Watch this

A new one for my library

I've just found an ad on the SF Chronicle's web site for this book. I think I may need to buy... LOL

What did you say?!?

Liz gave me the funniest thing ever for my bday (thanks, Liz!), Shakespearean Insult Gum.

Thy breath stinks with a cating of toasted cheese.



I've not eaten any yet, as I am currently working my way through another yummy thing she sent, dark chocolate covered espresso beans, but once I do, you'll be hearing from me!

I should certainly hope so!

Given my profession, it is a relief to announce...

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Sorta Bionic

See What You're Made Of - Visit The Official Site

Not bad, given that I had the sound turned down on my computer when taking the aural section ;-)

Bono's blog?

This is, I believe, the funniest fake blog I've come across in a long time.

Road Trip, part I

Not much of note happened during the first half of the trip - NC, TN, AR, and OK all look pretty much the same each time one drives through them (with NC and TN being far more pleasant and interesting, imho). When e got to NM, however, we were in for some interesting sights. As we were driving through the desert east of Albuquerque, we could see a massive storm ahead - several miles wide, easily. We stopped and took a few cool pictures of the sky.



The next day we were on through Arizona and up to Las Vegas. Arizona's rock formations, as always, amaze me.


Before we reached Vegas, we drove over the Hoover Dam. Now, I've always heard of it, of course, and love the song by Sugar, but didn't really know what to expect when we got there. I was def. selling the thing short. And kudos to whoever it was that came up with the plan to make a feat of engineering a tourist attraction! I seriously want to go back when we have more time and spend a few hours looking at the displays and wandering around. (Note to self - do not try to drive a massive RV down the windy mountain road surrounding the dam, like someone we were stuck behind for a half hour.)




Mitch was Vegas earlier this summer, but neither Ethan nor I had been before, so we stopped off to take in the spectacle for a day. Like all good, non-corrupting parents, we let Ethan choose which casino hotel to stay at. We offered him a choice between the Luxor and the Excalibur (we were just there for a night, not looking for a place you'd want to stay for ages and ages). Ethan, being my child chose to stay in a castle over a pyramid, so the Excalibur it was. (I was secretly pleased, too, as Carrot Top is in residence at the Luxor, and the idea of encountering him and his scary torso is about enough to give me nightmares.)




I loved the water "show" at the Bellagio, sadly, though, we did not see George, Brad, or any of the other Oceans 11-13 people while we were there. We stayed out of Pacino's wonky casino as well. I think Ethan's faavorite thing was our visit to M&Ms World, where he could mix his own color combo of M&Ms. (He went for purple, hot pink, blue, and mixed colors, both regular and Mini M&M size, in plain and dark chocolate.)




After one night in Vegas, we were on to CA...

Long time, no blog

Gads, it's been positively AGES since I've blogged regularly! Where have I been? I suppose a better thing to say would be, where have I NOT been? As we prep more for the move to CA, we decided that we a) ended to get a car out to CA for Mitch to use all the time so his company won't have to keep renting him one and b) we needed a family vacation. It wasn't the most relaxing thing we've ever done, but it was fun. So, we set off - on a mere 24 hrs notice, for Road Trip 2007.

We did the drive (NC to CA) in about 5 days, without really pushing ourselves. We stopped in Knoxville, TN, Fort Smith, AR, Albuquerque, NM, and Las Vegas, NV along the way. I've not got much to report on the first half of the trip, but will be blogging about the more interesting parts of the trip, and the following 2 weeks that Ethan and I spent in CA with Mitch. (We're back in NC now, waiting for school to start and the move to get underway.)

How spam could be more effective

My "real" job's email account has been overloaded with spam for the past 2-3 weeks, and no one at the school seems to be interested in installing a spam filter to help the poor, beleaguered faculty escape it. Some came in yesterday with the obviously porny subject line "Me and my roommate . . ." I would be more inclined to open these if the subject lines were grammatically correct: "My roommate and I . . ." You know what writing teachers are like!

Simpsonized!

I've been meaning to do this for a while now. I've been Simpsonized!

What I need...

I SO need to be a contestant on The Singing Bee. Where else could I ever turn by knowledge of the lyrics to Electric Avenue into $50k?

The Rusty Remains

They opened the car time capsule in Tulsa yesterday.

Her's an update before it was unveiled:

And, the final unveiling:


Here's a CNN article about it, too.

All told, I kninda wish Id been there!

I have ALWAYS been cool

My mom and I have bee playing with our genealogy stuff this week, using Geni, a way-cool, free genealogy site. I've been scanning an uploading lots of family photos as well, which is how I happened to come across this pic of me at age two (which means this was taken in late 1976 or early 1977). if you look carefully, you can just make out that Winnie the Pooh is all over the dress.

Tulsa, 50 Years later

This New York Times article is about a time capsule buried 50 years ago in Tulsa, OK. As you may or may not know, I grew up there, so when they open it up on Friday, I'll be looking forward to seeing how the things in it have held up.

Scary, but true

Some of my classes had rough drafts of their final papers due last week. ONe student didn't submit hers, so I sent her a note reminding her it was due (something I am required to do, but really loathe). So, she wrote back with a list of "updated labor law poster kits" contents. Her paper is not on labor law.

What is this, Student? I asked.

I don't know, she replied.

WTF? Who submits something when they don't even know what it is?

And she wonders why she isn't passing my class.

My pirate name

My pirate name is:

Captain Jenny Cash

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

The pool is open!

We had Dale, jane, & Amanda here for Memorial Day weekend, and the kids got to open the neighborhood pool of the year. Luckily, ethan and Amanda are evenly matched in he water - neither is Greg Louganis or the Thorpedo, but they are both happy enough to paddle around and splash each other in the 3 ft area without feeling like they have to have an adult to grab onto at all times.

I think I know how my remaining NC afternoons will be spent once school is out...

Let's go shopping!

My mom has a new shop up on Cafe Press - it's got her watercolors and a few pencil and colored pencil pieces up for sale. You can get cards, postcards, prints, posters, T-shirts, mugs, aprons, tiles, you name it, it's there. So, what are you waiting for? Visit her shop HERE!

But what about MY needs?

My friend, Gillian, turned me onto the needs meme in her blog, so now I must do it. All you do it go to Google and type your first name followed by "needs." Hi-jinx ensue! Here's what I've learned about myself this morning:

Nanci needs to calm the hell down. - Probably true...

Nanci needs to remember that we only get to be in college once. And thank God for that! ;-)

Nanci needs to score her rental skis before we leave. Nanci has had some experience skiing, and has chosen to stick with the sure thing rather than brave a new sport.

Nanci needs to find guys that have more honor. Nah, Mitch has plenty :-)

Nanci needs to send out minutes from special meeting of August 23rd for review by Directors and approval at next board meeting. Oh God, one more thing I've forgotten to do!

Nanci needs to come home and find out what is going on with Iran. So long as the Shrub is around, i shudder to find out what may be going on there soon.

Nanci needs us! Duh.

Whoever said Nanci needs a stronger guitarist should hear this guy play. No, really, Edge is just fine!

Nanci needs some help with pre-made scrapbook pages.

And last, but certainly not least: Nanci needs our prayers for financial blessing. So, get those checks, PayPal transfers, etc in the mail ASAP, OK?

Drop dead gorgeous

What's the point of having kids if you can't brag about them now and then? Ethan's spring school pics just came back and I am SO pleased with them. He's a knockout (esp. in the closeup head shot), if I do say so myself :-) Now onder he's the Ladies Man (apols to Tim Meadows) of his kindergarten class!