You Say It's Your Birthday?

Na na nana na na naNA! It's my birthday too, yeah!

Since it's crazy early in the AM and I'm up and fitzing on the computer (couldn't sleep...too many things to think about) I thought I'd acknowledge that yes, indeedy, I turn 39 today. I got a nice present from Andrew already-- a cute new outfit w/ leather boots & a tiger's eye necklace & brown citrine earrings.

I think we're also going to go to the Animal shelter later today and get me a kitty cat. :) We haven't had one for a while-- the two I was "fostering" got weird when Andrew's dad was dying and we were gone every other week (was that really over a year ago now?) And we waited. The main thing we were waiting for was the babies getting ready. Maia has now been campaigning for over two weeks to get "a kitty and a doggy." And there's a neighborhood cat who she calls "her kitty cat friend" she wants to see and both babies LOVE petting it. And they're good with it. So I think it's time. We are NOT getting a doggy, at least not for a while. I think just having a kitty will make them happy. And if not, Santa can bring a stuffed doggy. :)

I'm doing some researchy things to prepare for Monday. And I still have the eternal PAPERS TO GRADE this weekend that really realllllly have reached their outer limits for reasonable time to get back to students. I've just been totally not in to grading them this last couple of weeks. I do love my students & sometimes I am delighted by their papers and ideas but it's just the logistics of getting myself to sit down and comment & really do their work justice (I do a lot of writing on their papers-- way more than I probably should).

So that's my weekend plans. Enjoy my birthday. One more year til the big 4-Oh. And my own personal goals to try to get some Big Things done by then. This should be a year of taking stock-- making sure that I am not letting Things Slip By. But that's another blog for another day.

And my IPod seems to be working again. I let it totally charge down and now it's happy again. I am NOT using that car thing anymore, though, that's for sure.

You-Pod

I am a PC person. It all started just about my junior year of college-- hubby bought me my first real computer outside of the campus comp labs which were mostly Mac. I was hooked.

So let me say, we bought an Ipod last week. 8 gb. Cute hot pink. And our Bose stero system thing that we're supposed to hook said IPOD into to play music at home. I loaded about half the 8 GB with music from Aerosmith to ZZ Top. We also have this gadget that's supposed to play the IPOD shuffle on your car stereo.

Sometime Monday ish the first IPOD flaked out. I took it back, said "this un's broken" and got a new one. Today, second IPOD seems to have done the same thing. I THINK it's the car stereo gadget doing something. It's really really irritating. I hope that it's just a wonky battery or something and not a need to go BACK to Sam's and say "I have a second broken IPOD" cause I think they would think I was doing something wrong. (When I really have been very careful.)

Technology, if didn't know this already, is inherently evil. If you don't believe me, ask Murphy.

The Pool is Dead; Long Live the Pool

The source of so much summer fun, our little backyard pool, is languishing. The pump/filter thingy is broken, there are leaves clogging the bottom, and Sean has chucked dirt off the porch of his fort so that there is sandy crap all over the shallow end. In the deep end is the beginning of a greenish algae bloom, hampered only by the cold weather.

I feel guilty. I should do something, get it fixed, clean it. I know it's too cold to swim in right now but it just looks like a swamp. Perhaps a ghost will start haunting it, being picturesque and gothic. Only nice ghosts, please. None of those violent ones.

And yes, right now, that's the biggest news around here that's fit to print. :)

Halloween Carvings

Here I am carving punkins for Halloween. I'll post actual costume-y pix eventually. I know it's a little over exposed but Andrew had a weird effect on the camera, and this is the best one, really.

And here's what they looked like in the dark. I wish they weren't blurry, but it's part of the slow shutter speed that I haven't mastered.

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility....

I know. That's a pretentious title. :)

I have been doing my Women Writers academic journal/webzine for ten years. It started off as a summer project and now is basically a full time job for which I am paid in the occasional good book. I complain about it sometimes and rarely have the time to devote to it that it deserves. I've looked for grants in the past, and maybe I need to see if I can find something again. BUT. That's not the point of this entry. It sometimes feels like a huge burden and responsibility, but it's also really cool. Sometimes, I have been the first place a budding author sees their work "in print" and sometimes we're the first book review, too. So it's exciting!

I get review copies of books. An awful lot of them are icky, and I read a few pages and go looking for something else. But recently I got one that I quite liked. The cover art was awesome & I liked the premise. So I started reading it and I really, really, really like it. I'm going to write a real review of it on the website, but I have to say that this is my greatest compliment: I wish I had written it. It's the kind of book I long to write.

Perhaps if I get the new "grown up job" I'll have time to do my own writing instead of merely grading other people's writing all the time and I can finally write my own "paranormal romance" that has a few little (awesome) pages done. Here's hoping.