Zoe

While I was away in Canada Craig put Zoe to sleep. It has been really strange to come home and not have her black shaggy presence in the house. Apparently she had missed a couple of meals and was moaning at night in her sleep from pain. She also fell more drastically coming down the stairs so he decided that it was time. She was around 16 years old which is no small feat for a dog. The vet came and put her to sleep and then took her away for cremation. I must admit that I cried when he described the whole thing to me.

My job part the umpteenth

For those of you who have followed or listened to me bemoan the Middle East Center and its politics here at the University of Utah. Or for those of you who can imagine the administrative fall out pending something of this magnitude, check out the latest:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51222181-76/baktiari-piece-tribune-region.html.csp

Cuz I know you all love them

Another email from my colleague with a stellar example of undergraduate writing:

"Westernizers were very pro west people. They considered Russian to be backward and wanted Russian to be Europeanalized. That the only way Russia will ever united was through the imitations and ideals."

And yes, he is a native speaker of English.

trying to get caught up

Lots has been happening. I spent two full days in Portland reviewing a department at Portland State. My first trip there and I was so impressed. The city is a real city and it is gorgeous. And the food.... Every meal I had there was beyond delicious. Here was my first working lunch. The salad was perfectly dressed, and the quiche...simply perfect pastry. Yum.

Catherine flew in on Tuesday evening and we flew on up to Vancouver for our college tour. The plane was late and we were exhausted. The car rental guys talked us into "upgrading" - how could we resist. Boy how I wish we had. The car is a behemoth. For those of you who know your cars... it is a Lincoln Navigator. Totally enormous, but what pushes it over the edge is the ski rack on top. Checked into the hotel and realized part way into the underground garage that we were "oversize"... Managed to park and then saw that I had ripped part of the ski rack off... Today when we got to UBC for our tour, I headed towards the recommended garage and then, YIKES - we won't fit here either. So I had to back out which of course was mortifying for Catherine. I have used super glue and duct tape on the ski rack and am hoping I can slip it back to the rental people without them noticing.

Here is the beast - up at a local ski report which we had to nip up to and check out.

A really sweet local resort that I can picture Catherine boarding at.

More importantly though. We both loved UBC. Here are a couple of pictures from the campus.

This is what they call the "million dollar view".

One of the first year dorms:

One of the many libraries:

everyone behaving badly

From today's inbox. Forwarded email exchange between faculty member and student. Faculty member concerned that student might "follow up".

Hi ___insert faculty member's first name____, I believe i am suppose to contact you about meeting with you (or another faculty member) and filling out a tutor recommendation form. Please let me know who i can contact or when i can come by, the sooner the better. thanks __student___

Dear __student___,

Is this for tutoring through the department or through the library? If you are a Spanish Major/Minor, then I suggest that you get a recommendation from one of your current Spanish professors. If not, then I suggest that you come to my office during office hours (10:45 – 11:45) in order to determine your level of proficiency in Spanish. Additionally, please leave the recommendation form and a Curriculum Vitae/Resume in my mailbox at the front office beforehand so that I have an idea of your experience in Spanish.

A piece of constructive criticism: I suggest that you proof-read your emails before sending them out—your message contains grammatical and punctuation errors that reflect poorly on someone who intends to get a job as a language tutor.

-______insert signed Prof. _______

faculty first name again,

Thanks for getting back to me and taking the time to proofread and inform me of my grammatically incorrect email. However, i think you may have misunderstood the intention of my email, in which i was ONLY asking for help to get my recommendation filled out and not for the editing of my email.

However a piece of constructive criticism: If you think you might offend someone, keep your criticisms to yourself. You're email contain comments that reflect poorly on a Professor of language.

student

A good florist really makes a difference

Ellen sent me the most beautiful flowers as a thank you for help over what we are calling her "spell".

Our bathroom

For awhile now we have known that we have a problem with our shower. We joke that each day might be the day that one of us ends up in the garage while toweling off. I don't know how you decide that today is the day when you have been talking about the need to "do something" for months (or even years) but last night that moment arrived and we spent some quality time on demolition. We figure that if we have to replace rotting studs and moldy tile, we might as well just rip the whole bathroom out and get rid of all the dated and ugly gems the previous owners chose. Peach tile - going; hideous shower with fake stain glass decals on the door - going. We will also redo the whole sink area and the floor throughout the bathroom. One of my serious pet peeves was their idea that carpeting in front of the sink area was a good idea. Of course, being do it ourselvers... we expect to be showering elsewhere in the house for months....A satisfyingly large hunk of the peach tile.