here comes the 10pm ice cream truck, signing its 10pm ice cream truck song.

This deserves a blog post. Well at this point *anything* deserves a blog post, since I clearly lack the motivation to blog anymore. Maybe in the winter when it's not so fun outside I'll return to it. That, by the way, might be just around the corner. On a side note: what's up with a high of 70 degrees in practically July?

ICE CREAM TRUCK

Every night - and this includes Sundays and all weekdays - an ice cream truck goes up and down our street tooting some little song that Sarah has now memorized and sings during the day. And when I say night, I really mean it. We hear the song at pretty much exactly 10:30PM each night.

Every night! I've been getting up at 5am for quite a while now, which means an early bedtime for Daddy. I tell you, if I'm up and around when I hear the ice cream truck song, I know I'm up too late. And I'm always up too late. The ice cream truck song is more like Pavlov's bedtime song for me.

DID YOU SAY 5AM?

So I could play the parent card and say that I get up early because of my daughter's early rising habits. Truth be told, she's been getting up a little later these days, at the nearly-afternoon hour of 6am. This is quite an accomplishment, considering last summer's early 4:30 risings.

But I'm still getting up at 5am! It's all a part of my plan to get a Ph.D. I'm finally - finally - taking seriously the title* of the book, "Write your dissertation in 50 minutes a day." If I continue to rise at 5, like I'm used to doing anyway, and work for an hour before everyone gets up at 6, then my 50 minutes of work is finished before anyone's day has begun.

And it works! I turned in a paper last week**, and I'm one step closer to defending a dissertation proposal, which I still plan to do this calendar year. Not only that, but it feels good. It feels like when you get up an exercise first thing in the morning - only without all the physical exertion. The sense of accomplishment is almost profound, though. Especially when you consider that it's only an hour a day.


*because, come on, who's actually read the book?

how a bottle of scotch can jumpstart my dissertation

Random Thing #42: in High School and college I was into theater. I'm even a member of Alpha Psi Omega, the national honorary theater society*. After school I didn't pursued theater. I don't have a single acting (or techie) class to my credit. I sort of closed the door on the whole thing after college, not intentionally but more by happenstance. The result: I haven't been on stage in a good twelve years.

Back on Stage. Correction, I haven't been on stage in 72 hours! My alma mater invited me back for a production of Enchanted April, a play about four women who escape their predictable British men for an Italian retreat. We rehearsed and performed the show in six days, from the Sunday script read-through to Opening Night on Friday. I can't speak to the quality of the production, but the play ran smooth, was reportedly entertaining, and most of all, We did it! I'm super impressed with this accomplishment and sort of want to do more.

"I've been translated!" is a popular line from the play. My wife in the show discovers a new world through her retreat, reforming her life's outlook and purpose. In a quirky parallel, I did the same.

This is where the dissertation part comes in. Remember that I'm a sociology student? With my full time non-profit position, caring for my daughter, and supporting Sarah through the end of law school and bar exam, I haven't spent much time inside of my studies since Thanksgiving. If you count the three months I took off last summer when Edie was born, I've lost nearly a year of study. This is discouraging. My friends are passing me up with their ABD status and dissertation research beginnings. I feel like I'm almost there, I don't feel bad about where I'm at, but all the same I am ready for a boost.

This week I feel rejuvenated. I'm tired, but that's something different than how I feel. For the last few months I've needed a fresh start of some kind. Some transition, or gate to pass through. A trip to Jamaica (not that I would do this) was not what I needed. Surprisingly, a sleepless week of project-focused rehearsal closing in full production was.

I accomplished my goal! I performed in a play as a hopefully convincing character. Maybe it took revisiting a college student schedule to figure out that I can also pass my pre-dissertation field exams. Maybe it took stepping away from my past routine and looking forward to a new one to be able to think about school again. As my director friend suggested, maybe it took using my right brain for once as opposed to crutching on my left. No matter what, the sense of accomplishment from this experience is invaluable.

This is where the scotch part comes in. My last show - 12 years ago in college - I played head school master dealing with issues of AIDS and sexuality at my school. The Old Boy was a deep play, and not without controversy in Central Kansas in 1995. But more than that the show was transformative for our theater prof.

Glenlivet, if I'm not mistaken. My prof had just finished his dissertation, defended and passed, and hadn't let down from the stress that went with that process. As the story goes, The Old Boy was a time for him to finally let go of one cumbersome life chapter and move on. In appreciation and honor, the cast got him a bottle of fine scotch whiskey. We all signed the box.

Last week I saw the empty box with signatures for the first time in over a decade. I had forgotten about it, and when I mentioned The Old Boy as my last show before now, our prof produced the box and retold the story. I was touched by his sentiment. After all this time, the box with our signatures sets above his desk at home as a reminder.

Jumpstart. Not only did I accomplish something great last week, but I reunited with a part of me that had been covered up. Much like my prof's bottle of Glenlivet which signified dissertation-related new beginnings, so my experience last week refreshes me and moves me forward. Symbolic yes, and also cathartic.

Denouement. Where before I was constantly consumed with stuff that I felt constrained my progress toward a Ph.D., now I feel that a majority of that stuff is not nearly as crucial as I imagined. I'm ready to practice patience in my writing, and not feel overwhelmed when I set aside the time. In short, I feel a preparedness for getting back to work.

And also I might start drinking Scotch.

*Seek a life useful!

A Holiday Tale (and recipe to boot!)

#336 out of 365 photos this year
(one more month!)

Last weekend we held an impromptu Christmas tree decorating party* at our place. Nothing much, just some wine cube from Target** and cheese and crackers. Our friends brought over some more wine and cheese too. In particular, one guy said he came into an excess of cheese lately, and decided to share with us none other than a full pound slab of bleu cheese.

A full pound! I mean, finishing off a couple bottles and boxes of wine was not a big deal. But a week later we still have maybe half a pound of bleu cheese. Today our co-op has a big holiday bash*** and I'm trying to find a dish to pass. Peeking in the fridge, that Hunk O' Bleu just stares right back. We also have some cranberries, both real and dried, so I thought I'd make a salad. Here's a recipe I found online - probably I'll make some edits but this is the general theme:

Cranberry Bleu Cheese Salad

6 cups torn Bibb or Boston lettuce
6 cups torn red leaf lettuce****
1 large apple, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese
(or more if you have it!)
Handful of walnuts
(my add, not sure why it was left out)

In a large bowl, combine the lettuces, apple and cranberries. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard and garlic. Pour over salad and toss to coat. Sprinkle with bleu cheese. Serve immediately.

There you go! Technically this salad seems to be a Thanksgiving dish, but who's going to notice that sort of thing? Happy Bleu Cheese!

*Though you might not tell from the photo, we have six ornaments. Since six people came over, it worked out splendidly.
**This is a must-try. I hear wine in a box is back in fashion!
***Tis the season for holiday parties, eh? Not including our own get together last week, this is my third one in seven days!
****we'll probably use frisee, spinach or other combo of greens

UPDATE: Finished!
The party's over, and so is the salad, eggnog, and Sarah's cranberry sauce. Here's a closeup of the salad:

My near not-quite almost siting of Barack Obama

Prologue. Every working morning I transfer on the El from the Red to Green Line at State and Lake. This involves walking up out of the subway* from the Red, crossing the street, walking up to the elevated platform for the Green. I then wait (and wait) through several Brown Line trains when finally a Green arrives, taking me two more stops West of the Loop to my building.

The Siting. Today while waiting (and waiting) for the Green, I noticed a light skinned man standing on the platform. He stuck out, appearing more business-like than even the other business folk who take the train. Don't ask me how, but he drew some sort of attention to himself even though no one was talking to him.

I thought in the back of my head, That guy's kind of hot -- he's like, Barack Obama hot.

From where we were both waiting, we got on the same El car (third from the front) and walked inside. I sat down, he remained standing. As we neared the first of two stops, a lady across from me got up and said, "I've been trying to contact you." "Oh really?" "Yes, my company [something something]" He says, "Leave a message at my office and I'll have someone contact you."

The lady got off the train, and the man walked over to a transit authority employee and asked how he was doing. Soon the CTA guy was dumping about our tragic situation and the man assured the employee that he was working on this issue, doing everything he could.

Finally I thought that this guy *was* Barack Obama, since during two El stops he politicked with two people. Yet, no entourage, no autographs, and seemingly few people recognizing him. He got off at my stop and we both joined the single file line of people down the El stop stairs. I tracked him once we reached the street and he entered the CTA headquarters building, just across the street from my building.

Telling the coworkers. Well of course I told the first three people I saw this morning that I thought that just saw Barack Obama. They wondered if it was him, since no security was tracking him, but I said maybe he was going with a low profile this morning. They wondered why few people seemed to recognize him and I compared it to the Weather Underground, you know where people go unrecognized under your nose simply because you're not looking for them. Then they told me I should gotten an autograph or taken a picture with the guy. I was kicking myself over not even saying one word while walking right next to him.

The Realization. The first words my supervisor says when I told her were, "Are you sure you it wasn't [CTA Pres] Ron Huberman?" To make a long story short** Barack Obama is in New York today. He ate breakfast with Mayor Bloomberg. Then who did I see? Someone was politicking, and admirably so, and I'd like to figure out who it was. So for the sake of argument, let's first inspect the differences between Obama and Huberman. No comparison in my opinion - I don't think I saw either one.

So, in the end of it all I guess I just saw some random hot guy on the train and decided to blog about it. I still think he looked very much like Barack and very little like Huberman. What are the odds a politician has a public breakfast in New York and then sneaks over to Chicago and uses the train?

Incidentally, if Obama really did solve our CTA crisis, I'd totally change my vote in the primaries.

*Ever notice that New York's transit system is called the subway even above ground while Chicago's is called the Elevated even below it? And that's your fun fact of the day.
**Too late!

InaDWriMo (Still a great idea, but)

Ok, so the Thanksgiving holiday ended up taking about 10 days out of my month, throwing a wrench in my academic writing progress for November. Of course I could have carved out time while others were carving turkeys, but instead I took it easy and hung out with family. Hey, what's a holiday for, right?

You'll notice in the sidebar that I've only reached 36% of my writing goal with four days to go. That's 64% remaining, or 3,163 words per day for the next four days, for you stats minded folks. Given that the actual NaNoWriMo people need to write 2,000 words per day to meet their goal, then maybe I could -- well no, that's still a whole lot of writing in just a little time.

I have two options: (1) be satisfied that I wrote over 7,000 words in just 15 days, or (2) write like hell. Since the first half of November was the most productive I've been all semester, I can be happy with option 1. Here are my accomplishments thus far:

• I'm about ready to turn in my field exam re-write. I'm specializing in the sub-field Sociology of the Family (and the sub-sub field of Carework), and hopefully this version will take. This progress feels woefully inadequate to me, but given that I took the summer off, and that really I don't feel behind in my final goal of a 2010 graduation*, I'll take it and be satisfied.
• Through a process of journaling, field research, and even a little blogging, I've changed dissertation topics. This is huge, and it took InaDWriMo to arrive at this point. In short, I was planning - for about the last three years - to focus on paid caring work. I've already written and presented in this area, but my issue is that it places me more within the sociology of work than of the family. My likely new direction will be toward unpaid caring work, specifically of parenting and very likely of fathers in particular**. I'm still blending work with family along with other areas, but I feel much more connected to family research, as you might have noticed through my ongoing delicious links (see sidebar).
• I did not include in InDWriMo the countless emails and other textual organizing work for my session at the midwest meetings. I received enough submissions to break into two sessions, and this has occupied a bit of academic time this month.
  

So there it is. Possibly you'll see the count go up before the end of the week, but I'll be lucky if I reach 50%. I wouldn't trade anything though: InaDWriMo is a qualified success, just the boost I needed.

* Ok so that date originally was earlier, but still I'm fine with 2010 - that includes two years of dissertation research and writing.
** Though I am not a fan of autoethnography, so don't be looking for a study on myself as a father. For that, I'll just keep a blog.

trying and failing to outsource blogposting to delicious

Wow, two days and no post. I'm trying to accomplish what Eszter does by getting del.icio.us to post semi-daily link updates*. Apparently there's some compatability problem with Blogger, though. Until then, see the more conspicuous sidebar widget if you want to see what I've been marking lately.

*Not that my bookmarks are remotely as interesting. Still, something is better than nothing.

Happy Halloween!

Ok, so it's a day late but yesterday was on the chaotic side, and when Edie was finally in bed I caught up on other projects. But you were promised costumes, so here they are!

Edie had at least three costumes this year. First was the promised peapod, which turned out to be a little constricting for her. Even though the costume says nine months, I think they forgot to account for movement. No worries though, it worked great for sleeping through the first party! The others were basically onesies, and Edie wore pratically nothing else besides Pumpkin Butt, Boo Feet, and Pumpkin Hat for about two weeks.

We're in November now, are the Christmas lights up yet?

warning: it might be an hour later than you think

So I came into work this morning to find my computer and phone reading 7:30am. Funny, I thought it was 8:30. Two and a half hours later, I forgot about the time disparity and am operating as if it's now 10am, when in fact it's 11.

Why the discrepency? I guess our technology didn't get the memo when we passed a law shifting around the dates for time changes. While it's nice to have three extra weeks of sunlight on the way to work (two in the spring and one in the fall), it might be even nicer to stick with the rest of world on a common time.

In the meantime, I think my Outlook calendar is in kahoots with my PC and Phone, so probably I'll be late for two meetings today.

UPDATE: Hmmm. Blogger says it's 10am too. I just asked my cube mates what time it was, and they agreed with the 10am thing (and looked at me like i'm crazy). I guess our IT folks already won the clock battle, somewhere between when I got into work and now. So nevermind, it's probaby the time that you think that it is after all.

I'm in a Mom's group. Should I be offended that it's called a Mom's group?

They only meet twice a month, and I've only attended one meeting and joined the Yahoo group, but I'm now the only male member in 14 years of a Mom's group that meets across the street from my building. How did this come to be?

Invitation. At a summer picnic at our coop, the pastor of the community church hosting the Mom's group invited Sarah to join on Tuesday mornings. Sarah said she works on Tuesdays. Since I was standing in the conversation, I said that I have Edie on Tuesdays and would love to come. After a moments hesitation, she said she would check with the group since she is not a part of it. Two weeks later we ran into each other on the street, and the pastor said that of course I could join. She handed me a business card with the announcement of meetings.

Rationale. I almost decided not to go, almost more for churchy reasons (i.e. is this a church group or a Mom's group?) than anything else. But I am looking for things to do with Edie on Tuesday mornings and besides, we're looking for part time nanny or day care suggestions from local parents. This, combined with the convenient location across the street, carried my decision to attend. These are the people who I see in the neighborhood with strollers, and this also might be a great way to meet my neighbors.

Men as Moms? So far I've been called - jokingly - an "infiltrator" and a "wannabe Mom" (notably both by the same person at different times). This gives me pause, because I'm clearly a standout person in a group where I'd rather just be a regular participant. Barbara Katz Rothman asks the question, "Can Men Mother?" She writes that mothering work is a gendered activity, but one not necessarily performed at all times by women. By saying that a man is mothering, we acknowledge the gendered history of the activity.

This led me to argue that maybe I am a Mom. Is it possible? I thought briefly about this and decided that No, I am not. Rather than going to the sketchy place of comparing nurturing activities in the home between partners, I'll instead say that to Edie, I am "Daddy." That alone carries more social weight than checking boxes of tasks and labeling according to a chosen interpretation of the term*.

But what about fathering? What does it mean to father, if mothering carries such a gendered connotation? If it means maintaining the breadwinner role, then many fathers today will strongly argue that for years we've been working to redefine what fathering means in our society. If this is so, are we conflating notions of mothering and fathering work? Are we all neutral Parents, or should there still be a "Mom's Group" and then perhaps a separate one for Dads? After all, there are Dads in our neighborhood. They just don't go to the meetings, or at least not the ones that I know about.

Name Change (or not): One of the Moms did mention that they should just call themselves a parents group. While everyone agreed, and while I feel perfectly accepted by the group, but I for some reason don't see the term "Moms" changing in the near future just because I am there. Recently at a feminist sociologist gathering, someone suggested to me that I should be offended that this is called a "Mom's Group."

Should I be offended? I mean, I certainly won't advocate for a change in the near future. I might recruit other Dads, though, with the permission of the group. Already this group is a terrific resource for child care and nanny options, not to mention an informative first discussion on maintaining an environmentally friendly home. I learned even more about plastics than I knew before (like this bit on Nalgene bottles, ugh.)

In the meantime, we don't meet on Halloween Eve, but the listserve is active and I'm planning to attend the November meetings... as a Dad.

*Which by the way will either label Sarah as the Mom or perhaps conclude that Edie has two Moms. Probably though, both of us both (will) mother and father at different rates at different times.

the spectre of Gray Hair

Looking in the mirror after brushing my teeth this morning, I noticed about half a dozen gray hairs on the left side of my head.

Half a dozen! Or more. I've noticed in the past the solitary gray hair on my chin if I don't shave for several days, and there's one repeated gray hair on my head that Sarah never fails to point out. But at first glance this morning, a dozen* gray hairs on my head?

I had to go back and read Meghan's manifesto to the spetre of Gray Hair. Here's an excerpt:

The history of all hitherto human heads is the history of this class
struggle. White and black, gray and blonde, brown and white, stood in
constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now
open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in hair dying or in the
eventual takeover of the white hair at large.... My head of hair as a
whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great
classes directly facing each other: Gray Hair and brown.

Maybe I'm just getting anxious for my birthday next month, but my hair looks more and more like my Dad's each day, soon to be peppered with gray.

*Notice the escalation in number each time I mention it.

food prep a la wiki -or- To the Pumpkin Patch!

Thanks to Bourgeois Bee (good link for food porn), or actually a comment by Katie, I bought a spaghetti squash this week. Sarah made bell peppers over the weekend, and we bought pumpkins too, photo shoot above. It's official, fall is here! Time for harvest food.

Problem is, I haven't cooked a spaghetti squash since last fall and forget the technique. All I remember is that attempting to open up the squash with a chainsaw is not the way to go. In a quick Google search for the item, guess who has the process? Wikipedia! And even though the article disclaims it contains no references or sources, I'm pretty sure they got it right.

What are you eating this fall?

I don't really understand baseball, but...

Isn't it ironic that the AZ Diamondbacks clinched National League West division and then were beat out by none other than their neighbor, the CO Rockies? If I understood the Wildcard concept in the post-season a little better than maybe it would make sense. But mostly I write this to say -- Take that Diamondbacks! If the Cubs couldn't do it (and they soooo didn't), then at least someone did. I do feel sad for the Philly's, however.

This topic gives me a chance to promote Katie's sheer excitement (see her top five posts, as of the time stamp of this entry) over in the American league. Can the Indians clinch it? If so, then I'm rooting for them over the Rockies in the world series.

In other news, we finished watching The Office Season 3 last night and are so excited for Season 4! Good thing that (1) we've only missed three episodes this season, and (2) we can catch those shows for free, in their entirety, online! We are absolutely not waiting another year for the DVD. This could be our first series to actually watch while it is on TV... even though we will be watching them over the web*.

*Sidenote: we have a TV but don't work very hard to watch it. Instead, we depend on NetFlix (and now the web) for our weekly dose. Though I have to say, will the new season of Top Chef be available online? This looks like a show I shouldn't be missing!

file transfer complete!

Although I border on either being a nerd or flat out boring according to Wicked Anomie, I aspire to Geek-dom by writing here often about my new MacBook. Probably we should generate a hipster identity marker chart as well to be sure that I'm not hip either, but all this Mac talk begins to make me feel (thank you Carly) like a poser.

Nevertheless, I transferred my files from a crashed PC to my new Mac! All it took was four hours at the school computer service center, where I waited for nearly three hours during a slow and painful file transfer of a mere 1.3 gigs from my PC hard drive to their internal network. Then in one and half minutes, they drag-and-dropped two folders from network to MacBook, completing the transfer. I have to say, it's a little surreal to see my entire academic career* transferred like that, now sitting on my desktop behind two folders. I guess it's the content of the folders that count, not the megabyte count.

In other news, I love exposé as a solution to alt-tabbing, but also I discovered that alt-tilde on MacBook functions exactly like the old alt-tab that I know and love. Solution? I use both, with a preference to exposé, which I only typed out a second time so that I could use the accent letters function again - which also I love. Stay tuned for more Mac updates!

(hat tip: Meghan's photobooth)

* plus every picture I've taken since May and all of our Alaska vacation photos, which admittedly take up the vast majority of that gig.

Still Life with Hippo

#283 out of 365 pictures this year

Did I mention that I love my new MacBook? Mainly I'm just trying to figure out how it works, especially in comparison to my old PC. For example, the delete key operates as a backspace, so I discovered that I have to press the function key with delete to get it to backspace. MacBooks don't right click, but you can always press control while clicking to get around that one. I do miss alt-tabbing, I have to say, and I have yet to discover a clean way to go between windows. But those are just keyboard tricks, differences from one keyboard to the other.

The biggest MacBook event of last week was our discovery of PhotoBooth. I had no idea when I clicked on the PhotoBooth icon that the camera would engage an internal video feed, producing a live image of myself on the screen. I was so stunned (not visibly, but on the inside, well maybe visibly) that I had to take a picture to remember this moment for all time. Here I am, the silly way that I look when at a coffee shop clicking around:

Riveting. It's like that movie where Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin drive people mad by revealing clients true selves to themselves. I feel like this picture is my life boiled down -- also I think it explains why my back sometimes hurts on one side.

Well I had to show Sarah as soon as she got home, and within minutes she produced the following photos:

The next day I came home to find these:

Two days after that, or last Friday:

The great thing about this last set is that they are pictures of Edie looking at herself. The screen display is like looking into a mirror, and then you click to take the photo. It's just cool to have pictures of her where she looks so, well, interested. It's almost as good as Hippo -- who by the way is her favorite toy, pictured at the top of this post.

All in all, the PhotoBooth feature quickly makes up for anything I might miss in a PC. I mean I can work around alt-tabbing, but this is too precious.

*though I switched to Mozilla since Safari is an unknown quantity, and also I like to use Greasemonkey.

fair notice slash open thread

You know when a place is up for review for their liquor license and they put a sign up, open for public comment? Generally to my knowledge people never actually comment on those things, so that's about what I expect here. Nevertheless, those of you who don't get here by Googling hairstyles or Ravinia Tables are hereby warned that I am strongly considering changing my template*.

Why? Because frankly on my new MAC** my blog page has a different look to it. I can't quite describe it. Maybe the color is more washed out than I'm used to? It looks more tall than wide for some reason? I really am not sure, but I've played with some of the templates and I think there's another one waiting in the wings, just for me.

Some positives: wider text area, making for shorter seeming posts; cleaner sidebar; better formatting for pictures that I tend to use a lot; the chance to finally finally switch from old to new blogger, which amazingly I have yet to do.

Some negatives: I will lose the characteristic ponds and fronds, that is, the greenery across the top and the blue lake with friend David in his boat in the profile box. Also I'll lose the "picking berries" picture which is no longer my profile pic save for on this particular template. I could probably try to get it back on a new template, but really it's not worth the effort. If I change, then you'll see something different.

I'm not thinking of switching from blogger to anything else, by the way. I think I like Wordpress better but again, in the cost-benefit analysis of host versus time spent to learn a new one, it's not that much better.

Comment if you will, and like the computer it may affect my decision. But maybe not. But maybe.

**You searchers are warned to, but I'm mostly referring to people who have been here at least once before.
*Which I love, thank you thank you.

Feet, not Happy

Ever since I read the Blue Monster review of Happy Feet last winter, I vowed never to see the movie. I mean, Dan rates CDs, Movies, and DVDs in his sidebar on a five star scale, and this is the only item in all categories combined to recieve one star. According to Dan,

It’s so pointlessly computer dominated that I swore I was watching the world’s longest screen saver at several points.

I mean I haven't even seen Cars yet, supposedly far superior to Feet*. I'd much rather see Nemo replays** over putting myself through this. But alas, our friends kid's are seeing Feet, we want to see our friends, so we are seeing Feet.

Note my omission of Happy from all of this. Maybe we'll be distracted by the fact that the movie is outside on the coldest evening since March in Chicago. Or, maybe this will make me make me appreciate the film -- I may have to tap dance just to keep warm.

UPDATE: See this post.

*This despite the 2007 Oscar win for Feet over Cars.
**Or any Pixar film, of which Feet is not.

eat, sleep, burn wood

They say there are three things to do at family camp: eat, sleep, and burn wood. When I uploaded my pictures from the weekend, I noticed that that's exactly what we did! I now present to you a photo series from our Labor Day weekend.

Commentary/Defense on the pictures:

(1) We took a camp stove and some food for the weekend, but we forgot a few things like graham crackers* and our plastic coffee filter thing. We DID remember Edie's diapers, clothes, and all related baby implements, but had to borrow said crackers and some instant coffee. Oh yeah, we also forgot to pack ice cream, so this photo was from our trip into town.

(2) I post this "Edie in a bag" shot at the risk of unsolicited advice, so let me just say that this was not her usual sleeping location, and no children were harmed during family camping this weekend.

(3) Wood burning. Nuff said.

We also went for a hike, played tether ball, and went swimming. All in all a great vacation to end the summer, with just enough mosquito bites to prove that we roughed it for the weekend.

* For S'mores. This is where you reach the advanced version of family camping: using the burning wood to cook your food. Not that I would do that while sleeping.

Most likely my acute writing skills clinched the decision

I've never encountered this before. I wrote a recommendation for a student last year and this month the admissions committee sent a letter to notify me the student was accepted into their law school. Is this standard practice? Here's the letter:

I am writing to let you know that xxx was admitted to the 2007 first year class at xxx College of Law. The Admissions Committee had a difficult task in selecting candidates for admission among the number of well-qualified applicants; your thoughtful comments about this candidate were very helpful to us.

I know this is a form letter and all but I just keep thinking, "How nice!" I actually feel like I have good letter writing skills. I feel like I helped someone out, even. I suppose now you think I'm the sort of person who's flattered by the receipt of mass emails. Well I am.

OK, so even if my own letter was a mere formality*, I have to say that I appreciate the feedback. You don't usually hear from the student after the fact, so I'm glad to find out they got into a school. If ever I'm on an admissions committee, I will strongly encourage this sort of follow-up practice.

*I mean, who sends bad letters?

THIS is where baby blogging and sociology blogging coincide

Edie's first trip to the school library

Today, Sarah's first day of both work and school since Edie's birth, I occupied Edie by taking her Where Else? To school! Edie and I had a grand old time gathering signatures for forms, attending the sociology welcome picnic, meeting other grad students, profs, and even former students of mine*. Sarah says that she's a center left midfielder in training, but I say she's a budding sociologist. I mean, look at this picture - Edie's first copy of Annual Review**!

More importantly, this means that I'm back from my summer break. Courses are completed and field exams (or prelims or comps) are afoot***. It's time to get back to work. I say this here, publicly, on blog. Probably I'll look back at this and laugh****.

But seriously, the haze that is the first three months of my child's life is clearing. It's hard to believe I posted this a full 90 days ago. For the schedule curious, Sarah and I both work part time, and are dividing child care by every other day. I have Tuesdays and Thursdays with Edie, today being the first day. Next week I begin my office job and Sarah will have Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This fall begins a brand new life of working, schooling, and parenthood. More to come!

*Actually I was amazed at the number of undergrads I know just by walking around campus. I shouldn't be, of course, given the increasing ratio of known undergrads to total students for every course I teach. Still, it's a fairly big school and I saw probably half a dozen folks just by walking around.
**I know, I know, they publish these articles online. But usually you can't check journals out of the library, and ours circulates ARS for some reason. Why not take advantage of that?
***Afoot is a really funny word, isn't it? I remember when my grandpa used to bring home model cars from the dealership: once in the 1980s one model talked to you, saying "You're door is ajar." We kids couldn't believe it. "A jar? It's a door!!"
****For example, see Cabell's post on blogs-as-public-record.

Vacation Pictures I: Musikfest

We left for Bethlehem, PA from Chicago at 5am, Aug 10.
This is Photo #222 out of 365 photos this year.

I took a lot of vacation pictures, giving me plenty of fodder for my Project 365 series. I'm about a week behind on posting the pics, but they'll all be up soon. In the meantime, check out these photos from Musikfest in Bethlehem. What is Musikfest? Read The Late Greats for a recap* on our annual summer festival. On to the pics:

This is a picture of me pouring some Pabst into a Musikfest mug. The fest has been around since the 80s, and the deal is that any mug from any year will get you a refill of beer. The catch? Beer costs five dollars a pop, or ten tickets, at Musikfest. The solution? A Bethlehem tradition: bring your mug from home and fill it up before walking in. And yes, we are using the stroller for beer storage.

Here, Sarah holds said beer mug, by the corn tent. Sarah loves the Aww Shucks Corn booth, where they butter your corn-on-a-stick and smother it with spices. Oddly, I wasn't hungry at that moment and didn't partake. Now I want some, and have to wait until next August. What was I thinking?

Besides beer, music (not pictured), and food, Musikfest is your place for arts and crafts. These are some Moravian Star lamps for sale. Moravian Stars are big deals in Bethlehem, a city founded by none other than the Moravians.

When drunk at midnight, walking home with your baby**, you will inevitably pass the Fritch Clock, overhanging the Hill to Hill Bridge. Here it is, in full neon.

Coming next: Kath & Gib's back yard!

*Actually, he posted this before Musikfest. Is that called a pre-cap?
** Yes, we kept her out until 11:28. But babies sleep, and if it's any consolation, we weren't the only ones!