Deans in pjs

Thought I would update you on my new teaching job.

1. The dean of my dept. lives in the same place as me - we've seen each other in pjs (and politely hurriedly passed each other in the hallway).
2. When I used a projector for teaching they had to turn on power to the entire building.
3. I can't tell what are the first and what are the last names of my students.
4. I can get dressed 15 minutes before class and run downstairs to teach.
5. At graduation many Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston songs were played.
6. I have to work with a fan sitting 1 ft away from my face (and sleep with 2 at night).
7. There seems to be only one chalk board eraser for the entire floor of classrooms.
8. Students wander in 40 minutes late.
9. They physically ousted the former academic dean a couple years ago (so I will be careful to not make too many waves).
10. I have difficulty understanding what they are saying.
11. Five thought ecology is the study of ground bark (and 2 changed their answer from the environment to ground bark).
12. They actually remembered what I taught them last week!

Teaching ecology - help!

Big news - I'm moving to Haiti for the fall to teach tropical ecology and bio labs at a small university.  Yikes!  I need help with what to teach - does anyone have a syllabus they can share?  Recommendations for text books?  The students can't afford books, but the dean said there are kindles for them to share and she'll buy me the text and kindle uploads.  Right now they copy the pertinent chapters from the books and share the copies.  I'll teach in exchange for room and board - no salary, so I'm trying to figure that part out.  Haiti's only botanical garden is there!  It's a coastal town!  They allow cats in the guest house!  I don't have to cook!  Check my facebook for the latest person I friended and you might be able to see her pics. I'll post more details on facebook when I get there (late Aug).

I join your ranks as anonymous poster of teaching conundrums.  All your posts will be a great resource as I figure this out!

Long belated check in

Hey all, I know that I've been really out of touch for a least a year now...maybe longer. I got out of the habit of checking this blog regularly and have just been busy trying to finish things off. Today I finally defended my thesis (successfully) and I have just minor edits to make to the dissertation before turning it in (my committee actually signed off on the final draft already). I'm finally done and will be leaving OSU in less than a month to go home to Chicago and figure out what to do next. I apologize for being out of touch and missing birthdays and other important news, I am going to try to get back into the habit of visiting the blog more often and keeping in touch. I hope all is well with everyone!

Dr. Abby!

Congratulations to Abby!!!

RIP Guaba

I said goodbye to Guaba this morning.  We buried him in the front yard.

Guaba baby pics

Oct. 1996 with a sibling.

I have nervous energy since tomorrow I leave for the field for 4 days, but Guaba's really lethargic and I can't do anything about it.  So I scanned his & Yoda's baby photos.  My housemate will keep him fed while I'm gone.  But next weekend might be the big decision.

Jan. 1997 when I adopted him.

With Grendel my iguana.

3 mon. old Yoda Oct. 1998.

First meeting.

Figuring out Yoda is ok to play with.

Guaba getting old

Guaba is getting old and has been sick since October.  He's really skinny, and has something growing in his sinus that we were keeping under control with antibiotic shots.  But the past week it's grown and is making his eye swell shut.  He still acts normal, just slower.  Just wanted to update everyone about little Guaba.

Happy belated birthday to Sparkling Squirrel!!
Hope you had a fabulous day, and that all your birthday wishes come true.

Skorts are hot

Skorts are too hot to comfortably wear in a hot and humid climate.  Too much material in the nether-regions.  Just an FYI.

Off to Haiti! And a pie within a cake

Sunday I go to Haiti for two weeks to visit my friend Rhoda who does ag work though a veterinarian place near the capitol. Yay, a new adventure! The old place was getting too routine and safe so I wanted to shake it up a bit with a place with will probably be unbearably humid and hot and crowded and dirty and I could possibly be mugged (see her coworker's post about being mugged). I'm assuming Rhoda lives out in the country a couple miles from Port au Prince. She really hasn't given me any instructions other than she'll pick me up at the airport and she wants to go to bookstores. I'll teach ecology and I made 'save the bird' buttons to hand out - I'll post pictures on my blog when I get to it.

In the meantime, this might be my new favorite blog (other than Chuck of the day picture on dooce): see the blogger's adventure of baking a pie within a cake.

So that's why I feel so blehh

So I've been feeling blehh the last few days. There are some normal reasons for this (behind at work, not enough sleep, paperwork annoyances, spring allergies, very strangely hurt left calf [I think I pulled it. While walking. Twice in two weeks.] . . . ) but this seemed disproportionately bleeh. Wanting to ball up a cry blehhh.
Blehhh so that I seriously started wondering about how possible it would be I am pregnant or if I really needed to seek some medication even though I thought the post-partum stuff (which lasted over 5 months) was gone.
Just now I learned of another explanation.
Same explanation as here . (the time I had PMS-like-symptoms that I thought were weaning and I pointed out that there are other things that cause PMS-like-symptoms and you thought I was pregnant or had cancer).
I'm actually somewhat delighted-- while I never used to have PMS (or MS) that made me ball up and cry-- it means that there is a simple logical explanation and that it will pass. It also totally freaked me out because I have had maybe 4 periods since October 2008 and I'm totally unprepared. There are no pads in my office and I sat here staring at a tampon, "I think I can use that thing."
Anyway, hope you all are well.

improved blog templates

I was wondering why everyone had nice looking blogspot blogs. I just discovered blogger has a lot of easy to use templates since I last designed my Haiti blog. Here's my fresh website. It even has a hummingbird on the side, but I widened the window so all you can see now is the beak.

Happy birthdays everyone!

Birthday Season Returns

Today is T T's birthday. Erin's is quite soon. Neither is turning 40 this year.
Later in February it's Heather's birthday, then Molly's early in March and SalSis's on the Ides (she is turning 40).
May there be great celebrating for all.

Think spring??

Today, this temporary tattoo from a past SpSq Groundhog Day celebration reminded me of happy times spent with you all.

I hope you all are happy and healthy on this Groundhog Day, and that you enjoy the supposed six more weeks of winter.

The photo on the right is near our favorite ski trail, on a what has turned out to be an abnormally snowy day in this mild winter. But Michigan is hasn't disappointed us with its beauty yet.

R.I.P. Lilycat

You were a great companion and well loved by all. I am glad you had a great 15+ years on this earth.

question - silk worm deaths vs. oil industry

Is it better for silk worms to be boiled alive so that silk fabric can be made (possibly by child labor), or for synthetic fabric to be made from petroleum?

Shaking my world

Are any of the rest of you dooce.com readers? Are any of you as sad about Heather and Jon separating as I am?

I caved

So you can find me on facebook now.
Still, I plan to keep the blog alive, if nothing else to report on the "best" of my student answers.
"Friend" me if you want to.