December 31, 2008

Gurg. Now I have a cold, too. It seems to be a fast-moving one, though, so hopefully it will pass on before too long.

I got back to work yesterday after our vacation(?) during the last two weeks or so. I’ve been mostly working on reading and preparing some comments on a colleague’s chapters. Whenever I read drafts of someone else’s work, I can’t help but think about what process they went through as they wrote. Was it anything like mine? How many times have certain sentences been rewritten? Paragraphs moved around? Specific words deliberated over? It’s also good to see someone else’s work in a draft stage because it reminds me that we all go through a process as we write, not just pop out a finished product, which is what you most often see of someone’s work. It’s the writer’s equivalent of being reminded that we all put our pants on one leg at a time, as my mom used to say.

Today is going to be some serious work on my diss and preparing some materials for a fellowship application. And drinking a lot of green tea and probably blowing my nose a lot. Happy New Year!

December 30, 2008

Well, I fell off the edge of the blogosphere, but I’m back now. We had a kitty medical crisis here between Dec. 25 and Dec.29. Our little fuzz bucket was having some trouble with crystals in his UT, but I won’t go into the gory details. He (and we) were up all night on Friday night and Saturday night, and we made two trips to the emergency vet and one trip to the normal vet. Now he’s on a special diet, antibiotics, and subcutaneous fluids (although he is drinking on his own now).

So, I guess now we know why the cosmos decreed that we not go to Oregon for Christmas, because then we wouldn’t have been here, and it’s possible that he could have become blocked, which is potentially fatal. My mom always used to say that she believed there was a reason for everything, which is as close as she ever got, I think, to a religion. The longer I live, the more I believe it.

Today, after two full nights of sleep (and parts of two days, too), I’m finally starting to feel better from my forced all-nighters. I’ve never been good at staying up all night. Even in college and grad school, the latest I ever made it was 2 am. Add the stress of a sick kitty into all that, and it was quite a trying ordeal. Oh, and my wife got a cold in the middle of it all, too, so she’s been feeling like crap on top of everything. Some vacation this turned out to be. Anyway, we’re all okay now (I hope) and back to some semblance of normalcy. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Holiday Gift Ideas

The Chicago Tribune has posted a gallery of Depression-era Christmas advertisements, including these two wonders. Ah, the glamorous days of yore. Of course you’ll give cigarettes for Christmas!

And what says Merry Christmas better than a 12-pack of whiskey? But wait, that’s only a bottle a month until next Christmas! Better give two…

Happy Thanksgiving, Paesano!

We had Thanksgiving spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner today (just like the Mayflower pilgrims–little known fact), preceded by orzo-and-cheese-stuffed squash in the mid-afternoon, and some pumpkin bread in the morning. It was nice, still a celebration of sorts, but not really a big deal. It was just the two of us, so it wasn’t really worth doing a whole big thing. Here’s the spaghetti sauce recipe:

Spaghetti Sauce:

28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (or equivalent fresh)

16 oz. can tomato sauce

8 oz. can tomato paste

3 or 4 tablespoon chopped onion (I use red onion)

3 cloves pressed garlic

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. oregano

2 or 3 bay leaves

A “dash” or two of hot sauce

1 lb. ground beef

Combine all ingredients (except the beef) in a large sauce pan and simmer covered for two hours. Add the browned beef (I season lightly with a bit of salt and pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and basil), cover and simmer for another hour at least before serving over spaghetti (duh).