To the lighthouse

In college and grad school, I famously loathed Virginia Woolfe's To the Lighthouse, so I am as surprised as anyone to see a blog post with this title, but, truly, it's the best one to describe our trip to the Outer Banks this week. I asked Ethan before we went what he wanted to see or do, and he said, "See a lighthouse." North Carolina has several, so I said OK, and promised we would. As it happens, there are several on the Outer Banks, and we managed to see them all!

The first picture here was taken at sunset on 4/3/07, in Kill Devil Hills, NC. it's the view from our table at dinner.

We stayed in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, a gorgeous little waterfront town, and the site of the first English colony ("the Lost Colony") of 1587.

My next few blog entries will be about the trip, but here's a sample of what we did and saw.

Bodie Island Lighthouse, Hatteras Island







Cape Hatteras Lighthouse







Ethan at the Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC







Cape Hatteras Beach, 10am 4/4/07. No one was on the beach but Ethan and I!








Roanoke Sound








Another view of Roanoke Sound








Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Manteo, NC








Currituck Lighthouse, Corolla, NC

Fleeing the pollen

It's pollen time in Raleigh right now - the worst it's been in years, they tell us on the news. Sure, springtime always bring pollen, but this is just awful. I've got drifts (literally) of sticky, yellow/chartreuse pollen all over everything. My black car. The outdoor table and chairs. The little ledge on the front door. Everywhere. Yesterday I had to mop and vacuum on account of all the pollen being tracked in on our shoes. Ugh. What we need is a good cleaning rain to rid us of the stuff, but I'm not hopeful. Please, God, do't let there be pollen like this in CA! Partly in response to the pollen, and partly because it's Ethan's spring break, we are running away. We're headed to Manteo, on Roanoke Island, this afternoon for a few days. We'll be exploring lighthouses, eating too much seafood, and having a look around the first English colony in the New World. I've been reading some books like If You Lived in Colonial Times to Ethan to get him in he mood for what we will be seeing. He's enjoying it all so far. I think our favorite thing we have learned is that, if he was to write MItch a letter,rhe couldn't address it "Dear Dad..." but instead would have to write "Dear Honour'd Sir..." and then sign it "I am, with greatest respect, Dear Father, your dutiful son, Ethan." Ha!

More wisdom...

The typical teen in this day in age wears cloths that do not fit. Their pants half way hanging on their but and they walk bowl lagged even though nine out of ten they were not born that nor do they have a disorder. That is the prime example, they like disorder.

Can you guess the topic of the paper in which the above appeared?

Oh my... Can you tell I'm grading finals?

I know I'm making a difference! ;-)

I have two writing classes in their last week right now. For one class, it's gone well, but the other has really struggled. it amazes me how much each class has its own personality - I have def. seen the "birds of a feather flock together" phenomenon (both for good and bad) at work in my classes! Anyhow, one of the things I do at the end of each course is ask some general review questions, like "what was your favorite assignment," "what do you know now that you wish you'd known then," etc. This morning, I got the following reply (from a struggler, as you can imagine).

What I liked most about the main class assignment was typing. I love to type although I advice the new comer's not to type too much and drop off the subject of what they are doing.

It's so nice to know I'm making a difference ;-)

All the y'alls

It's a good thing we are moving out of the South soon. Today I actually came across this referenced in one of my students' homework.

YA'LL/Y'ALL

"How y'all doin'?" If you are rendering this common Southernism in
print, be careful where you place the apostrophe, which stands for the
second and third letters in "you." Note that "y'all" stands for "you
all" and is properly a plural form, though many southern speakers treat
it as a singular form and resort to "all y'all" for the plural.

(from Common Errors in English by Paul Brians).

For the record, I do not, have never, and will never say "y'all." I am firmly in the "you guys" camp.

Red Nose Day

Mad props to Liz for sending me this clip. It's a great clip for Comic Relief 2007/Red Nose Day, which was this past Friday.

Early St Pat's

A friend reminded me this morning of this oldie but goodie from The Onion.

What will you be eating or drinking to celebrate this weekend?

A March Madness bracket to care about

I don't care at all about the basketball March Madness season, but I do care about good TV. Our local paper, the News & Observer, realizes that rational people care for their TV as much as some people care for their sports, so they re doing a cool TV-based bracket contest. Here's my bracket (which I can and may change up until noon on Thursday). You can fill out your own bracket to vote, too.

Continuing the theme...

So, my last post was about of one music's high points. Continuing the theme (of music from the 80s, not musical high points), this post from Go Fug Yourself is absolutely spot on.

20 years ago today...

Twenty years ago today, one of the finest albums of all time was released. U2's The Joshua Tree. How can it have been so long ago?

Excuse of the Day

Student excuse for late work of the day:

Sorry this is late, my son was sick then I got married so I fell a litle behind. Hope this is okay.

Yeah, I just hate it when that sort of stuff happens all at once.

Favorite news item of the day

The Princes voicemail prank on the Queen

LONDON, March 5 Prince William and Prince Harry reportedly pulled a prank on their grandmother the Queen, recording a fake message on her answering machine.

The princes who were asked to help with the machine after the Queen was baffled by the technology, recorded the message Hey wassup! This is Liz. Sorry I'm away from the throne. For a hotline to Philip, press one. For Charles, press two. And for the corgis, press three. Britain's Sky News reported that the Queen was very upset at first but later saw the humor in the prank while thinking about who may have heard the message.

But, Queen Elizabeth's private secretary was not amused, said the Daily Star, adding that he almost fell out of his chair when he heard the message.

Copyright 2007 by UPI

Lost in Translation

私は、日本酒の素晴らしさを多くの人に広めたいと思っています。
I think so familiarize for many people that excellently Japanese sake.

I like to think of myself as quite fluent in Engrish, but the above has be absolutely baffled. Anyone reading this who cares to take a stab at a better English translation, be my guest!

St. Patrick's Day is coming

And I'm definitely going to see some of this.

California, here we come!

At long last, it's true... we are moving to northern California! Watch this space for more details :-)

Liz - send me an email we need to confer!

Minnesota

If ever there was a reason to move to Minnesota, Al Franken has finally given me one.

Good luck to Al!

It Had to Be Mitch

It's Valentine's Day, and Mitch and I have found ourselves on opposite sides of the country :-( So, I was sitting here thinking about him while I did my boring work, when iTunes played me a little Valentine song - Harry Connick Jr's version of "It Had to Be You." Not only is this version of the song from perhaps my all-time favorite movie ("When Harry Met Sally"), it is also the song we used for our first dance at our wedding. I don't have a video clip of the dance to post here, so I'm making do.

Also, we're a bit Harry and Sally ourselves. We were friends first. We didn't date for a good 6-7 months (though we were together as often as possible nonetheless) before we declared ourselves a couple, and God knows I'm the uptight one who gets cold when it's 71 degrees out, while he's the fun-loving Mallowmar eater :-)

These are for you, Mitch!

Tagged by the Doubtful Muse

I have been tagged by Doubtful Muse. Here are the instructions:

1. Grab the book closest to you.

2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.

3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.

4. Include the title and the author's name.

5. Tag 3 people

So, I'm quoting from Freddy & Fredericka by Mark Helprin.

"Mr. Neil," the queen said, "at the moment, at least, is employed as a mould maker in a rubber sex toy factory in Naples." Then she and her consort chortled royally and went back to their chocolate mousse.
After some time, Freddy said, "That isn't true, of course."

LOL! Of all the salacious lines to have this game point us to... You'll have to read the book to find out if the Queen or Freddy is right!

I am now tagging The View from Fly-Over Country, FiberArts Afloat, and Bouncing Sputtering of a Disorganized Mind.

The circus came to town

The circus is in town, and Mitch and I accompanied Ethan's kindergarten to a matinee on Thursday. It was Ethan's first time to go to the circus, and what a great intro he got! Thanks to some fabbo connections, his class was seated on the front two rows of the floor - the only rows on the floor - about 30 ft from the circus ring itself. As such, I was able to get some nice pics from my seat without having to mess around with too-far away subjects or people/things blocking the view. It's def. a different show when you get to see it performed from just a stones throw away. I think my fav part was watching the roadies in all black set things up while other acts were distracting the audience. Let me tell you, I was shocked (shocked!) to discover that the birds don't necessarily fly from out of nowhere, but are, instead, brought out in a box and released by a guy in all black at the right moment.

Here's Ethan and Mitch at the intermission,








Kyle (l) and Henry (r)









Austin









Ethan, his good fried Jorge, and their teacher, Mrs Tate.








Seeing a trapeze/aerial act from directly beneath is fabulous, and a bit worrying, too!








The elephants, of course, were Ethan's favorite part of the show.








This guy, who walks upside down, was really cool to watch.








The finale









Elephants unwind after the show.

Which "Haggard"?

When I clicked on the NY Times' list of top stories yesterday, I was really confused. The headline read, "Haggard Pronounced ‘Completely Heterosexual’." For the life of me, I could not think why Merle Haggard was declaring his heterosexuality. As if we care. Apparently, though, it's a different Haggard, one about whom I care even less. lol

For the record, I believe Merle is "Completely Heterosexual" as well.

The Wayback Machine

Yesterday was Mitch's 35th birthday, and, inadvertently, I bought him a wayback machine.

I'd gone to Barnes & Noble in search of some things from his Amazon wishlist, and came out with the world's tiniest Atari controller, with built-in Asteroids and Millipede games. Mitch played these when they were cutting edge (didn't we all?), but Ethan of course,e had never seen them. So, we hooked them up, and Ethan loved it. Now I'm thinking I need to find the other mini Ataris (we can "collect all three!")

A cool map

Create your own visitor map!

Wake me up before they go go

Am I dreaming or is my little George Michael and all that is the 80s loving heart dreaming? Is Wham! getting back together?!?!

I'll be there, even if it is more to laugh than anything else.

Groundhog Day

Living with a five-and-a-half year old, I learned today that Groundhog Day is a Major Holiday. Ethan came home from school THRILLED that Punxsutawney Phil and Sir Walter Wally (the local authority) had neither one seen their shadows. His class got to watch the ceremonies on TV, and Ethan created a terribly cute groundhog home. It's made of construction paper, and shows the main entrance to his groundhog's burrow, the kitchen, bedroom, and even a bathroom. My favorite part, though, is that the burrow has been outfitted with an emergency exit (even called that by E). He explained that "you never know who will come down that main hole and make you need to get out quick!"

He, of course, has a groundhog who can live in this burrow he's made, and on the back, there's a song. To the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot":

I'm a little groundhog, short and stout
On February second, I come out.
If I see my shadow they will shout,
"Six more weeks of winter without a doubt!"

For the time being, at least, this ditty has replaced "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as E's favorite song.

On the inside, I'm saying this

Here's what I would love to say so many times, as i grade student papers. (And no, I am not Billy in this scenario!)

New U2 video

I've been meaning to post this for ages. How cool is this?!? You can def. see why it took 3 months to put this together...

Why will there always be an England?

Last night, Mitch and I went to see Children of Men. It's a fine film, and I am glad we saw it, though I have to wonder - why is that post-apocalyptic stories always seem to be set in England? Just off the top of my head (and in no order of quality), we've got 1984, Brave New World, V is For Vendetta, Never Let Me Go, and now, Children of Men. The old saying "there'll always be an England" seems to have become a literary and cinematic, if not just an historic, one. Why? Is it the island effect, or something else? I'm curious.

I also learned - Alfonso Cuarón is fond of the hand-held camera. Word to the wise: get there early enough to avoid a seat in the second row. I was more than a bit seasick by the midpoint in the movie, and I'm not a seasick sorta person usually.

Best. Headline. Ever.

The Best Headline Ever award goes to the Chicago Sun-Times for [Naomi] Campbell in town, no one hurt.


How could anyone ever top that?!?

Hogwarts-bound

I want to become a child, move to the UK, and be on this show. Or maybe, if 32-yr olds aren't considered valid candidates for the programme, I could get Ethan a spot?

Half-tempted

I'm half-tempted to try this myself:

Make mine a glazed maple flavor

I love Krispy Kremes, and I am all for exercise, but this is not something I plan to do next weekend.

What's in a name?

I've been reading a really cool series called The Book of Names in The Times of London, all about people's first name. They've got all sort of neat articles here about how one's first name determines all sorts of things about how life works out (or doesn't). They've also done some cool analysis of names and stats associated with them.

For example, i have leaned:

According to a 2005 report by insurance company esure, Alastairs are among the most dangerous drivers in Britain, or at any rate most likely to be involved in a car insurance claim.

Trevors are three quarters more likely to be self-employed than most people. (The one Trevor I know is self-employed...)

According to a study presented to the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2000 by Dr Luke Birmingham of House Medium Secure Unit in Hampshire, the name Fiona has the most positive associations for psychiatrists. They are far less likely to consider a patient called Fiona a malingerer or a drug addict than someone called, say, Tracey.

Anna is the name most likely to live in a home built before 1900. (Ethan would have been an Anna, had he been a she.)

Great hair

The guys at Project Rungay have been b;logging as they watch DVDs of past seasons. They're in Season One now, with Austin Scarlett, who cracks me up. This post about Austin's tribute to former first ladies has me ROTFL this morning. Be sure to follow the "continuing" link too. OMG!

More wisdom...

Health care plans are like mirrors, the glass is smooth easily able to see in, but once cracked it is no longer properly able to do its job

Later, in the same paper:

Simply put, we need to be in control of the escalating costs of health care that relinquish millions of people that have the need for health care

and

The expansion of carelessness in our conventional health care system is highly proficiently than numerous human beings can figure out.

Another paper said:

they may have the desire to learn another language and become bilingual in several foreign languages

Teletubbies do what?!?

Im grading finals - beware. So far today I have learned this - and as you know, you just can't make this stuff up!

The media and television broadcasting of women is not all negative. And example of women portrayed because of their gender is the Teletubbies it shows a definitive way the female are supposed to act.

You wanna know what kills me about this? The paper was plagiarized. Not just one person thought this fit to write and send out into the world, but apparently 2+ did. It can be yours, too, for the low, low price of $14.95. Oy.


NEW: Depression can affect someone’s concentration, social life, and most importantly their life.

September 12

Your Birthdate: September 12

You're a dynamic, charismatic person who's possibly headed for fame. You tend to charm strangers easily. And you usually can get what you want from them. Verbally talented, you tend to persuade people with your speaking and writing. You are affectionate and loving, but it's hard for you to commit to any one relationship. Your strength: Your charm Your weakness: Your extreme manipulation tactics Your power color: Indigo Your power symbol: Four leaf clover Your power month: December

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What a relief!

The TSA has finally released its specific guide to traveling with monkeys. Now that I know how my monkey might be treated during airport security checks, I'll feel more comfortable with the idea of bring Marcel along on trips.

Bright colors on a grey day

It seems our mid-winter summertime weather has come and gone, and we've been left here with drizzle, grey skies, and temps that, tomorrow, will not get above 45. Where's that 74 from last week now?

However, all is not lost - I spent a fantastic morning at the North Carolina Museum of Art taking in their exhibit Monet in Normandy. What a wonderful show it was! It's being put on as a join project between the NCMA, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. The show is 50+ works by Monet, and they are just magnificent. As you can imagine from the title, it's all work done in Normandy, which gives us a great sampling of his work - water lilies from Giverny, haystacks, Etretat, cliffs, seascapes, and the Rouen Cathedral. The exhibit has been here for two months and closes Sunday - the last article I read about it said the only remaining tickets were for 3:30-4:30 AM Sunday (yes, the last 36 hrs go non-stop), but today at the museum there was a notice up saying ALL tickets for all days and ties had gone. Though I was glad to go at 9:30 AM, there is something sort of irresistible about going in the middle of the night to see it.

After the museum, my mom and I went to Zest, one of my all-time fav lunch places - life is good :-)

Eurovision

I love the Eurovision Song Contest, but frankly this is just scary (and a tad depressing). Why would Morrissey do this to himself? It's one thing to start off there (Riverdance), but to be on after you've made it big? I dunno.

Sealand, Sealand, Sealand

Sealand is for sale. Part of me actually wishes to buy this thing/place, all on account of this article I read years ago in Wired magazine.

Who needs the talkies?

I love this:

No wonder!

No wonder my students are the shining stars they are...

This is a screenshot taken from my campus emai accountl - click on the pic to see it better.

Calgon, take me away!

My parents told me that if the bus company that when bankrupted don’t reimburse us that they will help us raise the money some how. Sense this horrible incident happen I been doing all I can and is trying to get us on that trip with out know more money out of our pock,

Can you tell it's grading time again? (rolling eyes)

Please God make it so

Oh, how I hope that news The Police might get back together this year pans out! If anyone can do it and do it well, they can, right?

Animals need presents too

I just read an article about the wish lists the animals at the National Zoo have for Christmas. How cool this this? I hope the otters get their double-decker slide!

Christmas 2006, before it's too late

It's hit me this morning that, if I want to blog about Christmas 2006 I'd better get on it. Who wants to read of holidays that happened the previous year, right?

In short, we had a very nice Christmas. Mitch is home (yay!) from CA, and his uncle, Larry, came in from Franklin, NC to spend the weekend as well. We had approx. 6 dozen freshly-baked cookies in the house, thanks to my mom, as well as a chocolate cake to die for and yummy wine provided by Larry. Ethan, per usual, was in charge of the entertainment.

Ethan got just about everything he'd asked Santa for. In addition to the regular stuff kids get form Santa, Ethan also got several activity/game sheets form Santa via The Elephant Sanctuary, in eastern TN. Ethan has always adored Elephants, and this place takes great care of retired/abandoned elephants. Their learning goodies are pretty fabbo too!

Anyhow, back to Christmas... Ethan loves his new bike, of course, and, otherwise, was generally sponsored by the movie Cars this year. He's got a fabulous pop-up play tent, a slot car racing game, and oodles more.




Ethan also has Christmas tree i his room and a moon on the wall that actually lights up and indicates the current moon phase - I'll get pics of them and post them here later today. (Trees shown in this post are (top) in the family room) and (bottom) in the library.)

I know you've been dying to know...

what fantasy archetype I am, so I will tell you.

What Fantasy Archetype Are you?
The Seasoned Veteran Friend You are the Seasoned Veteran Friend! You resemble Aragorn (Lord of The Rings), Merlin (Arthurian Legend), Han Solo (Star Wars), The Marquis (Neverwhere), Sirius Black (Harry Potter) and Chase (Wizard's First Rule). You are exceedingly loyal, tricky and hardy. You regularly pull the Unlikely Hero, Mentor and Pillor-of-Strength Love Interest out of trouble and into safety. Beware The Traitor, who will make your job intensely difficult. And don't coddle the Unlikely Hero too much, he has to learn how to fend for himself. Anyway, everyone admires you and your resourcefullness / reliability - good going!
Take The Quiz Now!	Quizzes by myYearbook.com

Yeah, this seems right.

Ahhhh.......

It's a nice Festivus at home for me so far. Christmas presents are bought and wrapped, we have soething like 6 dozen freshly baked cookies thanks to my mom, and the house is clean. Mitch's uncle is driving i as I type, ad I am sitting in the window dining room with the window open to let in some of our fabbo 70 degree weather, and "The Sound of Music" is on TV tonight.

I could get used to this!

Happy Festivus!

Happy Festivus to one and all! I'm off now to set up the Pole...

ONE singular sensation...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

However, There are 5,999 people in the U.S. with the first name Nanci. Statistically the 2397th most popular first name. (tied with 365 other first names)

The Tech and Christmas in the Park (San Jose, 12/10)

Bright and early on Sunday morning, we drove downtown San Jose to visit The Tech museum. Mitch and I attended a party during WWDC there way back when he was working at Apple, but hadn't been back since. We were sure Ethan would love it, and we were right. I think his favorite thing was visiting the IDEA house, where he had great fun playing with a Rube Goldberg machine and creating a raft for a mouse to float around on.


He also enjoyed playing with pool noodles that could be put into all sorts of crazy patterns, shapes, etc.


Next, we moved onto the robots, where one spelled his name. He also had a chance to do a virtual puppet show, wherein he played a butterfly,

and designed a bike, which you can see HERE (to be added).

After leaving the museum, we went across the street for something we didn't even know existed, Christmas in the Park. There were all kids of great trees decorated by local groups, and also dioramas, including a train, Santa's workshop, and a gingerbread house. Ethan loved it!


Perhaps the funniest thing we saw there was this warning sign:

Once we'd seen it all, we headed back into San Francisco, just in time for the really good weather (the best of the whole trip) to come out.