More Rain, More Rain

It rained today. Again. It has rained every day this week; I checked the weather records on weather.com, and they're reporting that we've had rain here for 18 of the last 21 days. The yard is like a wet sponge; every time I take a step water oozes up from the ground around my foot. Algae is beginning to appear everywhere...not just on the ground but on sidewalks and driveways as well. Anyway, today it waited until the evening to rain. This made me happy as I was able to spend part of the afternoon working in my garden. I picked beans and cucumbers, and I pulled lots of weeds. Most of my garden seems to be doing pretty well. However, my cabbage is looking awful. It looks all wilted and sad (like it should look on a 100 degree day when it hasn't been watered for the better part of a week); though I'm not certain, I think that the roots are simply not establishing themselves and are thus rotting in the ground.

I don't want to live in a swamp any more....

Yoga

Since the pilates class for this summer term overlaps with the course that I'm teaching, I decided to try a yoga class instead. Our first class met today. At this point, I think I'll probably go back to pilates in the fall. While I liked the yoga class well enough, I don't really feel like I "did" anything. There was no "burn" during class, and I don't think I'm going to have any of the "I had a good workout yesterday" pains tomorrow. We'll see....

A Modern Charlie Chaplin

One of my friends who's a film major recently did a short Charlie Chaplin imitation film. It's great, just follow the link....

No More Weeds

I weeded my garden today. It looks very nice now. I also put some bug-be-gone dust on some of my plants. My lettuce is nearly ready to be cut, but something's already eaten about half of the leaves. Whatever it is also seems to like my cabbage and the leaves on my bean plants.

Oklahoma in the News....

Looks like Tulsa's been in the national news this week. I have to admit, it is kinda cool. It's not everyday that people dig up a time capsule containing a 1957 automobile.

Settling Back In

I feel like I'm rambling a bit today....

Anyway, I'm finally getting settled back into something resembling a normal schedule. It's amazing how being gone for a week can completely throw a schedule awry. The house is clean and generally in order, so that makes reading and working easier. (Housecleaning and laundry are among my favorite things to do for productive procrastination. They allow me to put off doing what really needs to be done while still feeling like I'm accomplishing something.) The summer course that I'm teaching started on Monday. I've got a section of Introduction to College Composition (which is a course I haven't taught before), and I have a class of 6 students. So far things are going well.... My garden desperately needs weeded, and I've been working on it little by little; however, the mosquitoes have been so thick lately that I'm convinced they're trying to carry me away. I'll probably douse myself in bug repellent and try to finish that task sometime tomorrow.

Over 1,000....

That's how many essays I read in Louisville throughout this past week. I don't have any exact count of how much I read, but I know I read at least 1,000 (mostly mediocre) student essays. I flew home today, and it sure is good to be home.

However, I thought I would use today's blog to recount some of the things I did/learned in Louisville.

*I learned lots of new words while I was reading essays. I kept a new words list from the week, but I don't think would be allowed to share it here due to institutional and student confidentiality issues.

*I watched horses run at Churchill Downs. I didn't place any bets, but I got to sit on the front row and watch the horses race past the finish line. The horses run very fast.

*I learned how baseball bats are made at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Their special exhibit, which was also pretty cool, was on Snoopy and baseball.

*I learned that the Ohio River is beautiful from the 23rd floor of a hotel, but not nearly so pretty from up close.

*I saw Sir Philip Sidney's armor and lots of chainmail, swords, and guns at the Frazier International History Museum. In addition to the weapons, they also had a pretty cool children's exhibit on dragons.

*I drank Bourbon.

*I learned that horses fly on airplanes. (We saw the airplane that transports race horses as our plane was leaving Louisville.)

I'm sure there's more stuff to report, but I think that'll be it for tonight. I was up at 5am to pack and everything, and I'm tired.

Hotel Pillows and Fire Alarms

Okay, I don't know who told the hotel people that everyone likes big fluffy pillows because, you know what, we don't!! While I understand that most people like pillows that are 8-12 inches tall (each), I'm not one of those people. I've been having trouble sleeping every night because my pillow is too big. I just want a normal pillow. Nothing extravagant, just something reasonable.

The fire alarms went off in our hotel at about 10pm last night. I was up in my room (on the 23rd floor) when the alarm went off. The alarm was followed by a disembodied voice giving instructions on what to do. After about half an hour things cleared out and we were allowed to go back to our usual business. When I arrived for breakfast this morning, I was informed that the alarm went off at about 3am as well. I guess I slept through that one. Perhaps the hotel should rethink the volume of its alarm system.

One Down....

I've safely arrived in Louisville. The flights were okay, though I don't particularly like flying at all. Though I was concerned about changing planes in Chicago, it was easy; I literally got off one plane and walked across the hallway and was where I needed to be to get on the next plane. However, I still don't understand why I had to fly from Tulsa to Chicago to Louisville....

Today was our first day of reading; one down, six to go. I ended up reading the responses to the prose question again this year. Most of the essays that I'm reading are very, very similar. I think I'm going to get tired of reading essays quite quickly this year.

I've met up with a few people that I went to school with or met other places, and I'm amazed how many people that I met last year are back to read again this year. I guess we're all a little nuts to keep doing this....

June Already....

It seems like the last part of May has just gotten away from me.... I've been reading and studying, avoiding reading and studying, and doing a whole lot of other things too.

My Garden -- I finally finished planting everything in my garden. Everything has come up except the potatoes and the mint (and at this point I don't know if they're going to come up any more). The birds had been eating my garden, so I bought a bird feeder to lure them away from my plants and seeds. The tactic is working wonderfully, but the birds are hungry little creatures. I filled the bird feeder twice yesterday, and they had emptied it twice by nightfall. They do spill some of the birdseed on the ground, but they eat it off of the ground too.

Totus Tuus -- I've been helping out with teacher training for the Totus Tuus program during the past several days. I helped prepare meals today, but I did some of the behind-the-scenes work earlier in the week. The group leaves for a week-long training tomorrow, and Jimmy will be going with them as the cook and general go-fer.

AP Reading -- Before Jimmy leaves tomorrow, he gets to take me to the airport. I get to hop on a plane to Louisville, KY for the annual AP English Literature reading. It'll be a long week, but there will be some fun in it too. (However, Louisville's not Daytona Beach. I'm taking the Killer Bunnies.)

I could keep rambling, but I won't.... However, I did see a funny thing today: I was driving behind a car that had a sticker on it that said 'Brown Ford.' The car was red.