Merry Christmas

I'm back from Germany and Poland. It was an excellent trip. Doreen and I each came down with a cold right before we returned home. So we've spent the last two days coughing and sneezing, hanging out with the cats, doing some good cooking, and enjoying the warmth of the woodstove. Life could be much worse.


The cats by the woodstove


Doreen and me by the Berlin Wall

There are many more pictures from Germany and Poland on my picassa page.

Disappearing for a little bit

In just a few hours I'm beginning a journey to Berlin, where I'll meet Doreen. We'll hang out in Berlin for a few days and then head to Krakow for a bit. Then back to Berlin and then we fly home right before Christmas.

It was a pretty insane week, but I finished all my narrative evaluations and finished moving my office. Still lots to do, but at least I got a lot crossed off my lists the last few days. I'm really looking forward to not being on email for a week, exploring some European cities, reading, and chilling out.

An Icy Thursday

A scattered update. No motivation for paragraphs:

• There's an interesting ice/sleet/rain storm going on. I just wandered outside and noted that my car is completely encased in 1/8 inch of ice. Maine: the way life should be, only icier.
  
• Why is it that my "break" thus far as seemed busier than the term?
  
• Possibly it's because I have 47 narrative evaluations to write.
  
• Happily, I'm done with (drafts of) all but three evals.
  
• But to write the next eval I need to look at some assignments, which would require getting up, which would disturb the cat that is sound asleep on my lap.
  
• "Area" on my satellite radio is playing a fantastic selection of trance tonight. Perfect for an icy night of coffee and grading. Music like this makes me never want to sleep again.
  
• The sleeping cat just stood up, rotated 180 degrees (Pi radians) and went back to sleep on my lap.
  
• Started a letter of recommendation that I need to finish in the next few days.
  
• The fire is dying and it's getting cold, so the sleeping cat will need to be moved. I think she'll get over it.