Heber Creeper

Yesterday I was finally able to satisfy my urge to go on the old steam engine train that leaves from the Heber City station up past Park City. We all went up there and took a beautiful 90 minute train ride along the edge of Deer Creek Resevoir. Sam saw 96 deer and Catherine managed not to look out the window at all (ipod touch keeping her occupied). It was freezing cold but great fun.

Boxing Day

This is what the driveway looked like this morning. So we had to do a furious half an hour of shoveling so that we could get out to go to the airport to pick up Grammy.


Here we are picking up Grammy.

xmas 2008

Craig and baby Zach


Handsome Craig



Mainly Sam


Jerry, Catherine and Ellen

Some picture of Christmas dinner taken with my new digital camera!

My personal handyman

Here is how we spent most of Saturday.

flexibility newsflash

Today after Bikram and painting some more of the interminable swathes of wall in our house I took a shower. And, guess what? I could touch my toes. I know, bad visual, but it has been years since I was able to do that.

mom for a night

My Christmas present to Ellen was the offer to spend the night at her house so that she could get a full night's sleep. Last night was the night. It was quite lovely. Zack (pictured in entry below) is a chunkster of a baby with a sweet temperament. He was up for a bottle at about 12:30 and again a little after 5am. At that point he was quite awake so we wandered about looking for some toys. Once we got out of his room and into the breaking light of dawn, I think he finally realized I was not one of his people. He kept craning himself backwards so as to get a better look at me. Very cute. Then we went into the room where I had been sleeping (Ellen and Jerry's room) and he truly looked perplexed as we got into the bed to play and there was no sign of the parental units. They were downstairs in Lars' room with ear plugs in. We played for awhile and then both fell asleep until 7:30. It was actually quite fun (I know, that's because I can go home!), so I told Ellen I would do it again sometime.

Catherine making money

Catherine has finally discovered the incredible cash cow that is babysitting. Here are a couple of pictures of her babysitting Ellen's baby Zach this afternoon.

Crafty Christmas

A holiday arrangement.


This is Catherine's table decoration.


I made this wreath so we can keep up with the wreathy neighbors. Note all greenery comes from our very own garden.

humbled by hubby

Today Ellen and I had signed up to attend a 3 hour Bikram workshop. A guru woman was in town from Boston to teach it. She had been advertised as a person who takes cripples and gets them bikram-ing like mad. So, I get up this morning and Craig says he'd like to join us. There were about 35 of us at the workshop and it was great. The usual class is 90 minutes so this was working through the poses and getting feedback and answers to questions. Craig was singled out and dubbed "new guy" because he was the only one in the room who had never been to a class. He was like a human piece of positive reinforcement for the instructor. He is naturally quite flexible and in the distant past did a lot of yoga so is familiar with some of it. But she would come over and coo about "you see, the new guy just trusts his body and just goes with the pose." Sickening. Anyway, I got up my courage to ask a question regarding pose: hands to feet:




Anyway, you have your knees bent and then you are supposed to cup your heels with your hands and straighten your legs. Ultimately you end up looking like the people above. Problem. Cannot cup heels no matter how bent my knees are. So she comes over and we work at it a bit and she concludes that I just have to hold my ankles and keep working towards my heels. There is absolutely no question that I can straighten my legs. I stand up and she says to everyone (and this was fine, because it was clear already that the class was about seeing what different anatomy means for the poses): "Well, of course she is having trouble. Look at those legs. They are long, the torso is short and the arms are short." at which point she gestured to the length of my forearms versus my legs. So I have spent the rest of the day integrating this limb issue into my understanding of my general inflexibility which I had attributed to my tight hamstrings. Meanwhile, Craig bends over, cups his heels and straightens his legs. God love him.

downtown on a Friday night

As I was walking to my car after a rousing Mozart Requiem at the Utah Symphony I witnessed the following amusing scene. It was chilly, but cold not withstanding there were two young women clinging to each other and shivering at one of the crosswalks. They were each wearing a sequiny halter top and teetering on high heels. (They also had on trousers, just in case that wasn't clear). Anyway, along comes this 'hobo' (this is the word that Catherine and Sam use for down and outs. I have no idea where they got it from. In my idiolect it conjures up visions of unemployed men riding the rails. This man was clearly unemployed but decidedly less romantic than my 'hobo' visual.) Anyway, he says to the two women: "Wow, I thought I was crazy, but you two have me beat." It was a cute, urban moment in a not very urban place.

Marking papers

This is the part I hate the most (well, maybe not the most, but it ranks pretty high). So I have stayed home this morning with 35 assignments that I should have handed back by now and which have been lying on the floor next to me desk for two weeks. Meanwhile, I find myself posting, whipping up a tasty beef stew, and committing other acts of procrastination.

Bikram yoga or death by a thousand degrees

OK, only about 105 degrees. I have now attended two Bikram yoga classes - suggested to me by a couple of people who swear by the heat, humidity and regimented routine of 26 poses bracketed by terrifying breathing exercises. I think I like it, or at least at this distance (four hours out) I like it. The room smells bad. I suppose there really is nothing to be done when a space is used day in and day out to contain straining, sweating humanity. I knew it wouldn't be fresh, but it really is something to be reckoned with. Then there is the heat. I consider not having had to run out before the end of the 90 minutes a major triumph. Of course, I have to find my triumphs somewhere because the class is a very rude reminder that I am not one of the flexible members of the human race. It is kind of humbling to actually be in a room with 30 or so people and really be the worst one there. This is not hyperbole and I have no illusions about measuring myself against the lithe, agile, willow people in the front row or the solid, tattooed vegan types, but I have never actually been the worst at something in a group setting (except maybe ballroom dancing). I am absolutely the worst. There are whole poses that I cannot even begin. This is largely due to my back problems since the tubing incident of last spring, but having short hamstrings and other rigid bits doesn't help. So we are all lying on our tummies and we are supposed to grasp our ankles with our hands so that we are like boats. the teacher had to come over and suggest I just try to grasp one side and switch off. I could almost manage that.

Work funny

We had a departmental meeting a couple of weeks ago. Much dreaded because of a terrifying disconnect between the realities of global financial collapse and our faculty's view that this somehow shouldn't impact their mission to write esoteric things, teach boutique courses, and generally come and go as they please. Add to this the prospect of considering a temporary halt to recruiting PhD students (for reasons which will be exemplified below) in the face of some faculty who cling to the idea of being a doctoral granting department no matter what that looks like in practice. In the end the anticipated fireworks didn't go off; perhaps there had been enough preparatory small group conversations that people had begun to internalize the idea that it is, in fact, not possible to proceed with business as usual when you've just learned that 9-12% of your state appropriated funds will be permanently reappropriated by July 1st. But the really choice meeting moments had to do with our director of graduate studies reporting on the actuality of the PhD students we currently have. There was really not much to say when confronted with such facts as one post comps student who has been maintaining current registration (which you do by paying for 3 credits of tuition every semester) for SEVENTEEN years. As the DGS deadpannedly remarked, "Aside from the ethical question of how we let someone languish, but pony up cash, to such an extent?... four of the five committee members NO LONGER WORK HERE, and the course work is so far in the past that the discipline has surely moved on so what sort of dissertation would the person possibly be writing... The full DGS report was peppered by exclamations of "WHAT?" and the like from the faculty. Even the most staunch defenders of the PhD programs had the good sense to look dutifully troubled by the state of disarray.

new post from Russia

Just back from the provincial city of Vladimir, It is where we hope to deposit our students. A great small town. They will thrive there. Virtually no foreigners. I stayed in the nicest hotel -- my room had a mini bar and a tv with many channels but no clock. Why no clock?

Social life in Moscow

Quick update on the social events of Moscow. Saturday evening we had tickets to the show of one of the designers at Russian Fashion Week. Basically, a scene filled with impossibly skinny and tall girls flitting about. We availed ourselves of a free bar that spontaneously appeared near where we sat and waited for our show to begin. Cocktails with vodka, chamord and a slice of lime in plastic glasses shaped like an ice cream cone. You couldn't set them down, had to chug. Afterwards, the after party at a very nice restaurant where all the men were gay and the women still tall and skinny. The food consisted of glasses of chopped celery and cucumber with interesting spices. OK, I lie, they also gave us spoons with risotto and some kebabs. I saw a very skinny girl sneaking someone's discarded risotto spoon -- the personal shame.
Yesterday, pedicures. More on that in another post. Then on to Sunday lunch at an Australian diplomats place. As we return from pedicures, Liz breaks the news that it is "fancy dress". The horror. We dig out two Hawaiian dresses she has recently been gifted from a Korean-American friend's parents factory(...). Those with flip flops, a lei from the children's toy box and a birdcage salvaged from outside the fashion show hotel last night (the models in some show must have worn them as hats), we felt ready for anything. Of course we arrived to discover that no one else had taken the invitation seriously and were glad we had brought something to change into...

higgledy piggledy

Went to a charming place for lunch - again one of the big changes in Russia, that there are charming spots for a quick lunch. But our waitress was pure Soviet style. She didn't crack a smile and brought everything in random order. First we got our bruschetta, then came our drinks when those were almost done, finally the soup. Everything was delicious. Today it turns out is a work day. November 4th is the big holiday and since it falls on Tuesday and they want to give a long weekend they made Saturday a workday this week and people have Monday off.

Moscow bound

First blog about the trip to Russia and this is all about stuff prior to even hitting Russian soil. How do you know your flight is Moscow bound? Oh, maybe it could be the numerous carts of duty free groaning under the weight of bags and bags of alcohol being wheeled to the boarding gate. I mean, usually, there is some employee standing there with a few forlorn items, but this was like a Turkish bazaar (if I had ever seen a Turkish bazaar). Second item that differentiates your Moscow boarding lounge at JFK, from say, the one where the flight is going to Venice or Athens… the hulking great immigration officers with their deportees (similarly hulking, but much shorter). Then I get in line and I am at the end of the line and a Russian couple cuts in front of me!!! I mean how much did they gain? I was at the end of the line. Actually, I think they had no idea they had done it so ingrained is the need to cut in line. I am sitting next to a Russian woman who has been reading the duty free catalog for several hours now. I am not kidding. I guess she missed out on the free for all prior to boarding. Annoyingly I cannot fall asleep. I slept like a log from Salt Lake to JFK and now, wide awake.

would the super mom please stand up

I spent the weekend sewing a bunny suit for Sam. Yes, my 12 year old boy wants to be a 12 year old sized bunny rabbit for Halloween. The suit is white fleece with mittens, spats, and a hood with floppy ears. He intends to wear the suit part as pajamas after the big day. Catherine asked him if he was planning to cut off the bobbly tail and he said, no.

blog readers rejoice!

I am finally in the mood to do a little catching up. I know that I have been woefully derelict. First, I have to tell you about the most vivid dream that I had two nights ago. One thing that we face as academic administrators is our faculty's surprising inability to read their email, or if they do read it, to process what it actually says, rather than what they fear or believe it says. Seriously, in a department of people whose raison d'etre is language and texts, the degree of misreading and misinterpretation is strikingly odd. In the dream, my co-chair and I have decided that the only remedy for this problem is to hire a departmental town crier. The dream focuses on our discussion of what uniform this person should wear; the fact of his or her essentialness to departmental functioning is unquestioned. I can picture it now: "Hear yea, hear yea. Departmental meeting scheduled for first Thursday in November will now he held on the second Thursday in November..."
Of course, my Russian colleague pointed out the fatal flaw in my nocturnal delusion -- it presupposes that the faculty are in their offices to hear the town crier.
Second update. Monday I weathered an event that drew on all my social skills. Quite exhausting. Back up three weeks and I am at my desk when my phone rings. It is the secretary of muckety muck administrator who "wants to schedule a drink with you." Strange, but OK. We confer on dates and some mention is made of notification on final date once my Dean has also been invited and agrees to a date. Receive email with confirmation of the drink which is to take place at an off-campus restaurant at 5pm. I wonder vaguely why and what this about. Perhaps it is a crowd of people, but I sense not from the secretary's communications. So, I head over, arrive first and duck into the loo. I emerge and can see that someone is seated out of direct view on the patio so I go outside and see my Dean. He looks at me and says "Jane, what are you doing here?" I reply that I am having a drink with muckety muck. He says "I'm having a drink with muckety muck. I didn't know you were joining us." With perfect timing, Muckety Muck appears, looks at me and says, "Who are you?" Awkward. Some recapping of the history lets us determine that the secretary (who MM tells us is legendarily inept) probably thought I was the Dean's secretary (she is also called Jane). This does not explain why she called my direct line and phrased her request as "MM wants to schedule a drink with you." I, of course, wanted to bolt, but was entreated to join them for a drink which I polished off hastily so that I could then retreat...hastily.

Mexico

party like it isn't a budget free fall

It feels very decadent (but how appropriate in these times of cataclysmic decline) to be heading off to a week's beach holiday after a meeting today where the co-chairs decided that we have no choice but to cut back course offerings and with that auxiliary faculty. In order that our regular faculty aren't allowed to feel untouched, we have also nixed our travel budget, computer upgrades and a few more things that the will hurt. It was depressing to get feedback after our faculty meeting on Tuesday to discuss strategy that, first of all, came only from the full professors and, secondly, consisted entirely of how to make cuts that in essence wouldn't touch them. A year plus into this job I am still astounded at how people really are either supremely self-interested or they aren't.
So, off to Riviera Maya for a week of sun and swimming and reading books. I have made the rather drastic decision not to take my laptop. There is a computer kiosk at the resort, but i shall try to avoid checking in.

My how time flies

Incase I have any readers left, I thought I had better post something to let you all know that despite my silence, all is well. It's Saturday night and we are all floating about the house doing what it is that we enjoy. Craig is kanoodling with his guitar, Sam is watching a little tv, Catherine has crawled into bed with her phone to do some texting and I am at the laptop.
I gave a paper today at my colleague Christine's conference: Metamorphoses: An International Colloquium on Narrative and Folklore. I spoke about the wedding padlock tradition that I had discovered in Russia a little over a year ago and which I subsequently find happens in such disparate places as China, Hungary and Lovelock, Nevada. It went well - it always helps to have funny photos and bizarre video clips. I think I was a spot of light relief amongst more serious talks about medieval texts and so on. I am heading to Russia at the end of the month and in between we are going en famille to Mexico for a week. Somewhere amidst all this fun and galavanting, I must write a stack of serious tenure and promotion letters, sigh.

Sam

Here are a couple of pictures from Sam's fishing trip with his Dad last weekend. They went to Wyoming.

transparency

Sometimes things just are what they are. I love this response from our very opaque college finance person:

Dear _________ ,

When ________ says 2% in base funds, that means that the 2% has to come from our base funds.

Thanks,
_______

one other detail

PS - the time she actually came to my office two years ago and we arranged for her to visit a class, at a certain point during the conversation she whipped out a camera and took my picture. To my sputtering, "what are you doing" she responded brightly, "I am an artist, I collect pictures of people." FREAK.

creepy woman

So there is this Russian woman in the community who has been a presence for the last couple of years. She calls periodically to leave messages about her art shows -- really terrible drawings of Russian peasant woman and so on. When this first started she also bent my ear about her passionate interest in how Russian is taught in America (always understand this as code for "I want you to hire me to teach Russian in your department"). I (very generously I thought) told her that she was welcome to come and observe one class session of mine and we set it all up. She didn't show up. Since then just the occasional phone message about her 'exhibits'. There was such a call a couple of weeks ago - on a weekend to my office so I got a voice mail. It doesn't occur to me to call her back since the call seemed purely informative and I have no interest in getting friendly with her. Well, yesterday I come in to the office and there is another Saturday message from her. This time it is long, rambling and includes such choice phrases as "well, you are arrogant" but she goes on to say all Americans are. Then there is rambling about how she speaks two languages and while she knows that she has "heavy Russian accent" in English, "it is so funny that all Americans have accents, and they don't even know it." Clearly a nutcase. I saved the message and played it for a couple of colleagues who confirmed that it really was weird and inappropriate. Well, today she called again. In addition to all the previous content there is now extensive ranting about how she is a real Russian and I should not be duped by those Jews and Ukrainians who speak Russian but hate Russia. CREEPY. And I'm not even a Jew or a Ukrainian...Will call the woman on campus who deals with weird, disturbing people in the post Virgina Tech world that we live in.

addendum

Just talked to my brother who always has apt phraseology for administrative situations. I told him of our delightful staff exodus and he said, "Yes, when an albatross slinks off, the step is lighter and the world is brighter." Couldn't have said it better myself...

mass exodus

Some of you may have listened to my whine about some problem staff members; indeed managing administrative staff has been another steep learning curve in this whole chair job. Last year was spent positioning for one person's removal, but luckily, towards the end of the process, said person, got another job and gave notice. Oh happy day. We had also begun several weeks ago working on the ouster of someone else and shortly after the first announcement, this person too gave two weeks notice. Not a little rejoicing about that too. Over the summer our incredibly competent undergraduate advisor had left to go to law school and we had already replaced her with someone who is working out extremely well. Today, the second to last member of the original office team also gave notice. We're beginning to think we are either doing something very wrong (or very right). We are now left with 2 of 5, but 2 incredibly skilled people. Fernando and I will be answering phones and making photocopies as of Friday.... but with smiles on our faces.

work or being chair

we got a vote of confidence from our faculty last week - they would like us to continue. That felt good. What does continuing mean? Making difficult decisions. Today we had word to prepare for a potential 2% cut from base funding. Base funding is salaries... pretty much. So, we get to say "you got a raise, but now most of it has to be given back..." not a popular message I anticipate. As well today there was the meeting with Middle East Center which ended with a party at one of the faculty member's houses. Much drink and dancing both of which make you think that if there was more of that perhaps things would go more smoothly over all. It was fun.
Other choice chair moments - why should we approve hiring an assistant for someone? not because the class is overly large, but, as her colleague put it "She is wearing someone else's hair". that is, she is in cancer treatment, not that I know this first hand....and I do not doubt it, but it is a weird thing to have someone utter the above phrase with a straight face.

Junior High

Sam started junior high this week and it has been a dream. The first night he went to bed confiding "I don't know if I'll be able to handle junior high, it's really complicated" but he is pulling it off with aplomb. I don't know whether the heightened need for organization is responsible but yesterday I got home after work and the kitchen was gleaming. Sam had cleaned it from top to bottom. He was wiping off cupboards when I came in. Bring it on! He is using his planner, cheerily sitting down to do homework and getting off in the mornings without too many things forgotten. All in all a great success.

American healthcare

Just a short note -- -but I promise to be better about posting soon. So, I hear that people self ration trips to the doctor and what not in America because of the woeful state of health coverage, but get your mind around this conversation from the back seat of my car this evening. Sam's friend was talking about a recent visit to his dad in Idaho and he says "well, my dad looks kind of weird at the moment cuz of the ATV accident and he had to have all these stitches in his face and then when he was taking them out he didn't do it right so in some places he has little black threads sticking out of his face." I said "Why didn't the doctor take the out?" He replies, "Oh, we always take out our own stitches so we don't have to make another trip to the doctor; usually my dad is really good at it."

Long time no blog

Finally home again and it feels wonderful. Got a surprise phone call from some out of town friends. Catherine and I joined them for dinner. On the way there we realized that we had both independently been wondering what you say to someone you see for the first time after a boob job. We tried out various options: "Hi, so good to see you. My those turned out well;" "Hi, how are you... and you and you?" We decided not to mention them. So, we're left wondering, what is the etiquette for plastic surgery?

Warwick castle

Sam's birthday party

Down on the Farm

Some shots from the Binsey Fete (raising money to replace the church roof). And one at home on the farm.

England

Here we are, having lunch in Bourton on the Water.

Catherine and her new cousin Rosie.

Adam.

14 year old wisdom

Well, apparently everyone washes their flip flops in the washing machine. I mean, how else would a girl get their myriad pairs of flip flops clean? I learned this today when I came upon a bathtub of floating flops which Catherine sighed had only been necessitated by the washing machine having - heaven forbid- someone else's damp clothes in it. Transfer to the dryer was impossible because There were clothes of Ryan's in the dryer, and a warm soapy bath was drawn for the flops. My wondering about whether the washer was the best way to wash shoes, was met with disdain/confusion: how else does one clean one's shoes? I confess, I had no answer.
We leave for Paris tomorrow and I guess that means clean flip flops are in order. There is much excitement - Sam packed everything he owns clothes-wise yesterday and then schlepped around today in mismatched and ill-fitting clothes deemed not cool enough for Europe.

remodel

Craig and I made a deal to do away with the hideous flooring on the main floor of our house. The kids and I do the demolition before leaving for Europe and he will lay the new floor while we are gone. Here is our part of the job...

dinner disaster

For some reason I decided to cook roast beef for dinner tonight. Sam had said a few days ago that he likes it and was generally negative about the preponderance of chicken on our menu, so I decided to humor him. The whole meal was labor intensive and an unmitigated disaster. Well, everyone said the potatoes were alright. Add to this that it was 92 degrees out and it made even less sense to be trying to serve a roast dinner.
After dinner we took the dogs and timed the walk over to the kids' soon to be completed new school building. Looks like it will take them anywhere from 20-30 minutes depending on how close they are to the tardy bell.

One reason I love Utah

This morning after I dropped the kids at their tennis lesson, I headed up Mill Creek Canyon for a hike.
Today being July 1st, the last stretch of the road up was open after being gated for skiers, snowshoers and dog walkers since November. I parked at Elbow fork and took the trail 2 miles up (and I do mean up) to Lambs Canyon Pass. Here is a picture of the view and one of the kinds of wildflowers I saw (23 different kinds in all). It was warm but nothing like the high nineties on the valley floor. I saw four other people and three dogs -- another reason I love Utah.

More road trip

This is where we camped on the first night. 9,100 feet and we were the only people there. The second picture is Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park.

Road Trip - the american way

The open road, sleeping in the car and Sam on a horse in Montana.

Hitting the road

Tomorrow morning Sam and I head out for our 'road trip'. The trip is built from the basic request Sam had to "just drive, and sleep in the car." We'll take the back seats out of the RAV4 and add foam and sleeping bags. Should be great fun. We are both very excited. Sam is so excited that he was trying to convince me to leave tonight --"we'll just drive for a couple of hours and then sleep somewhere." I managed to talk him down from that ledge of enthusiasm. We'll leave in the morning. We will take lots of pictures and come back Monday in time to collect Catherine from the airport at around midnight.

Grumpy Old Woman

I was reading my copy of More (a magazine for women over 40) last night in the bath and imagine my horror at the three page spread on how to apply leg makeup. I mean, really. It's bad enough trying to patch over the dark eye circles and sun spots on the face, but now, I'm supposed to make up my legs too!

When the self is beyond self help

Awhile back, Alison launched her periodic series profiling a self help book. I too have a weakness for such tomes -- not that they do much good. Here is what I found this morning when I was looking for a shower cap for Catherine: