The In-Laws Descend

Tonight my father-in-law and brother-in-law arrive to ski with my husband. It will be a house full of testosterone and I may go crazy. My normal defenses against the craze is drinking, which I can't do at the moment because of the parasite, so I'm not sure what to do. Maybe start reading some Jane Austen to steep myself in estrogen based lives. Maybe play really loud music on my ipod and tune it all out.

Paul is cleaning the house like crazy today, which I think is kind of funny as whenever his family arrives the house becomes an instant disaster zone. But I guess we should start with our cleanliness at an A. If we began at a C, then who knows the havoc that could be wreaked.

Let me draw your attention to my top five ways it becomes a disaster zone. A couple are rather funny, so look to the left.

3rd Year Review

Today I got my department letter for my third year review. You get graded (as I think I have explained previously) on teaching - skill in the classroom; scholarship - contributions to the literature studying your field; service - citizenship at the university. You can get as low as a poor, and as high as an excellent.

Here's how I did from the department:

Teaching: Excellent
Scholarship: Good
Service: Excellent

I am SO psyched.

Please, send presents.

Pet Sitter Extraordinaire

I have been pet sitting again for my friends who have two dogs and two cats. I enjoy pet sitting at their house because their bed has 452 pillows on it, which is very comfortable. I get a lot of sleep there. Also, as this is the second time I've been there, the pets are all comfortable with me so they sleep better as well. My friends are coming back today so I'll have to get back into my normal routine, but I am sure the animals will miss me.

And, my pets have been jealous, which has caused some more trauma for my little kitty on Prozac, so it will be good to get home. Even little animals need reassurances every now and again.

The Hills

You wouldn't believe it, but she made us run the hill today. I think today in boot camp was one of those separate the wheat from the chaff days. This was our schedule:

1. Run for 10 minutes
2. Push ups
3. Barbell upright rows, lateral raises, pec flies
4. Kick boxing
   
5. Run 4/3/2 sprints up and down the floor of the gym
6. Dumbell bicep curls, chest presses
7. Kick boxing
8. AND THEN, AFTER ALL OF THIS, run the big hill after doing 4 partner sprints
9. Oh yeah, then come in and do 50 full situps, 70 push outs, 100 scissors, 60 partner abs

Needless to say, but I will anyway, this kicked my ASS. You get a t-shirt if you throw up. I spit up, all over some poor unsuspecting person's lawn, but spit up doesn't qualify you for t-shirt benefits.

I am sore. I am tired. And I am exhilerated! I LOVE Boot Camp.

My Cat's on Prozac

Yes, I have a cat who is on prozac. Apparently he is so stressed about his life, what with all the napping and eating and chasing dark matter about, that he needs to go on prozac. How do we know he's stressed? He's taken to eating his fur off his body. Paul thinks he's cute and we should just allow him his insanity without medicinal intervention, but I feel like maybe he's in real pain and we should be helping him. And our new vet, the fabulous Dr. Klar, has recommended it, so I trust him and I agree.

We have to get a prozac compound that we will rub into his ears. As neither of us particularly needs prozac, we need to wear gloves while we do this.

Have I lost my mind? Maybe I need the prozac.

Let the Games Begin

The presidential field has gotten very crowded over the last week. All sorts of luminaries from Rudy Giuliani to Hillary Clinton (go New York - it's been too goddamn long since we've had a president from the Empire State) to upstarts like Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. I'll be happy if the sucker doesn't come from a southern state. Puhlease let it not be a southern state.

I have no predictions, because as any good political scientist knows, you do not predict a year out, and then when the nominee is selected you say, very intelligently with big jargon, "I totally knew this would be the person."

No other western industrialized democracy has got anything on us when it comes to marathon campaigns. Britain announces an election and four seconds later they vote. Here, in the great United States, we have to plan for elections 20 years from now, I mean, if we're serious about it.

Poor Georgie...lame duck, lame policy, lame lame lame.

Benefits and Costs of Being 5 foot 3

Today was boot camp day, so off I go with my girlfriend at 6am to be abused.

We begin with weight lifting, which generally I can do relatively easily but I pay for it the rest of the day (it's hard to type as we focused on arms and shoulders). Then we head down to the gym to do this long obstacle course. Sooo, we start with jumping up stairs, running over a bridge, down stairs, 2 fast laps around the track. I can't really do the jumping, for some reason I almost always trip, so I just run the stairs. This tall guy was jumping rather slowly in front of me and taking up half of the stair, so I ran under his elbow (BENEFIT) which made him laugh. I mean, this guy towers over me, I kind of look like a hobbit, so it wasn't too invasive in his space. Run run run.

Then we do this obstacle course which entails ski jumping, jumping on stands, going over a wall, tiger running, bear running, shuffles (which is always very entertaining to watch). Off we go and the third stand we are supposed to jump up on from a dead stand, so no room to build up momentum, reaches to my upper thigh (COST) so I kind of climb up and over it. My girlfriend, who is much taller than I am, jumps these with ease and then runs over the wall...I mean she runs over the wall. My legs aren't really long enough to reach the second step on the wall, so I have to climb over it (COST).

But it was exhilerating, even if I do look a little Samwise...smile

3rd Year Review

If you are a tenure-track professor you have to earn tenure. This process generally goes like this: 3rd year you get reviewed and they either fire you or tell you you are on your way toward earning tenure; 6th year you either earn tenure or you are fired. You get the title of Associate Professor at the time of tenure and you get Full Professor at some point in the future if you keep up your scholarship.

Tenure review means a number of committees of your peers (at different levels: department, College, University) look at your teaching, scholarship and service and rate you as poor, satisfactory, good or excellent. Here at WSU you have to average good to advance. In my College specifically you have to not have less than good in teaching to advance.

I handed in my file yesterday - of course it was five days early, remember Type A personality - and now I am nervous.

Send out some good vibes.

Intermediate Boot Camp

My friend and I were bumped up to intermediate boot camp - because we are soooo good at it. I was very worried about it, thinking, how can I, little old me, compete in the intermediate boot camp? And then today we went and as it turns out, there are some very OLD women in intermediate boot camp. Now, some of these women kick my ass, they could kick your ass too, so it's not to say that old necessarily entails blah. But some of these women couldn't kick anyone's ass. So, I am still not in the fastest group, but not in the slowest group. I am an intermediate intermediate.

Today we ran ladders in the gym (or suicides as I used to call them in high school) and some people don't realize that you don't actually turn around at every line that crosses the gym floor. Some people are doing like 15 back and forths in their suicides. It's pretty funny. You want to say, just the basketball lines count, not the volleyball lines and ummm, aren't you getting dizzy?

It's Started Again

Boot camp has started up again and I am in for another 8 weeks of hell. Today we did a series of obstacle courses, which were fun. As it turns out, even though I barely exercised over the break, I am about at the same place I ended, so I actually haven't lost any ground.

Today we had new people. It was hard not to laugh at them as I know I was new just a short 3 months ago. One young woman, in her attempt to do he football ladder (where you run through strings) fell and landed with all four of her paws (for lack of a better visual) inside the strings. I told my friend that had it been her I would have laughed and laughed. But as it was new woman, I just smiled.

I love the boot camp.

Date Night with Paul

Last night Paul and I had date night. We went to see Brian Regan, who was hysterically funny. We first became fond of Brian Regan when we used to watch Dr. Katz and he was a celebrity guest on that show. Since then we have heard his cd's, heard him on Sirius laugh track, and now we've seen him!

He came back out and did an encore, which meant he did all the bits we all love. He said he was flattered we all knew so much of it, but I think it must be somewhat annoying to have to do your old stuff.

I loved it. Paul laughed the entire time. It was a nice night out.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It is 2007 and I am determined this will be a better year than 2005 or 2006. Here are some New Year's Resolutions (in no particular order):

1. To end the year weighing less than I do now.
2. Stay in contact better with my friends through the semester.
3. See a Jazz game.
4. Go skiing with Paul.
5. Work out at the gym at least 3x a week.
6. Finish my book.
7. Send out journal articles.
8. Go to church every week.
9. Be polite to people who don't deserve it.
10. Dance more often - we need more opportunities for dancing.

Okay, so God only needed ten, so I'll stop.