It's amazing the things you can finish when seriously procrastinating...

Man, do I need more than 160 characters for this one. I've been tweeting lately, rather than big-blogging on here. So, it's time for the 'yearly' post. BTW, if you're following this, I'm on twitter as LeighADLR if you can't get enough of this nerd.

I've been trying to get up earlier, which of all things, have been stumped by my alarm clock iHome not working the best with my iPhone - combined with my own feelings of having one more thing to do. I thought the problem with getting up early was with the myriad other situations in my house (noise, dogs, kid, husband, friends) but they're really not in the way. It's me. It's hard to leave everything at 8:30, when that's just around the time I get through with dinner and get to the things I want to do - like crocheting or watching a show on TV. I think it's even harder when I have a class that night - I don't get home until almost 8 some nights. If I get home at 3:00, it's much easier to go to bed at 8:30. When I get home at 7:30, it's nearly impossible. There's just too much to be done at home on a nightly basis.

So, instead of writing words on to my dissertation literature review, I'm writing here. I also have a midterm due by Friday. That's not too hard, the midterm, but it still needs done. And of course I pick a topic that makes me feel like a Gumby brain surgeon. So, I've been working on the parts other than that one (namely, philosopny of science and epistemology of science). But I'm running out of things to write that are not those two topics. So, tomorrow's going to be an all-epistemology, all-the-time day. It's just what needs to be done.

Time for more work, so I can truly just work on dissertation tomorrow. 15 days until I have to turn in the document, followed by an official proposal two weeks later. Should be done with this part before Thanksgiving. Let's hope.

So I took my doctoral qualifying exams last week...

and it definitely feels like I'm getting somewhere closer to school. The comprehensive exams will be more difficult, but then it'll be ABD time (all but dissertation). Those will be in the beginning of the summer.

I'm still coordinating lots of things, and we have another couple of grants that support us continuing the work I've been doing. I'm still working on balancing work and home, and now that the hardest semester of school for me is over it's nice to have some time to do more things, like blogging, which I know Ed loves.

I've started dressing nicer, partially because it makes me feel better in this time of usual sadness from lack of light, and I wear makeup/lip things most days. I also, somehow, have picked up a skincare regimen. I guess I've realized that many of these things I've either avoided or just not paid attention to are important parts to growing up. I've always been eccentric with my combination of liking new and old stuff, current and old-skool. But I've found a need to grow up a little (and I've been doing kid-stuff at the same time, too.) It's time to start setting myself up for a grown-up job, namely a professorship somewhere. I put that off for a while when I first went back to school - but now it's in the forseeable future. So, I bought a new wardrobe that is comfortable but stylish, but then also had fun socks. I also remembered there's this thing called a dry cleaner to clean & press those things I don't want to mess with. Turns out there are many more options when you accept dry cleaning into your life.

Natha's going to through a Calvin & Hobbes stage, reading all of them he can find. He's also trying some of the humor on me. I've also started sending him lunches in paper bags with humorous writing on them. Sometimes it's mentioning something we heard lately (we are listening to all of the Series of Unfortunate Events books on CD but Lemony Snicket, but only those perfomed by Tim Curry) or sometimes it's a joke from Calvin, like writing in Alien-font "Earthling Lunch". There have also been some Verse Fluctuation Declarations, but only Fans of the Series would get that one. (OR read Wikipedia and figure it out.

I now have to go finish preparing a dinner of Eggplant Parmesan and Garlic Knots. I'm sure they'll like it, which is why I chose that. Hopefully it'll pry the two of them away from playing/watching someone play God of War II.

Hooray for cool stuff!

Natha, Isaiah, and Zavier (Natha's partners in crime that were over for his birthday) are going to embark on this challenge and I'm very excited about it!!

I've also got my own del.icio.us account now, if you want to see me' links. It's here

Time for class... well, time for reading for the class which is later. Same diff.

We've survived Natha's first sleep-over party...

But boy are we tired (and there were only two other kids!) We OD'd on pizza, Sprite, and Bugs Bunny last night, followed by a generous helping of MarioKart and WarioWare Mega Party this morning. They woke up at 6am this morning, trying to sneak downstairs without us hearing them so they could go play Star Wars *outside*. I hope they didn't wake the neighbors! I went outside about 30 minutes later to see what they were doing and they informed me that they had "quietly" went outside "because if we stayed inside and played we'd wake you up and you would get mad."

Damn right I'd be mad. It's 6:00am on a Saturday morning! (Just kidding, and I knew what they were doing the whole time, cursed Mother Ears...)

We then went to the Zoo, where we saw all of the animals (they ran between each exhibit), at lunch there, and played on the playground too. In the middle of the playgroud playing we had popsicles & and Icee.

Natha tried to "entertain" his guests with a 1970's Toho movie, Godzilla and King Ghidorah, but that didn't go over well last night, so we switched to some Looney Tunes. Now Natha's downstairs by himself watching it, happy as a clam. I forget how odd he is compared to most kids. Part of that's from my influence, and part of it just happened.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs and came across the following link. For those of you who don't understand modern American art, particularly Jackson Pollock, this site explains it for the kinesthenic computer person. It's all about evidence of movement. At least to me it is. :)

I'm going to go downstairs and read some more magazines, since Ed's nowhere to be found. I think he ran off with Uncles Bob & Scott, perhaps to the Int'l market or to a home improvement store of some kind. O Husband, Where Art Thou? Damn them all to Hell if they went to see Snakes on a Plane after I specifically told them I wanted to go with. (That would mean something if I really believed there was a Hell to go to, but you get the point.)

Speaking of which, another hilariously funny link lies here, where you can have Samuel L. Jackson send someone an amazingly personalized message via email or phone. Even if you don't send it, it's funny to create and listen to what it says. It reminds me of when Pythonline had the option to send someone an email 'abusing' them Monty Python style. For example, you could tell someone you would Fart in their General Direction, then sign the letter Your Ex-Parrot. I sent those to many-a-person before it disappeared.

Well, time for the weekly 'nothing'! Yay!

My mom is going to have Natha for the weekend...

...his last before 1st grade. School starts Monday and we should be able to find out his teacher's and classmates' names this afternoon on our way to Mama's.

Natha and I have had a last-hurrah time these last two days - I've been at home since I'm not as busy with work. We've watched many-a-movie and he's been on me like white on rice. Yesterday was more errands, and we watched Osmosis Jones in the afternoon. Today's been more of a TV-fest with Empire Strikes Back, several Bugs Bunny cartoons (including Bully for Bugs), three episodes of Futurama (for Ed, Scott, and Bob, that would be Fry and the Slurm Factory, Mars University, and When Aliens Attack), and now he's watching Mystery Men. We're an Indiana Jones movie and a UHF short of our brains exploding. :)

Ed and I had an interesting night last night. He's had more latinosity (as we call it) lately for several reasons - and I'm not used to it yet. Those two things breed many a misunderstanding. It's since been worked out, though. He's just got more pizzaz about him, and he's more *extreme!* than I've been used to - that plus my funk/stress level lately means I'm not as tolerant. Crisis averted, however, after a mini-catharsis.

I'm not sure what's planned for this weekend. Since I'm the seemingly-social director, you think I'd have some idea on a Friday afternoon. I might need to make some calls to make sure we're not spending Saturday night washing out proverbial hair.

I taught Natha something I'm not sure I should have... but he does seem to enjoy it. In the movie Kung Fu Hustle the Landlady chases the main character away from Pig Sty Alley saying things like "Axe Gang, my ass!" and "Boss, my ass!" so I felt I should explain when one should use that phrase...

So, now Natha's using it correctly sometimes and overdoes it too. I think it's funny, though. Kind of like this morning when Natha came to get me out of bed. I admit, I enjoy lounging and am not the easiest to get up in the morning. Natha came in this morning and told me that if I got up really quick we could all go eat breakfast this morning before Ed went to work. (Ed was already downstairs and awake.) I, of course, got out of bed and got dressed really quick. While I was downstairs getting dressed, Ed came into the room and it became obvious that Ed had told Natha the two of them would go get breakfast by themselves - but Natha decided that he would change the story slightly to get me out of bed & going.

Breakfast, my ass!

Yay for science education!

This article in its entirety can be found here , but I'm also including the first part in this post...

Evolution Fight Shifts Direction in Kansas Vote
By MONICA DAVEY and RALPH BLUMENTHAL

TOPEKA, Kan., Aug. 2 — Less than a year after the Kansas Board of Education adopted science standards that were the most wide-reaching in the nation in challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution, voters on Tuesday ousted the conservative majority on the board that favored those guidelines.

Several of the winners in the primary election, whose victories are virtually certain to shift the board to at least a 6-to-4 moderate majority in November, promised Wednesday to work swiftly to restore a science curriculum that does not subject evolution to critical attack.

They also said they would try to eliminate restrictions on sex education passed by the current board and to review the status of the education commissioner, Bob Corkins, who they said was hired last year with little background in education.

My mom sent me this, and I found it hilarious.

If you've seen it and it's 'old' to you, then just ignore. :)

"I have 2 Labrador Retrievers & I was buying a large bag of Purina
at Wal-Mart and was in line to check out.
A woman behind me asked if I had a dog. On impulse, I told her that
no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't
because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50
pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out
of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way
that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and
simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry & that the food is
nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by
now enthralled with my story, particularly a guy who was behind her.
Horrified, she asked if I'd ended up in the hospital in that
condition because I had been poisoned. I told her no; it was because
I'd been sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me."

Looks like there's a small grant I can take the lead on - so I'll be diving (with help) into the writing-small-grants pool. I've also got to clean a bunch of stuff up at work - it makes you really tired, but it's fun. It's one of those NP-complete problems, or for you non-math folks, it's a packing problem. I'm sorting and packing things into many many small bins. That's why you're drained at the end of a day of packing when you're moving.

I also feel like a person. Not too much work, just enough, and I'm slowly stopping tutoring since it's zapping the life from me. (I have to arrange my weekly schedule around an hour meeting, and when that meeting doesn't pay more than the rest of the work, that's a pain in the arse.) I really love working with the kids - but my family needs more of a mommy. I'm also happy, somewhat well-balanced mentally, and sociable - which is a far cry from how I've felt lately. I could get one of the three at a time but no more...

My dad, stepmother, and brother are visiting this weekend - we haven't seen them since my brother's bar mitzvah last year... should be a fun time!