Assorted

On light.

Lately, it seems that mornings just get darker and darker.  After the winter solstice, we were supposed to be having longer and longer days, right?  Which should mean earlier sunrises, right?  

Wrong.

Tired of the alarm clock going off in the dark, I finally looked it up.  Although the length of time between sunrise and sunset has increased 32 minutes since January 1st, this morning the sun rose only seven minutes earlier than it did on January 1st, at 7:42am, in my city.  The sun set, on the other hand, a full 25 minutes later.  So although our days are getting longer, it's happening mostly in the evening.  

Which makes it harder and harder to wake up.  There are days I wish that artificial light had never been invented/discovered/whatever.  

But then I realize it would be difficult to read my computer screen if it were not back-lit.  

On colds and haircuts.

Tim's man cold is mostly gone, but it lingered for a long time.  Poor Tim.

Very recently he cut his hair again and donated it to charity.  So he no longer looks like a pirate. 

I like the long-hair Tim and the short-hair Tim.  He is a handsome guy.  I just don't like mustached Tim.  

And Jonathan got a haircut, too.  From me.  About a week ago.  It looks good.  I can't believe none of you readers have noticed.

On stuff to do.

I have lots of it.  

Among other things, I've been writing letters of recommendation, which is an indication of seniority.  Only people who have been around a while are asked to write letters.  Time to move?

First there were the job application letters, then the grad school application letters, then the summer program application letters, then more job application letters, and now more grad school application letters.  I am getting faster at writing letters.  But you know what slows me down every time?  Requests by various programs for me to assign some sort of a numerical value to the applicant.  For example, is their "initiative" in the top 2%?  Top 5%?  Top 25%?  And how many students are in the pool of comparison?  And what others are in this pool?  And has the pool water been chlorinated?  Is a life guard on duty?  

How do you rank "initiative" amongst your acquaintances?  I think, well, the person turned in all their homework, so they must be chock full of initiative....  But where does that put them in a ranking with the rest of the students who turned in all their homework?  I still can't turn that into a number.  And then I start to wonder, why are they even asking me to turn "initiative" into a number?  Are they trying to come up with some fake cutoff they can use to avoid reading all the letters they specifically requested?  I spent the time writing the stupid letter.  They'd better read every word.  

Losers.

I hate admissions committees.  Especially the fake ones I have invented in my head.  

(Sometimes I just leave those number questions blank.  What do you think happens to my letter then?)

Memories...

This morning, I remember being outside, smiling at a thought in my head, and saying to myself, "I should write a blog post about that."  I remember that I was on the sidewalk going into my building after biking over to work.  I remember that I was still wearing my helmet -- sometimes I take it off right after getting off my bike, but that I was carrying the little reflector straps I wear around my ankles, and they were in my left hand.  I remember that the sidewalk was gray and in shadow, although the sun was already up.  I remember a patch of gray snow in the gutter by the sidewalk.  I remember all these things.

I just can't remember what I wanted to write about.  

I know it would have been a good post, an interesting and entertaining post -- after all, it made me smile -- but it's gone now.  Totally gone.

And while we're speaking of biking into work, and things I do and don't remember, yesterday I was passed on my bike a few blocks away from campus by a guy wearing beige pants and a jacket.  It was cold, and the sun was not yet up, and he didn't seem to be wearing enough windbreaker material to be riding a bike fast through all that.  He looked to be about my age-ish, with a square jaw and light brown hair.  As he passed me, and I turned my head to see who was biking past me in the cold, he smiled and said, "Hello, Jessica." 

And I smiled warmly and said, "Oh, hello!"

And then as he biked away, I wondered to myself, "who the heck was that, and how does he know my name?"  

And then I caught up with him at a stop light, and in fact followed him all the way to campus, where we parked our bikes in the very same bike lot (which I always park in, by the way), and he turned cheerily to me and said, "Looks like we were going the same place!"  

And I smiled and nodded and turned away quickly and tried to figure out who that guy could be and where I would have met him.  

And I still have no idea.  

There is no point to this story, which makes writing a scintillating conclusion a little awkward.  I do hope you aren't too disappointed that I forgot my original good idea to blog about.  Maybe it will come back and I will write about it later.  Meanwhile, I would like to say that those people who have a good memory for names and faces?  They really disturb the rest of us.  (Who was that guy?)

Cold

Tim caught a cold.

Poor little bunny.

Happy New Year!

I have had several topics on my mind recently to discuss with you, oh Reader.  But alas, each one, rather than forming a meaningful blog post on its own, is worth at most a paragraph of words and scintillating thought.  So I shall here present a collection of thoughts with which to begin the year 2012.

Thought 1.  This morning, while examining all the ornaments on the Christmas tree, knowing it was time to pack them away for another eleven months, I remembered the year 2004, in which we put up the tree with its lights, but then, exhausted, stopped.  The ornaments stayed in their boxes.  The baby that was Jonathan didn't realize that he was being shafted of the full Christmas tree experience.  He still loved to sit and rock in front of the pretty lights.  And come January?  We had the best year ever for Christmas clean up.  I did suggest we try this again early in December of 2011, but I was labeled a Scrooge.

Thought 2.  I'm kind of feeling like I should start Jonathan in piano lessons.  I think it's important for him to learn to play an instrument, and piano is an easy default that would actually be useful to him throughout his life, especially if he stays in our particular religious community.  But I dread taking him to and from lessons, making sure he practices, adding another item to get frustrated over to our daily routine.  The boy is casually interested, nothing more.  But he is at a good age for starting.  Is this a fight worth having?

Thought 3.  New Year's resolutions.  You remember, Reader, that I made my New Year's Resolutions right after Thanksgiving, rather than waiting until the traditional January 1st.  I resolved to be kind, beautiful, and productive.  A little over one month in, I am thinking I shall declare myself successful and move on to new resolutions.  This time, I would like to make the kind of resolutions that I am guaranteed to keep, so I can feel happy as I tick them off.  In 2012, I resolve to take down the Christmas ornaments from 2011.  That's a good one.  I resolve to floss, continuing in a tradition of flossing that stretches back to the previous century.  I resolve to keep my room clean, to practice good hygiene, to kiss my family often, to write here when I feel like it, and to ignore this blog when I don't.  These are all healthy resolutions that I resolve to keep.

Thought 4.  I have decided to get a tablet for personal use.  Then I shall no longer have to carry around movies and books or a 5 pound laptop when I travel.  Plus, I can download material for personal use without having to store it on my work computer where someone might find it and question my taste.  I like having questionable taste.  I have picked the very particular tablet, down to the color, after reading about sizes and weights and battery life and functionality and, of course, consulting with my personal IT guy (Tim).  I have also found where I can purchase my chosen tablet for the best deal.  I have saved up my money and I am ready to have this tablet here on my lap rather than this heavy computer.  Unfortunately, my tablet is sold out everywhere and currently unavailable.  This means I shall have to be patient, or buy a lesser model.  Patience???!!!

I will close with those thoughts.  If you think I should be thinking others, you may add those in the comments, and I will consider them.  Thank you.  Come again.

Conflicted

I had two free tickets to the women's basketball game this afternoon.  Since Jonathan was out of school, I took him along, and we had a fun time.  Our team won by 30 points.  Yay team!

Women's basketball is pretty great.  We got to sit up near the very front where we could see everything, and still the seats all around us were empty.  Jonathan used the row of seats in front of us for a foot rest.

The part that is difficult for me, however, is the whole "team spirit" thing.

You see, I was an undergraduate at the university that is the arch-rival of the place that offered me a job.  So when I attend sporting events at the university that is the job, and they play the job fight song, I only know the impolite lyrics.  But when there are only 50 fans in the entire basketball arena, and our girls are doing so well, I feel I ought to cheer them on.

But if I sing *that* fight song, what does that make me?

My compromise is that I can cheer and applaud politely.  But I cannot rise and shout.  Still no.

Some stuff we did last month

In November, we took a trip to Antelope Island, on the Great Salt Lake.  

Tim decided to grow a mustache, as part of a fund raiser for work.  I think he looked really scary.  The mustache is gone now.

We purchased and put together a compost bin, as we've been wanting to make our own dirt for some time now.  Yay dirt.

One of the doorknobs broke going into the garage, so we replaced all three with shiny new ones that don't stick and actually use the same key.

I sewed mittens.  Here is the deal.  When you bike to work in the winter, it gets pretty chilly on the hands. I've figured out exactly what those chilly hands need.  First, they need a mitten, not a glove, so that the fingers can warm each other, rather than be insulated against each other.  Second, they need a warm fleece layer, to keep them snug.  Finally, they need a nylon windbreaker layer.  I've been looking all over for these mittens.  A couple of years ago I found something almost right in a boutique in Philadelphia.  However, the outer layer was knit wool rather than nylon, and the wind cuts right through them.  So finally I made my own.

Alas, I was inventing the pattern as I went along, and the outer nylon layer was a little too snug on my big bear hands.  So these mittens went to Jonathan, and I will try again.

We installed a new light in the bathroom.  When I say "we", I mean that I bought the light, read the instructions, watched someone else install a light on YouTube, brought in the ladder, pulled off the cover hiding the bare wires, and stared at the mass of colored wires in there.  On YouTube, they said I was supposed to expect one black and one white, and maybe a copper ground wire.  But we had four white, four black, a red, and a copper.

I consulted with Tim.  He pulled out our little wire tester to detect hot wires, had me run back and forth to the circuit breaker downstairs for about an hour, and finally figured out that the black and white wires should be left alone, the red wire was the one that would connect the light to the switch, but it needed to be reconnected at the switch....  Anyway, it was an interesting project.  But the result looks better than our camera makes it out to be.

That's all.

December oranges

There are things I don't like about December, such as the darkness and the grading of giant piles of final exams.

But there are more things that I do like about December, like classes ending and building wood fires and playing Christmas songs on the piano.

One of my favorite things about December is that oranges are in season.  On Saturday, we bought a 40 pound box of oranges, to eat amongst the three of us.  There are things I like about having 40 pounds of oranges sitting around the house.  Oranges!  Any time!  Eat all you want!  40 pounds of oranges is pretty much a never-ending supply of orange goodness.

There are also things I don't like about having 40 pounds of oranges sitting around the house.  When you eat all you want, really, your insides can't keep up.  And then that can get stinky.  Hypothetically speaking here.  I don't really post about stinkiness in public.