Happy Spring!!!

(note that this post was originally composed on Monday 3/24, see the post above this one for an update)

Although we still have forecasts of more snow in our future spring has arrived. The robins are out in force, pulling worms and antagonizing the little "chickadees" (I'm not sure exactly what the little ones are). As I went to bed last night, it was gently snowing and this morning we woke to a white Easter Sunday. But even so, the grass is beginning to turn green and there's a promise of spring everywhere.

Mom came to visit over part of this last week (my spring break) and got to see some sunshine mixed with her snow. By the time she left, she was tired of hearing me describe the weather as "balmy"! It was in the high 40s and 50s most days.

While Mom was here, we took a road trip out east and explored a new part of the state. Note that the more of you who visit, the more excuses I'll have to leave my desk and see something new! I'll let Mom speak for herself, but I thought it was a very interesting and pleasant road trip.

We drove out to the Mississippi River and wound our way up the Old River Road. We were both quite surprised to see icebergs floating in the river in Davenport. Slightly north, in the quaint town of Le Claire, we tried to go view one of the locks. Evidently, many (most?) of the locks are now closed to visitors (perhaps a result of 9-11) but we entertained ourselves watching the river and the ice.
That is, until we noticed the GIANT bald eagle perched right above our heads. Seriously folks- this bird was enormous! We then explored a little path and found more evidence of the giant birds- these little fish were scattered all over- even in the trees.

Apparently, we had happened upon a huge bald eagle migratory area, albeit 2 months late. One of these years I'm definitely bundling up and heading out in January to see hundreds of bald eagles.

We wandered our way north even more, driving through small towns, visiting antique stores (but not buying anything!), and talking all the way. We decided Saturday morning that we were going to go as far as Dubuque and made a reservation in a B&B for the night. The proprietress encouraged us to arrive by 5 as to not miss the main event: the St. Patrick's Day parade down Main Street.

The B&B was in a lovely old mansion built by a lead baron (or was it lumber?). The town of Dubuque is very historic and used to lay claim to the highest number of millionaires per capita in the nation. It's also a very scenic viewpoint of the Mississippi River. We got in at 4:30, enough time to get the tour of the B&B, enjoy a glass of wine, and wander out onto the wraparound deck before the parade started. And what a parade it was! It is the epitome of the small town parade, with a few cars, the vans for the local radio stations, some people throwing candy, and a group of people and their dogs all walking in it. Everyone had on green, of course. And there were two St Pats on rollerblades!

After the parade, drained from the excitement, we had to contemplate dinner. We discussed going to this place- due to the family connection.

However, we decided that modern Iowan food was more our style and ended up in a lovely little bistro. We even shared warm bread pudding for dessert. Yum!

I must confess here that the prime reason for picking this B&B was the fact that it had two house cats on the premises. In fact, we even requested one of the cat's favorite rooms. Well, little Cindy did indeed decide to spend part of the night with us, curled up beneath the comforter at the foot of the bed.

She was quite happy there until my phone rang at almost 2am to warn me of a gunman on campus (several hundred miles away). This turned out to be okay. Mom and I slept fitfully after that harsh awakening. We were rewarded in the morning with unbelievable omelettes: brie and pears. It sounded beyond weird to me, but turned out to be fantastic.

We spent the morning exploring the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium . It's an amazing place that even has a touching pool! Woo hoo! We were amazed by the fact that that the Mississippi River is frozen over .
In fact, there were even fish frozen into the water . I wonder why they couldn't escape to deeper waters.

So, all in all, we had an exciting fantastic trip though Eastern Iowa. Come visit and we'll take you somewhere cool too!

Happy Birthday

As some of you may know, sometime in the last 2 weeks was Kimberly's birthday. It was a joyous time, as Kimberly's mom came out to visit, and we had a nice dinner of gnocchi.

The reason I'm posting this now is because I wanted to brag about the gift I got her. In my opinion, it's one of the better gifts I've ever gotten anyone (the best, if you're wondering, was a 'Can't Sleep, the Clowns Will Eat Me' onesie I bought for a friend's baby a while back).

It was the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, a huge book that reproduces the diaries of Albertus Seba, an 18th century naturalist that made all these hand drawings of new and different animals being discovered around the world. The drawings are pretty awesome, super detailed and specific, almost like they are photographs. And the book is like 3 feet x 1.5 feet, and weighs like 20 pounds, so it's hefty.

Unfortunately, the online pic above doesn't really do the book justice, so you'll just have to check it out when you come to visit.

Dreaming of a White St Patrick's Day

After about a week of decent weather, with temps almost reaching 60, I thought we were in the clear.

I was wrong.

It snowed again last night. On St Patrick's Day. This is a first for Kimberly. Unfortunately for me, I experienced an April Fool's Day blizzard while in school at Vermont, which is depressing, because it's really not an April Fool's Day joke, it's real.

Anyways, it's also another special day today, and the first time it's snowed on that day, too. So Happy Special Day to the person whose Special Day it is.

Merry Belated Christmas

I just wanted to share this pic from Christmas that my mother or sister took of little 1900 with Santa Claus:

Another Bullet Point on the Resume, file under 'Published'

In the past, Kimberly shared that she got a chapter published as part of her academic life; of course, this was a fairly technical article for people in her field, which, honestly, is kind of boring if you're not into 'corpus linguistics'. [ducks]

But now, she can really brag: she's been published on the interwebs, where not just anyone can voice their opinion randomly and without consequence (ignore that you are reading this on a blog, where we can voice our opinion randomly and without consequence).

If you go to this website, which is apparently the travel section of the San Pellegrino water company, you will find Kimberly's photo journalist skills on display.

If you go to the first article on the front page, Slow tourism in the City: introducing urban trekking in Siena, and scroll through the pictures at the bottom, you will come upon this picture of me and Kimberly's mom or sister (I can't tell) walking through the streets of Siena (yes that's a street in Siena, not a sidewalk or alley; they don't allow cars in the city, which is kind of nice):

I haven't read the article, but at the bottom are the credits, and look, there's Kimberly (they even spelled her name right):

21. Walking through Arches - Courtesy of Kimberly LeVelle - www.flickr.com/photos/33948778@N00/

Of course, the beauty of her subjects (and I don't mean the arches) is most likely the reason why San Pellegrino chose this photo.

I tried to get them to send us some cases of water in exchange for the use of the photo (I love that sparkling water, but it is awfully expensive, especially compared to the tap in our kitchen, which apparently is free), but in the end we decided we would just go for the glory.

This little excitement has also reminded me that I should really start recollecting out trip to Italy this past summer and upload a lot more of those photos, of which there are literally hundreds. Hopefully, I actually do it this time. If not, feel free to heckle me like I'm Karl Rove at the University of Iowa.

If those links above don't work, go to www.acquapanna.com, and search for Siena, where you'll find the article.

It's just around the corner...

Spring Break that is! What students don't know is that we teachers are at least as excited about the break as they are. In fact, I'd even argue that I'm more excited. I know for a fact that few of my students would be excited to hear my plans- hang out with Mom, explore Iowa, grade papers, write papers, work on projects etc. But I'm thrilled (not so thrilled about the grading and writing, but grateful to not be teaching and going to class simultaneously).

But, to get to Spring Break I have to make it through the next two days. In the next 40 hours I need to:
1. finish my presentation for tomorrow am
2. finish my lesson plans for tomorrow am
3. laundry
4. pack for the mini trip with Mom
5. grade homework for the Friday class
6. figure out what I'm supposed to teach on Friday
7. read the chapters for my Friday class
8. dishes
9. pick up rental car
10. figure out when to get together with my partner for a project due after the break
11. decide on a topic for a class project
12. send 40,000 emails (almost)
13. read 40,000 emails (just about)
14. write 3 cards
15. pay bills
16. tidy desk at school
17. go to library

I think that's about it. My apologies for using this space to post my boring to do list- but being accountable to the world at large is a useful strategy. Now let's see what I can accomplish!

edited Thursday 11:00pm

Making Liquor is Easy

Sometime last week, I got an email from a friend - he had found a bottle of Limoncello in the back of his freezer and was inquiring into how we made it (when we got married a few years back, we made some homemade Limoncello and gave it out as wedding favors). As I was looking through the computer and asking Kimberly about it, we came across this photo set (with some really pretty pictures) from when Kimberly and some friends made lots of different flavored -cellos. Doing all that stuff, made me remember how much fun, and how easy it is, to make liquor.

So on my day off, I went down to the natural food store to check out what kind of citrus they had on hand. I ended up buying some blood oranges, meyer lemons, and regular lemons.

I also had to go to the liquor store to buy a couple bottles of Everclear (also known as grain alcohol, complete with 2 cautions: 1) be careful it's flammable; and 2) excessive imbibing can result in serious health effects. These are the things you need to worry about when your alcohol is 190 proof). Let me tell you, if you're trying to buy Everclear, and don't have a fake ID or look 22 years old, you get some pretty funny looks.

When I finally got down to the making, the whole process took about 45 minutes, including the cleaning of jars, peeling of fruit, and pouring of alcohol. Now, we need to wait a couple months for the fruit to infuse the alcohol, then add some simple syrup, and let mellow again for a while. It will definitely be ready for the summer, just in time to mix with some tonic and put over ice for a refreshing cold beverage.

With any luck, it will taste as good as it looks.

From the left: Limoncello (lemon), Limone-del-Meyer-cello (Meyer Lemon), and Arancia-Sanguigna-cello (Blood Orange).

Some News

I got accepted. Which is kind of mind blowing.

Kimberly had the letter all day and just gave it to me a few minutes ago. She's mean.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll add details later, when I figure things out.

I think this calls for the the Badgers.

Has to be Done

I don't like it when people complain about the weather. There's nothing we can do to control it, unless you count slowly and systematically destroying the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels for industrial purposes to fundamentally change the atmosphere and, thus, weather patterns. Of course, I occassionally do a little complaining, but that has more to do with my Italian upbringing, where complaining is a way of life (I like to call it 'critical observation'), not necessarily a reflection of how annoying something actually is.

But then, I saw this post over at kch's place. And I got really annoyed. Or sad. Or mad. Not with kch, but with this crazy Midwest weather.

Wanna know why? Here's why: On the same day kari and co up in Portland are enjoying 'fake-spring,' the weather here in the middle is just messing with us. Take, for instance, yesterday:

The day starts out real nice, so you decide you'll spend some time outside. It's 65 degrees out and you go for a walk in the park with short sleeves on. All the snow is melting and you think you actually might see some green grass. If you imagine hard enough, you can even imagine leaves and green buds on those gray, sad trees. A couple hours later, when you get home, the temp drops 20 degrees in an hour and it starts sleeting outside. Then the thunder and lightning start. During a sleet storm. In March. Then, it drops another 20 degrees when the sun goes down. The snow starts coming down like you live on Hoth. By the time you go to bed, all that kind-of-green grass that was poking through the melted snow- remember that? - well, it's gone. It's covered in 4 inches of snow. 4 INCHES OF SNOW in, like, 30 minutes. When you wake up, the car is covered in half an inch of ice, with an additional 6 inches of light, dusty snow - you know the consistency, the one where when you brush it, it just goes straight up in the air and then down the neck of your jacket or back on the car.

Yes, I grew up in New England, where the weather swings are just as monumental. And I went to school in a place that was so cold that the 6th Great Lake would freeze over. But I moved to the NW, where the Goldilocks weather turned me into a giant weather-wuss. You could go hiking in January. And play Ultimate Frisbee year round. And the rhododendrons and dogwoods are probably already in bloom. And you could grow rosemary year round without having to worry abou tit freezing to death.

And now, I have to deal with this Midwest weather. The wind whips through constantly, creating snow drifts so high I'm worried Kimberly might disappear. We haven't been snow-free since Thanksgiving, which, let me remind you, was in NOVEMBER.

Hopefully, once this cold streak ends - which, I hope might happen by June - we'll get 2 or 3 months of nice weather before the heat and 90% humidity kick in. Meanwhile, in the Northwest, they'll be enjoying 85 dry degrees, blue skies, and not a vision of rain for 3 solid months.

Yes, I'm going stir-crazy.

Welcome!

Congrats to Em and family over at Totblock who welcomed their newest addition this week. You can see pictures and share the love at http://totblock.blogspot.com/2008/02/newest-addition.html

We're so happy for you guys.

Presents!

Today was a very good day. Today involved a lot of presents!

My favoritest sister sent me these:

Now, while YOU may think, "seriously? She's excited by that?" the truth is, I have been dreaming of these since we moved to Farm State. PEter and I have a large collection of mason jars and store lots of cooking stuff in them. I've been looking for these everywhere and they are not here.


Then, after that, Cool Accent Prof took me to the Italian Grocery in the big city. I came home with proscuitto, oil cured olives (the black wrinkly ones), sopresatta (a spicy salami type), and a jar of spicy mixed pickled veggies. This little store was great fun! PEter visited it a while back and wrote a post about his trip here.

So now, I'm enjoying olives and cured meats and grading and writing papers. Woo hoo, what a Friday night!

Allow Myself to Introduce...Myself

The other day, Kimberly mentioned that we were making ourselves an Indian-style meal, with naan, tikka masala, and saag. There was a huge outcry from our readers (well, 2) to know how things turned out from that experiment.

So we've decided to take this opportunity to introduce something we've been fiddling with on the side in our copiuos free time: the What We're Eating blog.

Whenever we cook something, we usually write down little helpful tips and suggestions in the margins of the recipe. In my bread making experiments, I was keeping a little bread journal to try to remedy problems (a project which has somewhat stalled with my recent new job). So we decided to start taking these notes online and having feedback from people that aren't us in an effort to cook better food.

We hope it becomes a collaborative effort, an online community of people who like to eat, want some inspiration, and like to share inane details of their everyday life anonymously and with complete strangers. Isn't that what the Interwebs are for?

We hope you enjoy it.

[and for those of you not lucky enough to grow up in the Boston area, Chow Daddy (up top there) was the mascot for our lunch program. Yes, that guy was promoting healthy eating. Unfortunately, he didn't mention Dynamite Bars, which in my memory, were the highlight of the public school lunch plan]

Hot Oven, Cool Scars

I hope this doesn't become a weekly update, but I figured I would show you all the cool new burns I got this week at work. Remember, 600-degrees F is hot.

This one is on the outside of my forearm:

This one is on the inside of my forearm. I think it looks pretty cool (although the photo doesn't really do it justice):


Someday, when I have kids, I can tell them cool stories about how I used to get into knife fights and got all these cool scars on my arms. But I wasn't a wussy, so we didn't use regular knives, we used hot knives.

And just so you're not all freaking out about the gross pus from my wounds getting on people's food, I treat them with ointments and cover them during work.

The Splendid Table

Our new hometown is featured on Lynn Rossetto Kasper's NPR show, The Splendid Table. Check out a review of our absolutely favorite divey dinner, The Grove Cafe. If you're in Oregon, The Splendid Table used to air at 5 or 6pm- check it out!!! If you come visit us, we'll promise you a meal there.

Internationalism in the Middle

Last night my program had an international potluck. We generally have a get together at least once a semester with the MA, PhD, and faculty for our small program.

So last night's party was bring your own favorite ethnic food (not necessarily from your own culture). And my what a spread we had! There was Syrian chickpea salad, kung bao chicken, Chinese pancakes, dolmas and yogurt, Ukrainian apple cake, bacalao, chicken and rice, beef stew, cheese, Indian curried squash, serbian cookies, spicy chili corn bake, ratatouille, apple pie and vanilla ice cream, Argentinian empanadas, and I brought pizzelles.

We feasted! And there was much discussion about why we weren't running restaurants instead of pursuing these degrees. Clearly there was much talent in the room. We finally decided that a rotating restaurant would really be the way to go. Each group could run the restaurant one night. So we could have Middle Eastern, the Korean, then European, then Chinese, then Latin American, etc etc.

So, while there are some serious limitations to living here in the Middle, my new friends and colleagues can certainly cook! And tonight, while we stay inside to hide from the incoming blizzard, we're making chicken tikka masala, saag, and homemade naan. We'll let you know how it goes.

my eyes....

This week has been a killer. I've left by 9 every morning and don't get home until about 9 each evening. I'm actually on a 10 minute break from my Wednesday evening programming class right now. Yep, you read that right, I'm taking a programming class. Wouldn't Dad be thrilled! I have to confess that (a) I really wouldn't have signed up for this except for the fact that it's required, and (b) it's actually cooler than I thought it would be. It's odd because I'm kinda the third generation in the family to be working on computers. My Grandmama worked with the old punch cards (back in the olden days). Dad and Mom were both programmers for a while. It's been cool to talk "shop" with Mom a bit.

Alas, between this class, the numerous papers I'm writing and grading, and the two research projects I have going on, I'm spending 6-9 hours a day in front of the computer, 6-7 days a week. My eyes are not appreciating this activity (or lack thereof) very much. I may need to invest in saline company stock, the rate I'm going through it.

One of these days, I just know that they'll invent a screen that doesn't hurt so much. Until then, well, I guess I'm suffering for passion.

Back to class!

Reading is FUNdamental!

I'm fairly ambivalent about technology. Only a few years back, I referred to myself as a Luddite. However, over the past few years, coinciding with my move to the NW, I decided I needed to more fully embrace technology. I've made strides, but I'm still certainly no first-adopter.

But this new product from Amazon is really cool. Books without killing trees! Reading on a computer, but without the eye strain! Free Wikipedia!

From the video and some of the reviews on that page, it seems like it still needs some fine tuning and some of the bugs to get worked out. And hopefully the price tag will come down. But honestly, I hope that they can work things out and that we have one of those within the next couple of years. Maybe we can get Kimberly to be a tester, since she reads a million words a minute.

Blisters are for Healing

Hi all (if there's anyone out there that still reads this).

So, I haven't posted on here in weeks because I've been kind of busy - I finally got myself a job. I'm working in a kitchen at a local restaurant; it's probably the best restaurant in town, having beat out the other 1 good ones. While it's not the greatest job in the world, it gets me out of the house, gives me something to do, and almost doubles our monthly income. And it's a good job for the near future, while I wait for a decision from Farm University on my future plans.

I work at the brick oven station, making pizzas - I decided I needed to start living up to ethnic stereotypes more accurately. The oven runs between 580 and 600 degrees, which is really hot and makes for some pretty good pizzas, which is a nice perk. Unfortunately, I also occassionally nick parts of my arms on the mouth of the oven or the oven floor, all of which are also at 580-600 degrees. As you can see from below, at these temps, human skin doesn't stand a chance:


I have absolutely no idea how I got that first one my wrist - I came home and Kimberly inquired to the red mark and blister on my wrist. I got the one on my finger on the first order of the night last night - reaching into a hot oven with a heat blister for 5 hours does not feel good.

Keep your fingers crossed that I get into the program I applied to so that I don't have to keep working on the hot oven - the nerves in my fingers will appreciate it.

Dreaming of the summer....

Well, it's only February, but summer plans are beginning to take shape. It looks like I'll be headed south for part of the summer, Mexico in fact. Doesn't that sound just terrible? :)

Professor Mentor here at Farm School teaches over the summer at a universidad in Mexico. It turns out that not only does she need an assistant, but this universidad is in the same exact city that I studied in during my undergrad days. So, after some negotiation and waiting, I've been officially asked to go with her! I'll be teaching a conversation class to Mexican engineering students and working to create camaraderie between them and the American exchange students.

I'm working on a plan to have some travel time for me as well, so time to enjoy and experience Mexico again. It's hard to believe, but that first trip to Mexico (10 years ago!!) was what started my traveling experiences. And, I haven't made it back to Mexico since. There are so many wonderful things I'm looking forward to seeing and doing, from gazing at the amazing Diego murals to each tacos on the street to having the little girls pull my hair on the bus.

So, while it's still cold, blustery, and icy here, the future looks sunny and warm. A little something to look forward to!

I get the wierdest things.....

I'm not sure a) why this is related t0 the wrestling team and b) why they'd be sending this to me but here it is for your viewing enjoyment.

Yep, That's right... a facial hair competition!
The person who grows the best facial hair wins a Cyclone shaving prize pack!

According to the American Mustache Institute... "it is important to note that the greatness of a mustache is that a new style can be created each day by any mustached man... and sometimes a woman." As the AMI often notes, "A mustache is a terrible thing to waste."

---

Here are the rules:

1. Email a picture of yourself freshly shaven to (deleted)
   no later than Feb. 7 (please include your name).
   
2. Send an updated photo of your progress by Feb. 14.
   
3. Submit final photo of your three week facial hair
   growth by Feb. 21.
   
4. Be creative and have fun!

Winners will be selected during intermission of the Iowa State vs. Nebraska wrestling meet (Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.). Contestants must be present to win.

For complete guide to growing and grooming your facial hair, click here.

---

Check out these great examples...

Published!

It's official! I'm published! Hooray! Well, so it's only one co-edited chapter in a very big book, but nonetheless, it certainly counts.

Today I had a planning meeting for another project and we have a abstract for a conference due Tuesday. Eeek!

So, things remain in motion. Slowly but surely, as they say.

Dunes

If I look out the bedroom window, I see drifts of white. The wind has been fierce, and I can watch it sculpt the drifts, creating the undercut that makes them look like waves as they are about to crash. The wind picks up the top layer and blows it into the air. The small particles sparkle and swirl, showing the patterns of the wind.

If I squint just right, I can almost convince myself that I'm standing by the ocean. Even the cold isn't quite wrong, standing outside waiting for the bus it's almost like the coast. Those early spring days, where it looks so lovely outside and then it turns out to be soooooo cold. It's like that but colder, much much colder.

The snow is often so beautiful. It's so cold here that the snow isn't flakey or lumpy but instead it's tiny granules. They shine and I actually need my sunglasses here. They also sting just like the sand as they just get blasted towards all exposed skin.

The comparison falls apart quickly but, in a way, it brings me a little comfort to pretend, just for a minute, that I'm home.

Exhaust: Good for the Environment

The past two days, the high, the HIGH, has been about 258 degrees Kelvin (or 5 Fahrenheit. You might remember from Chemistry class that Absolute Zero = 0 Kelvin = -273 Celsius = -459 Fahrenheit). At night, the temp has reached a balmy -9 F; you can actually see the cold air moving our curtains on the windows. Fortunately, we are inside and usually nestled under our electric blanket.

I don't write this to complain, although I've barely left the house in the last 48 hours. I am mentioning this because of something we've noticed lately.

We were sitting in a bar the other night, looking out the window, drinking a beer, when I noticed that one of the cars parked outside had smoke coming out of its tailpipe. Since the wind was blowing snow all around, we weren't sure if it was exhaust, meaning the car was running, or if it was just an illusion. Kimberly assessed that the car was running, since the snow on the hood of the car was all melted. I thought that was crazy; I know we're in Iowa, but wouldn't someone drive off with the car, a drunk college kid or something?

At least an hour later, a guy from the bar walked right out to the car, stepped in, out it in gear, and drove away. Apparently, he left the car running so that it would be warm inside when he needed to leave. Peculiar.

Over the last couple of days, I've noticed unoccupied cars idling all over the place - the grocery store, outside the coffee shop, the gym.

So I have to wonder: do people here leave their cars running so that they're not cold when they get back in them? And are people really that nice here; I've definitely seen some homeless people around, so why wouldn't they just take a car? Do you need to carry 2 keys with you to keep the car running, but lock the door? Doesn't gas cost a lot? I grew up and went to school in some really cold places, and I'm pretty sure this wasn't common there; or was it and I just didn't notice? Or maybe a lot of people here have automatic starters (a good idea), and I've just happened to walk past all the cars just after they were started?

If anyone has any insight on this, I'd love to hear about it, because I think it's really kind of weird that there are all these cars running with no one inside them here.

Winter Break Reading

Well, spring term is just a few days away and the work load is starting to sneak up on me. I actually whined in bed this morning about how I wasn't ready for the break to end and couldn't I just please stay in bed all day? (To his credit, Peter just turned out the light and told me to go back to bed. As it was already 10, (or maybe later?) I actually got up. sigh).

Anyway, I have enjoyed the break, and I've been able to devour a few books. Although I think my in-laws think I'm a wee bit nuts (what with the frantically reading at every moment while I was there), I got a lot of pleasure reading done. Here's the recap.

• His Dark Materials series (aka the Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) (aka the Atheists are going to corrupt our children)

This was a pretty cool series that I'm looking forward to rereading and appreciating more deeply. There were terribly sad and scary parts (as Peter can attest to), happy and exciting parts, and lots of cool creatures and fighting polar bears. While the books can be interpreted as anti-Christian, the anti-Christian parts take place in a different dimension. It's much more clearly an attack on the establishment- both political and religious- that compels conformity and blanket acceptance instead of investigation and searching for truth or truths. While my mom certainly wouldn't enjoy the series (nor would anyone who isn't interested in talking animals a la The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or The Hobbit), it's a nice set of books for us scifi and fantasy fans. The controversy around these books is rather amazing, especially since the books have been out for a long time. Apparently the movie sparked a large religious boycott (and even some attempts to ban them).

• Bury Me Standing
  

This is an interesting book describing the life, history, persecution, and travels of Gypsies in Europe. Peter got interested in Gypsies during our travels this summer, and his aunt recommended this book. While it's not best written (the author stumbles around a bit in time and place, and I wasn't always certain if she was talking about past, present, or future) it's a powerful history of a poorly remembered and rarely acknowledged people. she lives with various groups, discusses their language, cultural norms, opportunities (or more often lack thereof), and individuals. The local governments come off particularly bad.

• The Zookeeper's Wife

I picked up this book from the new books section of the library on a whime and it was an interesting read. The author writes a biography of Jan and Antonia Zabinski, two Polish zookeepers who saved numerous Jews during WWII. While the book suffers from time to time by straying off point, the story is so marvelous to almost be unbelievable. Antonia in particular is an amazing woman who communes with animals and uses her unconscious knowledge of animal behavior to successfully dissuade the German police from investigating them. Jan works for the Polish resistance and both are driven and moral individuals who save people for no other reason than it being the right thing to do. this is a great biography and wonderful story to remind us both of the evil and the goodness that people can do to others.

• The Center Cannot Hold

This was an interesting book by a USC law professor who is also schizophrenic. It's her memoir, and she discusses her journey with the disease as well as her life. She's clearly an amazing woman (various degrees, a stint at Oxford, accomplished professor) and also battles a very severe illness. Her descriptions of her obsessions and the details of her disease were fascinating and very illuminating. I'd recommend it.

• Julie and Julia

This book is a great blog-turned-book describing the author's (Julie) attempt to make every recipe (some 500+) of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking during one year. You might have heard the author interviewed on NPR or in the NY Times, it was very big for a few weeks. While it's not quite a book, and both Peter and I felt like she didn't spend enough time on the FOOD part of the story, it's fun, light, and entertaining. Don't read this book if you can't handle swear words, drama, or the cooking/eating of offal.

So that's what I've been up to. Of course, I also read the textbooks that I'm teaching (all three of them, sigh) and have gotten started on my own textbooks for the classes I'm taking. Fun, fun fun!

So, have you read anything good lately?

Pick A Winner

Hi, my name is Peter. I'm addicted to television.

There, I said it.

I'm working on stopping here in the New Year, but still being unemployed doesn't help. Regardless, Sunday tv is the best. Even when football ends(which is only a few short weeks away, sob), Sunday night tv is generally really good. Last night was particularly interesting:

The Live Free or Diner
The Simpsons last night skewered the whole 'first-in-the-nation' primary thing. While it focused mostly on New Hampshire and Springfield, it was also relevant to the atmosphere here in Iowa over the last few months. The hype, the influx of press, and the rallying behind a candidate for no apparent reason, that's been all around us the last 5 months. And they got in some really good digs at some candidates, especially Kucinich and Fred Thompson

[Ever since the caucus ended last Thursday, they have stopped running political ads on TV. At one point, every commercial break was a political ad, one after another, on virtually every channel. Obama talking to the kids, Clinton being all motherly, Thompson on Law & Order (DA-DUM), Romney attacking Huckabee, Huckabee praising Jesus, and Ron Paul and Denis Kucinich being kind of invisible, it was amazing how many there were. It's kind of weird to be back to Viagra and Oxi-Clean ads.]

Gladiators, are you Ready?
I was really excited about the return of American Gladiators last night. When I was in elementary school, I used to watch it every Saturday, then go to a friends house, where we would set up our own challenges, throwing tennis balls at each other and giving bloody lips. It was the coolest show on tv. I never really realized how cheesy it was until I watched a few old episodes on classic-sports tv.

It seemed like the new show was going to be as cheesy as the original - dumb gladiator names, too much spandex, even Hulk Hogan as a host. But in the end, it disappointed.

The problem, as with most modern remakes of old classics, is that they took themselves too seriously. They took a cult classic that originally aired on Saturday afternoons, and tried to class-it-up for prime time. Too much production, not enough cheese. People were getting injured (one girl looked like her knee broke in half during the show) because the gladiators were overly intense. Too many lights. Too much stupid water.

Maybe the show was really as cheesy as the original, and my tastes have just matured. That's probably closer to the truth. But in my head, I'm still blaming tv for this one.

Thanks for ruining my childhood memories, NBC.

We Get To Decide Who You Will Vote For [Part 2]

Now that was quite the experience. The caucus was really interesting. And really chaotic. By now, I'm sure you all know that Obama won the Democratic caucus. People were really excited about him; being in a college town helps, I'm sure, but that certainly isn't true for the whole state (white and rural much?).

Right from the start, we knew it would be pretty hectic. As we entered the building where our caucus was, as well as 4 or 5 other caucuses, it was packed with people, including candidate representatives handing out stickers and doing a little politicking. As we forced our way towards our room, there was a line of people four across. It went around a couple corners before disappearing into the main room. We got there plenty early, so were able to make it in the room with time to spare.

Around 6:50, they announced that they wanted to close the doors around 7, but they weren't sure if they would be able to get everyone registered and in the doors by then, so they were going to delay the start until they were ready.

Apparently, turnout was huge this year, somewhere around 12% of voters; four years ago, turnout was 6%. Four years ago, there were about 110,000 Iowans at the Democrat caucuses; this year, there were about 225,000. They were expecting 300 people to attend our caucus; about 550 people were there. I would say, the organizers were a bit unprepared and overwhelmed by the number of people. From watching the news, a lot of Independents, and even some Republicans, came to the Democrat caucuses, creating all this chaos.

Not too long after 7, the doors were closed, and the caucus started. Before we started picking candidates, we had a bunch of local 'party business' to take care of. It would have gone much smoother if the precinct presidents had read up on Robert's Rules of Order. The voting part didn't really go much smoother.

The room we were in had about 250 seats, with barely enough room between them for aisles. Add another 250-300 people standing around the room, and it was packed. Fire capacity packed.

The way the caucus works is pretty basic: go stand in the 'corner' of your candidate, then count. As most rooms only have 4 corners, and there were at least 8 choices (7 candidates plus Undecided), trouble was brewing. They wanted to separate the biggest groups (they predicted, quite accurately, that these would be Obama, Clinton, and Edwards - using polling data makes predicting the future much easier. Tell that to Trelawney), but ended up putting them all in the same half of the room. These people should be running for Congress with these problem solving skills.

Finally, they unleashed us. I was leaning towards Obama, but went to the undecided corner - I just wanted to experience the moving around the room, the being approached by different candidate reps, and civics in process. I thought Kimberly was going to go with Hillary - she'd been talking about her the last few weeks - but she went straight to the Obama camp (I'll let her explain her reasoning, if she wants), along with about half the people in the room.

When they started counting people, I was on the far side of the room from Kimberly and the Obama camp. Every other group in the room was done counting before the Obama group - it ended up with just under half the people in the room. Pretty much every other group, except the other top two, were deemed not viable (you need 15% of the vote to be considered viable, which in our caucus was around 80 people, which apparently is abnormally high. Hillary wasn't even viable in Grinnell, which is home to a small Liberal Arts college.] Then, some horse trading of votes began, which I didn't really understand, and didn't really seem to go anywhere (this summary of some of the Des Moines area caucuses has a better description of the horse trading of votes).

I was expecting more people to come up to me to try to convince me to go to their group. But whenever someone talked to me, and I voiced a concern about their candidate, they were just like, 'whatever' and walked away. Aren't they supposed to try to convince me and assuage my concerns? I was slightly annoyed.

I eventually worked my way back over the the Obama camp, where I was counted with the rest - in the end, more than half the caucus was on the Obama side. Clinton and Edwards pretty much split the other half.

Kimberly and I went out for a celebratory ice cream (actually, frozen custard). I was pretty invigorated by the whole thing, despite the lack of preparation by the organizers. I think Kimberly was annoyed by the process, which is understandable: it was disorganized, chaotic, suppresses participation, and voids all secrecy in the voting process. But other than that, there's really nothing to not like.