Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

of want-to-do-something-else.  It’s gorgeous weather.  I’d like to get outside, read a book in the shade, play a game of tennis, you name it.  But paper writing?  Not a glimmer of enthusiasm.

Erin

The news is in and, yes, our very own Sapsuckers successfully defended their championship in the 2007 WSB. The Redheads, our new team of Cornell undergraduates, also did well, coming in at second place in their category. Other universities can have their football; we have the winning birders!

Sydney

and saw that a turkey, standing in the middle of our lawn, was looking right at me.  He then sauntered off, but made sure to show off his beautiful feathers as he left.  An interesting place we live in!

Erin

We had a lovely time this afternoon enjoying a joint concert by the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble and the Madrigalia. The programme was consistently good (okay, almost–I didn’t care for the Robert Schumann piece they did). The most interesting piece they did was Mario Casteluovo-Tedesco’s Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads). Besides being interesting, it also had some hauntingly beautiful movements in it (that judgement is supposed to be a surprise to those of you who know my views on when we entered the musical dark ages). I’m not sure why his music isn’t performed more often.

But the most stirring piece was Mendelssohn’s ‘Heilig, heilig, heilig ist Gott der Herr Zebaoth’. I now expect to receive a ten CD set of Mendelssohn’s sacred choral works in the mail within a week or two.

In other news, our Indigo Bunting is back and frequenting our bird feeder again. He’s bossy and doesn’t like it when other birds come too close. But he’s pretty enough that we forgive him his vices.

Sydney

Man, I’ve got it bad.  In what I hope will be my last spring battling spring fever while trying to write papers, all I want to do is get out!  Garden, even organize my kitchen, just something that requires a very different attention than that required to write my term papers.  I will be so happy never to have to spend my May writing papers again.  I will do everything possible to make sure that absolutely no writing is required during this time of year.  It was a boon having such a looooooong winter, as it stretched out my academic self for a longer span than usual.  But now that spring is here, I want to do anything and everything else.

You can imagine that Sydney is absolutely no help in getting me to settle down.  Off birdwatching and gardening, anything but writing his papers, as well!  And when he’s gone, of course, I get a strong craving to organize everything I can.  You couldn’t tell by walking into our house, as I’m not allowed to touch his paper stacks (which now cover almost every surface of the house), but open any cupboard and you’ll see my handiwork!

Off to read an article, organize the kitchen, read an article, organize the bathroom . . .

Erin

She gave me a call to tell me she’s getting married next year! I know she and Mark have thought about this for awhile, but I haven’t allowed myself to think along those lines until given permission, so I’m surprised and really excited 🙂

For those of you wondering who, what, and why, Heidi became my best friend in 5th grade and stayed that way until she sent me off to college. If you ever need dirt on me (nothing scandalous, but she may have a story or two about me saying or looking stupid), she’s the one to get it from. More to the point, however, she is six months (and two weeks) older than I am, so she was the first of us to get her license, turn 18, 21, etc. When Heidi gets married then it will become something that a tiny part of me will see as a possibility for me, too.  She gets her license, I get my license; she gets married, then I can be married. I’m glad she didn’t keep me waiting too long in my space of uncertainty before helping me to realign myself to Heidi reality!

Very excited!  Best wishes, Heid!
Erin

Sydney has been getting all kinds of interesting email from students.  Though I am sure some are wonderful, organized, dutiful students, others are now desperately trying to figure out whether they will pass the course, and how much effort they need to expend this final week in order to ensure that they pass. I, draconian instructor that I am, think all who haven’t attended class and section regularly should not only fail, but be branded and made to walk the streets of Ithaca so that all may look upon he who failed to take advantage of his education. But that’s just me 🙂

I think I have some justification for hitting the roof, however, when Sydney told me that his professor had been forced to schedule a make-up exam not because the final exam schedule had some conflicts, but because some of the students in the class were scheduled to take an exam for a class that met at exactly the same time as the philosophy course. That might provide another reason for students not attending lectures: they were sitting in lecture in another course! Doubling up on courses, hoping to skate by simply by turning in papers and taking the final exam sounds really appalling to me.

Even as I am truly grateful I’m not battling the red tape in elementary and secondary education, I occasionally wonder what kind of “education” it is that we’ve gotten ourselves into here.

Erin

By five-thirty this morning Sydney and I were out the door, so that we could stand in line until 8:00, when the biannual Tompkins County Public Library book sale opened.  This is one of the largest book sales in the country, and even the best books are $4.50!  That’s why people camp overnight and stand in line for hours to get in: we want the first crack at the best books.  I cleaned up with lots of literature and criticism, and Sydney picked up not only philosophy books, but also a couple of CDs and a great cookbook on potatoes.  Despite some veeeeery minimal sleep this morning, we were both happy bookworms.

Once we had eaten second breakfast we ventured out to buy flowers for the large planter Sydney built last year.  I was apparently only there to second his decisions: it was his baby, and a beautiful one when all is said and done.  Will post pictures at some point this year.  Last year we had a wonderful riot of alyssum, pansies, coleus, and violas.  This year, it’s everything under the sun!

There are some wonderful things about being out of school, and having the opportunity to take advantage of truly beautiful days is certainly one of the best.

Erin

it wouldn’t seem so much like farming if Sydney and I weren’t out in the middle of a big ploughed field, all by ourselves, digging in dirt.

But today was fun 🙂

Erin

… but there are now six varieties of potatoes in the ground.

Sydney