Monthly Archives: February 2008

A view from the middle

In less than three weeks, Sydney will be home, after 8 weeks of being in England. I will be very glad to see him. I will also be glad that only three weeks of real class time will have to … Continue reading

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Coming down after quite a run

So you may remember that I went to see my college roommates in Boston a few weeks ago.  That was the start of the sugar binge.  Chocolate, cupcakes, you name it.  I did fairly well when I returned home, but … Continue reading

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Saying ‘bye to Mom

Mom’s headed out this afternoon.  Poor woman has read her way through four books as I’ve tried to keep up with email (horrible stuff, that, sometimes) and grade a batch of papers.  Thankfully, all of this recent visiting has a) … Continue reading

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Report

It’s Day Five of Mom’s visit, and so far my cooking hasn’t killed her off!  It’s also reassuring that I haven’t heard from her any of the following: “Oh, Erin, do you think that’s safe?”  “Have you ever considered cleaning … Continue reading

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question

It seems that everywhere I look someone is busy being outraged at something or other that the Archbishop of Canterbury said about Sharia in Britain. Can someone explain to me what the fuss is about? Nothing I’ve seen so far … Continue reading

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Company

My mom flew in Thursday night to keep me company for a week.  Since then we’ve been hibernating, with only one excursion out of the house over the weekend.  Partly we’ve stayed close to home because we both needed and … Continue reading

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Caecilians

Remember the fish that absorbed their mates? Here’s the next installment on weird animals. Caecilians are tropical amphibians that completely lack limbs. Hence, smaller species sort of resemble earthworms (they also live underground), though larger species might remind you more … Continue reading

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boors

A recent survey found that males between the ages of 18 and 34—note that I said ‘males’, not ‘men’—spend more time playing video games than males between the ages of 12 and 17. (Members of the latter group average about … Continue reading

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morning walk

As my salute to the beautiful day, I swung over to the University Parks this morning on my way to get groceries. Here are 0.2% of the snowdrops—absent any snow—that I saw: There were also a few daffodils: As usual, … Continue reading

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soloist histrionics

It’s always nice to find someone else thinking exactly what you’re thinking: Wandering from one television channel to the next the other day, I came across young people playing the piano. One man, bearded and a little hefty, rippled through … Continue reading

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