Sunday, February 28, 2010

OMG! More podcasts on great apes who behave like humans, please! I love that there was a bonobo who could sort of speak English!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

I am now on spring break, and this is the first semester I have taught where I wish spring break came later. I am really enjoying the semester and find it tough to believe that we are half done.

Blueberry has started laughing. He laughed once on Monday, and then he laughed on and off for three straight minutes last night. I find this to be terrific fun. I looked forward to having kids, but I imagined that I would start to really enjoy them when they turned five or so; I was really looking forward to having a conversation. I have learned that babies can be a lot of fun, too. They cannot talk (although I swear he is doing his best to say "hello"), but they can communicate in a lot of different ways. I underestimated this.

On deck for spring break: buy a new refrigerator, get the oil changed, do some work for my class, do some research, and maybe go on a date with Skye to the Science Museum and an Indian restaurant.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Yesterday, I had the first experience of "bad day at work, but coming home to the baby makes everything better." It was not a very bad day, but there was one thing that was bothering me. Holding Blueberry for 5 minutes made me forget about it. He is starting to smile and focus on faces more, and that makes a big difference.

Today is the first day that I have him alone for a significant period of time. Skye joined the board of the local food co-op, and she has a four hour meeting today. This means that it is an all male/feline house right now. Things are going well so far. I am planning on taking my first one-parent shopping trip with him soon, stopping by the board meeting so Blueberry can get a snack, and then coming back time for more man-time.

Here is roughly what Blueberry looks like now,



only he has more hair on his head, less on his body, no green tongue, and does not eat turnbuckles (yet).

There are several exciting work-related things, too.


  1. After a long, healthy, frustrating debate, my department came to a decision. It was the decision that I wanted.
  2. I got funding to attend a summer workshop on cooperative learning.
  3. A have funding to virtually attend an online workshopon Sage.
  4. Someone, possibly me, in my department is going to apply for a grant to support undergraduate esearch.
  5. I have been making good progress on my research project with my partner, Aminal Beast.


This post was clearly for me—I make almost no attempt to make it entertaining for the reader. Sorry.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It makes me happy that 80% of Americans disagree with the SCOTUS ruling on campaign financing.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

I went to a caucus last night. I am now both a delegate and a precinct chair. I have power.

Here is an alpaca.