took our stuff away. Everything from here on out should be more fun.

C's parents, sister, and uncle visited on Tuesday to say farewells. They also did us immense service by helping to pack up the kitchen and, even more importantly, to clear out the massive accumulation of boxes in the basement. Now, these were not boxes useful for moving. Most of them were too small to hold much, and those that were bigger were too mildewed to use. We had already cleared out usable boxes from the basement, but a tremendous amount of junk remained. To our relief, the trash collectors dutifully took away all the boxes on Wednesday morning.

So yesterday was our last packing day, and we did get everything packed. We had a couple of bad moments late at night, when we realized that we had forgotten certain things too large to go in any boxes but the ones we had already packed and sealed. We fell into bed around 1 am, expecting the moving truck by 8 am.

Today we didn't have to do much but sign paperwork, answer questions, and point the moving team in the right direction. What we ended up doing mostly was cat-wrangling. Our own cats were stuck in their crates and put on our apartment's little side porch, out of everyone's way. There is, however, a neighborhood cat that really really wants to adopt us. He is a gangly adolescent cat who, I believe, technically belongs to our next-door neighbors, but is rather neglected. He bounces around the neighborhood seeking attention from everyone. Today, our door was open and people kept going in and out! Whee! We removed that cat from our apartment probably a couple dozen times. He also dashed into the moving van several times. Keeping track of him kept us pretty busy.

I am become The Undecorator. Stuff is coming off of walls and shelves and out of cabinets. Brown Cardboard Box is the new decorative scheme. Walkways through the house have narrowed to barely viable passages, cluttered by boxes or stuff waiting to be packed. On the plus side, most of the books and board games have been packed. I think we're making good progress.

Reports of trapped kittens were investigated.

Kittens were indeed trapped, most secured in solidly constructed cages. The cages appeared comfortable, and kittens were provided with food, water, and other necessities.

The beetle was nowhere in evidence. It appeared to have entrusted the kittens to human servants. It may be nocturnal; nighttime observation is recommended.

Kittens did show vampiric tendencies. Caged kittens made several attempts to bite digits held near the cages. A kitten temporarily freed of its cage climbed up this investigator's arm, making for the neck. In no case did a kitten draw blood, however. If vampires, they are still young and ineffective.

Recommendation: leave the kittens in traps and continue to monitor for vampiric and other undesireable behavior.

Today we found a bit of time to swing by the house, which we still seem to be happy with:







But tomorrow we have to take a break from all this house business to go save the kittens...

Let the kittens go, nasty beetle!

Tomorrow we're off to the wilds of New State in search of a place to live. We have a pretty good list of what we want to look at, we have appointments set up, and, if all goes well, at the end of the week we'll be ready to make a decision.

Will update when we get back.

I accidentally got the neighbor boy in trouble today.

Our driveway is right next to our neighbors' driveway, and they tend to hang out there (it's also next to their porch), talking, smoking, doing whatever. Today I pulled into the driveway and waved a brief hello to them. As I opened up the trunk to get stuff out of it, I smiled and said "Hi there!" to the little boy riding around the driveway on his bike. I would guess he's about five. He looked at me solemnly and said, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Oh, OK," I responded, and went back to hauling things out of my trunk.

But as I walked up to the house, I heard one of the adults call the kid over and scold him: "Don't talk to people you don't know!"

OK, I don't really know these people; we've not done more than exchange pleasantries. But I live NEXT DOOR. They see me going in and out all the time. Plus, the adults were standing right there, within earshot of both the kid and me. I felt a little irritated, both that I am apparently a dangerous stranger in their minds despite living next door to them for years, and that the kid was getting scolded when all he did was tell me he couldn't talk to me. I didn't quite have the chutzpah to march over and introduce myself, though.

So, parents, what do you think? Am I being irrational? Should my neighbors lighten up? Maybe I should just never talk to small children, ever.

So we have been dosing Cat #1 with meds for her thyroid problem for a couple of months now. We stuff the tiny little pill in the Pill Pocket treat, she loves it and begs for more. No problem.

Except now Cat #2 has figured out that she's getting something he isn't. (He's not too bright, so it took him a while.) The normal routine is that I give them both food in the morning, and then give Cat 1 her "special treat." Well, this morning, Cat 2 ignored the food for a while, nibbled at it, and wandered off. When he'd left the room I went ahead and started fixing the treat for Cat 1. And suddenly Cat 2 leaps up on the table next to where I'm standing. I found a different treat for him, and gave each cat their treat. They ate them and then glared at each other, and had a brief spat after I left the kitchen.

I hope this isn't going to become an ongoing problem...

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post.

Our Winter of Being Sick has been followed by the Spring of Car Repairs, as our primary car spent the last 3 or 4 weeks at the body shop. We had taken it in to get some minor damage fixed, and then got a call that they'd found much worse damage once they started taking it apart. As we drove to the shop to check it out, I speculated on whether we should trust them. It turned out to be easy--they'd taken the front bumper off, so we could easily see that the bar supporting the engine looked like this:

______/\__

Yeah, I don't think it's supposed to be bent like that.

We had to wait on having the insurance company see it, then on getting parts from the manufacturer to replace the damaged stuff (including the radiator and the condenser for the air conditioner). Still no real idea what happened, just that at some point something (maybe a rock or a even a piece of ice) hit the bottom of the car hard. But now we have it back and so far everything seems to be working beautifully.

A rare thing at a residential liberal arts college--but we have a snow day today.

Unfortunately for me, I cancelled class last week when I was sick...and there was an official school holiday the week before...so my class that normally meets twice a week has now met only once a week for the last three.

Also, I have to rearrange my schedule completely.

Oh well.

Dammit. I am sick AGAIN, this time with a stomach bug. So far 2009 has been the Year of Feeling Like Crap.

In other news, though, earlier this week I had a job interview, at a small midwestern college. I could do this job. This job would be really good for me: it is teaching-focused, with lots of opportunities to do research and contribute to the school in other ways. The downside is that we'd have to move and find other employment for C.

I had some intimations I wasn't well during the interview: I thought I was still getting over a cold (hence congestion and a bit of a cough) and I had one bout of stomach upset which I attributed to nerves on Wed. night. I was fine on Thurs. and Fri. I was supposed to fly home on Thurs. night, but Northwest cancelled my flight, forcing me to come back on Friday instead. Still, I was OK those two days, and yesterday developed a fever, more GI symptoms, and a general feeling of misery and lethargy.

Great. I probably just made everyone at Interview School sick.

So far this year:

C. slipped on the ice and banged his head on the concrete steps of our house
C. got a bad cold, and developed a secondary bronchial infection
I got his cold, and developed a secondary sinus infection
C. got a gastrointestinal bug
I got a second, minor cold
I developed a rash in response to the antibiotics I was taking for the sinus infection

Now I am itchy. :(

My computer is working again. The current thaw allowed me to free my car from the driveway. My previous attempts to get it out have left impressive ruts (oops).

Curtis and I have both been walloped with bug after bug this winter, though. I think I have had at least two different viruses in the last three weeks. C'mon, immune system, surely you can do better than that!

My car is stuck in an icy part of my driveway and I can't get it out.
My computer doesn't want to run smoothly today.
Some of my neighbors have not bothered to clear, sand, or take other measures to render their sidewalks safe to walk on.
I've been asked to meet someone for lunch, and I don't know if there's a hidden agenda here.
Because I can't get my car out of the driveway, I had to take the bus to my meeting; because of the bus schedule, I am now likely stuck on campus for the next several hours.
Also because I can't move my car, I can't run errands on my way home from this meeting.

Grr.

We've noticed Cat 1 has been seeming thinner lately, and last week she had her annual shots and check-up. A couple hundred dollars' worth of blood tests later, it turns out that yes, she is sick. She has an overactive thyroid, which is pretty common in older cats. We basically have two options: we can give her meds (for the rest of her life) or we can take her to a nearby animal hospital where they will nuke her poorly-behaved thyroid. We're considering this option, although it's rather expensive, but we decided to try the meds first. With some trepidation, because she's a feisty cat, and we thought it might be difficult to force her to take pills.

Miracle of miracles, the vet provided us with little chewy cat treats to hide the pills in. The treats have a hole in them, so it's easy to insert the pills and pinch the treat shut to conceal them. Yesterday we gave her her first dose, and she gobbled the treat/pill up and begged for more. We're crossing our fingers that it continues to be this easy.

OK, back when I posted about our trip to New Hampshire I mentioned going through my lovely MIL's boxes of fabric--carefully kept, but not used in years.

Photos and details below the cut.

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This weekend I took the train from Massachusetts to New York and back again. This morning I was too sleepy to read, and yet not sleepy enough to actually sleep, so I wound up gazing out the window a lot. The view from the train is interesting. Houses and businesses tend to face toward the street, not toward the train tracks, so I saw a lot of backs of buildings: delivery entrances, parking areas, tiny urban backyards, bikes locked to little apartment balconies, rusty fire escapes. Lots and lots of trash ends up the embankments sloping down toward the tracks. I could spot old tires and plastic cups among heaps of anonymous and tattered rubbish. Graffiti tags caught my eye with their colors, stark white on reddish brick and bright colors on concrete, and with their shapes: letter forms sharp and jagged, or round and balloonlike. On an otherwise drab pond, surrounded by bare trees, a group of swans majestically glided about.

Hope everyone who is celebrating has had a nice Christmas.

We had our Christmas late. We meant to drive up to New Hampshire on Christmas eve, but the roads were icy, so we held off until Christmas day. Although I proposed that we could then open gifts when we arrived in the evening, I was overruled and we opened on the morning of Dec. 26. I also had fun helping my mother-in-law clear out boxes of fabric from her closet. This ranged from some real treasures (beautifully kept wool plaids that she's had for 50 years) to some terrors (orange polyester doubleknit from the 1970s). Mm, fabric. We feasted on salmon, tried out our new games, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.