Tell me again how we got stuck with this a-hole?

Oh yeah, that's right. The last a-hole was an unethical, controlling nutjob (who could't keep it in his pants).

In other news, I am working my way down a spring break to do list (that is probably far too ambitious), and today I landed on doing the taxes.

For the past few months, every time I sign on to blogger, when I view my blog - it freezes the machine, I have to do a Ctrl-Alt-Del, sign back on - and then it is OK. It doesn't happen when I make a post, only when I view it. Very irritating.

I went to a two day conference on Friday and Saturday. Overall, it was fairly good. Some speakers just read a 40 page paper in a monotone voice - really, TMI! We are going to get a book of all the papers eventually, we can read them, whey bother presenting? Others were truly dynamic and the two keynotes (Friday dinner and Saturday lunch) were truly inspiring. It hit me that we haven't had intellectual leadership in the SUNY System for 15 years.

About my last post: I wasn't happy about not entering. I checked the magazine again and saw that the deadline was Friday, April 3. So, I searched the hard drives of all my computers, and couldn't find a thing. I couldn't find a print out of anything suitable in my file drawer either. Then I tore apart the bedroom, looking for old floppy disks. Bob has been saying he plans to throw them out, but luckily he hasn't yet - I found a box, went through the ones that seemed promising, and found the story I was seeking in an older version, plus a bunch of other things.

I got together two entries (you can enter up to three) - one old story and a new story that I created from snippets I'd written about my grandmother in the past. Needless to say, I spent nearly all day Wednesday on this. I knew I had to teach all day on Thursday and go to the conference on Friday, so it was the only time I had.

I went to the magazine website to submit - and discovered that they extended the deadline until April 17! So I could have been doing what I should have been doing (grading midterms). [I did manage to get a bunch done Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings. I only have 13 left at this point. But I have a LOT of things to do over break, including the taxes. Still swimming upstream.] I am going to wait to submit until the new power supply comes, keep my fingers crossed that it fixes the problem, and assuming it does, see if there is anything on there for a third entry, or if I like something better than what I have assembled now. Also it will give me a chance to make more revisions after I sleep on it, for the new story in particular.

The Mimmie story is extremely appropriate because she has been gone 16 years as of yesterday. Hard to believe. Seems like yesterday she was there at the kitchen table in her trailer drinking tea and heating up a danish in the toaster oven. I remember how many times we talked about death when I was a teenager and stayed overnight at the old place (actually should be talked almost all night - she was even more owl than I am). She said, "it is likely that I will die before you and I will come back and tell you what it is like."

I am kind of bummed out. I wanted to enter a writing contest (deadline today). I have several stories that I thought might fit, so I hooked up my Iomega USB zip drive. I have most of my writing stored on one of those zip drives. I haven't used the drive in over six months, and I've had it since 2004. Well, it doesn't work any more. I am hoping the problem is the power supply, but when I looked it over, I discovered that it is only 5 volts, and all the alternatives I have are 12 volts. So last night, I went to Staples, where I bought the drive, to get a replacement. I didn't think they would still have Iomega drives, but I thought they might sell replacement adapters. No dice. I went to Radio Shack, but they didn't have 5 volt adapters either. I made peace with missing the contest, but today I visited the Iomega site, and discovered they still sell the same zip drive. For the whopping price of $149, which is probably even more than I paid in 2004! They also sell replacement power supplies for $9.95, so I ordered one. I really hope that fixes the problem, because I don't want to shell out $150 for what is essentially an obsolete piece of equipment. I am not sure what other options I will have though, since the alternative - data loss is more than I can bear.

Meet Heidi.



My parents' new German Shepherd Dog, from GSD Rescue.

I took several pictures with my blackberry, but none came out great. On Easter, I will bring my "real" camera, since I usually have more luck with it.

I'm glad they were caught. Scum. Who would stoop this low? I can't help wondering how these guys knew each other, how they knew about the shelter, and why they would travel up here to take such a risk for $600?

I have made some progress on the overwhelming pile of work. It will be several more days before I catch up, though. Next week is presentation week for students, and the following week is Spring break, so that will give me a chance to break even, if I don't manage to do it before then.

I took a lot of criticism in all my classes, but especially in last night's, because I require students to evaluate each other on their upcoming presentations, and I tell them that they cannot give everyone an identical assessment. Many, many students argued with me over that, some quite vociferously. That happens every semester, but I would say that this semester has been the most vocal. That's true in the discussion components of class generally this spring, so I suppose it comes with the territory. I told them I am not a big fan of grades either, but I have to do it, and no one in class opted for S/U grading, so how can they insist that everyone deserves the same assessment? Many of these folks want to be teachers, and they will have to learn how to do fair and quality evaluation. I don't think everyone bought it, and that will probably show up on my student evaluations at the end of the semester. (In the "Allows Input from Students" category.) Oh well.

I'm a little concerned that the tooth next to the extraction site is feeling sore. I hope it is just from the extraction - or that it is ghost nerve pain or something, and not that I am going to need yet another root canal and crown.

My recent tooth episode set me so far back in terms of work that I am now up to my eyeballs and feeling kind of anxious. So, I decided the best thing to do today was get organized, which I did. The office looks a lot better. The problem is, I still feel like procrastinating!

I am just about back to normal. I took my last Motrin Sunday night, and last night, for the first time since the toothache, was able to sleep through the night. I think there might still be a stitch in there, but otherwise, I am fine: eating normally, with little pain.

The worst 24 hour period after the extraction was Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon. I would up taking another hydrocodone at 6 pm on Tuesday, another when that wore off so I could sleep, and another after that. By morning, neither the Advil nor the narcotics were doing very much, and even though I was following the post-operative instructions in excrutiating detail, I was getting worried that I had dry socket.

I called the oral surgeon's office, and was told to rinse with salt water a lot. So I did. I also stopped taking the hydrocodone entirely, toughed out the pain, got myself on an every four hour Advil cycle, and switched from ice packs to moist, warm packs. I really don't like hydrocodone. I think it does little to help with pain, it just makes me dopey. And I think it makes me need more and more Advil.

It was worth it, because I started to feel somewhat better by Wednesday afternoon. I even went to campus yesterday and taught my classes. But still today I have quite a bit of pain, and I am still taking Advil every four hours. Sometimes I have to force myself to get from 3.5 hours to 4, although occasionally I can go 4.5 hours.

A lot of people seem to have little trouble with a tooth extraction, and are fine after a day or two. That certainly hasn't been my experience. I am only able to eat ice cream, broth, applesauce, mashed potatoes and yogurt. I am not sure whether I am a wimp, or what.

I knew I would feel this way, but another issue is how unhappy I am about losing a tooth. I feel like I am in mourning. I can't understand people who are eager for dentures. I mean, I guess if your teeth constantly ached the way mine did last weekend, you might rather have them gone. And if you haven't gone to the dentist in a long time, fear procedures such as root canal, or don't want to spend the money, extraction might not seem so bad. But none of that is the case for me. I go for a check up every six months, I felt OK the day after my root canals, I have great insurance and even though I do have to pay about half, I thought it was a small price to pay to save a tooth. I am a fanatic about brushing, flossing and not eating stuff that might break a tooth or pull out a filling. My teeth have always been pretty good.

I guess I was naive, because I thought if I got a crown and root canal, I wouldn't be faced with extraction for a long, long time, if ever. Then this happened after only 18 months, but the tooth was never right, even at first. It has been bothering me since 2003, so I am not exactly sure why I am mourning. It doesn't help that the wisdom tooth on that side now seems to be making my cheek sore. I guess I will get used to it eventually. I just wish it would heal and the pain would go away. That would help my attitude.

The mourning feeling is already making me pretty sure that I am going to want an implant. The pain is making me ask, "are you crazy?" But I think not getting one could mean bad things in terms of my top tooth not having anything below it.

I turned another corner! I am much better today; I was even able to cut way down on the Advil. One stitch came out this morning. I'm still eating a limited diet and I can't say I have no pain at all, but in general, life is good again.

Added: How strange! This post is publishing as Friday 3/13 at 6:22 pm (the time of my last post), but actually it is Saturday 3/14 at 1:10 pm.

I got through my nightmare of a weekend, and had my tooth extracted yesterday. He scolded me for taking so much Motrin, but I told him that it was either overdose on Motrin and be sitting in his chair on Monday morning, or he could sit in the empty chair while reading my obituary in the newspaper.

Twilight sleep is the way to go! It was great to wake up and have it all over. I am eating and drinking, with difficulty. (Hooray for yogurt.) I took one hydrocodone yesterday, but have not taken it again.

I'm in some pain now, but it is nothing like the weekend's agony. You know how they ask you, how is the pain on a scale of 1 to 10? If find that a funny question because what criteria are we supposed to use? Burning your hand on the stove hurts pretty bad - is that the scale? (What number would that be? 5? This was worse.) Cutting myself on the broken glass from a falling light fixture and needing stitches hurt when it happened, when the doctor rubbed antiseptic into the cut, and after I got the stitches, when I was trying to sleep. (What number would that be? 7? This was worse.) Does that mean it was a 10? Or maybe even a 12? Would cutting off your leg with a chainsaw hurt worse? I don't know.

Now I am nervous about getting something called "dry socket" which I guess happens about 5 percent of the time. I'm being very careful, but with my luck, I will probably be part of that 5 percent! I guess it is very painful. How painful? A 10 again? I hope not.

The appointment for my tooth extraction is Monday. I can't say it has been upsetting me that much (since I got a second opinion and found an oral surgeon that I like), but I have been a little nervous about the twilight sleep, sad about losing a tooth, and concerned over whether I will feel well enough to teach on Tuesday. I have been favoring that side (really since 2003 but especially recently), although it hasn't been especially painful. But then yesterday the tooth started to act up - and by the middle of the night the pain was so extreme I started to consider getting a pair of pliers out and doing the job myself. I called my general dentist to ask what I can take (because ibuprofen is not advised when you are getting surgery) but even with some meds the pain is pretty bad, plus I can't eat at all. So now I am counting the minutes until it is pulled and all misgivings and anxiety have vanished (replaced by wondering how I will manage to get through the next two days).

A student gave me an edible arrangement as a thank you gift yesterday!

We are getting a new car today. Well, new to us - it is a 2005. Our old car was a 1995; we keep our cars for a long time. I'm not much or a car person (don't even drive) and neither is Bob, so we are not all that excited. Yesterday in class I lectured on philosophy of education; one of the areas we discuss is the division between materialists and idealists in metaphysics. I think of myself more as an idealist, but I confess that I felt a little sad as I watched Bob drive away this morning. I don't think the sentiment comes from fear of change, as some might suspect. I guess I invest material things with some sort of spirituality. My "things" are important to me, not as status symbols, but as memories of the past.

Speaking of change, last week Verizon offered to upgrade my DSL to something faster (although I don't think it is FIOS yet) and it happened on Monday. That led to me having to spend time reconfiguring, but I managed to get everything working again after a few hours. Today a technician is here replacing the wires outside the house. I didn't feel sad to get a new router! I guess cars are different.

Although I remembered, I didn't feel like posting - yesterday was the seventh anniversary of this blog!

March is coming in like a lion, cold and snowy.

As an addendum to my last post, the crackberry phenomenon isn't limited to students. Yesterday in church, a guy in the pew in front of me was surfing the internet on his PDA, and across the aisle, a woman's cell phone went off and it took her forever to find it in her purse.

I almost forgot! Ande is FIV and FeLV negative!! So the pillow pad is something else, probably not that serious. What a relief! All the other bloodwork came back too - all good for Sam and Sophie. Edna has some kidney and heart issues (which I knew about already), but that is to be expected at her age, and even at that, nothing is really, really severe yet.

My classes are going really well, and the toleration class may be the best I've had. However, today I want to write about a pet peeve. My biggest problem in recent semesters is text messaging. It is kind of trivial, but it creates enough of a disruption when it gets out of hand to seem more significant than that.

I announce the first day what the ground rules are, and I put them in the syllabus. But still I see students in almost every class texting. At the second class, one student didn't stop when I told him not to do it, and then he abruptly left when I called him on it again. It was before the add / drop deadline, and I was sure he would drop - but he didn't. Yesterday, another student (in a different class) in the front row thought she was being clever by hiding her PDA under the flap of her pocket book during my opening remarks...head down, texting away, oblivious. If I don't nip the behavior in the bud, it gets so out of control that these addicted students do it constantly, and more and more students join them. Then the ones who aren't doing it get angrier and angrier, and I lose control of the room.

My issue with it isn't really that it is rude (although it is). It isn't even that they aren't paying attention to me (that isn't quite true, it does annoy me when they don't listen and then ask me 1,000 questions later about something I have explained 10 times in class, or - even worse - when they finally hear the answer, proceed to complain about being held to some rule or deadline that has been stated many times, insisting I never said it in class or wasn't clear when I did say it). My biggest issue is that these students are not engaged with other students, or the class, ever. They don't learn, much less contribute anything - because they aren't paying attention, and they don't know what anyone is talking about, so how can they contribute? So they sit there in their own world, connected electronically to people elsewhere, exchanging OMGs and LOLs while surrounded by real people that they don't exchange a word with. It's sad to the point of being creepy.

I know electronic communication is addictive. And it seems that people have a different definition of what constitutes an "emergency" in terms of taking cell phone calls these days. They must always be available. Nothing can wait, even fifteen minutes. Hey, I love my Blackberry too, but how would they like it if I whipped it out while they were speaking and started texting...then looked up after a while and said, "huh?"

The downside of enforcing this rule (aside from my not liking to have to pull rank and call students out) is that the classroom becomes a revolving door - students can't wait to chat but they don't want to risk my wrath, so they leave the room whenever the need arises. And it really isn't possible to force students to stay in their seats - I mean this isn't elementary or high school with hall monitors and passes for the bathroom. I do ask them not to make the classroom a revolving door - again, on the syllabus and on the first day of class, but that is even harder to enforce than a cell and texting ban.

We took the dogs and cats to the vet yesterday. It was basically a well visit, as none are obviously sick. Edna cost the most and took more time, she she is very old (16+). Sam was the fastest and least expensive, since he is young (3) and robust, to say the least. Sophie and Ande were somewhere in between. Sophie is pretty old for a Bassett Hound (10), but there is nothing major wrong with her. (She has severe allergies, but that is nothing new.) Ande is young (1.5 years). Unfortunately, one of the really cute things about him (he is tiny) probably means he is also frail. He doesn't seem ill, but the vet noticed he has plasma cell pododermatitis (pillow foot). Some studies have linked it to FIV, so she tested him for that and FeLV. His results were negative when we first adopted him, but given that he is tiny, hardly eats, gets dirty ears, has this condition on his front pads, and came from a cat colony - who knows. FIV isn't easily transmittable to Edna, but FeLV might be. Then, he is likely to have a decreased lifespan if he has one or both. It sounds to me as if FeLV is the more serious disease, in terms of both ease of transmission and outcome. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that he tests negative again, but I confess that I am a little worried. Poor "Little!" Not sure what I will do about his contact with Edna if he has FeLV. Luckily, they don't fight at all, and really don't share their dishes or groom each other. But they do share a litterbox, and it won't be easy to keep them separate.

I have decided to start sprouting! It's healthy, but not only that: it will help me (somewhat) satiate my gardening "itch" in the winter. I ordered SproutMaster mini trays as well as six varieties of seeds: alfalfa, salad mix (a blend of alfalfa, radish, clover, canola), broccoli, rainbow bean (garbanzo, lentil, pea), garlic, and one other blend (kale, broccoli, red cabbage, yellow mustard). I can't wait to get started; first, I have to soak the seeds overnight.

We went to the Hollywood Brown Derby, a new restaurant in Albany, on Valentine's Day. It was pricey...and wonderful.