The long silence has probably been troubling for all three of you who check this blog....
The thing is, we have been doing job searches. This involves attending all the candidates job talks, many dinners, meeting with each candidate to discuss benefits and other 'perks' of working here, etc. Regarding talks... it has been weird. All the candidates are here for positions in literature, but so far only one has actually talked about literary texts. The most recent candidate talked mainly about the socio-economic underpinnings of friction between the Koreans in Argentina and the local Argentines. We were somewhat amazed by her. You know how some people are such overachievers that, well, its alarming. She was one of those. In addition to a PhD in Spanish/Comp Lit from Cornell in 2004 and serving as CEO for some Korean company since then, she also won the international salsa competion in Puerto Rico in 2002. And she's a vegan. I don't see this as a fit. And then there's the Arabic search which has erupted into a major conflict with the Middle East Center -- no surprise there. We are trying to negotiate some sense into them via the Dean who in the meantime is a finalist for a provost position at the Universtiy of Arizona and can't help but be thinking "not really interested in wrestling this one to the mat, cuz, I might not have to." So we soldier on, amidst increasing mountains of snow, may I add. Truly we are having a record year of snowfall which is all good for drought, but we are getting sick of shoveling the driveway. I have been cross country skiing and today did what I thought would be a snowshoe up Lambs Canyon, but the road to the trailhead is long and plowed so I never actually needed to don the snowshoes.
For those of you following the "family bush" we have Nancy visiting next weekend and Ian and Judith the following weekend. For the latter I am concocting a hike/snowshoe that crosses from one canyon over a ridge to the adjacent one. All in all about 7 miles which should keep us busy.... The last half seems to be in mobile range which should put any worries of losing us to rest.
Sam just won his sixth grade chess tournament. Following in Catherine's footsteps as she won hers two years ago. And they hardly ever play chess so they must just be smart:)
