never say i haven’t given you anything
This is awesome. I don’t care what you think about Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Muppets do it best.
Muppets, Muppets, Muppets (holds up lighter).
Archive for November, 2009
Filed under: mediaPosted: November / 25 / 2009
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Filed under: the profession, literaturePosted: November / 24 / 2009
brecht
I’m beginning to doubt my judgement. I assigned “Mother Courage and her Children” to my class for tomorrow night. Now, many of my students will be skipping class tomorrow on account of the Thanksgiving holiday. I went and looked for a video of the play, and there’s no such thing. A few years ago there was a fantastic-sounding production, free, in Central Park, with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, with a text translated by Tony Kushner. It sounds lovely. Nope, nothing. No pirate video, nothing. I can’t believe no one snuck in a camera.
So, we’ll discuss this play. This, one of the most anti-war pieces of literature ever. With my class. My evening class — full of active duty soldiers, soldiers’ spouses, and retired soldiers. And golfers. The golfers will be gone, though — they’re the day students. So it will be me and the military and Bertolt Brecht, Marx, and the Verfremdungseffekt.
It will either be great or disastrous. As is usual in teaching, you gotta prepare for the second and hope for the first.
Filed under: little people, domesticityPosted: November / 24 / 2009
she uses her wiles
I stayed home with Miss Baby today. She was still a bit feverish, and we thought she could use some downtime. However, we did make a little trip out — we needed to go to a hvac partstore. Our heat pump has been pretty cranky of late — the guy who came to check it out told us to put a vent hood on it, so the wind wouldn’t blow out the light. That didn’t do much, so we decided to replace the manual reset switch. Today, Miss Baby and I went to another hvac partstore to buy that switch. They had a sign on the door saying that they didn’t sell this make of hvac parts to individuals, but only to contractors, but we went in anyway. Miss Baby was clingy, but happy, and impressed the guy behind the counter and a contractor. The two guys were just chatting, but they enjoyed Miss Baby, who smiled coyly at them and babbled sweetly the whole time. She was pleased to discover the spinning stool. They sold us the part– I don’t know if they were doing so in spite of the sign, because of the cute baby, or if the sign is only applied selectively.
Now, they did tell me that this part rarely goes out, and that perhaps there might be another problem. Indeed, my DH installed the part, and the heater worked … for about 10 minutes.
I have a feeling that we will not regret requesting the house warranty. I really wanted that to be one of those better safe than sorry things.
Filed under: gender issuesPosted: November / 24 / 2009
I have mixed feelings about this
The mangroomer.
On the one hand, there’s the Schadenfreudy delight of knowing that the first sex is gaining opportunities to feel bad about their bodies and waste all kinds of time and money trying to fix things that don’t need fixing.
On the other hand, this isn’t what we were after, was it? I was hoping for the world where nobody has to feel bad about their bodies and waste all kinds of time and money trying to fix things that don’t need fixing.
Filed under: little people, UncategorizedPosted: November / 23 / 2009
miss baby miscellany
She’s talking more and more. For “I don’t know,” she says, “I’m a no.”
The other day, we saw a big husky dog in the back of a truck. “Look, coyote! Awooooo! Coyote!” (She pronounces “coyote” with a Spanish accent, gracias a Diego).
This morning, she was feeling perky, and sat next to me making small talk at breakfast. “Mommy, yummy cereal. Green cereal. Mommy, I love you, too. This yummy cereal.” Very sweet. (It was Apple Jacks, hence the green cereal). Trying new cereals is one of her great pleasures.
Bathing is high up on her list, too. The other night, she got out of the tub with the washcloth. “Baby towel,” she said, holding it up to the towel on the rack. “Mommy towel, Daddy towel.” She then wanted to cuddle the sopping wet baby towel.
Filed under: the professionPosted: November / 15 / 2009
like herding the proverbial cats
We had a department meeting on Friday. I had a lot of stuff I needed the department to discuss, and hopefully, approve. The first item was about buying some equipment for a classroom. I thought this one would go easily — we have the funds, the equipment is good without being extravagant, and our current facilities are pitiful. Well, we had to discuss, not just spending the money, but whether there is any point in using power point or showing videos in the classroom at all.
When we finally got to what I thought would be the big item, there was relatively little disagreement. We’re changing the whole curriculum, and I’m combining several literature classes. No one was upset about combining the two 19th century American lit classes into one, or doing the same with the two 19th century British lit classes. It is worth noting that the faculty who teach those are either emeritus or longing to become so, and thus neither were in the meeting. We have three modernism classes, one for each genre, which I also wanted to combine into one. Well, the person who teaches those (when they make) was in the meeting, so we had to debate that.
We’ll get to do what we need to do, but everyone needs to disagree for a while before they can agree. They hired me to do stuff, and I’m doing it; they know it needs to be done, but they want to be involved in the process. This is OK with me, but sometimes I wish I were more dictatorial. That’s easier in the short run, but counterproductive in the long run.
Filed under: little peoplePosted: November / 15 / 2009
a big day
Well, today was the Little Guy’s birthday party, and it went relatively well. Yesterday and this morning, my DH and I cleaned like crazy, and the house was in pretty good shape for the party. In many cases we actually put things away, rather than simply hiding them, so it might stay relatively clean for two or three days.
I planned a few party games, such as “pass the package,” in which a package is wrapped many times, and they pass it around. Each layer has instructions, and they have to, say, hop on one foot in a circle, before passing it to the next kid. I also organized a treasure hunt throughout the house. I wasn’t sure if it would be rainy or not. The party games didn’t go as planned; the kids were all wound up and not particularly cooperative.
We also reserved a bouncy house, hoping it would be warm enough to use it. And it was, which is part of why the kids were all wound up. They’ve been locked indoors all week, so they enjoyed the sunshine, fresh air, sugar, and bouncing.
Late in the party, a few of the kids joined the Little Guy in his room to play with trains, which pleased him greatly — he would have been content to have spent the afternoon playing trains with a few other kids, just breaking for for cake, I think.
It was a good party, all in all. Most of the kids (there were six, but it seemed like more) were on their good behavior, including the Little Guy, who actually helped me pass out the cake to the other kids before he got his last, cheerfully, like a good host. Miss Baby spent as much time as she possibly could in the bouncy house — every boy reached some point where they bashed into someone or overdid it in the bouncy house — but Miss Baby was queen of the bouncy house. She never tired of it at all.
After everyone left, the Little People went out to the bouncy house for a little sibling bonding. At one point, I actually joined them in the bouncy house, which they found hilarious. It’s the kind of thing that I hope someday they’ll remember — “Y’know, at my eight birthday party, my mom got in the bouncy house with us, and played with us, and it was funny.”
Everyone’s exhausted — Miss Baby practically crawled into bed, and the Little Guy didn’t even take his book with him when he went to bed.
Filed under: little peoplePosted: November / 11 / 2009
the little guy’s big day
Well, today the Little Guy turned eight. He got up this morning and asked me if he could have a “special breakfast.” I offered him waffles, and he said, “I was thinking of a cupcake.” That’s not happening.
It’s a good Birthday week at school — they had a field trip to a park this morning, and tomorrow is a day off from school.
This evening we took the Little Guy out for his birthday dinner — he requested Denny’s, which required a drive to Lumberton, some 38 miles away, in the pouring-down rain. For Kraft mac-n-cheese. But the Little Guy enjoyed it, and that’s the point.
We came home, and had cupcakes and presents. We continue a tradition that my parents started with me and my brother — we exchanged gifts on our birthdays (we continued it into adulthood, too). That is, tonight, the Little Guy received a present from Miss Baby (a train atlas — she didn’t pick it out) and he gave her one, too — a toy truck with Diego, a dinosaur, and an alligator. She was delighted, and he was happy to see her happy. It’s a good tradition, celebrating one’s birthday by giving gifts (a bit hobbit-like) and prevents envy among siblings. My DH was originally worried that it made one’s birthday seem a little less special, but I never experienced it that way, and, so far, the Little Guy hasn’t either. Miss Baby doesn’t seem entirely aware of the tradition just yet, although she did say “Happy Birthday” to her brother, quite spontaneously, many times in the car on the way home from Lumberton.
The Little Guy had seen a new toy advertised in his Cub Scout magazine –Mind Flex – but thought it was probably too expensive, and didn’t expect to get it. It’s been rather heavily advertised, so it’s been on his mind continuously (He told me that he thought maybe Daddy could afford it, because Daddy has his own business). He was very pleasantly surprised to unwrap it, and apparently, was quite successful with it (they played while I was at school).
He talked to many relatives on the phone, and was nice to all of them.
So, everyone had a good day, the birthday boy especially, and the Little People’s sugar crashes from the cupcakes coincided conveniently with bedtime. And now it’s my turn.
Filed under: knittingPosted: November / 9 / 2009
saving history
That’s a phrase I borrowed from the Little Guy.
Anyway, you find all kinds of things when you unpack — I found my first knitting ever. When we were in Germany, I got ahold of knitting instructions in German, and made this little scrap of knitting:
Pitiful, isn’t it?
But when I did finally learn to knit, I did learn continental — German — style.
Filed under: little peoplePosted: November / 9 / 2009
miss music
Miss Baby has been singing all day long. She makes up little songs describing what’s going on around her, or she sings little children’s songs, or she combines them. Today at church, we sang Fanny Crosby, and she sang along. She didn’t sing the same words everyone else was singing, but she sang cheerfully — I made out the word, “happy.” This afternoon, she and I took a walk on the golf course — I pulled her along in in her wagon and she sang the whole while.
During church, the little people went up for the children’s sermon. I followed them, nervous about their behavior, and when I sat by them, Miss Baby gave me a stern look, and pointed back at the congregation, “Mommy, sit there.”
So, she’s been happy, so long as we toe the line.