Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

I’m not going to post continuously just so that nobody thinks we’re off having a baby.  That said, the countdown has resulted in a good deal of activity around here.

Sydney is trying to finish up the formatting of his dissertation to get it sent off, and thus finds himself navigating the arcane bureaucracy of Cornell’s graduate school.  He has been threatened at home with dire things if he messes up my attempts to keep the house relatively tidy from here on out (yes, I would stack blocks and do laundry on my way to the hospital!).  And he’s still hoping to get rid of his lingering cough so that he gets a few nights of good sleep before the baby comes.  This time we’re hoping not to find ourselves laboring through the night; we’ll see if the little one cooperates!

Given the small size of our washer, I’m trying to stay very, very up on the laundry.  I sent my third chapter off to my advisors, and hope that they’re sufficiently daunted by having it sit in their inboxes that they don’t bug me for more in the near future.  I also sent in edits for a short journal article.  And now, between the two projects, I never want to proofread again.  So I am hunting up reading for my next chapter and looking forward to making a nice, fat stack of books and articles–my favorite part of dissertating.  I am craving exercise, since I know that there will be a lot of in-home time after the baby’s born, but walking just got very uncomfortable, so I’m sticking closer to home.  Oh, and I’m apparently now visibly pregnant, between being in my 40th week and no longer quite so bundled up for the weather (it’s nearly spring here).  The guys at the sandwich shop down the street liked the idea that they’ve been feeding panini to a little one every couple of weeks or so, unbeknownst to them.

Katherine’s lingering cough keeps her from settling right in to sleep, so we hear her for a few hours each night, chattering away to herself and running through the list of words she knows, over and over again.  I used to think that it was bad that she learned to walk, since then she could stand up in her crib and keep herself awake.  Now I wish she hadn’t learned to talk, since it’s now her own talking that keeps her up.  If I go in to cuddle her it just makes things worse: she has an audience!

Erin

At the moment Katherine still likes helping her parents (how long do you think that will last?). Emptying grocery bags and unloading the dryer are two favourites.The latter is particularly useful since she is of a much more suitable height than Erin is:

A vigorous shaking out is called for:

Then checking the smell:

Finally, it can be handed to Mama:

Sydney

There’s been a dearth of photos here recently; here are a few photos taken earlier in the month:

That’s Katherine keeping tabs on her block collection. She’s especially fond of the one with the lady-beetle on it, set aside on the windowsill. Having been born with good instincts, she recognizes that it’s all about birds, insects, and flowers.

Here’s one from my weekend in Devon (not Cornwall, as earlier reported), looking from the village of Topsham to the Exe ria, the edges of which I spent my time exploring:

A little farther along:

I was told that the path is called ‘The Goat Walk’ because villagers used to graze goats on the estuary grass and then would take them back along this path when the tide came in. Currently, the path is a lovely place to walk along the ria and look for gulls and shorebirds. This is where I saw my first avocets, which was very exciting for me. This area is one of their main wintering areas in England. They’re a big deal here — the train line into town is called the ‘Avocet Line’. There are avocet cruises on the river (solidly booked months in advance — otherwise I would have been on one of them). Lots of people come here to see the avocets.

I saw my first avocets along the Goat Walk but the truly spectacular sighting came early Sunday morning at a nature reserve just beyond the Goat Walk. Several of us birdwatchers were scanning the large flocks of godwits, widgeon, shelducks, redshanks, and so on, when suddenly a couple of hundred avocets flew in from the west in close formation. They then proceeded to fly back and forth numerous times, banking gloriously with each turn, looking for a good place to settle. Avocets are large birds with striking white and black plumage, but what made it so spectacular was that they were backlit by the morning sun but against a dark background. Unfortunately, I don’t have the equipment that’s necessary for decent bird photography, so I have no photos to show of the event. But other people do have such equipment; you can get some idea of what it looked like from the lovely photo of avocets about a third of the way down this page. I also saw thousands of the oystercatchers in the immediately prior photo on that page.

Sydney

At Cornell it’s called the B-exam but around here it’s called the viva; why not just call it a dissertation defence? Anyway, as you know, I had it. A while ago, actually, but David S. called for a ‘full report’ and so I’ve been meaning to say something about it. (Though, David, did you provide any report back when you defended?)

Getting to the point where I could defend was an irritating exercise, to say the least. My advisor had suggested at some point that we have the defence in Oxford rather than in Ithaca since he and another of my committee members were both going to be in Oxford anyway in January. As it happens, Cornell’s Code has provisions for this sort of thing, so we did not anticipate any difficulties. The new Dean of the Graduate School, however, is very keen to maintain the public nature of dissertation defences and so objected to our plan. I know that in some countries defences are public occasions where everyone from your professors to your family members attend, but when’s the last time you’ve seen somebody who was not an examiner attend a defence at an American school? Anyway, I submitted an appeal, the upshot of which was that due to my ‘highly unusual’ situation I was permitted to go ahead with a defence in Oxford, though the General Committee’s decision ‘cannot be taken as setting any precedent’. The Committee, unfortunately, objected to Skype and insisted that my permission was contingent on submitting a proposal for alternative, higher quality videoconferencing arrangements.

This resulted in a headache that lasted until the day of the defence, since Oxford is now largely relying on Skype and has abandoned many of its former videoconferencing facilities and since the facilities still around tended to be already booked for the day we had set for the defence. But, to make a long story short, we eventually secured technicians and facilities on both sides of the Atlantic.

The fact that this was all an exercise for nothing since none of my committee members were actually at Cornell did not make the headache any more welcome. The other two members of my committee were in South Korea and Indiana — and they connected via Skype. But on the day of the defence we had a fantastic videoconferencing connection with a large, mostly empty lecture room on Cornell’s campus. One professor from Cornell’s philosophy department eventually showed up — very generously, I have to say — just so that the technician wouldn’t get too lonely. There would have been plenty of room for all readers of this blog to come and enjoy seeing me on a big screen flanked by two of my professors.

The whole affair, of course, was grotesquely inappropriate for a Mennonite farm-boy with Luddite sympathies.

The defence itself went reasonably well, as far as I can tell. Which isn’t very far. We had a good, philosophical discussion that left me with further things to think about in the future. I expected one of my professors to cause me some discomfort and he didn’t disappoint. Pretty much every talk I’ve ever seen him attend he will at some point ask a question. The style is always the same. He will peer at one of his books — he always brings the primary texts with him — and adopt something of a puzzled expression, before asking what looks at first glance like some close to insignificant question, e.g., about the wording of one sentence buried in the paper somewhere or about some Latin or Greek word that perhaps could be translated differently than the author of the paper translated it. Usually, the author barely remembers the relevant detail. But, sadly, it quickly becomes apparent that the entire argument hinges on just this detail. I’ve watched many an argument go down in flames in this way at his hands and hence assumed that I would meet a similar fate. So, yes, one of the main arguments in one of my chapters may well be unsound since the Latin term ‘indigens’ could meet ‘needing’ rather than ‘lacking’ … and, yes, he is absolutely right that this detail is crucial for my argument.

But the committee seemed happy with my dissertation — though, cynic that I am, I put very little stock in such seemings — and passed me without requiring revisions. I do, of course, still have to get the dissertation to conform to Cornell’s style guidelines, so that’s my near-term project.

Sydney

. . . but one that is driven home for us over and over again: although you may have a sense for “normal” schedules and behavior for your child, you do actually spend a good deal of your time dealing with the non-normal.  I’m sure Katherine is a good sleeper in some sense, but between teething and the three colds/flus she’s had since we’ve been here, we haven’t seen a lot of normal!  Since she’s not in daycare or school she’s been rather sheltered from germs for much of her life, but I’ve been trying to take her out to playgroups and invite other families over as she gets more active, and after each new encounter she can be relied upon to come down with some bug or other.  I know this is just part of raising kids, no matter how healthy they are, but I can’t say it’s my favorite part!

In other news, I got a quick check-up this morning at the clinic.  I hadn’t met this doctor before, but I’m now smitten.  She seemed really sharp, but also non-alarmist.  The baby is ready to go, of a good size, and it’s taking up all the room in my midsection.  She was very glad to hear that our house has lots of stairs, since it’s good exercise, whether it’s comfortable for me right now or not.  Best yet, she told me I should have no need to go running around the county for more appointments before the baby is born, meaning I can spend my time at home resting up, eating up, and keeping up with Katherine and work.  For those who are counting, I have less than two weeks to go until my due date.

Erin

Last week Sydney finally got Katherine to master “Mama.”  She’s been quite keen on “Dada” for some time now, and asks after “Dada?” and cries “Dada!” when she hears the door, and, ahem, labels men on the street “Dada” when Sydney’s out for an afternoon.  But now she also shyly points to me and says “Mama.”  Yes, my hearts melts . . . and I’m assuming it will continue to do so until she learns to issue “Mama!” as a demand.  I’ll enjoy this short break between being unlabeled and having my title too readily on the tip of her tongue!

Erin

and a rather good bagpiper just passed the house . . . leading about fifty people in tuxes and dresses.  Katherine doesn’t seem to have been disturbed from her sleep, so I can simply be amused–and reminded that I am surrounded by irrepressible youth and ancient traditions!

Erin

We are celebrating Sydney’s defense in our own way, now that advisors are all gone and Katherine’s unstuffed enough to sleep at night.  We’re having another family over for dinner tonight, and Sydney’s objective seems to be to stretch the limits of our pots/pans, our fridge, and our guests’ stomachs.  The menu looks something like this: pear-and-blue-cheese salad, roasted vegetables with peanut sauce, a fiery corn-and-pesto side, squash casserole with feta and red peppers, sweet-potato crescent rolls, cranberry sauce, and apple crisp with ice cream.  It’s dangerous when Sydney’s been denied cooking time and then suddenly has a great excuse to get back in the kitchen!

Part of the objective is to fill up the fridge with leftovers to make things easier for me while Sydney’s away this weekend.  As something of a present I offered him the chance for an overnight birding trip somewhere in England, without Katherine and me, but I warned him to make it soon and stay on email.  So he’s going down near Cornwall on Saturday and Sunday to stand in mud flats (you see why I wasn’t sure the rest of the family should go?) while Katherine and I get in some mom-and-daughter trips to the parks before the baby arrives: me to walk, she to play.  And with things being more low-key I’m hoping to do a bit more baby prep while Katherine and I play (she found assembling the crib hilarious fun), and to enjoy quiet work time while she sleeps (Sydney also gave me some work time this morning; starting the day with a good work session generally puts me in a very good mood).

Work, exercise, play at the duck pond, good food, baby-readying, and a birdwatching trip: we’re all getting something out of this, even if we’re not doing it all together!

Erin

Apparently.  We had a lovely tea and dinner with Sydney’s advisors, and it was wonderful to have Ithaca friends here, in Oxford, catching us up on the latest from Cornell and noting the Oxford/Ithaca differences.  Katherine apparently talked her head off with her babysitter and went to sleep quite nicely, leaving us free to enjoy dinner at high table in Sydney’s college . . . where I was surprised to find that all of the undergraduates also came to dinner in coat and tie.  Quite unlike the American system, that’s for sure!

Erin

Sydney’s currently about ten minutes into his dissertation defense.  He has not had much time to gather his thoughts and read through his materials in the past few days, so he’s going to have to rely on general intelligence and those years of research to back him up as he answers questions.  Sydney’s advisors are currently spread over three continents, so there are a lot of technical issues to take care of; two advisors will be in the same room as Sydney, and two will be available by video (who would have thought you’d have Sydney in the same room as a videocamera?).

But we’re assuming things will go just fine.  Sydney will return around four with his advisor and his advisor’s wife, so that they get a chance to see how much Katherine’s grown and enjoy some tea, and then we’ll be having dinner with the advisors and spouses in Sydney’s college later this evening.

I’m very proud of him, though I apparently have to keep it to myself if I don’t want to put up with a lot of eye-rolling from Sydney.

Erin