Especially if you try to do it at home after the cats have been alone all day. Exhibit A:

Caymus is giving his editorial views on the exam Husband is trying to grade.

Exhibit B:

“I can grade with my butt while I say hello to you.”

Exhibit C:

I was trying to work this evening on a seminar that I am giving on Wednesday. Husband was out at dinner with a speaker and I decided to work on the couch. But between Max and Indi, I probably got about 30 minutes of stuff done.

Max was tearing around the room, jumping on Caymus, playing with imaginary spots on the floor and chasing ghosts. Indi kept walking over my lap and computer and staring me in the face.

I can just hear her saying “Face it, no one is going to pay attention to your talk anyway. Fix the typo on the third slide, then close the computer and let me sit in your lap.”

(Originally, I wasn’t going to post this. It was a “private diary” type of post and maybe TMI. But after reading the story on CNN, I decided that it actually wasn’t that bad.)

That is my mantra this time of year – during preregistration and registration. I used to keep a close eye on the preregistration numbers and would get a secret, naughty thrill when I saw that my classes were more popular than my colleagues. No matter that physics or the genetics lab was being offered at the same time as their sections. Ask me any time during advising and I could tell you within one student what the preregistration numbers were.

I would tell my colleagues that I was just concerned about student distributions or if we had enough people to cover all of the labs or if we needed to offer an overload section. But in reality, it made me feel good to know that my classes were filling up first.

Now that I’m no longer the new kid on the block (even if the new, young prof teaches a different area of chemistry), the glamour is gone. My classes fill up at the same rate as everyone else’s. I tell myself that I check the pre-enrollment numbers only to make sure that we’ll have enough students to offer a class and keep our adjunct. But in reality it does sting a little bit.

But then I read this story on CNN about defriending and your “digital ego.”

Experts say rejection on social networks can hurt worse than an in-person snub because people are usually more polite face-to-face than they are online.

After reading this, I decided that it was OK that I feel bad about the registration numbers. I don’t have a digital ego. I don’t know how many friends I have on Facebook and if people defriended me, I would only wonder why they friended me in the first place. (Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone. If you’re reading this, then yes, I would be quite upset if you defriended me.) So my “real life” ego has to make up for the lack of digital ego.

But I’m getting over it. Now that I’m older and wiser(?), I check the numbers and actually get excited when I see that my lab has fewer people in it – LESS GRADING!

Husband and I are recovering from massive heart attacks.

After a wonderful evening, I looked around and said “Where’s Fuzz?”

Never have more fateful words been said. But to properly set the story up, we need to go back almost 10 years…

It’s February 2000 and I’m sobbing on my bed. Crying harder than I’ve ever cried before in my life.

“Why?” you might ask. Well, I have just lost my boyfriend’s cat. He fell out the window. (According to Husband, he was pushed.) When I poked my head out the window at him, he looked up at me, lifted his little kitty paws and shot me double birds. And that was the last I saw of him. I spend hours outside searching. Husband flew from Michigan and searched for days. After 8 days, we had pretty much given up hope. But then, the maintenance guy at my apartment complex called and thought he saw Caymus. I broke all land speed records getting back and diving under the building. I almost broke down when I didn’t see him. It was only as I was climbing out that I caught sight of his little fuzzy butt. Ten days later, we had found the prodigal son. I was already booked on a flight over to Michigan and it wasn’t hard to make an extra reservation for the wayward son. (The trip to MI is another story for another day.)

Fast forward ten years but this time, we didn’t see him escape. It could have been when Husband was ferrying steaks or vegetables in from the grill. It could have been a quantum anomaly and he just tunneled through the wall. Who knows, who cares, Fuzz was gone. After a thorough search of the house, Husband and I spent turns wandering around outside, waving flashlights and shaking the food container.

We were both inside, Husband in the basement, giving it one last try. Surely 13 pounds is a little too large for quantum effects to be relevant and the cat is in the house. I had just decided that I would spend the night outside, shaking the food to lure Fuzz back, when I open the door to the back patio and who the hell is waiting to come inside?

That’s right; we have our full complement of three cats again.

All that is running through my head right now is “Thank god I didn’t lose the cat this time.” I tried to come up with a second idea but really, that’s about it. That and “Fuzz is home.”

If you want to hear about my adventures, wait for the book.

Moral of the story? It’s really important to have a recall for your pets. That’s why we haven’t let Max outside, even on a string. I know that if Indi got out, I could get her back, no problem. Maybe not right away, but she’d eventually come back. Caymus will come running for food. But Max? Not sure about him yet.

Forgive me, but I gave into temptation today.

No, not chocolate. (Although I did eat a few Almond Joys left over from Halloween.)

No, not wine. (I did open a bottle of Malbec tonight to go with my Mushroom Barley Soup.)

I don’t feel guilty about either one of those. What I feel guilty about is my latest purchase:

ANOTHER ORCHID! But this one was all alone and I was saving it from going to the dumpster! It was only $10 and I don’t have one this color. And it’s deformed; no one else was going to take it!

See? One of the spikes is growing out of the dirt. Somehow, it got pushed under and is coming up on the other side. Ok, so I know the first photo is a little out of focus and so I tried for another shot:

BAD KITTY! Let’s try for another one…

BAD KITTY! The orchid is not a snack.

Much better!

My new addition makes 14 or so orchids. I’m about at the point where I need another grow light. I think I keep adding to the collection to force myself to buy another one. Then, I’ll need a few more to crowd up under the light to keep the humidity up… Sounds like a good justification to me!

I was just telling someone the other day that I NEVER get sick. Never. Left and right, people are stricken with plague but I stand tall.

(Can you see where this story is going?)

Yup. I have a cold. Not a bad one, but I’m definitely feeling it. I still had class and group meeting with all of the research kids, but it was an interesting evening. It started out with a scratchy throat last night, but has developed into a running nose and Katharine Hepburn-voice. I’m more concerned about the voice than the cold.

When I get a sore throat, it’s even odds that I am going to lose my voice. I’ve only cancelled class for two reasons. First – I was in CA winetasting. But I gave them a handout and asked them to do some reading! Two – I lost my voice. I had a colleague interpret for me, but gave up after 10 minutes.

So tonight, I’m sitting on the couch, drinking throat-coat tea and thinking about heading to bed even though I only got home about a hour ago. The cats are starting to think I don’t love them anymore, what with Husband in Sweden (With a cold. Guess where I got this one?) and me not moving off the couch for the past two nights.

In the academic world, it’s all “publish or perish.” When we get a publication in a good, peer-reviewed journal, it’s definitely a party. Picking a good title is a hard thing to do.

Just take a look at this title:

Degradation of Anthocyanins and Anthocyanidins in Blueberry Jams/Stuffed Fish

Huh? Believe it or not, I got the anthocyanins and anthocyanidins part (those are the good things that soak up free radicals and keep you young), but Blueberry Jams/Stuffed Fish?

I couldn’t image that they meant they were stuffing fish with the jam, but then I looked at the abstract:

“Fruits were used to prepare jams with different °Brix and stuffed fish.”

All I’m gonna say is yuck.

I love Halloween. It’s the one night of the year that I can pretend that I like children.

Just kidding!

Ok, ok. Kinda kidding. Kids are OK. I wouldn’t mind being a grandmother, but I’m not ready to be a mom yet. That’s a full time job and I already have one.

But I do like handing out Halloween candy. I don’t even mind handing out candy to older kids. I remember being older and still wanting the loot on Halloween. If they make the effort to dress up, they get the candy. I did have to interrogate two girls this evening to see what they were. They were dressed in plaid with a tool belt. Construction? Lumberjacks. So I gave them the candy.

I also buy good candy. No Tootsie Rolls or Dum Dums in my candy bowl! This year, it was an excellent mix of Reese’s, Milky Way, Snickers, and Almond Joy. OK, ok. So I may be the only person who likes Almond Joy. Why did you think I bought the bag? I let the kids pick out their own candy and I KNEW that no one would want that. MORE FOR ME!! The Reese’s were the big winners this year. I bought two bags and those were picked clean in the first hour. Remind me to only buy Reese’s next year.

This year, I asked kids to only take one piece of candy because I didn’t buy all that much. It was really funny but the teenagers were only taking one piece without being asked, but the younger kids were little piggies! I had one kids reach his hand in and try to take as much as his hand could hold! The little plague carrier probably infected the whole bowl.

I almost turned the lights out at 7:30PM but decided to take my chances on someone showing up while I was eating dinner. I only had two more people show up and they were just about the cutest costumes too! My favorite was a little boy in a spiderman costume, head covering and all. He had the sweetest little voice. When he reached in to get some candy, he picked out the Almost Joy. I was so happy that I gave him a handful of candy to reward him.

So happy Halloween all you ghosties and ghouls! I’m sitting on the couch the rest of the evening watching a Ghost Hunters marathon.

I have a feeling that today was the last nice day to work outside until about April. And unfortunately, I had procrastinated my way into a HUGE backload of work. I had to write two exams, finish the joy that is assessment of the student research program and write lecture notes for my class on Wednesday. That last one sounds like I’m trying to get ahead doesn’t it? Ha! Next week is advising week, which means that I meet with each of my advisees for at least 30 minutes. I have 22 advisees. None of this includes all of the stuff at home that needs to get done. My poor orchids are starting to droop. The carpet is starting to move, even though all of the cats are sleeping.

The garden is in a sorry, sorry state. I did take a few minutes to rake up some leaves which were killing the grass. I also cleaned out my water feature. My sad water feature. I loved having it during the summer, but come to find out guppies don’t like it when it gets cold. They die. In droves. I’m also wondering if a raccoon decided to use it as a buffet.

Here are a few pictures that bid farewell to summer.

The tomatoes didn’t fare too well this summer. Between the deer and the slugs, I think I got one whole large red one. The yellows pears did better. They made a really yummy bruschetta.

I harvested a few more even after the first frost this year. The frost caught me by surprise this year. I lost my African violets and didn’t get in any of my basil this year. Thankfully I moved my orchids in about two weeks earlier.

My geranium didn’t do too well this year at all. It never filled out. I wonder if that is because the birds were using it as a place to eat the sunflower seeds. Too bad the deer like sunflowers as much as I do.

There is one last splash of color in the garden – the gaura. This is my second time planting them in my perennial garden. If they don’t make it, I’ll probably keep planting them. They are so beautiful and vibrant in the bed. I love how the flowers dance at the end of the stalk in the slightest of breezes. Plus, the deer leave them alone. What more can I say?

I was surfing today and found a very interesting article:

30 Jobs That Pay $80,000

It was a pretty cool list. Nineteen of the thirty jobs are either science or engineering related! Of course, there were the ringers of the lot: 12 – Producers and Directors and 5 – Agents and business managers of artists, performers and athletes. But the rest of them all require at least a four year college degree.

This is the one that I found most interesting:

4. Atmospheric, earth, marine and space sciences teachers, post-secondary
Do this: Teach courses and research topics in the physical sciences, except chemistry and physics.
Get paid: $81,470

At first, I started looking forward in the list to see if Chemistry and Physics Post-Secondary teachers get their own entry with an even higher salary. Then I looked at the salary again and was a little surprised. Really? I could be making that? I’m at the wrong college… When I didn’t find a separate entry for physics and chemistry, I realized that we must be below the 80K cutoff. Bummer.

I also didn’t see “wine maker” on that list. Because that would be my second choice.

More photos from wine tasting last weekend!

I never realized that wine grapes were so small. I guess it makes sense when you think about it because you want lots of skin contact for the beautiful purple color of wine. But there so small!!

Booker Vineyards, a new winery that Husband has found. The story behind the name is really great. The Booker brothers were adopted by a farming family. They never married and because a fixture in the Paso Robles area. When they died, they donated a lot of money for academic scholarships. I think this winery is located on some of the old Booker land.

When we left Paso Tuesday morning, we drove east to I-5. The route is through some of the emptiest land I have seen, and I grew up in West Texas! It really had a beauty all of its own. The mountains in the distance were gorgeous, even if there was lots of haze. (And the photos were taken from the window of the car at 65 mph!)

We passed through some pistachio or almond farms located in the middle of nowhere. There was probably two miles of trees that went back further than the eye could see. Then all of a sudden, they stopped. It was kind of odd.

It was also odd when we passed through about half a mile of oil derrick farms.

I couldn’t believe how close they were together. I thought that they would bump into each other as they started their “Oil Rain Dance”.

We got out of California just in time. The rains started coming down and LA was featured on StormWatch! You know we got back to MI to balmy weather and sunshine.

OK, I lied. We got back to highs in the low 50s and snow on Friday night. Life sucks.