graduation

Today was Catherine's graduation. Hard to believe (cliche) and yet so needed. She is ready to move on to the next phase of life. After the party we hosted ended, headed out to the garage to see if we have low profile chairs for the Sheryl Crow concert on Sunday.
Pic of me in my chair. With new hair cut. Probably should have washed and styled it, but between making kebabs and pasta salad and hemming Catherine's dress...

F.....ing Russians

This is the fourth year of our study abroad program in Krasnoyarsk. Every year things do not go smoothly and every year I think, ok, note to change things next year. And I do, but something new goes wrong. Learned last night that the visa invitation letters will not arrive in time for some students' US departures; or, rather, they can pay for one day visa processing at the consulate in San Francisco, but that service will run them $550 each!!!! I have promised myself that this is it. Never again. Not worth it. Students can go on someone else's program.

Hair

When I was in 7th grade I had my first salon hair cut, thanks to the persistent encouraging by my friend Michelle whose mother was a hair dresser. It was 1977 and I emerged with the Dorothy Hammill cut - see above. I HATED IT. I felt exposed, self-conscious, mortified -- insert other words of shame. The funny thing is it probably looked cute. Anyway, perhaps that is why I have always had a horror of hair salons. I instantly feel worried, inadequate and in danger of an unpleasant shearing. I have always been in awe of friends and their casual mentions of their stylists -- hell, even Craig has a stylist, but in true Mormon fashion she disappears periodically to drop another child. My best friends here in SLC, Val and Ellen, each have their go-to person and they look fab. Me, I go to Great Clips, pay my $13 and am proud that that line in my budget is miniscule. But, I am going grey and so periodically I toy with going to a real salon and getting my hair colored properly. Today I did. And, WOW! what a difference. I went to Val's guy, Stephen, and because I am now 49, and not 12, I could quell my insecurities and go with the flow of talking about my hair, my color, my style....huh? The downside, I was there for three hours; the upside, my hair is amazing!!!!! The color is spectacular, the attention to "building height here and lightening things up there"... well, I no longer look like a lollipop or a q-tip. Many more dollars than 13 later, I am home and happy.

Birthday

We went for fondue

 

We had cake.

With promises to be more regular about blogging, here are a few end of terms gems.

1) Student failed for plagiarizing a final paper stands outside our advisor's office and makes a phone call in which she is heard to say the following:
"I need you to come down here and explain to them that when you read that stuff to me over the phone that I typed into my paper, you were taking it from the internet......" Because that in her view would exonerate her....
Shortly followed by: "No, I don't want my money back...."

2) Had the joy of being interviewed by an investigator from the Utah Labor Antidiscrimination Board about a certain plagiarist of the more mature variety... apparently his troubles had nothing to do with his actions but evidenced a pro-Arabist plot on the part of yours truly and others.

3) Am considering kidnapping my sister Alison who is gifted with a strong decluttering gene so that she can help me move offices this summer. This would be the moment to get rid of photocopied articles from graduate school...

4) Had to inform faculty member that no, he could not tell a student she was barred from majoring in Chinese because it is her native language. His response, "don't we have a department policy against this?" Nope, and you have been here longer than me and were even Director of Undergraduate Studies for two years.

Coming tomorrow - birthday pictures of Catherine's 18th.

check up

At work we have the option of participating in health screenings to reduce our monthly insurance premiums so in the spirit of the great weight loss adventure, I decided to subject myself to two. The first was a measure of RMR -- resting metabolic rate. As I understand it, this tells you how many calories you burn just being alive. The number does not include calories burned walking around, brushing your teeth, eating bon bons etc. The second test was the body composition one which takes place in a pod like contraption. In both cases a piece of paper is printed at the end that tells you things you might rather not have known.... Actually the RMR was on the encouraging side. I learned that I have a metabolism between normal and fast. The bad news is that means weight gain is really a function of wine and other things... I can't moan about my sluggish metabolism being at fault. The bod pod test was pretty depressing and its numbers shall not be repeated here. The good news here is that I am not officially OBESE. Yay. However, I am also not "moderately lean" which is where I would like to be. You do find out how many lbs of you are non-fat though and the idea is to go back after losing weight and hopefully not have that number decline just the pounds of fat number. Its all about the baseline...

Summer already

It appears that we have gone straight to summer. It was in the 80s today and yesterday; Craig, bless him, got the swamp coolers running. I bought a chaise lounge and Sam has taken to it with a vengeance. Catherine is continuing to use the treadmill, which continues to inhabit the garage. Apart from the fact that it will probably get too hot in there over the summer, it actually isn't a bad place to have it. We are continuing to eat our strange diet concoctions and a lot of grilled chicken and salad. Results are amazing.