Idol

Last night I dreamed that Billy Idol was a very charming, slightly older, African American gentleman who had come to my (church? high school? workplace?) to give some sort of (presentation? concert?). In waking life, I own his Greatest Hits, but in the dream I was convinced that it was Rebel Yell.

It was one of my less bizarre and disturbing dreams in recent memory.

Late

It's odd to me that when I'm the only one in the house, it takes me longer to get to bed. You'd think that with fewer distractions, I'd be in bed earlier, but it never seems to work that way.

Tonight I went to dinner and a movie* with a friend, and then we yakked for close to an hour while we were parked at the curb outside my house. Then I needed to finish hemming the skirt I made this weekend(!) and want to wear tomorrow, and that took quite a while.

Tomorrow evening I teach, but I also need to run several errands before I leave town early Wednesday. That flight is at 6 a.m., which doesn't give me much time at all between when I get home from teaching and when I leave for the airport the next morning. Since I plan to spend as much of that time as possible sleeping, I have a very full day ahead of me tomorrow.

So! Off to bed.

*I may say which one later

Failing

This morning I am feeling like a tiny bit of a failure. I think I'll blame it all on the snow that fell yesterday.

Snow yesterday afternoon

I failed to go to yoga this morning because I didn't feel like navigating the snowy roads. This is particularly embarrassing because only about two inches fell yesterday. It was apparently on top of freezing rain, though, rendering the streets a bit treacherous. I say apparently, however, because (failing!) I haven't even been outside since I got home from yoga yesterday morning. Anyway, I didn't feel like risking it for my non-favorite instructor this morning--though I'll almost certainly risk it for brunch with friends later.


I also failed at NaBloPoMo daily posting. I realized this morning that I had entirely forgotten to post yesterday, despite the fact that I had totally planned what I was going to do. Maybe it was because I'd thought about it so much that I forgot to actually do it? Maybe I'll blame the snow.

Here is a happier picture on which to end:
David carrying Bruno in the laundry basket

Finally. I may be failing to keep myself well, based on the sore throat I woke up with this morning. As it seems to be disappearing as I drink my tea, however, maybe it's just due to... breathing cold air all night?

SNOW, I SHAKE MY FIST AT YOU!

Friday

Tonight:

Sushi (veggie for me, of course) at Masu in Northeast

Bonfire with the downstairs neighbors (we're still snow-free here... at least until tomorrow)

Final

Tomorrow, I teach my last class at the for-profit institution that will remain nameless.

I look forward to having my Fridays back!

Dialogue

David: "It's 10:00. Have you started your blog yet?"

Ahh, November. You and your antics.

Minutes later...

David: "Hey, are you working on that blog?"
Me: "I just logged into Blogger. But I don't know what to say."
David: "That. 'I don't know what to say. Goodnight.'"

Apparently it's bedtime. Goodnight!

Ideas

Sometimes, I come up with ideas for my survey class that I'm pretty proud of. I like the project where I have the students team up and design a logo for an assigned period we've studied. I like the ones where they research an assigned topic and then give a creative presentation to the class. I like playing Jeopardy! with review questions (although this works much better with a smaller class than with 60!).

But today, I struck what may be pedagogical gold: instead of showing a 30-minute supplemental video in class,  I let them go early and made watching the video on their own time (it's on YouTube) optional for extra credit. Granted, the ones who want the points will be e-mailing me their responses, so it's a bit more work for me. But I got to leave almost an hour earlier than usual! And since I have such a long drive home, I may have been even happier about it than my students were (and they were plenty happy).

On my drive home, the moon was huge and pumpkin-colored, with dark wisps of cloud fluttering across it in a way that made it look quintessentially Halloweenesque. Growing up in the Northwest, I remember being baffled by descriptions of the moon as red or even orange; the most I ever saw it was yellowish, or maybe slightly peachy. But in the Midwest, we definitely have that full-on harvest moon thing going. What about you Northwesters? Do you ever see the moon as orange or red, or am I just imagining a geographically paler moon from my youth?

Date

Tonight David and I hit up Cheap Date Night at one of the many venues that make Mpls so awesome: the restaurant/bar/theater/bowling alley Bryant Lake Bowl. We were actually doubling with one of my good friends and her new man-friend, so it was especially exciting. We all had fabulous squash ravioli in tomato sauce (there are two menu options for the cheap date, vegetarian and carnivorous, and even though they are carnivores, they went for the ravioli over the chicken something-or-other). My friend credited me with being the reason for her choosing the squash! This makes me unreasonably happy.

After our carrot cake (for David and me) and flourless chocolate torte (for them), we bowled--part of the date night deal. David is an excellent bowler. I am a terrible bowler, but make up for what I lack in style (and points) with enthusiasm!

But now it is late. I teach tomorrow (only three meetings left!), and am not prepared, so it should be a good time. Thankfully I'll have several hours in the morning and early afternoon to get myself ready.

Oh, also! Here are my words of wisdom for the day: if you are in doubt, at all, ask the bus driver. Otherwise, like me, afraid to look dumb/convinced that the campus connector must stop at the student union, you might, like me, end up on a bus ride to Saint Paul and back, miss your 8:00 appointment, and lose an hour of your morning. And THEN won't you look dumb, when you get off the bus at the same place you got on, an hour ago. Seriously. Five years on this campus, and a little (massive) road construction (and complete restructuring of the shuttle routes) totally threw me off. Sigh.

Meta

NaBloPoMo is bad for my sleeping habits.

Profit

So this fall I've been teaching an Art Appreciation class at a for-profit college. I feel very conflicted about this, because I really think their model is despicable. Ideals about what one can accomplish, what knowledge one can impart and creativity one can inspire fade fairly quickly in an environment where half one's students are functionally illiterate. What's worse is that this college is happily taking their money (federal student loans most, if not all, of it) without any apparent consideration of whether the students can read, speak English, or consider the implications of the debt they'll be incurring--even if they can miraculously get a degree and a job out of the deal.

And I'm complicit in the system! I can tell myself that at least I'm offering them quality instruction--but much of the time, even when I'm dumbing it way down, I don't know how much they're actually getting. I have all sorts of lofty ideas about teaching students how to see, but as I said, those tend to fade quickly.

Anyway, I was just going to mention how I had to teach today instead of yesterday because of the holiday--information I only learned, from my students, LAST Friday. So today we got one hour into class before we got kicked out, by the class that regularly meets there on Saturdays--surprise! Two of my students also had to leave their own Saturday class early to come to mine.

However, it's clear that this school has much more significant problems than their poor scheduling and communication. As I said, the whole model is broken. I do love my students, but I'll be glad to be done.

Toe

Hey, remember my bum toe? Weirdly, I don't seem to have talked about it here all that much--probably because it's too depressing. That, and before NaBloPoMo I was hardly blogging at all.

Well. It was hurting a lot: when I ran, obviously (though I was hardly doing that any more, thanks to the pain), but also when I walked, when I stood, when I woke up in the morning, at the end of the day... It hurt all the time, and the joint was red and swollen.

I saw an orthopedic surgeon, who said the only solution for me was surgery. He also said that although he would do his best to preserve the joint, if he couldn't save it, fusion would be the only option. I had to be okay with waking up from surgery with that joint fused: he didn't want any tears. Ahem. Apparently this has been a problem with former patients? I can appreciate his honesty, but I didn't love the approach.

I was pretty bummed about the surgery thing, but was in so much pain, and so much more bummed about not being able to run (the surgeon did say he had fusion patients who had run their best marathons post-surgery) that I still thought I'd have to go for it.

Before I did, though, I decided, at my dad's urging, to see a podiatrist.

Not being able to run, and being in constant pain, was making me really depressed, so it took quite a while to set that appointment up, but I finally did it.

The podiatrist was much more personable, and he told me that my hallux rigidus* was in an early stage and would likely respond well to conservative treatment--no need for surgery, at this point.

That was super encouraging! I was excited to see how the inserts he made for me, and wearing my running shoes all the time, would make my feet feel.

They made them feel a little better--but not much. So I went back, and he adjusted the inserts again. Better yet, he prescribed physical therapy, which ended up being the most effective solution to date. In addition to having the toe stretched and adjusted, and learning new exercises and stretches, I received transdermal acetic acid via iontophoresis. Although it raised tiny blisters on my skin every time we did it, it significantly reduced the pain and swelling in the joint. I was so happy to have found something that worked!

My toe got so much better that after a few weeks my PT suggested we stop and see how things went on their own. As it happened, my toe went back to bad about a week after my last acetic acid treatment. And because I was back in pain, and super bummed, it took me a long time to make another appointment (see above).

But I did. I went back to the podiatrist on October 20 and told him that even though I was wearing comfy shoes with his inserts, and wasn't even running, my foot was still driving me crazy. So he suggested a cortisone shot, which is one more thing to try before considering surgery (surgeries that he described as far more minor than what the orthopod had mentioned!).

He gave me a shot of anaesthetic on top of my foot, and then stuck a thin needle right into the joint. It did hurt, but it was over quickly, and I was able to walk right out of the office afterward. The joint, full as it was of extra fluid, felt stiff for a while, but soon felt amazing. I didn't feel any pain at all! I actually laughed out loud at myself when I realized that was because the anaesthetic was still doing its work. When that wore off, my toe hurt, worse than before. I limped around for the rest of the day.  It still hurt on the 21st, but by the 22nd, it was feeling significantly better.

Since then, it has been great! I do still feel it sometimes, especially after yoga or after a spell in non-sensible shoes. Occasionally it will pop, too, but it rarely hurts significantly. In fact, it's almost like having a normal foot again! I can hardly express how wonderful this is, and what a relief it is to not have foot pain gnawing at the back of my mind all the time. I haven't tried running on it yet, but feel very optimistic about the possibility!

It's unclear how long the shot will be effective, and he said it's not the sort of thing he generally likes to repeat. However, I've talked to people whose cortisone shots have lasted them years. I'm hoping that's the case for me, too!

Wow. That got long.


*Have I mentioned that that's my diagnosis? Latin for stiff big toe.

Touchpad

Touchpad en abyme (in its case)

So, forever ago, when HP announced it was killing its previously $500 tablet PC and liquidating the remaining models for $99, David got really excited. So excited he got me excited, too. A lightweight tablet, with a beautiful screen, built in camera, video chat capabilities, etc. Plug in a portable keyboard and it's basically a laptop--and even lighter than a netbook! An e-reader that, unlike my Kindle (which I've also grown to love--a story for another time) was backlit, for ease of reading in bed.

When David decided to try to get one, I suggested he get two! I mean, seriously, $99?

One of those was for me, btw. There was no way he needed THREE tablet PCs.

It took him pretty much an entire Sunday of clicking refresh on the swamped HP site, inching through the checkout process, but he got it done! We waited weeks and weeks for them to arrive, but they finally came. I'm blogging from mine right now.

PAINSTAKINGLY TAPPED ON MY HP TOUCHPAD, WHICH WAS TOTALLY WORTH ALL $99.

Pancake

Recently, I've been making German pancakes almost every weekend. We were getting half a dozen eggs in our CSA every week until two weeks ago(!), so the ingredients were always on hand. The recipe is also ridiculously easy: throw everything into the blender, bake for 35 minutes, and you're golden.

Alton Brown's recipe (I use regular sugar + vanilla, rather than vanilla sugar; regular salt; and soymilk)

David has gotten rather tired of them, though, and even my passion is cooling, so I'll try to find a different delicious brunch staple. Any ideas?

Tuesdays

Tuesdays, I teach in Mankato.

I usually spend the first eight hours of the day prepping for class--occasionally less if it's material I'm especially comfortable with. (The class I'm teaching is Survey I, cave paintings to cathedrals, so I usually need a significant refresher. Also, I'm sort of obsessive about my PowerPoints.)

Then I drive 82 miles, which takes a little less than two hours, depending on traffic.

Then I teach for three hours. Tonight I had it somewhat easier because I showed a 50 minute film, but I'd had to prepare an earlier quiz to go along with it, so all I really saved was my voice.

Finally, after questions from students and packing up, I drive home.

Tuesdays are long.

Cake Pops

In response to my last post, Mari asked about my recipe for cake pops, so I thought I'd give a quick rundown.

Hastily decorated party cake pops

Bakerella's basic formula is super simple: bake a cake, crumble it up, mash in frosting, form into balls, insert sticks and dip into candy. I think this is her most detailed tutorial.

The first time I tried this, I made several mistakes:

1. I bought some Fancy Deluxe Super Moist cake mix that called for something like half a cup of oil; even though I didn't add that much, the cake was still kind of greasy--probably fine for regular eating, but not great for cake pops. The second time, I bought a cheap store brand cake. Much better!
2. I used Wilton's white candy melts, which had a dreadful, hypersweet cheap candy flavor. The second time around, I used their chocolate ones, which were far better; they tasted like candy I would actually want to eat.
3. I used homemade cream cheese frosting at nearly full strength sweetness. Paired with the white candy shell, that was way too sweet. The second time around, I whipped the frosting left over from my first attempt--maybe a cup?--with another block of Neufchatel and some more vanilla. That made for a less sweet frosting and a far tastier pop.
4.  I didn't let the balls chill sufficiently before dipping them, and this is probably the most important thing. If they're not nice and cold--the second time, mine were pretty much frozen--the candy coating won't stick well. I had mine in the freezer for probably at least an hour before dipping them, and I wouldn't go with any less than that.

The second time, thanks to the knowledge gained from my first failure, things went much better. The pops actually tasted good--rich, more like dense brownies or even truffles, but good--and were superfun to eat. I wish I'd had a bit more time to decorate them; as it was, after all that fussiness, I was really pressed for time, and ended up slapping on some extra cream cheese frosting piped from a Zip-lock bag. I think I did all 31 (I think that's the number I ended up with, unintentionally!) in about four minutes.

They were a fair amount of work, but a big hit--so festive! I'd love to give them another try sometime, and do fun decorations. There is lots more inspiration over at Bakerella; check it out!

Golden

August 31st was my golden birthday, so I threw myself a party. I'd been wanting to have a party on the lawn of this house pretty much since we moved in; I may actually have been scheming about it even before the snow melted.

When August finally rolled around, I sent out invitations on sparkly gold paper left over from our moving announcements. I discovered cake pops and was inspired to make other foods on sticks: caprese salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, garden basil, and fresh mozzarella pearls; Greek salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta; and fruit skewers with pineapple, grapes, and strawberries. In the non-stick category, we had Martha's carrot-ginger mini-cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting; hummus with pita and crudités; and sparkling cocktails.

I set everything up on cream and gold tablecloths I'd found at the thrift store, with little gold napkins. We had golden balloons, candles in ornamented jars and lots of hanging lights--strands of regular mini white lights, some tiny Japanese paper lanterns, and even a random strand of spiky Ikea lights.

But! They don't call my Kitchen a Disaster for nothing. I spent all morning and afternoon cooking, baking, and running last minute errands, and David and our downstairs neighbor did yeomen's duty getting lights strung, and still things were crazy until right up to party time. Our other neighbor came up to lend me a hand with frosting cupcakes, and then they both did skewer duty. At one point, all four of us were in the kitchen when we heard a crash; investigation revealed that Brrrrrruno had managed to knock over a tray of cupcakes and consume at least one, liner and all, before we were able to separate them!**

At 15 minutes before the time listed on the invitations, I left my tireless helpers in the kitchen to throw on some make up and my party dress. I was still making little labels for the food and drinks tables when the first guests showed up! So. I don't have many pictures at all, which makes me very sad, because it was such a beautiful party.

It really was. The little lights made everything feel remarkably festive. It was a lovely evening, and the rather brisk breeze was countered by a roaring fire in the fire pit. There were girls in party dresses*** and tasty treats and lovely music, thanks to an iPod Hi-Fi boombox we found at the thrift store for $19 (2006 retail price $349. Oh yeah!).

Anyway, here are the pictures I do have. Try to imagine everything golden and sparkly, the way it is in my memory!































*Which I had to make twice, because the first batch tasted and looked pretty bad
**For weeks afterward when he would come up to our apartment, he would lick the floor and rug at the site of the crash.
***I wore my dress from a few Halloweens ago; how many chances does a girl have to wear a dress like that, anyway?

Pests

Brian posted today about a close encounter with a mouse, one closer--and funnier!--than many of my tales of the historic Mouse Wars. As I was looking through a few of those stories earlier today, I found some that I could definitely laugh at, and others that still seriously creeped me out. Of all the things I don't miss about the old place, the vermin are high on the list.

However, last night we came home to another horrifying pest: a house centipede. Seriously, these things are awful. According to Wikipedia, they can have up to fifteen pairs of legs. (Wikipedia also includes this charming quote of 1902, credited to entomologist C.L. Marlatt):

It may often be seen darting across floors with very great speed, occasionally stopping suddenly and remaining absolutely motionless, presently to resume its rapid movements, often darting directly at inmates of the house, particularly women, evidently with a desire to conceal itself beneath their dresses, and thus creating much consternation.

I'm pretty sure they're the grossest bug I've ever seen, and that's counting Louisiana cockroaches and Borneo cicadas. We were indeed consternated to find one waiting for us on our dining room wall when we returned from an evening out with friends.

I'm sparing you the close-up of the house centipede;
you can just see it as a dark blur here.

This is the second one we've encountered in this apartment; the last one so disturbed us that we used the vacuum to avoid having to touch it. Because we have one of those lightweight models, without a hose, David lifted the whole thing up above his head to aspirate the foul creature--which, thankfully, worked.

Last night, though, David just smashed it with a paper towel, and I Windexed the wall afterward. Ewwww.

Thinking about that as I read Brian's post and some of my old ones, I wondered whether I'd rather have house centipedes or mice. No question, really: as gross as they are, I'll take the arthropods any day--though I really, really, really hope I don't have to.

Already...

...I'm starting to run out of things to say. Things, in any case, I feel inspired enough to "say" by tapping the screen on my TouchPad (I just mentioned my new technology AGAIN! Story on it coming soon). It makes blogging from bed much easier, but not enough easier that I'm willing to tap out that story now.

Cheeseball

I made a cheese ball for a Halloween get-together at our neighbors' last Friday night.

It was really simple: Neufchatel cheese, a shredded colby/jack cheese mix, some green onions, and part of a packet of Ranch dressing (not dip) mix. I stirred it together, rolled it into a ball and left it in the fridge (in nonstick-sprayed plastic wrap) to chill for a few hours. Before the party, I shaped it into a rough pumpkin and stuck the stem of a bell pepper on top.

I'd been inspired by a photo of tiny pumpkin-shaped cheese balls (with pretzel stems and adorable parsley leaves!), but decided one big pumpkin made much better sense on my rushed schedule.

The Royal We

Primping before going out.

This year for Halloween, David and I went as a royal couple: we were Prince and Princess Leia.

I had wanted to be Prince since last November or so, when we watched Purple Rain for the first time and I was seized with inspiration.

Getting into character. (See my eye pencil side burns?)

My hair was even more Prince-ly then, and he wears pretty amazing eyeliner, so I thought it would be perfect. David came up with the Princess Leia counterpart.

I was able to find almost all the ingredients for my costume at our local St. Vinny's: studded pleather pants, a giant purple men's blazer, and gauzy ruffled curtains.

Raw materials: pleather pants, curtains, and a purple suit coat.

I bought silver pyramid studs at StudsandSpikes.com (no joke!) and "shooties" (this is a thing?) at Target.

I ended up putting in a pretty ridiculous amount of work on the costume. The pants were the easiest part: two quick seams up the legs to make them skinny. The shirt was more involved; I attached the ruffle to the collar of a short-sleeved white button down, built up a tall neck, made sleeves with more ruffles at the wrists, and even sewed on pearly buttons.

The giant blazer in its original state.

The jacket, though, was definitely the hardest. I thought I could get away with quick seams up the sides and down the sleeves, but that looked funny, so I ended up taking off the sleeves, shortening the shoulders, and reattaching them.

Mid-destruction

I even tacked part of the lining (which I'd had to take out first thing to access the structural seams) back in. It was good sewing practice but not something I'd readily take on again anytime soon.

I started out by actually studding these, then ended up borrowing my neighbor's hot glue gun and attaching them that way.

The results, though? Totally worth it.

David and his cinnamon buns.

David suggested that maybe instead of Princess Leia, he should just go as a ghost.

Oh! I also sewed David's costume, from this amazingly helpful tutorial. I did the hood and everything. Also crazy. The buns he found online.

Exhausted but still fierce after the party.

NABLOPOMO!

It's November again (what? already?), and so, as is my habit at this time of year, I'm once again attempting 30 posts in 30 days with National Blog Posting Month. I must admit I'm off to a less than stellar start, writing this post at 11pm after a long evening of teaching (though maybe I can get some credit for doing so on my new Touchpad, from bed?), but hopefully future posts will be a bit more thoughtful and substantive.

As usual, I invite all of you blogging Alert Readers (if I have any left!) to join me in this endeavor. AnGloPhOne (auto-corrected; 'can't figure out how to change it back) is much more fun with friends. Here's to an inspiring November!