Snively Saturday and Tag Line Switcheroos

Happy frackin' Saturday. Scheduled a mandatory faculty meeting this morning and 3 of 10 showed up. I'm just going to whine now, thankyouverymuch. I'll spare y'all though and go home and whine to Chuck. By the pool. With a beer.

But before I head home to my laptopless condo, I thought I'd do a little Saturday posting.

I announced a while ago that I'm making a concerted effort to read more literary fiction this year with my personal Tournament of Books reading challenge, and I thought it was time for a new tagline to reflect my goal. My taglines started with "A baby in one hand and a book in the other," after Greyson's birth,  I moved on to a quote from Great Expectations, and now I've arrived at my favorite so far...

"Butchering literary fiction one novel at a time..."

Because, let's face it, I'm picky, fickle, kind of outspoken and sassy, and generally a smartass. Some lit fiction and I get along just fine, and sometimes I want to skewer the book AND/OR the author, too. *coughFREEDOMcough*

New on my stacks and prime for some snuggling or some skewering are...

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon van Booy and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I loooove me some Simon Van Booy ever since the Estella's Revenge E-Zine days when I first encountered his short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love. This is his first novel, and I'm really pulling for more snuggle and less skewer. I have high hopes! I'll be reading this one quickly since the e-galley expires on 7/5/11.

The other book is Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. I actually haven't gotten the NetGalley thumbs up on this one yet, but I'm doing a little e-galley dance that it's approved soon. It looks de-lic-ious.

I hope you're all having a great weekend. My laptop will be back in my itchy little bloggy hands this afternoon or tomorrow, so expect some Tweeting and some Tumbling. I'm having social network DTs.

Snively Saturday and Tag Line Switcheroos

Happy frackin' Saturday. Scheduled a mandatory faculty meeting this morning and 3 of 10 showed up. I'm just going to whine now, thankyouverymuch. I'll spare y'all though and go home and whine to Chuck. By the pool. With a beer.

But before I head home to my laptopless condo, I thought I'd do a little Saturday posting.

I announced a while ago that I'm making a concerted effort to read more literary fiction this year with my personal Tournament of Books reading challenge, and I thought it was time for a new tagline to reflect my goal. My taglines started with "A baby in one hand and a book in the other," after Greyson's birth,  I moved on to a quote from Great Expectations, and now I've arrived at my favorite so far...

"Butchering literary fiction one novel at a time..."

Because, let's face it, I'm picky, fickle, kind of outspoken and sassy, and generally a smartass. Some lit fiction and I get along just fine, and sometimes I want to skewer the book AND/OR the author, too. *coughFREEDOMcough*

New on my stacks and prime for some snuggling or some skewering are...

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon van Booy and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I loooove me some Simon Van Booy ever since the Estella's Revenge E-Zine days when I first encountered his short story collection, The Secret Lives of People in Love. This is his first novel, and I'm really pulling for more snuggle and less skewer. I have high hopes! I'll be reading this one quickly since the e-galley expires on 7/5/11.

The other book is Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. I actually haven't gotten the NetGalley thumbs up on this one yet, but I'm doing a little e-galley dance that it's approved soon. It looks de-lic-ious.

I hope you're all having a great weekend. My laptop will be back in my itchy little bloggy hands this afternoon or tomorrow, so expect some Tweeting and some Tumbling. I'm having social network DTs.

Monday's Messy Mishmash of Books

Stuff! I'm in a flurry of booklove, booklust, and bookblah! All at once! How's that for a Monday state of mind?

Booklove first. Still loving The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. It's beginning to get a wee tad darker (roundabout halfway through), and I just can't figure out what the hell her brother is up to.

Booklust! I was over at Frances's place (which always gets me into trouble) and read her review of Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard. I'm wondering why it's taken me so darn long to try the Flavia de Luce series. Seriously!? What is wrong with me? I'll chalk it up to 2011 reading stumptitude. It's not been the most numbery of years so far. Will be attempting to get The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie from the 'brary soon.

Finally, the Bookblahs. Sadly, I don't know if I'm going to be able to stomach ROOM. I soooo want to read it, and I downloaded the audio from my 'brary using Overdrive, but I find myself in a constant state of anxious yuckery while I'm listening. Before I had Greyson, my dog Daisy was my child. I damn near refuse to read a book with animal cruelty involved. Now since I have a kiddo of my own, I have the same feeling about children in books or movies. DO NOT HURT THEM. I flat-ass refused to watch Paranormal Activity 2 because there's a dog AND a baby involved.

So for those of you who have ingested ROOM already, should I just give it up? If I have these feelings now are they only going to be intensified??? I just can't stand the idea of this cute, sweet, innocent boy TRAPPED with his mom by this crazy effer. Ugg. To Be Announced on this one.

That's what's swirling in my bookish world. Whatcha up to?

Monday's Messy Mishmash of Books

Stuff! I'm in a flurry of booklove, booklust, and bookblah! All at once! How's that for a Monday state of mind?

Booklove first. Still loving The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. It's beginning to get a wee tad darker (roundabout halfway through), and I just can't figure out what the hell her brother is up to.

Booklust! I was over at Frances's place (which always gets me into trouble) and read her review of Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard. I'm wondering why it's taken me so darn long to try the Flavia de Luce series. Seriously!? What is wrong with me? I'll chalk it up to 2011 reading stumptitude. It's not been the most numbery of years so far. Will be attempting to get The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie from the 'brary soon.

Finally, the Bookblahs. Sadly, I don't know if I'm going to be able to stomach ROOM. I soooo want to read it, and I downloaded the audio from my 'brary using Overdrive, but I find myself in a constant state of anxious yuckery while I'm listening. Before I had Greyson, my dog Daisy was my child. I damn near refuse to read a book with animal cruelty involved. Now since I have a kiddo of my own, I have the same feeling about children in books or movies. DO NOT HURT THEM. I flat-ass refused to watch Paranormal Activity 2 because there's a dog AND a baby involved.

So for those of you who have ingested ROOM already, should I just give it up? If I have these feelings now are they only going to be intensified??? I just can't stand the idea of this cute, sweet, innocent boy TRAPPED with his mom by this crazy effer. Ugg. To Be Announced on this one.

That's what's swirling in my bookish world. Whatcha up to?

Monday Morning MishMash

Morning all!

I slept so great last night. Eastern North Carolina finally got some much needed rain (3 inches in my area), so I enjoyed listening to the pitter-pat of rain on the roof followed by bang, crash, cue the lightning. It was something of a nasty storm, but we really need any water we can get in the midst of this draught.

This week's installment of "The Finicky Reader" is up, and this piece is entitled "Expectations and Memory." Unsurprisingly, it's a reflection on the experience of reading Great Expectations some 13'ish years after the first time I read it as a freshman in high school.

I did a pretty good job grading student papers over the weekend when Daisy was napping, so I don't have much proper work to do today besides planning for Tech Writing tomorrow, soooo you know what that means! I'll be spending some of my 3 hours in the writing center reading. We tend to get swamped with appointments whenever papers are due, and at least three classes (mine included) had major papers due last week. It should be relatively wasteland-like today, so I expect to dig into The Bluest Eye for My Year of Reading Dangerously. I've only read a little bit of it so far, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about...yet. I was a little nervous about tackling Morrison. I read Beloved as a teen and had absolutely no clue about what was going on. As an adult I've always heard a lot of dissent in regards to Morrison--how hard her stuff is to read, how obscure, how genuinely unpleasant, etc. However, I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. From what I've read of the opinions at the MYoRD blog it seems to be a hit so far.

A sad thing happened this weekend. I showered, washed my hair, the usual nighttime routine on Saturday, and when I finished primping and decided to blow my nose, I realized my nose ring was gone. GONE! And I could not, for the life of me, remember where I put my backup nose rings. Sadly, I found them last night, tried to put one in, and the damn thing has already grown up on the inside. Talk about fast! So, it looks like if I want to go back to a pierced nose I'll have to get it redone. Luckily it's cheap as body piercings go...only about $25, but I do hate to have to go through all the cleaning and healing and bleeding part again. Uggg. Maybe I'll throw in the towel on piercings for a while. I'd had the darn thing for over 2 years, though, and I'd gotten quite attached to it.

Oh well, to brighten my own day, here are some Daisy pics from the weekend.

For more pics of the pup, check out the Flickr photo album on my sidebar. I'm constantly uploading new pics. Just click and it'll take you to the album.

And there's a story behind this last "Daisy" picture. On Thursday I got a call in the writing center that I had flowers at the front desk. It's a HUGE bouquet of...DAISIES...from my mom! Isn't she clever! She's been sending me Valentine's flowers at school or work for as long as I remember. Even when I was in elementary school, she had this wonderful habit of having goodies delivered to me at school on holidays and my birthday. It's been a few years since she did this, so I was totally shocked and surprised to receive this beautiful arrangement. Enjoy looking, but don't look directly at all the clutter on our bar. :D

Quickie

I'm sleepy, bored, tired, ready to go home. But, I wanted to pop in with a quickie post before I dive noselong into a book for the rest of the afternoon and then go home to nap.

The new Estella's Revenge is online! Read, enjoy! We have an interview with Colleen Gleason, a review of her new book The Bleeding Dusk, not to mention a bunch of other fantabulous features, columns and reviews. This month's Door Prize giveaway book is The Outlander, by Gil Adamson.

I have "You Make My Day" awards to give out! Both Dewey and Heather nominated me, and I thank them so very much. Both of their blogs make every day more interesting, but I'll gush about them some more later.

It's a dank, rainy, nasty day here. The PERFECT day to snuggle up with a book, so I'm gonna do just that.

See ya Sunday for the Sunday Salon!

New Addictions and Old Addictions

New addictions:

GroupRecipes - Heather introduced me to this delicious (har har) foodie website ages ago, but now that I have a vonderful (<--- German accent) thing called free time, I've actually begun to play with it! GroupRecipes allows users to join groups of like-minded foodies, "friend" people, share recipes, create full menus, and browse others' recipes by flavor, ingredient, etc. It's really a vast site with tons of tasty nooks and crannies to discover. I've posted four recipes, some of which you've seen here:


Artichoke Chicken Salad
Kalamata Meatballs
King Ranch Nachos
Chicken Breasts with Dried Beef


Body & Bath Cafe - This little shop, located in Myrtle Beach, SC ships its bath time treats all over. When we were in Myrtle Beach on vacation, I picked up two of the Dreamy Creamy Soap Floats, and I'm hooked. It's a mixture of shea butter and soap that creates a great lather for leg shaving and smells like candy. And it feels like a marshmallow! Well, a little tougher and harder than a regular marshmallow, but still a marshmallow!

Old Addictions:

Estella! (beware the link if you haven't read Great Expectations...maybe some spoilers!) - I still love her. I really do. For the uninitiated, Estella is not a nice girl. Her role in Great Expectations is to break our young protagonist's heart, and her aunt, the crazy, jilted Miss Havisham, taught her well. I can't (although I will try in the near future) put my finger on what exactly is so intriguing about Estella. Perhaps it's the fact that she's one of the original literary bad girls. She's enigmatic, calculating, seems pretty darn evil from the beginning. It's sort of like reading Paradise Lost and liking Satan the best of everyone. The baddies are always so much more interesting, aren't they?

Newsflash:

I have some interesting and exciting writing prospects on the horizon. It'll take a bit for me to find out more info, but keep your fingers crossed and I hope I come back to this topic with good news in the near future.

A'frolicking we will go...

Another trip to the doctor under my belt and I FINALLY have some kick-ass antibiotics. I expect this sinus thing to be DONE soon. I hope. And you' won't believe what happened. WON'T BELIEVE. This is one of the many reasons why I love small towns. First, when I went to the doctor's office (Urgent Care...no insurance type of walk-in doctor's office) they didn't charge me for an office visit because it was a follow-up. But then, when I went to the small Mom and Pop drug store, THEY DIDN'T CHARGE ME FOR MY PRESCRIPTIONS!!!! They simply said the pharmacist was feeling benevolent and I should focus on getting better. HOW SWEET! They're totally gonna get a thank you card and a goody basket next week.

Tomorrow B. and I are off to Myrtle Beach until New Year's Day. We're gonna rent an oceanfront condo and probably spend New Year's Eve at Margaritaville. We went a couple of years ago, and it was the BEST time I've ever had on New Year's Eve. I'm so glad we get to go back for some rest and relaxation.

I hope you all have a wonderful time in my absence. Be safe and Happy New Year!!!

Back from the Brink...

Of death, that is.

Or maybe that's just a slight overreaction. But I have felt like death since I got back from Texas. I got back almostontime Thursday night, and Friday mid-day my health began to decline. Today I finally went to the doctor, and I have sinusitis (translation: snot monster!!!). Now I have good drugs and the holidays can continue.

B. and I will be opening presents tonight and doing the big family dinner thing tomorrow. I've lots of cooking to do!! Thank God I'm not contagious.

I don't have much to report given all the sleeping and nose blowing, but I promise to return posthaste with a report on the Christmas goodies and news of my reading (which has been SO GOOD lately).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thanksgiving Aftermath

When I Googled "Thanksgiving Aftermath" this is what came up in the image search. Who am I to haggle with the Google gods? In the spirit of Thanksgiving I'll leave Daniel Craig's physique over which all may salivate.

Thanksgiving was good. B. cooked the turkey, I cooked the dressing (sausage dressing!), sausage balls (always good to get as much pork in the Thanksgiving diet as possible) and deviled eggs. The rest of the family took care of the rest of the meal, and a good time was had by all.

Other than the actual Thanksgiving meal, I have no idea what we did all the long weekend. I think I was more or less a worthless pile o'Andi. I played SIMS2, I started reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics, I had lunch with a good friend, and I went pretty well stir crazy yesterday.

Friday night we put up our Christmas tree and sundry decorations. Pictures to come.

Yeah. That's pretty much it. And, though I did little more than nothing, I have no complaints. It was a nice break for relaxation and I was able to face my 8:00 class today without seriously wanting to claw their faces off. Always a good thing at this juncture in the semester.

Lest you think I'm empty-headed today, I assure you my head is full of snot and deep thoughts. I've sort of been pondering the claim that Marisha Pessl's writing is "Nabokovian" in Special Topics. I've nearly come to the conclusion that I don't agree. While she does some fun things with annotations, she's not really doing what Nabokov did. And she overuses parentheses...we're kindred!

I've also been pondering the idea of femininity and how women perform it in various parts of the country. I'm sure I'll treat you to a well-flesh post on this very topic in the coming days (hours), but I'm still trying to put my finger on it.

I'm also figuring out ways to split up my thesis and publish the parts. I received the bound copy over the break, and I'm immensely relieved to have it IN MY HANDS. It's so pretty. Pictures of that to come as well.

For now, I must adjourn. I need to finish grading essays for my night class.

Listening: "Gunpowder and Lead"...Miranda Lambert

Calling Concerned Bloggers!

As a long time reader of the Baking and Books blog, I am absolutely thrilled to pass along word of the event and organization for which Ari is fundraising. She writes about the 76 books taking over her kitchen table:

The books are part of a raffle I'm running in order to raise money for the 2007 New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride. But rather than just ask you to donate to this cause I decided to ask publishing houses like Hyperion, Ten Speed Press, Penguin, HarperCollins, Wiley and Chronicle to spice things up by donating some of my favorite books as prizes. Lo and behold they answered the call, and as a result there are currently 76 prizes up for grabs. For every $5 donation to this very worthy cause participants will be given one virtual raffle ticket - and yes, people with more than one ticket can win more than one prize!

The bike ride is held by Hazon (www.hazon.org), a Jewish non-profit organization that has been doing some incredible food work over the past few years, educating people across the US about organic farming, sustainable agriculture and food justice. Hazon has created 10 CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture projects), a Food Conference, and is currently working on food curricula that will teach kids & adults about a vast array of important topics surrounding food, nutrition and the environment. Hazon's bike rides raise money for environmental & peace making projects in the US and Middle East. They also fund the CSA's, the food curricula and the Food Conference - so you can see why I want to raise money for the NY Ride. I believe in what Hazon is doing.

For a full list of prizes & more details please visit: http://www.bakingandbooks.com/foodies-unite/ This event is a chance to help the environment, support education and win fantastic books - which sounds like a win-win situation to me. :)

The confessions of a moody reader...

Ok, ok, yes, I have plenty to write about other than high heels and other miscellaneous mindless burblings. So here we go...

The WONDERFUL and kind BookFool sent a Books-A-Million gift card my way for graduation, and I decided to put that puppy to good use this morning after my 8am class. BAM was having a buy 2, get one free sale on selected books, and I had every intention of taking them up on the offer. However, as I perused the sale table (which was woefully smaller than I'd expected), nothing really jumped out at me. There were memoirs by Augusten Burroughs, plenty of chick lit, and only a few "literary fiction" offerings. The one book that caught my interest was The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It's about the author's attempt to read his way through all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A quick flip through the book revealed an entertaining enough read, but I decided, since it hadn't really grabbed me by the nosehairs, to put it back and attempt to Mooch it.

With no luck at the sale table, I began at the very first book in the Literature and Fiction section in search of the perfect books to add to my already wavering piles. One of my first finds was a display of Oxford classics that did grab me by the nosehairs. While I've begun to mooch most of my classics, there are occasionally some books that I still have a hard time getting hold of. Recently I had my heart set on a copy of O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather, but the sender never came through.

After browsing through the classics, I decided to limit my choices until I was done perusing the other fiction. I settled on a copy of *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Enriched Classics), because 1) I've never read it 2) the little bit I read grabbed me 3) it sounded fun, and it's one of very few classics that I've never even contemplated picking up.

A quick trip through the rest of the Lit/Fiction section didn't yield any results, so I decided to go with this sudden urge to read classics by picking up a very inexpensive copy of O Pioneers!. It's a Mariner Books edition, a beautiful trade paperback, and it was only $7.00! I'll definitely be picking up more of the Mariner classics for such great prices, and they're pretty. What's not to love?

My sudden itch for classics has gotten me thinking (so rare). I'm not sure if it's a byproduct of my recent graduation and lack of current class taking, but every time I look at a piece of fiction that's not 1) classic 2) written by one of my favorite authors (Auster, Hustvedt, Roth, etc.), I feel sort of a gaping lack of interest. Admittedly, and quite sadly, despite my two degrees in Literature, I feel woefully underread in the classics. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a mood reader--a finicky, picky, stubborn mood reader. I can't even tell you how many books I didn't finish in college. I got a little better in grad school, but I should still probably be ashamed of myself for all the reading I didn't do. As a result, I now feel the urge to catch up.

Part of my renewed interest in the classics also comes as a result of a Yahoo discussion group I recently joined: Thematic Classic Reading Challenge. This group is particularly perfect for me given that picky reading nature I mentioned. I continually fail to read books on time for book groups because it feels too darn much like an assignment. At Thematic Classics the only guidelines for reading are monthly themes. Members are free to interpret those themes as they like and pick a book that goes along according to their own logic. Voila! A reading group I might actually READ FOR!

If you're feeling the itch to read a few classics, come on over and join us. So far we've had a great time, and voting is currently in motion for our first theme.

Listening: "Supermassive Black Hole" --Muse
Watching: CNN
Should be: Writing freelance articles!!!

*This isn't the exact edition that I bought, but Amazon doesn't want to recognize the ISBN

It just keeps getting better....

The community college called this morning--the English department head to be exact. He was calling to ask if I'd be interested in potentially teaching online classes, and I said an enthusiastic YES since that would mean teaching in my pajamas from in front of my computer. He didn't know if the online gig would work out for Fall, but he was apparently very impressed with my interview and upset that I didn't get the full-time job. So, he should be in touch in the next week or so to let me know more about the prospects. He also mentioned that several faculty will be retiring in the next year or so and he wants me in. Do a little dance with me, kids. For real, yo.

The weekend was busily uneventful. Nothing out of the ordinary. I wrote, I unpacked, we looked at houses.

Wait. Huh? Houses? Yes, houses. Some very pretty ones, too. No specific plans in the works, just lookin'. I love lookin' at houses. Even if there was no chance in hell of ever buying one, I would still want to look at houses.

July 4th plans are sketchy. I'm sure there will be food and cooking out and fireworks. Let's all hope I don't blow something up.

The damn mouse continues to elude us. B. got really irked near the end of last week when he went to grab a granola bar and the mouse had already infiltrated all three of them. Ha! Now he won't poo-poo my bitchings about our rodent friend.

The rest of the day shall be supremely uneventful as I write articles for the freelance gig. I should clean the house and work out, but I don't wanna. I had a hot dog for lunch and now I'm feeling sluggish. It was a yummy hot dog, though. These North Carolinians brilliantly top their dogs with cole slaw, and that's a culinary habit I can get on board with. I have a feeling I'll be reading Shopgirl from the haven of my very comfy chair in just a few minutes.

The day's observations....

• I'm completely overwhelmed and utterly mindfucked.
• I haven't told you all that I'm moving back to North Carolina after I finish this semester. Now ya know.
• There's a lot of horrible, nut-twisting-to-read swill out there in indie Literary Journals (some good stuff, too).
• Keep an eye on this 'zine in the future: Conceit
• And this press: Blackbird Press
• My first PopMatters review will be out this week .
• I have a lot of stuff (clothes, books, movies, purses, shoes, papers, photos).
• My thesis is almost DONE! (helps explain the mindfuckery).
• Sleep is futile.

Adventures in Nashville....

Adventures is putting it kindly. While I have had a wonderful time in Nashville thus far, it has most definitely been an adventure (and that's not always a good thing).

I departed from my home in the sticks on Thursday morning at 6:30am with a warped notion that I might miss some of the Dallas traffic, but an overturned 18-wheeler on the interstate to the airport, in addition to construction along the way and general absurdity from 80% of the drivers around me, prevented me from making the quick trip I originally envisioned. Two hours later I found my way to the international terminal for my very domestic flight (your guess is as good as mine). Now, the international terminal at DFW is VERY swanky. Very swanky indeed. Picture space-age leather chairs, marble tables, walls of glass, a neon light or two, and you probably have a fair mental representation of the surroundings. Add 3.2 billion disgruntled travelers stuck in very long security lines and I'm sure you can also imagine the state of the union within that so swanky terminal. Thursday's security line was one of the bitchiest I've ever been in. While I was suffering along with everyone else, I managed to keep a pretty positive attitude (even though the over-surgeried hussy in front of me was carrying 2-too-many carry-on bags through security and a pool worth of illegal liquids). But, for the sake of example, I'll tell you that the man behind me, in what I perceived to be a fit of goodness toward strangers, passed one of those plastic security tubs ahead to a soldier to put his laptop in. However, after doing this good deed in the midst of the bitchy maelstrom, he turned to me and said, "I didn't do it to be nice, I just didn't want this line to get any longer."

Yeah. Bastard.

The flight was fine, and upon arriving in Music City I boarded the Gray Line shuttle service bound for a number of hotels in the greater Nashville area, and proceeded to almost lose my very life when the driver decided it was perfectly fine to execute a 3-point turn in the middle of a street that ran parallel to Vanderbilt University and the respective medical center next door.

Yeah. Awesome.

Since then things have been relatively smooth sailing. I haven't been accosted by the droves (really, droves) of homeless people hanging around music row, but I was accosted by a fellow Children's Lit scholar who mistook me for a good friend. This particular scholar is a relative big-wig in the field, so when she came up and put her arms around me, I was a tad taken aback. But I hugged her anyway. Because who doesn't hug a big-wig scholar when the scholar initiated it? We all had a good laugh (I was talking with some of her friends when the incident took place), and I thanked her for the warm welcome to my first big Children's Lit conference. Not all fields are this warm and fuzzy.

Thesis Director and I headed out on the town last night and consumed a heartbreakingly wonderful meal (it broke my heart when I wasn't able to eat it all) of shrimp/spinach/cheesy dip and spinach tortellini in alfredo sauce at the Old Spaghetti Factory. There was only one scary moment...when I realized I'd left my credit card at the Spaghetti Factory. Luckily, the manager had it in his pocket.

Today's been relatively uneventful. Thesis Director departed this morning but called a few minutes ago to inform me that her flight has been cancelled due to gawd-awful weather in DFW, and she might end up back here with me tonight. Fine with me. I spent the morning rattling around Painter's Alley and other main-draggish parts of the city. I bought pralines at Leon's Candy (featured on the Food Network), hit up Sun Records (bought a t-shirt), and puttered around in the Charlie Daniels Museum (more to see than anticipated).

For the remainder of the day, I'll finish up an article for Estella, look over the paper I'll be presenting tomorrow, and have dinner with some ISU girls.

A brighter day...

There have been some good reports from the direction of NC, so those prayers must be helping. Keep 'em coming because we aren't out of the woods, but the good reports certainly do make the days a little brighter.

In other news, I have nothing to report.

I'm busy, as usual. I should be busier doing things related to school, but it's much more fun to get the April issue of Estella ready to go and to read fun stuff!

Here's what I need to do:
Finish The Secret Garden, since I didn't finish it on my trip.
Grade papers.
Re-read and polish my conference paper for Nashville (I present on Saturday).
Write a letter for a professor.
Read some theory and write a response for Thursday.

Here's what I've been doing:
Reading Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures for a review.
Prepping Estella.
Playing SIMS2.
Getting 2 new tires on my car and got my car inspected.
Teaching a class.
Checking e-mail (several times).
Reading blogs.

Meh. Responsibility is a drag.

What's everyone else up to?

Blowin' like a.....nevermind.

Dallas/Fort Worth (and the surrounding sticks...where I live) were hit with a freak dust storm over the weekend. Saturday dawned sunny and lovely only to turn all to shit mid-day. Below are pics I stole from Crazy.Spoiled.Blitch of the weirdness. You'll notice, the first picture looks nice and healthy.





















Then there's the second pic.

As I said very eloquently on Blitch's blog, "Wasn't that the weirdest fucking thing you've ever seen? I expected aliens or Jesus at any moment." Really. All of a sudden everything was mud-colored. My first thought was actually "tornado" but usually the sky is green before those come down.

Odd. Very odd.

We had 40-60mph winds for the majority of the day, and most of this dust can be lovingly attributed to west Texas. Thank you, El Paso. Thank you.





Listening: The din of my own panic.

Gripe of the day: I submitted a paper proposal to THE big conference in Children's Literature. Last week when Thesis Director got her acceptance I began looking for an acceptance or rejection. I received neither. Turns out the shitbirds didn't receive my proposal AT ALL. But I'm more inclined to think that someone a) deleted it by accident b) didn't look over their SPAM folder.

*sigh*

Mish-Mash

I mistakenly thought I would be working all day, but by this late hour I find myself surfing the net for delectable goodies, fiddling with all things Estella's Revenge in preparation for the upcoming March issue, perusing Craigslist for writing gigs, and posting my next installment on the Dallas blog. I got several pages written on the thesis today, got the reading and planning done for my classes tomorrow, and now I face the daunting task of actually piecing together the paper I'll be presenting at my conference. But enough of that crap....

For those of you who harbor some snark toward The Food Network, do take the time to read this guest post from Anthony Bourdain (quakes with lust) from the Ruhlman website. A little quote for ya:

SANDRA LEE: Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time.

Amen, Tony. Amen.

As I prepare for my flights to and fro New Mexico, I'm faced with the eternal question. What do I take to read on the plane? I admit, I'm a horrible plane reader. I rarely get anything done on a plane besides sleeping, but I'm going to give it the old college try. With a mere hour or so in the air, I'm planning to take the quick-reading American Born Chinese (Gene Yang). I'm about halfway through and it's fantastically odd and delightful so far.

I had delusions of grandurous reading and thought of packing something serious, but I have a hunch that it'll be iPod all the way.

Speaking of...

5 Random Goodies from the iPod:

1. "Hurt"...Johnny Cash
2. "Alison"...Elvis Costello
3. "Falling Down"...Ben Jelen
4. "A Little Less Conversation"...Elvis
5. "Postcard of a Painting"...Maximo Park

With that, I take my leave for the night. I'm itching to post another volume of "Let's Nosh," so look for a tasty recipe or two tomorrow.

Watching: American Pie 2

Edit: My newest post on the Dallas Blog features a new exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art...Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art. It's a collection of modern and postmodern works by such big names as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and others. Check it out HERE.

Consider the Steam Blown

While I did have an unbelievably long list of things to do this weekend, I did none of them. My consolation is that I spent a ton of time blowing off steam, and while I blew my weekend budget and carb count, I am feeling slightly more human than I was last week. That doesn't mean I'm any happier about the thought of doing my PhD or writing my thesis, but I will trudge ahead diligently until this mess is over on May 12th.

Edit: OK, OK. I might as well come clean. I got so drunk last night that I don't remember much between the time I did my last lemon drop shot and woke up in my bra and panties in my friend's guest bedroom this morning. I started drinking at 7:00 last night, stopped at 1am was still drunk at noon today, the hangover kicked in around 2:00 this afternoon, and I didn't feel well enough to eat until dinnertime. It will be a VERY VERY long time before I drink again.

The next week or two will be spent writing A LOT. I have some recommendations to compose, a piece to revise for publication, and a couple of thesis chapters to dig into.

With that said, I do hope to sneak off to the mall tomorrow to buy some new undies, jeans, and a couple more pairs of shoes. And I need to stop by the tailor's to have some things looked at. When did I start giving a shit how I dress? I dunno, but I kinda like it. I'll have to post pics of my new threads I found last week. I got a great pair of brown trousers for work with a tiny pink pin stripe running through, a luscious black sweater, a red sweater suitable for layering, a denim jacket, a black going-out shirt with a funky neckline, and a pair of brown heels and a pair of brown boots (also heels). Everything was on sale and I only spent $142.

Now that I've bored you, I'm off to bed to try to sleep (probably not gonna happen for a bit, but it's worth a try).

Listening: "Make This Go On Forever"...Snow Patrol

Hermits Anonymous

Hi, I'm Andi, and I'm a hermit.

I've reached new levels of hermitude, kids. I should start growing my long white beard and coif immediately. My robes are on backorder, and my walking stick got delayed in customs.

I dunno what's wrong with me.

Oh, wait, yes I do. I want desperately to get a place of my own and a job that isn't this one. Right!

Anywho, I find that I'm praying for snow to avoid committments like baby showers and anything else that involves human contact (incidentally, we got some snow but it didn't mess up the roads). I'd really just kinda like to stay in bed and watch Take Home Chef and What Not to Wear 23 hours a day. No offense to all the friends I've been neglecting. It's not you, it's most definitely me.