backseat critic...
I never think he's paying attention to anything back there. I'm always surprised.
FLOBOT (on radio): "I can ride my bike with no handlebars... no handlebars... no--"
5 YEAR OLD: (in backseat): So what??
Saturday, May 10
Thursday, May 8
things about which i have been avoiding blogging, part two...
The Cat
My 13 year old cat has been acting really strange for a few months now. She's always been kind of crabby and aloof and all of a sudden she is all over us, all the time. In our laps, on our shoulders... it's really a striking personality change. And she's been sleeping in weird places (the sink) and peeing in weird places (the dishwasher). Finally we noticed she was losing weight, so last week we took her to the vet.
Turns out she is really sick. Her kidneys are basically shot, and the numbers from her labs are off the charts. After a week of vitamins and special food and subcutaneous fluid injections, she looks a little better, but... if the tests don't show some pretty drastic improvements by tomorrow (and it seems unlikely) we're are probably going to put her down.
And so the wife is sad and we broke it to the kids and now THEY are sad (although I think the Boy is mostly sad about everyone ELSE being sad) and I'm sadder than I expected to be given that she has been, at times, a pretty fucking unpleasant pet. (After moving to Alabama, she basically hid under the bed and growled for 3 months.) But she was my wife and my first joint-possession when we moved in together, so she's been through a lot with us.
We could keep things going for a while with pills and injections, and if she was a laid-back cat, I could see doing that, but... given her personality, I can't see putting her through that. She would be miserable. And it sucks that this is a consideration, but... we can't really afford it either.
So, the whole thing has made for a pretty shitty week. And financially, for it to hit right at the same time as the laptop... that really fucking sucks.
--- -- --- -- ---
I had planned a nice day in the city for myself today, but it's raining and I'm in such a shitty mood (see above and below) that I almost bagged it and stayed home. I ran this morning, and I have to say, this was the hardest one, motivation-wise, yet. I just DID. NOT. FEEL. LIKE. RUNNING. But I did it, which I guess is good. I think I'm going to run the week 4 program one extra day. I don't want to repeat the whole week, but I have yet to have a "good" run at the "3 min/5 min/3 min/5 min" level. I would like to feel good at the end once before moving up to week 5.
Anyway, back to today. The plan is to hit the MoMA this morning to see a design exhibit that closes in a week that I have been not-getting-around-to for a year or so now. While I'm there I will pick up a Mother's Day present of some sort for my wife from the gift shop. Then I plan to head downtown to the Independent Film Center to catch a new documentary about Philip Glass. It's the kind of nice "just for me" day that I very rarely allow myself, but... I'm just really not feeling like gallivanting today.
I should try really hard to take a mental day off, though, because the next couple of weeks will be booked solid with meetings and exams and graduations and presentations and grading and grading and grading. And once it's done, I won't have much time to take a deep breath before jumping into a summer of curriculum retreats and gifted classes and vacations and writing and portfolio editing and planning and planning and planning. I honestly can't see how I'm going to do all of the things I need to do this summer. Next semester is going to be tough.
I'm just a barrel of laughs this week, huh? I should close the laptop and take a nap.
The Cat
My 13 year old cat has been acting really strange for a few months now. She's always been kind of crabby and aloof and all of a sudden she is all over us, all the time. In our laps, on our shoulders... it's really a striking personality change. And she's been sleeping in weird places (the sink) and peeing in weird places (the dishwasher). Finally we noticed she was losing weight, so last week we took her to the vet.
Turns out she is really sick. Her kidneys are basically shot, and the numbers from her labs are off the charts. After a week of vitamins and special food and subcutaneous fluid injections, she looks a little better, but... if the tests don't show some pretty drastic improvements by tomorrow (and it seems unlikely) we're are probably going to put her down.
And so the wife is sad and we broke it to the kids and now THEY are sad (although I think the Boy is mostly sad about everyone ELSE being sad) and I'm sadder than I expected to be given that she has been, at times, a pretty fucking unpleasant pet. (After moving to Alabama, she basically hid under the bed and growled for 3 months.) But she was my wife and my first joint-possession when we moved in together, so she's been through a lot with us.
We could keep things going for a while with pills and injections, and if she was a laid-back cat, I could see doing that, but... given her personality, I can't see putting her through that. She would be miserable. And it sucks that this is a consideration, but... we can't really afford it either.
So, the whole thing has made for a pretty shitty week. And financially, for it to hit right at the same time as the laptop... that really fucking sucks.
I had planned a nice day in the city for myself today, but it's raining and I'm in such a shitty mood (see above and below) that I almost bagged it and stayed home. I ran this morning, and I have to say, this was the hardest one, motivation-wise, yet. I just DID. NOT. FEEL. LIKE. RUNNING. But I did it, which I guess is good. I think I'm going to run the week 4 program one extra day. I don't want to repeat the whole week, but I have yet to have a "good" run at the "3 min/5 min/3 min/5 min" level. I would like to feel good at the end once before moving up to week 5.
Anyway, back to today. The plan is to hit the MoMA this morning to see a design exhibit that closes in a week that I have been not-getting-around-to for a year or so now. While I'm there I will pick up a Mother's Day present of some sort for my wife from the gift shop. Then I plan to head downtown to the Independent Film Center to catch a new documentary about Philip Glass. It's the kind of nice "just for me" day that I very rarely allow myself, but... I'm just really not feeling like gallivanting today.
I should try really hard to take a mental day off, though, because the next couple of weeks will be booked solid with meetings and exams and graduations and presentations and grading and grading and grading. And once it's done, I won't have much time to take a deep breath before jumping into a summer of curriculum retreats and gifted classes and vacations and writing and portfolio editing and planning and planning and planning. I honestly can't see how I'm going to do all of the things I need to do this summer. Next semester is going to be tough.
I'm just a barrel of laughs this week, huh? I should close the laptop and take a nap.
Tuesday, May 6
things about which i have been avoiding blogging, part one...
The Computer
Last Friday, the wife's HP laptop crapped out. No power, no lights... not even the light that comes on when the AC plug is plugged in. Nothing. I wasn't home at the time, and she was on a deadline, so she flipped out and went to Circuit City and bought a new Gateway for $549. She waited until I got home before she broke the "security seal" (15% restocking fee) so I could give the HP one more look. I took out the HD, verified that all her data was still intact, then proceeded to try to get into the guts of the actual laptop. After taking 30-some screws out, I was having no luck getting to the spot where the power meets the motherboard, so I gave up. She opened the Gateway and proceeded to fuck around with Vista. (more about THAT later.) Meanwhile, I put the HP back together (except for the HD) and just for kicks, plugged it in.
Beeeeep.
Mother. Fucker.
So, to recap. We now have a $549 Gateway laptop THAT NOBODY NEEDS. And we can either keep it, or pay Circuit City $90 FOR NOTHING. The current plan is to keep the Gateway and put the HP back together... test if for reliability, and either pass it down to the kids (whose eMachines is kinda old and crappy and we have been considering replacing) or try to sell it on Craigslist for $300.
The thing that makes me so mad is that I have been VERY PATIENT about putting off a new Mac purchase for the past 6 months, and arranging with work to borrow a MacBook so that I can wait out the summer as well. Now I still have this old piece of shit, and she's got a brand new shiny 3 GHz computer to run Microsoft Word on.
Except of course, she CAN'T run Microsoft Word, because most of her old installs will not work on Vista, or she doesn't know her OS well enough to get all the pieces of the installs to transfer, or she's lost license codes to her various downloads because she doesn't keep track of shit. Which means she's probably going to drop $200 more on software, essentially killing her biennial argument of "Well MY computers only cost $600."
Anyway. I'm pissed and I feel like now I cant buy my iPod Touch next month b/c we're out $600, and my reimbursement check for latest chunk of my research funds is just enough to cover that. It seems like every time we have an extra couple hundred bucks come in, it immediately disappears into some kind of fucking black hole.
Oh yeah, and the DEADLINE she was on that necessitated buying a new computer RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT? She hasn't worked a single minute on it since Friday.
The Computer
Last Friday, the wife's HP laptop crapped out. No power, no lights... not even the light that comes on when the AC plug is plugged in. Nothing. I wasn't home at the time, and she was on a deadline, so she flipped out and went to Circuit City and bought a new Gateway for $549. She waited until I got home before she broke the "security seal" (15% restocking fee) so I could give the HP one more look. I took out the HD, verified that all her data was still intact, then proceeded to try to get into the guts of the actual laptop. After taking 30-some screws out, I was having no luck getting to the spot where the power meets the motherboard, so I gave up. She opened the Gateway and proceeded to fuck around with Vista. (more about THAT later.) Meanwhile, I put the HP back together (except for the HD) and just for kicks, plugged it in.
Beeeeep.
Mother. Fucker.
So, to recap. We now have a $549 Gateway laptop THAT NOBODY NEEDS. And we can either keep it, or pay Circuit City $90 FOR NOTHING. The current plan is to keep the Gateway and put the HP back together... test if for reliability, and either pass it down to the kids (whose eMachines is kinda old and crappy and we have been considering replacing) or try to sell it on Craigslist for $300.
The thing that makes me so mad is that I have been VERY PATIENT about putting off a new Mac purchase for the past 6 months, and arranging with work to borrow a MacBook so that I can wait out the summer as well. Now I still have this old piece of shit, and she's got a brand new shiny 3 GHz computer to run Microsoft Word on.
Except of course, she CAN'T run Microsoft Word, because most of her old installs will not work on Vista, or she doesn't know her OS well enough to get all the pieces of the installs to transfer, or she's lost license codes to her various downloads because she doesn't keep track of shit. Which means she's probably going to drop $200 more on software, essentially killing her biennial argument of "Well MY computers only cost $600."
Anyway. I'm pissed and I feel like now I cant buy my iPod Touch next month b/c we're out $600, and my reimbursement check for latest chunk of my research funds is just enough to cover that. It seems like every time we have an extra couple hundred bucks come in, it immediately disappears into some kind of fucking black hole.
Oh yeah, and the DEADLINE she was on that necessitated buying a new computer RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT? She hasn't worked a single minute on it since Friday.
Monday, May 5
Saturday, May 3
noodling...
My senior project student is finishing a documentary film this week, and the person she was counting on for the score didn't come through, so this is what I've been doing for the past couple of days. I love having an excuse to fuss around with GarageBand.
The documentary is on a space-related topic, so any passing resemblance of the music to the work of Vangelis is COMPLETELY INTENTIONAL!!
My senior project student is finishing a documentary film this week, and the person she was counting on for the score didn't come through, so this is what I've been doing for the past couple of days. I love having an excuse to fuss around with GarageBand.
The documentary is on a space-related topic, so any passing resemblance of the music to the work of Vangelis is COMPLETELY INTENTIONAL!!
liveblogging the week four run...
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow ow ow fuck ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow pant pant ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
fuck ow ow ow ow ow ow fuck fuck ow ow ow ow
ow ow pant pant ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow ow ow fuck ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
ow ow ow pant pant ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
fuck ow ow ow ow ow ow fuck fuck ow ow ow ow
ow ow pant pant ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
Friday, May 2
"dear penthouse letters..."
I had drinks with some colleagues after work today. Then after that I was supposed to meet a former student for coffee if she got to NYC from Boston in time. She never called, so I assume she was held up. Which is fine. Probably for the best, actually, because... cute former student/groupie who has since graduated and then comes back to town and invites you out for coffee... I have an awful lot of recurring sexual fantasies that start out that way. God forbid the situation should ever actually set itself up so perfectly... I'd almost certainly find some way to ruin it.
I had drinks with some colleagues after work today. Then after that I was supposed to meet a former student for coffee if she got to NYC from Boston in time. She never called, so I assume she was held up. Which is fine. Probably for the best, actually, because... cute former student/groupie who has since graduated and then comes back to town and invites you out for coffee... I have an awful lot of recurring sexual fantasies that start out that way. God forbid the situation should ever actually set itself up so perfectly... I'd almost certainly find some way to ruin it.
shoe report...
Well, the verdict is in, and while the new slow-motion-video-approved shoes are not working magic, they are pretty fucking impressive. I ran the last day of week three Thursday morning and my shins only gave me the tiniest tweak during the last run... a tweak that I probably wouldn't have noticed had I not been obsessively monitoring the state of my shins. Given that for the past 3 or 4 runs, the pain has been sharp and obvious - not unbearable, but certainly impossible to ignore - a little tweak is a big improvement. So, I guess that was worth $95 (or rather, worth the $40 MORE than the $55 shoes) after all.
Shoes aside, it was 28ยบ fucking degrees this morning. The whole point of waiting until mid-April to start this endeavor was to NOT have to deal with sub freezing temperatures. So my lungs were not terribly happy about the cold air. But the thing that happened this morning that I felt good about was this... I complained to my wife about the cold while I was getting dressed to run and she said, "So just run tomorrow instead"... and I wasn't even tempted, not even a little bit. It simply did not occur to me to not run today. When I realized this, I was surprised. Maybe this running thing is going to work.
If I'm starting to sound all Oprahfied or like an inspirational poster or something, please feel free to tell me to shut the fuck up. I know that's not what people come here for. But I'm finding it hard to contain my bemusement at even these tiny successes.
Well, the verdict is in, and while the new slow-motion-video-approved shoes are not working magic, they are pretty fucking impressive. I ran the last day of week three Thursday morning and my shins only gave me the tiniest tweak during the last run... a tweak that I probably wouldn't have noticed had I not been obsessively monitoring the state of my shins. Given that for the past 3 or 4 runs, the pain has been sharp and obvious - not unbearable, but certainly impossible to ignore - a little tweak is a big improvement. So, I guess that was worth $95 (or rather, worth the $40 MORE than the $55 shoes) after all.
Shoes aside, it was 28ยบ fucking degrees this morning. The whole point of waiting until mid-April to start this endeavor was to NOT have to deal with sub freezing temperatures. So my lungs were not terribly happy about the cold air. But the thing that happened this morning that I felt good about was this... I complained to my wife about the cold while I was getting dressed to run and she said, "So just run tomorrow instead"... and I wasn't even tempted, not even a little bit. It simply did not occur to me to not run today. When I realized this, I was surprised. Maybe this running thing is going to work.
If I'm starting to sound all Oprahfied or like an inspirational poster or something, please feel free to tell me to shut the fuck up. I know that's not what people come here for. But I'm finding it hard to contain my bemusement at even these tiny successes.
Thursday, May 1
commute...
Once every six months or so in NYC, there is some sort of minor problem with the mass transit system that in most any other city would remain a minor problem, but in New York, quickly snowballs into a giant, city-wide transit clusterfuck. And I'm almost always watching it on TV from home saying to myself "Ha! Good thing I didn't go in today!" or "Glad I leave on a 4:08 train!".
Not this time.
An electrical fire shut down the whole PATH system that runs from NY to NJ, which meant I had to take the subway to Penn Station, the NJ Transit train across to Secaucus, and pick up my regular train there. Me an the other 100,000 people who couldn't get to Hoboken. Fun.
I missed my regular train by TWO FUCKING MINUTES, which always sucks. But I was only an hour late getting home. It could have been worse.
I'm taking an extra extra late train today to let get things back to normal. The Port Authority website tells me that the trains have been running a normal schedule since 6:30 AM. We'll see.
Once every six months or so in NYC, there is some sort of minor problem with the mass transit system that in most any other city would remain a minor problem, but in New York, quickly snowballs into a giant, city-wide transit clusterfuck. And I'm almost always watching it on TV from home saying to myself "Ha! Good thing I didn't go in today!" or "Glad I leave on a 4:08 train!".
Not this time.
An electrical fire shut down the whole PATH system that runs from NY to NJ, which meant I had to take the subway to Penn Station, the NJ Transit train across to Secaucus, and pick up my regular train there. Me an the other 100,000 people who couldn't get to Hoboken. Fun.
I missed my regular train by TWO FUCKING MINUTES, which always sucks. But I was only an hour late getting home. It could have been worse.
I'm taking an extra extra late train today to let get things back to normal. The Port Authority website tells me that the trains have been running a normal schedule since 6:30 AM. We'll see.
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