Vanilla milk

After we got the results of the blood work back in September, the doctor wanted me to start taking a vitamin D supplement. I refused based on the knowledge that I had pretty much (accidentally) eliminated milk from my diet over the summer and, therefore, all I *should* have to do is to add the milk back into my daily routine.

This isn't as easy as it sounds because I really don't like to drink milk.

I do like hot chocolate, though, so I put together a batch of really fine chocolate syrup for adding to my evening milk. A couple of tablespoons of thick, dark delight in a cup of hot milk sure hits the spot but I've been playing a bit of migraine-roulette for a few weeks now. You can only play this game for so long before the tyramine jumps out and slaps you upside the head. What could I do?

It occurred to me the other day that I really like vanilla. My gears started whirling...hmm... What if I could somehow make vanilla milk instead of chocolate milk?

The search was on.

I scoured these here interwebs and quickly located several recipes for vanilla milk and gave one of them a try. Even without steaming the milk, it was sort of rich and foamy - and it tasted great.

Not only is vanilla milk delicious, it has fewer calories than the chocolate variety, and won't trigger migraines. Oh, yes, and if you like, you can "spice it up" with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg or even use honey in place of the sugar.

Vitamin D problem solved.

I think.

Of collections and contests

Headline news: trek finally gets around to publishing the results of the Second Annual Box Topapalooza Contest!

I really should have posted this sooner but then I decided to wait until the school collated the results for the classroom collection competition so that this wrap up would be clear, concise, and complete. We received a notice from school yesterday with all of the totals by grade.

After all the Box Tops were counted, the seventh grade led with 1402. Neatnik's second grade class came in a close second with 1387 Box Tops. The school Box Tops coordinator immediately did a recount since the two classes were so close. The results stood: the seventh grade had edged out the Neatnik and her compatriots. Their "prize"? As a class, they will get to vote on and select a non-gym day to wear their gym uniforms.

When I opened up all of the envelopes mailed to me and added up all of the Box Tops, I arranged them in size order: the smallest envelope in front, largest envelope in the back. In honor of the seventh grade, the winning number was seven and the envelope which ended up in the seventh position by size belonged to April of Rattus norvegicus fame. April, your prize should be in the mail soon; along with Chris' long over-due, but already packed and awaiting postage, one. :: hangs head in shame ::

Even if Neatnik's class did not come out on top, the really good news is that the school pulled together wonderfully and already passed the 50% mark for their school year goal. The state is no longer providing any funding for technology, so the school is relying on the Box Tops program for technology upgrades.

The Box Tops coordinator immediately announced a second round of competition which begins today and runs until December 21st. I've got 24 Box Tops in my little box in the kitchen plus I stocked up on tissues last week, so there are 17 more waiting on the pantry shelves waiting to be clipped.

Can I count on you guys again? Please? The second grade really wants to reclaim the collection crown - but we can only do it with your help.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

     -- Helen Keller

Flu

Being a retired medical professional, I'm not always the most obedient compliant of patients. I don't mean to imply that I totally disregard the advice of my medical providers, but I do bring my own knowledge to the table when we discuss things like treatment options.

For the past several years, Dr PreciousMetal has strongly suggested that I get a flu shot. Early on, I'd just ignore his suggestion and not bother even thinking about getting a shot. Later, after I had Neatnik, I thought that maybe I should be a little bit more responsible about the whole thing since I really didn't want to contract a raging case of flu and then infect my wee one with it.

Unfortunately, each year, when the flu shots were available, I was down with some respiratory ailment or another. It is much easier to get a flu shot if you aren't already sick. Doctors do not like to administer flu shots to people who aren't perfectly healthy. Even if it is the nurses who physically administer the serum.

But I digress.

This year, Dr PreciousMetal suggested that Neatnik and I both get both flu shots. I dutifully placed my name on his list and contacted Neatnik's pediatrician.

Neatnik received her regular flu shot during her well-child visit back in October. Her doctor's office wasn't going to be able to secure H1N1 vaccinations but that was okay since the local health administration is coordinating inoculations through the public school districts. Since I volunteer at her school, I am supposed to be eligible for the H1N1 vaccine, too. We should be "covered" with respect to the piggy-virus but that still left my "regular" flu shot.

I waited for DrPreciousMetal to receive serum. Instead of a friendly phone call asking me when I wanted to come in for my shot, I got a friendly phone call stating that they weren't able to get any serum and that they wanted to let their patients know immediately so that we could try our general practitioners' office or local flu clinics.

Not a problem. I called the GP's office last Wednesday morning. They told me to call back on Friday because they were scheduled to receive a shipment Friday morning. I started experiencing a vaguely surreal sense of deja vu. Nonetheless, I called back on Friday. They had received serum, hallelujah! They scheduled me an appointment for this morning.

Several hours later, I am here to report that I now am thoroughly cranky and out of sorts. My left shoulder is all achy and I feel depleted of energy.

And I get to do this all over again when the H1N1 serum becomes available.

Is all of this excitement what I was missing all those years when I didn't get a flu shot? If so, perhaps I'll pass next year.

On mightiness

Ever have one of those moments when the mental editor is asleep on the job?

So there we were, eating dinner and discussing theology. Specifically, we were discussing the wedding feast in Cana and how Jesus and his buddies all showed up for the party and drank the father of the bride out of wine. We debated whether or not Jesus was invited. We theorized on whether the disciples were actually invited or simply tagged along. We postulated that Jesus was perfectly well aware that his fishermen friends drank like the proverbial fish liked to have a good time and that he was going to have to "handle things" before the celebration was ended.

In the course of the conversation, Number Guy and I flung around a few fancy words. Not knowing the definition, Neatnik asked us what almighty means.

Number Guy proceeded to explain that it is a word often used to describe God and that it means all-powerful, great, mighty.

And I blurted out, "But better than Oz."

Oops. Thank God for his sense of humor or I'd be trek-toast about now.

Walking

We happen to live in a suburban area which is not at all well-known for its mass transit system. Oh, sure, there are some people who happen to live along the sketchy bus routes but for most of us who live around here, the buses are more of a rolling road hazard than a useful form of transportation. I know more about the Washington DC Metro system after a mere week's usage than I do about the local bus lines. Some guy asked me in the mall the other day when the bus was coming and I had to admit that I had no idea.* I suggested, however, that he check with the mall's customer service desk. They probably know.

Unless you want to commute to a major metropolitan area, don't even think the word "train".

Although we are defined as living in a suburban area, it takes very little time for us to drive into farm country, complete with horses, cows, sheep, goats, alpacas, and even emus. It takes considerably longer to drive from our house to a major city.

The upshot of these infrastructure demographics means that, around here, most people drive to wherever it is they need to be.

# # #

I do not like to walk on a treadmill because I feel like a hamster on a wheel: running forever and not going any place at all. I have almost the same feeling about walking the same route over and over again and again and again. Unless I have a conversation companion on my walk, I tend to become bored with the unchanging scenery pretty quickly.

Some of my boredom combating attempts include kwitting, reading while walking, and an mp3 player but my most successful technique is trying to arrange my errands such that I can walk to do them - at least that way I feel like I am accomplishing something.

Sometimes my destination is the library for a reading material exchange. Other times, I am bringing something to Neatnik's school or picking up just a couple of items from the store. I've even been known to stuff Number Guy's band kilt into a carry sack and schlep it over to the dry cleaners. If I am lucky, I can combine errands and bump up the mileage - all while the washing machine/dryer/dishwasher runs its cycle. Multi-tasking: very efficient!

# # #

I didn't realize how unusual my walking was until some of the other parents from the school/church began commenting on it. All of a sudden, I'm hearing people say, "Oh, I saw you over by the mall" or "Wasn't that you walking near the library on Tuesday?" all the time.

I guess it really is "all the time", too:

Seven hundred plus miles on this pair of sneakers...
I think it may be time to go shopping!

How is it where you live? Do people walk or drive? And how long does it take to destroy a pair of walking shoes? Mine are less than five months old.

* I have since looked up the bus schedule and learned that the bus stops at the mall about once an hour and it looks like one-way local service fares range between $1.35 and $2.15.

A baker's dozen times two

Yikes! I just logged in and realized that I haven't blogged since Friday. Eeep!
This is so unlike me. Perhaps I should recap the intervening days with some Tuesday Afternoon Bullet Points.

• Keeping up with grading my students' blog assignments has been very time-consuming.



• Yes, I am absolutely certain that everyone else is just as tired of reading that little tidbit as I am of typing it. Nevertheless, it is true. Checking and rechecking student work is a major time-suck.



• Actually, the initial checking isn't so much to blame. It is the rechecking.



• You see, our little department's policy regarding lateness is to accept the assignments but to penalize them in the grade. I typically ding a late assignment about ten percent or a full letter grade.



• Said policy means that after I have checked and graded all of the assignments that were on time, I later have to go back later to check the ones which were not.



• Oh, yeah, and to recheck all of the assignments which were ostensibly on time but which had such glaring problems that I instructed the students to do the work all over again.



• Like I said, time-consuming.



• I can't, however, lay all of the blame for my current lack of blog posting on my students. There are other things which have been siphoning my daily allotment of hours.



• Like laundry and grocery shopping. And walking. Don't forget the walking!



• You didn't think that "buffness" happened all on its own, now did you?



• Though I have mastered the practice of reading while walking, I have not been able to master the art of blogging while walking.



• My laptop is just too heavy to lug around on a six-mile jaunt around the local streets.



• Plus, people would look at me funny.



• Even if they didn't look at me funny, they'd still look at me.



• Probably twice.



• Maybe even three times.



• Double- and triple-takes at the nutty woman walking while blogging would not be good for my town's traffic safety rating.



• Perhaps if I practiced in another town?



• No, I thought not. It would probably be about as safe as text messaging while driving a bus.
  
  
  
  Used this clip in my lectures this week!



• I did work on some knitting earlier in the week. The foot of a sock.



• Sadly, it wasn't the cardigan's front.



• I was really hoping to finish the cardigan before it gets too hot again to wear it but I can't really work on it when Number Guy and Neatnik are home. If he doesn't have the series championship games on, she's orbiting me with requests.



• So, no, not so much with the complicated cable knitting again this past weekend.



• This coming weekend doesn't look all that promising either.



• We are having a belated birthday party for the Neatnik this weekend. We are doing a Halloween theme complete with costumes.



• Then there are the Halloween parades...

Do you think anyone would notice if I didn't go to the parades? I mean, yeah, I have to go to my own kid's birthday party but maybe Daddy could cover the parades? He's a bagpiper: he's used to parades. Right?

In which the second grade leads

I distinctly remember telling everyone to visit here Tuesday for some Second Annual Box Topapalooza Contest wrap up. Unfortunately, that plan was completely derailed by the Monday Night Medical Emergency.

As a temporary measure with which I will attempt to appease the masses, allow me to say that while I was helping with hot lunch at the school yesterday morning, I noticed a poster on the cafeteria wall. This poster listed the Box Tops collected, by grade, since the beginning of the school year.

Most of the classes had chalked up two-hundred and some Box Tops each. The second grade, however, was in first position with 453 Box Tops, followed closely by the seventh grade with 403 Box Tops. At the bottom of the poster was a reminder that the students had ten days remaining until the close of the contest.

The back to school Box Tops contest officially ended yesterday. We don't know yet who won, but I will say that when I picked up Neatnik's homework on Tuesday afternoon, I dropped off an envelope containing 475 Box Tops.

I'll post the Box Topapalooza winner when we have official results from school, okay?

In which Neatnik operates

Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose Mommy worked at a local community college, teaching late adolescents how to navigate safely in cyberspace.

The Mommy's college does not deign to observe such minor details as Federal holidays. Yesterday was one of those pesky Federal holidays, the existence of which the administration ignores. So, while the little girl and her Daddy enjoyed a three day weekend, the Mommy had to go to the college for the express purpose of administering an exam.

After class was finished, the Mommy noticed that there was a voice mail on her cell phone. It was a message from her sweet little girl who wanted a playdate with her cousin. In addition to requesting a playdate, the child also campaigned for a sleepover and a snack.

Some Mommies agree to almost anything when responding to a child's telephone requests; but not this Mommy. A playdate was out of the question because it was nearly dinner time on a school night. Sleeping over received the kibosh on the same grounds. The snack was a slightly different animal. Snacks are good and healthy. Snacks too close to dinner, however, must be prevented since Mommies tend to prefer to serve meals at reasonable hours and so the Mommy told her little girl to wait a mere twenty minutes: the Mommy would make dinner immediately upon returning to the homestead.

Upon entering the door, the Mommy was enthusiastically greeted and hugged by her loving little one. The Mommy had brought a stick belonging to a toy in from her chariot and requested that her dear offspring return it to the toybox. The Mommy proceeded into the dining room where she deposited her work folder and flash drive on the desk.

An amazingly loud cry echoed from the living room: the little girl was crying and blood was oozing out of her mouth. The Mommy and the Daddy hustled their precious child to the bathroom where the little girl was directed to rinse and spit. The bleeding stopped, as did the crying, and the child's parents were able to discover the cause of the blood and tears.

The child had put the toy stick into her mouth and promptly tripped face first into the carpet, whereupon the stick perforated the mucus membrane just above her left tonsil.

A visit to the Emergency Room ensued. The little girl, normally so calm and cool and collected amidst the medical personnel, became shy and distraught. She clung to her Mommy when the doctors and nurses asked to see her throat. It wasn't pretty. Then again, neither was the wound.

The resident physician in the Pediatric ER called for a consultation with a specialist.

When the specialist arrived, he did not wear a white coat but instead was clad in a blue shirt and a miner's headlamp. He looked. He poked. He prodded.

He observed that the child had cut herself in precisely the same place and direction as he would do at the beginning of a tonsillectomy and then declared that the little girl could go home without a side trip to the Operating Room.

The Mommy and the Daddy nearly wilted in relief.

After a short list of instructions and a call to the local pharmacy, the little girl was released into the custody of her weary parents and allowed to go home to her dinner. Right after dinner, the wee one trudged up the stairs and collapsed onto Mommy's bed where she spent the remainder of the night.

In the grey light of dawn, the child was tired and not at all hungry. Her Mommy and her Daddy conferred and concluded that staying home from school would be A Good Thing. The school was called; homework was requested; and the wounded little girl was allowed to rest and to recuperate.

The homework was collected and completed; the child was bathed; strawberry ice cream was administered; and the small child, who really had had a very tiring day, was sent to her own little bed - because she is going to school tomorrow.

The End.

MMBP - Discovery edition

There is a decided chill in the air this morning. On such an arctic morning, I feel the need for the Monday Morning Bullet Post format...

• I awoke before the alarm clock did. Nearly an hour before the clock was destined to do its rooster imitation.



• No, I'm not sure exactly why I was conscious so early this morning. It isn't like there was sunlight streaming through my window at oh-dark-thirty.



• There is no sunlight at 5:30 in the morning these days.



• Pretty soon there won't be sunlight at 5:30 in the afternoon, either.



• Winter is on its way.



• If you don't believe that winter is swiftly winging its way here, perhaps I can convince you.



• Our air conditioning units are all safely stowed.



• I slept in my regular pajamas last night: sweatpants and t-shirt. Under two warm comforters, I was quite toasty and we weren't running the furnace.



• After I arose this morning, I took off my t-shirt, put on a turtleneck, and then reapplied my t-shirt. I also added a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of handknit woolen slipper socks.



• My toes are still cold.



• My fingers and hands are not - due to hugging the hot tea kettle while waiting for my tea to macerate to perfection.



• Did I happen to mention that the temperature reached 80°F on Friday afternoon??



• I suppose I shouldn't be upset that I was awake so early this morning. I was able to fold a load of laundry and to read while enjoying my oatmeal bread and tea.



• Of course, I had to imitate the local church mice the while: Number Guy and Neatnik have off today in honor of the Federal holiday so they were sleeping in.



• I don't know why I wasn't sleeping in: I do have to work today, but not until one this afternoon.



• Speaking of work, my students have a test today. Pray for them: Most of them haven't done the practice test since we did it in class last week.



• Since we were just speaking of work, let's now speak of student email enlightenment, shall we?


To: professor trek
From: Student With Scheduling Amnesia
========================================
Just wondering if we have class tomorrow because of the holiday. I know everyone else doesn't have class, but I also know our school almost never has off. So if you could let me know that would be great. Thanks.


# # #
Dude...seriously??
# # #
To: SWTA
From: prof trek
========================================
Oh, yes. We have class. You have an exam, too.


# # #
• SWTA is so screwed.



• Temperature update: my fingers have joined my toes on the frigid Arctic tundra.



• It's been awhile since I boiled up the tea water and even though water has a nice high specific heat, it still cools rapidly when there is frost on the windows.



• I am afraid to check the thermostat in the living room. Sometimes, it is just better not to know.



• Oh, for those people who were starting to think that maybe this wasn't a knitter's blog anymore, fear not: I knit a sock gusset on Saturday morning and most of a sock foot last night.



• Sorry, no pictures, was on a roll with the actual knitting.

Here's hoping that I can continue my knitting streak to a third day. (All of the walking has been eating into the knitting time but I suppose that is the price I must pay for the "buffness". Be sure to come back tomorrow to see whether or not trek goes three for three and an update on the Second Annual Box Topapalooza Contest.

In which trek reviews Knit the Season

A couple of weeks ago, round about the middle of September, I posted that a new book arrived on my doorstep. While I knew that I wasn't going to read it immediately, given the overwhelming amount of blog post grading that needed to be done at the time, I was still excited to have a new book in the to be read pile. I was especially grateful for this book's arrival since the library wasn't quite keeping up with my book requests.

I can't really blame the entire lack of new reading material on the local library, however, a large slice of culpability must rest on the shoulders of the publishing companies who all seem to have banded together in a dark and murky conference room and collectively decided that October 6th is the perfect day to release manuscripts. Precisely why October 6th should be so much better suited to releasing books into the wilds of the bookstore and library shelves escapes me.

It does seem a little prejudicial against September 17th, now, doesn't it?

Ahem.

The good news on the reading front is that, with the help of the childrens' librarian, I was able to hook into the Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eyeand The Mysterious Benedict Societybooks while waiting for the rest of my authors' works to become available. Oh, and did I mention that I had a new advance review copy of Knit the Season to read?

Read it, I did, and I enjoyed it as well.

This, the third installment of the series, begins to explore Dakota Walker's personality as an adult. In the first book, The Friday Night Knitting ClubDakota was just entering her teen years and so her character was very much that of a child struggling to leave childhood behind, despite the best efforts of the adults around her. In the second volume, Knit Twocollege-age Dakota, still coping with the loss of her mother and the presence of her recently discovered father, declares that she is an adult and that she can handle being treated as an adult. The story ends there.

Here in the most recent bookDakota comes to terms with the fact that being an adult isn't simply about being able to make decisions that suit oneself. It is about being able to make decisions with the good of others in mind. She finally realizes that so many of the adults around her have sacrificed so much for her - not that they were complaining about their own decisions but that Dakota finally recognized their generosity and the enormity of it. Looking into the story, the reader watches Dakota mature and her character develop as the plot unfolds. The way isn't easy, but who ever said that growing up is easy?

Testing...one...two...testing...

Neatnik had a couple of tests in school today. The first one was a spelling test on ten sight words. We reviewed these words after school during the week and she's good. I even mixed it up a bit on Wednesday by using a nice little web application to generate a custom word search with all ten of her words in it.

The second of today's tests was in religion class. During breakfast this morning, I quizzed Neatnik on some of the material which is on today's test. One of the questions I asked was, "What is the Old Testament?"

Neatnik had the correct (second grade) answer, "The story of God's plan for all people."

Number Guy then chimed in with, "Oh, I suppose that The Bible Part 1 wouldn't be an acceptable answer, then?"

In which desperate times call for shopping

It is almost nine o'clock and I just finished some blog post grading and class preparation, so despite the fact that I want to make a really interesting blog post, all I've got is a series of Thursday Night Bullet Points.

• Number Guy and I are going to attend a ballroom dancing fund-raiser at a local parish this Saturday evening. The first hour is instruction and the last two hours are for using what you learned.



• I realized this morning that I did not have a thing to wear.



• No, really. I've not shopped for dressy clothes since before the Neatnik was conceived as I have had limited need for such things lately.



• I do have a few things in the closet which would have been appropriate - about 30 pounds ago.



• If I were to try to wear any of those items, it would look like Neatnik had broken into Mommy's closet to play dress up.



• Did I mention that the dance is in two days?



• Did I mention that I have to lecture and administer tests tomorrow?



• Did I mention that today was the only window of opportunity I had to secure an appropriate outfit?



• I visited three thrift shops and half a dozen stores at the mall today.



• My desperation patience was rewarded: I brought home a very fitted little black dress in an obscenely small size.



• Having selected such a tailored dress, I thought that I should make sure that panty lines could not possibly put in an appearance.



• For the first time ever, I bought a pair of undies (and some black stockings) to wear with just one outfit.



• Yep. I invested in a pair of "little black underwear" to go with the "little black dress".



• The lingerie cost almost as much as the dress did.



• It makes sense if you think about it: the dress came from the thrift shop and the lingerie was (unfortunately) not on any kind of sale.



• At least I didn't need to buy a black bra. That would have made the undergarments cost more than the dress plus the cost of the tickets for the dance.



• The dress should go very nicely with the shawl I knit a couple of years ago.



• And I should be able to wear it to Neatnik's school's Christmas concert and Number Guy's office Christmas party, just by switching up the accessories as needed.



• Having attended to the weekend wardrobe, I was free to enjoy some knitting while Neatnik was in ballet class this afternoon.



• I finished a sock gusset.



• This isn't a huge lot of knitting but it is probably the first time I have touched the sock since Sunday.



• Did I mention that my students had another blog post assignment this week?



• Grading blog assignments cuts deeply into the knitting time.

Well, that's all I have for today. Time to shut down the computer and set up things for the morning. If you have a spare prayer, say it for my students tomorrow morning for they will be taking a test. Based on the practice test results, some of them really need all the help they can get.

Down!

I just love contradictory weather reports! This one was from last Friday morning.

# # #

Remember the post on the cholesterol numbers? Spurred on by the threat of hypercholesterolemia medications, I've been very careful about the diet and exercise all summer. Lots of fruits and vegetables and treats limited to once a week. My weight is down along with my clothing sizes, and I feel good inside my own skin.

Last Monday, I had another blood draw and the numbers are down. Yes, down! My total cholesterol is down below 200 and my triglycerides are down significantly. The pesky LDLs are still very slightly above optimal but they are down by over 50 points.

Of course, there is always a bit of a down-side. Due to replacing my morning bowl cereal and milk, my vitamin D is slightly down. Time to figure out a way to increase milk consumption. Perhaps a bedtime snack of cereal and milk.

I think I'd like to celebrate with some ice cream. Ice cream is made from milk. Ice cream has vitamin D! :o)

Of magic and mystery

While I am waiting for some series books to hit their release dates, I've been reading a fair bit of young adult fiction lately. I am really enjoying this interlude of young adult fiction and not just as filler between more grown-up literature.

I just finished the first three volumes of the Erec Rex series. According to the author's blog, book four, The Three Furies, was finished back in February, but we all know how long it takes to bring a manuscript through the editing and production phases. meh.

The world of Erec Rex lies close to our world as close to our world as Narnia only access to it is simpler and more consistent. Aside: Did you know that there is a Narnia Wiki? I didn't.

Twelve-year-old Erec finds himself drawn into this alternate reality which intertwines with our own with Bethany Evilry, a girl he meets at a New York newsstand and then the adventures begin. Typical of the fantasy genre, Erec soon becomes enmeshed in a journey of self-discovery. He gathers companions about himself who assist him on the path but, in the end, Erec must make crucial choices on his own. Those familiar with various world mythos will be sure to recognize many characters drawn from ancient myths and legends.

One of the most delightful aspects of this series is that Erec is not a "perfect" character. Like the great Greek heroes of the ancient world, Erec has a fatal flaw. He is drawn to a particular magical artifact which could easily lead to ruination - for Erec and for the rest of the world.

A cleverly written series, I am looking forward to the release of The Three Furies.

      

Erec Rex
Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye,The Monsters of Otherness,The Search for Truth

I read the first volume in another series recently, too. This one was The Mysterious Benedict Society.Volume two, The Perilous Journeyis in the living room, resting on the top of the to be read pile which lives on the stereo speaker.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series is set in the "real world". Reynie, Stick, Kate, and Constance seem like an ill-matched group of children to become friends but they are thrown together as a team to infiltrate a school whose headmaster is attempting to take over the world. Although Reynie emerges as the natural leader, during the course of the first book, the four children come to realize that each of them has different gifts and that only if they work together, as a team, will they succeed.

Unlike the Erec Rex series, this series does not depend on magic at all. Instead, it hangs its hat on science-(fiction) and learning. A different flavor of reading but enjoyable in its own right.

     

The Mysterious Benedict Society,The Perilous Journey

Visit your local library or bookstore today! You won't be disappointed.

PS - There is a third volume now: The Prisoner's Dilemma.

The wool and the word

I wrote an email to Sheepie the other day regarding the University of Florida's emergency plans. As you may be aware, Sheepie is a fearless warrior preparing for the coming zombie apocalypse. She needed to know. This morning, I read her reply and learned that she and her students are on top of the situation in the wilds of Maine. I had to ask her, though, what special precautions I must employ to protect the wool and the words here at chez trek. I liked the sound of that, the wool and the word. It fits. It suits me. I like it so much that that is the new name of this blog.

Sorry if you noticed the change up top and thought you were lost.

# # #

In other news, yesterday, my students had to take a test on the lecture material from the previous couple of weeks. Overall, they did pretty well, I think. Wait here a moment and I will pull up some scores and run a little bit of math on them.

...

For the earlier lab section, eleven students had the appropriate online testing accounts and the average score was 79.6%. For the later lab section, fourteen students had the appropriate online testing accounts and the average score was 86.6%. These student are pooled between labs for a common lecture session so they experienced the exact same lectures and review. Differences between the grades are due to purely inter-student variation, not lecture variation.

I would have reported these scintillating statistical figures yesterday afternoon when I came home from the college but the local interwebs decided to behave badly. In the middle of setting up next week's homework assignment post for my students, Blogger went AWOL. Literally, just refused to display in my browser. I was still conversing online with Number Guy via instant messenger so there was some sort of connection. I tried some other sites. The reachable list included the college site, the testing software site, and the Yahoo family of web pages. Anything owned and/or operated by Google was destination unreachable.

WTF?!?!?!

I tried resetting my wireless network. I tried diagnosing my operating system software. All was in vain: the web destinations remained as unreachable as Alpha Centauri.

I was forced to leave the problem to sit and simmer for several hours as Neatnik had a classmate's birthday party to attend. I returned to the problem later last night and still could not blog. Number Guy reported that the problem occurred at work as well.

We went to bed.

As you can see, whatever it was that was wrong has been resolved. I am taking advantage of the restoration to squeeze in this post and hoping for the best when it comes time for me to push the big orange "Publish Post" button.

Purple, anyone?

Email sent by Student With Blogroll Issues late on a Sunday night...

To: professor trek
From: Student With Blogroll Issues
========================================
Hi Professor trek, I cannot figure out how to add students from the class to my friends list.

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May I mention here that I had gone over these steps in two consecutive classes?

Regardless, I sent a detailed set of instructions back to SWBI.

Five days later, I received this email...

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To: SWBI
From: prof trek
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Sorry to ask this again, but I accidentally deleted the email on how to add people to my blog roll. Could you resend it? I still have the names and emails, though.

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It isn't very funny until you notice that below the request is the answer: the student replied to the email in which I carefully delineated the steps to be followed.

Fortunately, the story ends well. This email was sent within moments of the previous one...

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To: SWBI
From: prof trek
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Sorry about that, professor trek, I do have the email.

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Picture taken in a nearby parking lot while wearing a purple shirt.

Much more vividly purple in person,
cloudy day as you can see