Special, limited time offer!

It’s the 2009 limited edition ornament:

The Max Head!

Yup, Max has finally figured out that the tree is good for climbing. I was eating my lunch at the dining room table and notice the tree was shaking in an odd manner. Further investigation revealed the tree shimmy was not a train passing by or a random earthquake, but a little grey interloper.

I wish that I could say the red and white striped ribbon in the picture was a tree decoration, but instead it is the tag from the tree farm. The only decorating that we’ve done is to put some plastic ornaments on the bushes outside. When I was stringing them with fishing line today, I seriously thought about reserving them for the inside tree. The are supposedly unbreakable and with a tree climbing kitten, we might need that safety net.

It’s like kitty jail, but with lots of twigs to play with and pine needles to puke up!

All that glitters

I love sparkly, glittery things. Shirts with sparkles, dangly earrings, diamonds, Kleenex, whatever. Now that I am closer to 40 than 30, I try to rein in some of the sparkles. It really isn’t appropriate for me to be shopping in the children’s section of the store anymore, even if they have the best shirts.

Back when I was in high school and wearing WAY too much makeup, I bought some powder that said “Shimmers” on the label. WELL OF COURSE! This sounded like just the product for me. It wasn’t until I put it on and went to school and was out in the morning sun, during marching band practice, that I realized that shimmers=glitter all over my face. I’m sure I tried to rub it all off, but that episode further cemented my reputation on campus.

I pretty much stayed away from the glitter powder and makeup from then on.

Fast forward twenty years.

The other day, as I was getting ready for work, I noticed that I had a faint glitter on me, especially on my chest. I immediately flashed back to my HS days but was pretty sure I hadn’t bought any new makeup lately. I dismissed it as maybe there was residue on the towels from a shirt that had perhaps snuck in in the laundry. I didn’t really worry too much about it because – hey! It’s glitter!

The towels got switched out and I still had the faint sparkle. Now I’m starting to get a little concerned. As I starting to sweat something that is reacting with my clothes? I kept meaning to ask Husband if he was noticing glitter to see if it was laundry related but how do you bring up that subject with your spouse?

“So honey, have you noticed any rashes that look suspiciously like glitter?” I can just imagine his expression. He’s already worried about my sanity at times and this might just win me a trip to the padded room.

But thankfully, I figured out the problem before I had to ask any embarrassing questions.

One of my favorite body washes is the Oil of Olay Ribbons. Especially in winter, the extra moisturizers in there really help to keep me from looking like a lizard. I was in Meijer during the summer and found two bottles on clearance AND I had major coupons. Of course those babies are going home with me. I didn’t start using them for awhile because 1 – I’m cheap and already had an open bottle of soap in the shower and 2 – I forgot that I had them.

About two weeks ago, I pulled a new bottle out from under the sink. About the same time that I noticed my unusual glow.

Yup. My body wash has glitter.

I’m now trying to think of all the times that I work a V-necked or low cut shirt. One time jumps out in particular.

It was during my tenure interview with the president.

Tree hunting – pictoral proof!

Thanks to Claire for the photos!

I’m standing in front of the tree for scale here. It was pretty darn cold and I probably should have worn more clothes than this! Thankfully my ears were warm. That’s because I was wearing Husband’s hat. His ears were pretty cold.

Notice that we are not cutting the tree down. That was Gavin. Gavin who has a bad back with a ruptured disk. I did take a (very short) turn, but we quickly realized that we would have been there all day if I had been stuck under the tree with the saw. Husband and I were very good at pushing the tree over to help with the cutting.

While we were out at the tree farm, there was a rare sighting of the Coldilius Downunderian:

Rumor has it that if you put out a glass of Penfolds Shiraz on your deck, they’ll come flocking.

The conversations I’ve heard.

Quote of the day:

I find it hard to believe that I understand quantum mechanics more than I understand our financial system.

Lisa, I feel your pain.

_____________

In recitation tonight, I overheard a conversation between a couple of people about their favorite Windows operating system. It had the weird overtones of “Who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman?” I’m guessing the next conversation from that side of the room will be “Playstation or XBox?” I have to remind myself that they will always be 19-21 years old.

_____________

A conversation in 4 photos.

I have a toy:

It’s a fun toy:

Give me that toy!!

I have a toy!

Damn tree

There are many holiday traditions around our house:

• Cooking a thanksgiving turkey that can feed 20 even though only five or six are coming to dinner
• Preparing holiday cards on iPhoto that never get ordered (two years in a row now!!)
• Grading
• Getting a 12 foot christmas tree

Yup, it’s that time again – getting a tree that is too big to fit in our car! We always have to borrow a friend’s truck to get it home and this year was no different.

What was different this year was bringing strong friends to “help” us cut down the tree and get it set up in the house. (Yes, Gavin actually did 90% of the cutting. Husband and I helped to push the tree over though! Claire – can you send me those photos?)

What was also different this year was the strained back muscle. I’ve been sitting on the couch for the past two evening trying not to move too much. It didn’t hurt too much on Friday, but Saturday afternoon I was in serious pain. I was very excited to read that you get to use heat for this type of injury. Most of the time, I “get” to use ice on my aches and pains – not fun.

Yesterday, I could sit and read without too much guilt because there was still Sunday left in the break. But today, I couldn’t put it off any longer – I had to grade presentations. It wasn’t that hard, but I have been ignoring it for about a month. That worked for a little bit because I didn’t want to change my grading scheme while there were still presentations to go. I need to be consistent! But not any longer. Monday is the last two presentations and I’ve already had students bugging me about their grade. It’s finally done and didn’t take me as long as I though – 3 hours instead of 4!

It’s almost 7PM and I think I’m done for the evening. There are still things to do, but I think I can get everything done tomorrow at work in plenty of time.

I should just push through and get it done, but I’m still fighting the post-tenure interview blues. Pretty much as soon as my first interview was over, I have been fighting the “why bother?” bug. I used to do lots of work on the weekends and evenings but not this semester. I don’t think I’ve done work during the week after 7PM (lots of caveats there…) since the beginning of September. I also haven’t done much cooking or work around the house either. I’m blaming it all on the stress of waiting for the tenure decision.

I’m getting a little better though. Instead of doing nothing during “Six Days of Sweats”, which I had originally planned, I did a little bit. I got the kitchen clean for Thanksgiving, hung some photos and some laundry done. I shopped for chemistry department’s “Adopt a Family” family and played with Max. I even multitasked and did a few of the things at once!

Max approves of the boy’s gifts.

“I checked in the bag – you need to go back to Target. You forgot MY gift!!” (Silly kitty – the gift is the bag!)