Hail to the IT genius that fixed my laptop!

Oh, hallelujah! I just got home from work and pulled out my laptop, and, viola! It works! Oh, joy! It crashed many, many, many months ago, it spent quite a bit of time in two separate fix-it shops, the result of which was a very expensive and pretty hopeless prognosis, and then I dragged it into work and let it sit for another few weeks, until I worked up the nerve to ask one of the IT technicians to have a look at it. I pretty much promised him anything in the world (well, almost anything), and all he wanted was 1) priority registration to take a class, and 2) lunch. He didn't even want homemade chocolate chip cookies! Wow. So, I immediately granted him #1, just for looking at the laptop (still in the case). So, that was back in early November.

Today, Mr. IT genius brought my laptop back, explained what the problem was (I really don't understand it, but it has something to do with the driver for the video card, maybe?), and we set up a date and time for lunch. I'm figuring I'm way ahead of the game, in any event. I was saving my money to buy a Mac, and I still may buy one at some point, but, boy, oh boy, oh boy, there's nothing like having your very own computer at home to do exactly what you want! Which, in this case, is finishing up my syllabus for the class I begin teaching on Monday. Hip, hip, hooray! The computer gods are on my side today. I'm thrilled. Absolutely, positively thrilled! Okay, I'll stop gushing now, and get to work.

Clever Poet!

By Christian Bok

Christian Bok has written a book of poetry that uses each vowel, but only one vowel per chapter. Check it out here.

So clever!

"Stay hungry, stay foolish"

I was searching for material for a class I will be teaching when the semester starts, and I stumbled upon this video of a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs. I'm thinking it's a keeper. What do you think? It's a little long, but worth it. The last part is a little eerie, too, because he talks about death.

This little piggie went "wee, wee, wee" all the way home!

In the spirit of "service to others" to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, I was an accomplice in a pig rescue of sorts. Yes, really. You read that right. A pig. Molly, a sweet little research pig at Stanford had been given the "Pass Go and collect $200" card in the Monopoly of Life game and needed a new home. Enter Cathy, who lives on a pig rescue farm, and her friend (that would be me). It seems that Molly needed a hitch from Palo Alto to Solvang. Originally, Molly was going to fly in style on a private plane, no less from Stanford to Acton. But someone along the way was worried that Molly wouldn't be comfortable in an unpressurized cabin, so driving was the only alternative.

So, off we went down and and then up the central coast, which is always a pleasant drive. It was an absolutely picture-perfect beautiful day, and Molly was quite agreeable about the trip, at least until we got to our destination. She then decided she had endured quite enough of a road trip, thank you very much, and was not nearly as excited about the second leg of the trip, which involved being driven from Solvang to Acton.

Cathy and I were excited, however, at the prospect of lunch on the coast, and dived into some pretty tasty fish tacos at the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach. I felt obligated to wash those delicious fish tacos down with an ice cold beer that I drank with gusto.

Molly survived both journeys and is happily living in Acton with some of her peeps.

Photos courtesy of Cathy Kost.

A Very White Christmas!

Flannery and Ryan ventured off to Canada for the holidays, to visit his family. Thoughtful as she always is, Flannery offered to stop at Lake Louise, which is located in the beautiful Banff National Forest, and take a photo for me, knowing that Lake Louise is one of my most favorite spots in the world. Wow! It sure looks different in the winter! Apparently, it was sooooo cold, the rest of their party stayed in the car while this photo was shot. They were headed to Vernon from Calgary, and the trip was a beautiful one, albeit a very chilly one. Thanks, guys!

Photo credits: Title photo for blog - Ryan May/Flannery; Photo of R & F - Steve May

Ice Cream

I'm not sure why I'm writing about ice cream at this time of year. Brrrrr! It's cold! But, I was thinking about ice cream when I made a special trip to the grocery store to buy little Johnny's favorite flavor of ice cream on his birthday last week. I got to thinking about how great ice cream is. Although I don't eat it often, we seem to go through an awful lot of ice cream at our house, thanks to little Johnny's nightly habit, and Taylor's frequent trips to the freezer. Anyway, thinking about ice cream reminded me of Eddie Murphy's ice cream, or actually, ICE CREAAAAAAAM skit, and I thought you might enjoy listening to it. Beware for those easily offended, though. There are many cuss words in his routine:

O Tannenbaum

As I was watering, decorating, ooohing and aaaawing, and generally primping over my beautiful Christmas tree this weekend (and wondering how long it will take the cats to destroy it), I thought about all the Christmas trees I've welcomed into my home over the years. Sorry, folks. We're about to take a trip down memory lane and you'll just have to get over it, or stop reading right now and either check your facebook account or pour yourself a drink, or both.

Anyhoo, my very first Christmas as an adult I remember well (don't worry, I'm getting to the tree part of the story eventually), because my then-boyfriend worked at night guarding a Christmas tree lot, so he could buy me an engagement ring. Isn't that just so sweet? This was back when the dinasours roamed the earth and people didn't have cell phones. They had regular, plug-it-in-to-the-wall type phones (quaintly referred to as "land lines" now). Well, because we were just so much in love, we spent the majority of each night, all night, talking to each other on the phone while he was supposed to be "guarding" these trees. So, just so you get the visual here, the trees are outside and he's inside this trailer with the heater cranked up. I remember one conversation we had went something like this: Him: "Hold on. I hear something." Me: "Be careful!" Him: "I'm not going outside. Hell, no. It's too cold out there and I can see the guys stealing the trees. They are about twice my size!". So much for hiring someone to "guard" the trees. We did get engaged that Christmas Eve, and my ring was very simple, and very lovely.

The first actual tree I remember buying as an adult cost me all of $5.00. We were very broke and waited until Christmas Eve to buy our tree, when most of the lots would practically give the trees away. We truly had a "Charlie Brown" tree that year, for a whopping $5.00, but we excitedly hauled it home to our little apartment and decorated it. It was a real beauty!

Large and majestic, or small and sweet, all trees are great to me. The fact that you get to bring one into your home for a little while just sweetens the deal.