Rocky at the playground

Our apartment complex has a little playground in front of every building, and then a bigger one in the middle of all them all. The one-two combination of really nice weather and Rocky's dislike of being stuck in our small apartment means that we've been spending a lot of time at the various playgrounds. This first set of pictures is from a series that I like to call "Rocky-in-the-swing-looking-very-melancholic-but-really-she's-just-curious-because-she-loves-to-watch-the-other-kids-at-the-playground". They're from my blue period.

Rocky has not quite mastered walking on her own, but she's already moved on to bigger and better things. We tried to get her to at least use a harness and ropes, but she feels that they hamper her style too much.



If we could only teach her how to yodel while doing this, she would look exactly like that game on the Price is Right.



We're obviously still working with Rocky on pumping her legs at the right time on the swing.




On an unrelated/closing note, we only have one more week until the marathon (and I only have six days left before venturing into the scary, uncharted waters known as my thirties). This is officially my last audition call for any song suggestions for my race playlist (as well as any ideas for things that I have to do before I turn 30). I'm looking for nice, peppy songs that will put a spring in my step down the final stretch, but I won't rule out any suggestions, especially not if they're for Burt Bacharach. So let me know if you have any epiphanies.

Spring in Oregon, a.k.a, the early runner gets to see the early bird get the early worm

Marci and I have been training for the Newport Marathon that's at the end of this month. Two weeks ago was our 16 mile run, and we tried to get it done as early as we could, because we had so many things to do that day. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a natural runner by any stretch of the imagination, but Eugene is the perfect place to learn how to love running. There's tons of great trails everywhere throughout the city. We've been doing our long runs on the Amazon Creek bike trail that follows a cool little creek, and it passes some beautiful wetland areas as it winds through the city. Because we left so early, we were able to see some awesome wildlife up close. Aside from the fauna that we typically see, we saw a great blue heron, a pair of great egrets, a nutria, a painted turtle sunning itself in the stream, an American kestrel, cinnamon teals, a killdeer and we saw one of these trekking across the bikeway that I later found out was a Ranchman's Tiger Moth caterpillar:

All of these new sights, plus the fact that we used power gels for the first time (it makes you feel hardcore), combined to give us a little boost. Although seeing all the new animals was great, the animal that gets the sixth-man/cheerleader award for helping us out is the red-winged blackbird.

We saw dozens of them, and they have a really cool song that kept us going. You can hear their call by going here.
Oh, and my brother-in-law Matt definitely gets an honorable mention for making our runs a success. A long time ago, he gave us the audio book of World War Z, and I've been listening to it a little bit at a time as we run, and I finished it the day of the 16 miler.

I obviously haven't posted for a long time, so I have a few more random, spring in Oregon pictures.

I rowed with the UO Crew team in the fall, and they had their home regatta at the quaint little lake where we practiced, so we took a trip out to Dexter Lake to cheer the team on. This picture is actually of the women's crew team.

This pair of massive magnolia trees are right between the building where my office is located and the building where I teach. The picture doesn't even begin to convey how impressive and beautiful they were when they were blooming. Oh well, traduttore/traditore I suppose.

Top o' the mornin to ya!

I know this video is a day late, but Happy St. Patty's day anyway. I really wanted to post it yesterday, but I was up to my ears in my finals, not unlike the flatterers of Dante's eighth circle of hell. Inferno was one of the many, many books that I had to read this term. I dare you to look up the reference. Go on, I double-dog dare you.

Kazoo playing superhero elephants with comb-overs?

Caleb told me that I make a lot of lists when I'm talking. I've noticed ever since then that I do make lot of lists. I think that they're really helpful to delineate the different points in an argument. They're also great if you have a bunch of completely unrelated things that you want to talk about, such as:

A. Earlier this week was the anniversary of FDR's first inaugural address where he said "The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself". While the idea makes for a great quote, in the interest of self-preservation, I would add rampaging elephants to the list of things that we should fear.

B. I was talking to some of the other graduate students this week, and somehow we stumbled upon how you say comb-over in Spanish. I found out that in Bolivia they call the person "un prestamista", which basically means a lender, in the sense that one part of the head has to lend the other some of its hair. I thought that was pretty good, but I like the Spanish version even more. In Spain, they call it a "código de barras", meaning a bar-code. I love when a description is so vivid that it conjures an instant image in your mind.

C. If I ever start to go bald, and I need to shift some of the side sod over to cover the playing field on the top of my head, I have a plan. I'm going to grow the hair long on both sides, and then comb them both to the middle. They'll meet in the middle and form a comb-over mohawk. It's astounding to me that nobody has ever tried this before.

D. So everyone knows that Mozart was a musical prodigy, playing and composing at only three years old. But not even he was performing a concert-worthy solo on his instrument at nine months old.

Eat your heart out Wolfgang.

E. I just read on one of the forums on Wordreference.com that in Mexico they call comb-overs Robin Hoods. As in robbing the rich to give to the poor.

F. Marci is at the temple today with the Young Women, so it's just me and Rachmaninoff hanging out. I'm really good at taking care of babies as can be seen in the pictures. Notice that the bib that is supposed to protect the said baby's clothes has on its own accord become a superhero's cape. Holy cute baby batman!

And in this corner...

Weighing in at 17 and a half pounds; reigning champion of the baby bare-knuckle brawler's cuddly monkeyweight division; the dribbling dynamo drubber, the punctilious pugilistic pixie, the bib-wearing basher from the bronx,

Rocky!!!!!!!!

Baby steps

The reason I have never been able to consistently write in a journal for longer than a month is because I inevitably have a lapse in writing, and then the need to "get caught up" looms over me in the back of my head, until my journal gets put away again for another few years. I'm telling you this to let you know that although this looks like a real post, it's really a just a list of a few random things to get me back in the swing of things. A way of getting back into that ol' proverbial saddle you could say.
1. The new classroom that I'm teaching in this semester also has a fireplace in it, except that this one isn't boarded up! It has been quite chilly lately, so I've encouraged my students to bring a log so that we can study Spanish by firelight. So far no one has taken me up on the offer. Maybe we'll roast s'mores on the last day of class.
2. I was just thinking the other day that It'll be sad when Rocky's teeth come in. Without teeth to get in the way, Rocky is able to do this cute grin that's really flat and wide and makes her cheeks appear even chubbier than they are (which are very chubby). The morning after I voiced this thought out loud, Rocky's first nubbin of a tooth emerged. I don' t know if me saying it out loud had anything to do with it, but just in case, I have to say that I'm going to be really sad when Rocky is potty-trained. I said, I'm going to be really sad when Rocky is potty-trained.
3. This video is from one of my studly students from last semester. He wrote this song based off of the things that we learned in the first chapter of 101.

4. This picture is of Rocky and Ginny hanging out during the Christmas break. I just wanted to point out that Rocky, who has a whopping three weeks worth of real world experience more than Ginny, is always trying her best to impart the knowledge and wisdom that she has skimmed from life. For example, it's evident here that Rocky is instructing Ginny in the finer art of flipping someone off.

One down, fourteen more to go

As means of gaining closure to my first semester of grad school and teaching, I thought I would put up a few pictures of the University of Oregon. This is Gerlinger Hall where I taught last semester. Gerlinger has a lot of moss growing on it like anything good and established at the U of O. In fact, some of the best professors here are also covered in moss. My classroom is the room at the top left of the building in the first picture. It's a pretty typical looking classroom, except for the boarded up fireplace.

I'm pretty sure that someone was entombed alive behind the fireplace, and I'm pretty sure that I think that because I had to read the Cask of Amontillado in ninth grade. I was able to use the fireplace to my students advantage though. I told them that multiple studies have shown that students do better on exams when they feel more comfortable. In order to make it a more inviting atmosphere, I hung a Christmas stocking on the fireplace before they started the test.

I don't know what this video is from, but I showed it to my students at the beginning of the semester.