well kerry has come and gone. we had a fantastic time. (or at least i did-- i'll let her speak for herself). wanted to give some highlights of her visit before i forgot:

friday night: picked her up at the airport. went out to the tomato head for dinner and then hit the galleries for first friday. rounded off the evening by hitting up the new gelato store in town, which may win the award for worst name ever (coolato gelato. really guys? come on!)

saturday: 4th of july! i made muffins and quiche. we ate. then went down to farmer's market and then back to the house where we watched far too many episodes of how i met your mother. (i think)-- then we ran out to world market, starbucks, and other stores at turkey creek because really, what says i'm patriotic like shopping? (in a curious side note: we were both very surprised to discover that there are very few 4th of july activities here. i assumed that this part of the country would be all about it.) that said, though, there were fireworks down at world's fair park. so after a dinner of tapas (another traditional 4th of july treat, i believe), we drove down there, parked on campus, and hoofed it down to the park. the knoxville symphony orchestra was playing and then the fireworks began. it was no davis, but it was still pretty awesome. and i'm glad we went.

sunday: we went to asheville. and let me tell you. it's a good thing i own a house here--and that asheville is a two hour drive through mountains--because otherwise, i'd be all about living there. it was AWESOME! first we had breakfast at tupelo honey cafe, that was recommended to us by my contractor. the wait was about 45 minutes, but it was totally worth it. we split a sweet potato pancake and a breakfast bowl (with egg, pinto beans, grits, and bacon-- apparently my no meat eating is going very well). we wandered around for a little while, but had to book it because we had a 1:30 admission time to the biltmore estate, which is like 3 miles outside of asheville.

so the biltmore-- billed as "america's castle"--was built by the vanderbilts in the 1890s. it continues to be run by the biltmore family as a for-profit business, which makes me a little cranky. plus, it was $45 a person to get in (and that was cheaper because we bought our tickets online!). i will say that the grounds were spectacular-- i loved the gardens and just driving on to the property. i was not as wild about the inside of the house and wonder if i can visit the estate again without going inside the house and, if so, will i have to pay a boatload of money again? very glad i went, though.

after the biltmore, we went back to asheville, did a little shopping, and then had dinner at this place called the laughing seed cafe, which was entirely vegetarian. it was super yum. after a little more shopping, we drove back to knoxville.

monday--kerry's last day. very sad and tragic. we ate, we went to campus and i showed her my office, then we went to the mall. oh yes. oddly, despite living here a year, it was my first time in the mall. we had a good time. i bought a little make-up, she bought a lot of clothes. took her to big fatty's (southern food) for dinner and dessert where we both ate until we were sick-- and ended up taking most of the food home. score! and then tv and then bed and then she left the next morning. boo on that.

it was really special to have her visit-- it's nice when you're with friends and you can just "be" together-- though don't get me wrong, we definitely did stuff. but we also did our fair share of lazing about.

ironically, i will see her again in two weeks when i head out to california-- but that visit won't be tinged with southern charm (or humidity).

so, i got my hair cut today. i tried out yet another stylist in town-- this is the fourth i've been to-- the first one was good, but didn't really like northerners. the second one was nice but her style didn't grow out well. #3 did a funky cut, but same problem as the second one. and so, that brought me to number 4.

it started out well-- since it was an aveda salon, i got the scalp massage, which i love. then over to get my hair shampooed-- and wait for it... the chair at the hairwashing station WAS A MASSAGING CHAIR. yep. best shampoo i've ever had.

i really like this stylist. she's probably early 20s (23? 24?) and has funky hair, but not too funky (and funky is actually a tall order in knoxville). i told her that i wanted to take a couple of inches off (hair was very similar to the userpic above). well, it's safe to say she took off more than two inches-- or i really didn't know how long two inches was-- either way.

in any case, my hair is the shortest it's been in a long time. i am alternating between really loving it and really panicking about it. it's very short! but it is hair and it will grow back. and it is definitely different and fun. but wowsers.

oh-- one other note. i was there for 1 hour and 45 minutes. i gave her a 30% tip (which still only brought my total to $45-- haha read that and weep californians). in any case, we'll see how this grows out (hopefully rapidly) and if i'll be going back. i have to say-- the massaging shampoo chairs are already a point in her favor.

well, yesterday was certainly not a fortuitous day for stars of the 70s and 80s. first farrah fawcett and then in a moment of getting her death thunder completely stolen, michael jackson.

it's been interesting to watch public reaction to mj's death. but how do you honor a celebrity who was so f'ed up for the last 20+ years of his life? vh-1 and mtv are showing all of his videos and i happened to catch a little gem of a video for a song he did for free willy 2. and dude was weird then. heck, i would say even by 1987, he was weird. i did have the total fortune of catching the long version of thriller, though. i remember the first time i saw it-- i was 6 (!) and they showed it to us at rehearsals of the children's nutcracker in davis. sort of makes me laugh because it scared the crap out of me. but that video was awesome-- good dancing, good story, and as many people have commented over the last 24 hours, certainly changed the face of music videos.

but i guess the question is where do you separate the artist from the man? (this actually is eerily related to my still-planned rant on cults, particularly scientology.) there is no denying that mj was an amazing artist and changed music, dance, etc. but there is also no denying that he was completely screwed up (witness bubbles the chimp, neverland, allegations of sexual abuse, his obsession with plastic surgery, etc.). but at the same time, wasn't he screwed up by others (his father, the demands of child stardom, the public)?

so people are falling all over themselves mourning his death. but in some respects, it seems like the real tragedy is how his life was ruined almost before he had any say in asserting control over it.

one of my biggest grammar pet peeves? when people misuse the apostrophe. and it's actually only in the most narrow of contexts: the family name.

take, for example, the taylor family that wants to send out an annual newsletter about their adventures. They should title it "The Taylors' Adventures". I cannot tell you how many people will write "The Taylor's Adventures." Really? Did you not pay attention in elementary school? AAAAAH!

i realize in the grand scheme of things this is a minor sin. but so, so, very many people make this mistake. and it irritates me. (clearly).

there are many things that irritate me-- people who don't use their turn signal, for example, or people who drive 25 mph in a 40 mph zone. but today, i will focus on something non-driving-related.

i am irritated about the assumptions some people make about those of us who are childless.

i'm currently in the middle of a super-interesting project on work/life balance among female scientists. and this has come up in some interviews, but it also comes up in conversations with colleagues who have children. i am the first to admit that having children makes pursuing a tenure-track (or any) career difficult. in addition to the pressures of producing enough research (because, in truth, no one cares about your teaching) over the course of six years to earn tenure, you also have to juggle caretaking responsibilities. and many of the women discuss that they are farther behind in their careers than they would be if they didn't have kids. (note: none of them seem to regret this. in fact, many speak with joy about how their lives would be empty without kids.)

i guess where my irritation comes from is the fact that i don't particularly want to be childless. i wish that i were a mother and hope to have kids in the next few years. but there is often an accusatory tone or an attempt at making a divide of us versus them (we who have kids versus you who don't.) sure, there are many people (men and women) who choose not to have kids. i'm not among that group. and sometimes i think that tenure-track careers make it harder to have children/meet a partner since i do spend all of my time working. in some respects, it's a cycle that feeds into itself.

i realize i'm not particularly coherent-- blame it on my lack of sleep, though again, i got 7 hours, which many new mothers will tell me is a lot-- and it is. but i get tired of this oneupsmanship ("my life is harder than yours because x..."). academics do it all the time, too. "oh, look at me, i work so hard that i don't see my kids/have spare time/shower." is this really something that should be rewarded?

/rant off. stay tuned for my next rant about cults.

two weeks left of summer session. i am as excited as my students probably are. have been spending most of my time working, but yesterday afternoon/evening, i went out to run some errands. first, i went to mckay's, this awesome huge used book/dvd/cd store. and i bought the second season of how i met your mother. i don't think i have purchased a dvd in years and i can tell you that i've never bought a season of a tv show. but i am completely sucked into the series. and so i bought it. and i'm excited to watch it. (suit up!)

then i was driving to this upscale supermarket when i passed...another upscale supermarket that had recently opened. i don't think i can describe how very happy this place made me. it's earthfare, which for the rest of the world is very similar to whole foods. there is already an earthfare on the other side of town (conveniently by the world market). but it's 20 miles away and in a small space.

the new earthfare. is. amazing. a huge produce section, a huge cheese counter, a prepared foods section (i got me some avocado sushi for dinner last night), a nice big bulk foods section. i was so very happy walking through. i, of course, bought more than i had anticipated buying. (hello, $6 bag of cherries). so worth it.

woke up at 5:45 this morning, thanks to the CRAZY thunderstorm going on. considering the fact that i did not fall asleep until 1:15 or 1:20, oddly, i'm not so rested. it's going to be a rough day.

i have been so neglectful of the lj. sorry little buddy. i will blame my ridiculous summer schedule. i actually am more stressed this summer than i have been since beginning my job in august. wow! it's a combination of the course i'm teaching (both course prep and grading) and other commitments-- for example, in a flash of brilliance, i decided to assign one of my papers for my students to read. small problem: i haven't yet written the paper. (this is good motivation to get it done, however.) also finishing up data collection on one project, starting it on another. and i'm taking spanish. yay. i figure if i can just make it to july 1, i'll be golden. so, little victories.

the garden continues to explode. i found a 5 inch long cucumber. i'm VERY excited. i'm thinking it will be ready in maybe another week or so? i'll just have to keep watching it.

i continue to binge on "how i met your mother." really-- just a travesty that i didn't discover this show earlier. but, like my late discovery of "the west wing", it now gives me something to watch all at once.

finally got the digital camera back. am sad to say that the old digital camera is still in a state of having the pig because... THEY SENT ME A NEW (to me) ONE!! i'm very excited about this. my old one was at least six years old-- this one was made in 2008. so, AWESOME! am currently trying to figure out how to store more than four pictures on the memory card, though-- because that just seems like not a whole lot.

anyway, so that's me. still alive and kicking... but barely.

i was poking around in my garden yesterday and found the beginnings of fruit on one of my tomato plants (the black japanese trifele) and one of the cucmbers. they are both very tiny and very nowhere close to edible, but i am very excited! will document with photos when the camera is returned. (stupid camera!)

spent all day yesterday working on reading for my course. am also done with lesson plan #6-- only 3 more to go and i'll be done with course prep. yay.

going out to brunch today, but not until 12:30. some might think that i would be cranky about this, but, in reality, it's perfect! i already ate breakfast and then i get breakfast again! perfect day!

i can't remember if i've written here, but i recently discovered the show "how i met your mother". this is quite delightful as a couple of years ago, i got the first season on dvd for christmas. i am now in the middle of a total gluttonness binge of watching them all at once. oh dvd, how i love you. (neil patrick harris=HI-LAR-IOUS)

okay, back to course prep-- the bane of my existence.

week one of classes are done-- four more weeks to go. holy crap--summer school is intense. it's intense for the students and it's intense for me. i also stupidly (wisely?) assigned students an article of mine to read for the 9th class session. the stupid part is that it is not yet written. i figured that this would provide me with great motivation to get it done. the problem is--prepping for this class (along with finishing up one research study, starting another, and taking my spanish class) is keeping me muy busy. but, i'm not going to bail on the students. so, sometime in the next three weeks, i will write a 30 page article. AWESOME.

the gardenia bushes have bloomed outside. they are so spectacular. i would take a picture, but the camera is still being fixed. (i would complain, but they are fixing for free-- so i can't really complain.) my veggie garden is coming along nicely. the cucumber and zucchini plants have really taken off as have a couple of the tomato plants along with the two melon plants (and the herbs). if i were a wagering gal, i would say that the cucumber will be the first to fruit.

but back to summer school/work-- i read an interesting piece in the chronicle about how tenure-track professors should spend their summers-- basically doing all the writing we don't have a chance to do during the academic year. and yet many of us work for pay in the summer, too-- and, i'm not going to lie, it's good pay. but it is going to be some sort of miracle if i'm able to get anything written over the next four weeks. again, perhaps it was genius of me to assign one of my as-of-yet unwritten pieces-- or madness. i guess we'll find out.

the other night, i was walking around the waterfront and came across a mini-playground that had a wooden pirate ship EXACTLY like the one that used to be in the park at WDI. clearly, it was the same company that had installed it-- it had the steering wheel and the tower and the pole to slide down. the only thing it was missing was the plank (i seem to recall the pirate ship in davis having a plank). it was a very weird feeling to see the same ship 2000 miles away (well, i guess to see the only ship--since it's no longer in davis).

my original goal was to take this entire weekend off-- however, have been trudging through some course prep, which i hope to finish by noon today so i can, in fact, actually take the rest of the day off. but, yesterday, i went and had some spa treatments--a facial and a massage. i'll tell ya-- if i were rich enough, i would get them both every month. i suppose that a facial is ultimately better for me, but i really love massages. love. them. i was like a bowl full of jelly (like santa's tummy?) when they were over. wound down the night by watching slumdog millionaire-- which i loved as much as i expected to.

tomorrow, summer classes start-- it's just a five week term and since i got screwed out of teaching one of my classes, i'm "only" teaching mondays and wednesdays from 4:45 to 8:50-- so, while chaotic, it will be less stressful than it could have been. i'm hoping to work my ass off in june and then actually take a vacation in july. that would be nice.

the chunkles woke me up at 7:20 this morning-- and since i went to sleep at 1, i am operating at a sleep deficit. i am currently sucking down coffee in the hopes that it will wake me up.

this is my last weekend before i start teaching for the summer term. class starts monday (4:45-8:50--lord help me). i am intending to take this weekend almost entirely off (minus finishing up some reading that i was trying to finish yesterday) since i think that june will be a pretty chaotic month. am excited as i have a massage and facial booked for this afternoon-- a congratulations to me for making it through my first year and a good luck to me on surviving summer school.

other plans for the weekend include mowing the lawn, watching 'slumdog millionaire', and practicing my spanish. yay.

now that american idol is over, so you think you can dance (or sytycd to the fans) has started. on the first audition show, they featured a pair of (male) same-sex ballroom dancers. they were not, to be frank, all that fantastic. i didn't think their lines were clean nor their movements sharp. and, of course, to add to the catastrophe, they tried a lift and both fell flat on their asses.

however, what was truly troubling was the fact that the judges weren't having any of it. they would say things like they didn't know how to judge them because it wasn't a typical male-female pairing. one of the judges didn't like that they kept switching off the leads (i.e. partner A didn't play the "male" role the whole time). i, myself, found this extremely refreshing. i'll admit that it was different to see a same-sex pairing performing professional ballroom--but i'm sure that such pairings happen all the time, just not on national tv shows. but i really loved that they switched off the lead and follower roles. why shouldn't each partner get a chance to lead the other? sure, you can argue in ballroom that someone needs to direct the action-- but you know in choreographed numbers, it's not like their next step is going to be a surprise-- they've rehearsed it forever. (i also wonder if the dancers would have received such a violent reaction if they had been two women dancing together.)

in any case, way to propagate both sexism and homophobia, sytycd! awesome.

sadie had a case of the pukes last night. she puked six times in the span of three minutes (impressive, even for her) and then twice another half hour later. the night was reminiscent of two months ago when we were up all night and then ended up at the vet the next morning. we were up every two hours last night, but have not gone to the vet-- she seems to be doing okay (she ate half a cup of kibble this morning), but man, this aging dog thing is rough.

i'm sort of ambivalent about the american idol winner. yes, i voted for kris, but i think glambert has a lot of possibilities as an artist. (and i also wonder if there was a homophobic backlash against him.) in any case, i still love david cook and will be buying his song from last night. me=sad.

speaking of tv, i caught the preview of glee and am flipping excited about it. yay for good new tv shows.

have been using this week to work, but have been thrown by things coming up-- one good thing that happened is my bathroom floor has been completely regrouted. i am VERY excited. and it was a lot cheaper than i thought it was going to be. hooray for that.

my summer class starts in ten days. have one class prep completely done-- hoping to have another one done by the end of the day. and then, perhaps, it's back to the research.

is that the grass does not grow much. i don't think the lawn was mowed from october to march and that, dear readers, is fine by me. i mowed again last night-- still took me an hour to do the front and back yards (and it had been dry for a couple of days). i think that A) i have a huge backyard and B) i am slow. i need to go out with the weed wacker today and take care of some errant weeds, grasses up against the deck, etc.

this time, i set the blades a little lower, so i'm hopeful that i can go three weeks without mowing instead of two. it takes forever, but i'm very pleased with my mower purchase. i'm not going to lie though-- someone to mow for me would be nice.

loving my work at home week. finished up the R&R (revise and resubmit) on one of my manuscripts and have sent it off to a friend to read through for me. am now working on prepping for class and soon will turn to manuscript #2. yes, i'm working, but it's so delightful to not have any appointments to worry about.

yay for summer.

the weather has been curious this weekend-- it rained on and off yesterday. today it's 57 out and might rain... the low is supposed to be 44 tonight. i hope this does not kill things in my garden.

speaking of the garden, i just added a few more things to the mix: another tomato plant (in case the seedlings don't make it), a zucchini, some rosemary, dill, and mint (the mint is safely ensconced in its own pot as, otherwise, it will take over the entire bed). i still need to get something sweet to plant, methinks. we'll see.

i am working at home all next week, which i am VERY excited about. i really need to actually work at home-- and not just "work" at home. my goal is to finish up two manuscripts (one of which is close to done, i hope) to send back to the journal and out for review, respectively. i also need to start prepping for my summer couse. it looks like only one of my summer courses is going to make (i.e. have enough people in it to be offered). while i'm very bummed not to be teaching the second course--both because i'm interested in the subject matter and, i'm not going to lie, i could use the extra money--i think this will make my summer a bit less chaotic.

so that's what's going on here. nothing too exciting, but nothing too horrific, either.

kristie e-mailed me this conversation that she had with henry as he sat playing the killer bongo drums i gave him for christmas:

Henry: Tom and Joan gave these to me.
Kristie: Actually, I think Aunt Margaret gave those to you.
Henry: Why?
Kristie: Because she loves you.
Henry: I love her too. I love Aunt Margaret too.

totally a keeper. (i also find it hilarious that he is apparently currently calling my parents "tom and joan". haha.)

i am very happy with my garden. i spent pretty much all day on sunday working outside-- i think life was complicated a bit by the fact that i do not own a wheelbarrow-- so instead of loading up the piles of dug up dirt to bring out to the front in one or two trips, i had to use a painter's bucket to transport the mud. it took me roughly twenty trips. oh yes. i am sore. (still, two days later).

i also spent a lot of time digging up the remaining clods of grass, though i will say that i did not get them all. i will just have to be vigilant this year with weeding and know that i will need to till again next year. in any case, after many hours of work, i have most of the garden planted. it is sufficiently large that i can have four rows of things-- so in the back row, i have four tomato plants (a japanese black trifele, which, despite the name, is russian; two regular tomato plants, and a cherry tomato). in the next row, i have a cucumber plant and two green peppers. and then in the front row, i've planted basil, cilantro, and sage. there is still space for three more herbs and probably five more fruit/veggie plants. i plan to make another foray back to farmer's market on saturday to buy some more.

i was fairly vigilant with putting sunblock on (and reapplying!) to my face. the area that i neglected to consider was the small of my back, where my shirt rode up as i bent over. so i have a lovely six inch swath of bright pink skin. thank god i still have some aloe spray from my case of the shingles last year (again, reminder: never put aloe on shingles. it exacerbates them!). so that's been helpful, though it's incredibly painful.

sadly, my camera seems to be broken-- or i'd totally take a picture of the garden, the impressive dirt pile out front, and, of course, my burned back.

i have been awake for two hours, which i find to be unacceptable on a sunday morning. (hell, i really find it to be unacceptable any morning.) but, oh well. i tried to go to back to sleep, but i could not. luckily, i had the made decision last night to make oatmeal buttermilk pancakes for breakfast and had put the oatmeal to soak in the buttermilk overnight. so making breakfast was a breeze and a nice consolation prize for my early morning. (that, and more than usual amounts of coffee. oh sweet nectar of the gods, how i love you.)

i've been having a perfectly delightful weekend. i have decided to see how the other half lives and not do work. and it's been amazing-- and much needed, though i feel like i should have accomplished more. yesterday, i: gymed, took sadie to get a rabies vaccine at a community clinic, went to farmer's market and the food co-op, got my garden patch tilled, did some minor clean-up, and watched a movie (mississippi burning-- very good, but super intense, which i suppose i should've realized as it's about mississippi in the civil rights era). that does not seem like a lot and yet i am tired.

today i'm hoping to turn the tilled ground into a garden by planting. also hope to finish sorting through the papers on my desk-- it's amazing what happens to a workspace when you just pile papers on it for eight months. but i'm hoping that this will give me the cleanliness and break i need to be productive with work.

yesterday, delightfully, it didn't really rain all day. i used this brief break to mow my lawn with my new mower. recall that my first foray into mowing took two hours. this time, it "only" took an hour. the entire time i was mowing, i kept thinking to myself, "why didn't i get a lawnboy?" i think i'll probably speed up a little bit when i get the hang of not almost running over the cord every time. (one of the downfalls of a corded electric mower-- but it was 1/4 of what buying a cordless electric mower would cost new, so totally worth it... i think.) and now the front and backyard is mostly mowed. but dear lord-- i'm supposed to do this every two weeks? ugh.

i'm glad i mowed yesterday, though, as there was just ten minutes of torrential downpour. so that's that.

i think i may actually take the weekend off-- my house needs some attention and i think i need some vegging out time. how delightful! and then it's time to get to work on writing and course prep, etc.

oh the most fun news-- i registered yesterday for my spanish class at the local community college. in a total hypocritical move, i am taking it online (i think online courses are a joke since students can get away with really not doing anything-- i only hope that i will be a committed student-- and frankly, have no time to go into a class four days a week). but anyway, i'm excited.

okay, work of some sort-- either on the house or of the academic variety.

it has been raining forever. there was a brief break in the rain yesterday which i used to go pick up dog poo in the backyard. i could go in great detail, but let me just say that i gagged twice.

i wish it would stop raining as i would like to mow my lawn with my new mower. (yay!). bought an electric one from some dude living in a mcmansion off of craigslist. (am unwilling to try mowing until the grass is reasonably dry as i fear i might electrocute myself.) this guy lived basically as far away from me as one can live in knoxville-- it was 25-30 minutes to get to his house, which was in the nice side of town, but just part of a development of plain and overly large houses.

i am done with nearly all of my teaching-related responsibilities for the semester. i am even winding down my data collection until june term starts again. i've been on go-go-go autopilot for so long that now i need readjust and refocus and figure out everything that i need to get done over break (hint: it involves A LOT of writing.)

sister hazel played at an end of the year concert for UT students yesterday. i was surprised to find out that the band still existed.

i finally watched harold and kumar escape from guantanamo bay. i've had this movie for like 2 1/2 months. i am netflix's favorite kind of customer. i'd also like to say that this is the only area in my life where i seem to be needlessly throwing money away. but i also do not want to cancel the subscription. (and in a side note, i think it's the first time i've ever seen an unrated version of a movie. ha.) next up from netflix: brick lane about indian immigrants in england. i suspect it will be a little different than harold and kumar... :)