Random 411

This being my 411th post, I thought I'd post some handy, if random, 411:

• upon receiving 2 credit card solicitations from airlines today, and one for Curious Girl from an airline, I discovered that it is possible to call frequent flyer programs and tell them to remove a name from their mailing list for solicitations. It's not possible to opt out on the web (at least not with any easy links), but phone operators can help.
• butter works much better than olive oil for greasing bread pans (and facebook is a great source of bread-baking tips when problems mount up)
• garlic scapes are a great addition to white bean puree (3 scapes chopped up, 2 oz olive oil, 1 can white beans, 1T lemon juice, all whirred up in a food processor)
• summer camps with baby goats are lots of fun
• life is better when everyone in the house gets enough sleep (and while that might seem obvious, I had to relearn that lesson in the last month)

Some things I'm wondering about:

• what's on other people's summer reading lists? I got a gift card to a bookstore from CG's kindergarten class and can't decide what to use it for (CG suggested I buy her some books, but I'm holding out for something for me, something that's worth buying as opposed to getting from the library).
• what sorts of self-improvement books do any of you read? I've been browsing around in various self-improvement/self-transformational books as a tangential part of preparing for a workshop on career development I'm co-running later this month. I've become intrigued with Rosamund and Ben Zander's book The Art of Possibility, which skirts the line between impossibly rosy "just imagine a positive thoughts and positive things will happen" and an interesting challenge to ways of thinking that create more problems rather than solving them. On my summer reading list is Jennifer Neisslein's Practically Perfect in Every Way, the chronicle of two years spent following every self-help book she could find, which sounds like a smart and funny response to the trend. And I've been thinking about Peter Walsh's book on decluttering (It's All Too Much), which did help me re-think a bit of my attitudes about stuff as we got ready to move a year ago. He gave me one or two ideas, and one or two ideas that stick seems like a not-bad result for a self-help book. What sorts of experiences have any of you had with this genre?

And of course, anyone else with a random tip or piece of info is welcome to leave it in the comments.

Get Your Nerd On

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the comments on the previous post--I went to bed last night feeling validated, with a better understanding of just why this was all so hard to shake off. Nice phrase, Arwen, about conversations "loaded with history."

We fly out today and will have a wonderful time with Graduate School Friends and Politica's father. The assisted living facility is nice--institutional nice, but nice--and visits with Dad and GSF just revolve around everyone having a good time. And once we're at my sister's, we'll have a good time, too. The cousin excitement will be soothing for all the adults, I'm sure.

Since the tone around here is not usually so gloomy as those last few posts, I thought I'd leave you with some nerdy pleasures for the end of 2008:

• Free Rice, where you can play with words and help fund UN hunger relief efforts
• Kingmaker, where you can make predictions about the US presidential elections (primary/caucus results, campaign strategies, and even join pools if you're so inclined). Brought to you by the makers of Fantasy Congress. Woman of Many Talents and I had a great time going through some of Kingmaker the other day.

So even in the midst of all the family drama yesterday, I had some nerdy fun, and I certainly woke up in a more positive frame of mind thanks to your comments here, and to Politica's and WOMT's talk in real time. Wrapping up the year in the company of such friends, in and out of the computer, is a real gift.

Thank you all. And happy end-of-December to all of you.

Random

• We woke up this morning at 7:04, and we somehow managed to all three of us make a plane that departed from the airport (which is a 20 minute drive from our house) at 8:00. Somehow, the extra sleep we got doesn't seem to have refreshed us. We're all zonked.
• Yesterday I read Moreena's amazing post about, among other things, religion, Annika, and organ donation. But it must have also inspired me to play a guess-the-number game with Curious Girl. Today, I kid you not, she did just what Annika did with Moreena: she told me she was guessing a number between 1 and 2. I guessed 1. I guessed 2. I guessed one-and-a-half. She kept saying "no." Turns out, her number was 3. Go figure.
• We're visiting Politica's father for the weekend. At lunch he said, "You don't know how much it means to me, that you all come and see me." It's nice to be loved.
• I am now on Facebook, which I joined to be able to look at photos of some student activities in my department. I am feeling simultaneously hipper than I used to be and more middle aged than I used to be. It certainly is interesting to see how some folks I know from blogging are using the space, as well as how some folks I know from my profession are using it.

A little funny....

I really do want to write something more essayistic here. Spring break ends tonight, Curious Girl goes back to school, and life should return to normal, or at least as normal as the last month of the semester ever is.

But tonight, I'm sitting here googling party supplies so that I can avoid shopping with Curious Girl for her birthday party. She'll be five (!!!!) next month, and is determined to have a Hello Kitty party (which, in all other respects, she wants to be exactly the same as her last party, which was, like all our parties, a "come over, hang around, let's eat" sort of affair. But this time, with Hello Kitty plates and whatnot).

I am quite sure that you, dear readers, will be as amused as I to discover the full extent of the Hello Kitty product line. Not only does Hello Kitty come in a large array of designs, but also a large array of products, my favorite of which is the toaster which will make Hello Kitty's face appear on every slice of toast (and which has very enthusiastic reviewers testifying to the toast's cuteness). This makes me laugh. It does not make me wish to buy one (although I have, in the past, purchased a HK lamp and HK radio for Curious Girl's room), but it does make me laugh.

A happy Easter to all readers celebrating. And a happy end to spring break for all those parents whose children return to school tomorrow!

Home Again, Home Again: Random Paragraphs of Remarks

Consider this post bulletless random bullets: with the photo, the bullets look bizarre. With the travel, the thinking lends itself to bullets. So, random paragraphs.

We're home, cleaning the sand out of the suitcases and sorting out the latest shells in our collection.

I'm leaving a suitcase out so I can pack again for what jo(e) not-so-euphemistically calls Four Seas: Timna is going, and so am I. Any other readers going to be in New York next week? Last year, several of us met for a Friday breakfast. Let me know if you'll be in town and we'll see what we can work out for a meet-up.

I love the ocean. Curious Girl claims to prefer the pool, it being warmer, but I saw that special smile she had in the water. We made sand castles (well, mostly Politica and CG made sand castles), we watched big kids, we collected shells, we watched the waves. It was wonderful. The beach really is the center of my childhood memories, and while my New York ocean is not nearly so turquoise, the waves, the birds, the salt feel so deeply familiar. It's funny that, having been in the midwest US or Ontario for 20+ years now, I don't react to this landscape as familiar. It hasn't imprinted the way my childhood geography did. I know where I live; I can navigate here well. But I don't feel connected to the space. It felt good to be back on a beach, even if it's not "my" beach.

I detest strangers who express their appreciation for the cuteness of my child by asking her if she wants to go home with them, or if she would like to come live with them. This is not a happy-making question for any child with an imagination. We met several such people during our trip.

Curious Girl continues to be the world's greatest traveler. Every trip, I pack one or two fewer things to amuse her on the plane, and every trip, we don't go through all of it. She makes her own games (like playing tattoo parlor with the leftover fabric on the seatbelt), and is great company. Politica is also great traveling company, but as she gets airsick, is less reliable a conversation partner on a plane. Still, we're a great traveling unit. I love exploring with my family.

My department's job searches are still not over. We are in the midst of extending offers, which is fun and exciting and stressful all at once. I am learning a lot about negotiating, and wondering why it is this far into my career that I am having to learn all this. Learning how to advocate for yourself is a pretty darn useful skill, and one that mentoring can promote. Note to self: think about this issue when mentoring new faculty.

I am feeling grumpy about another trip coming up, but I know that once I get to New York I will love it.

I am happy to be home.

Randomness

How to tell that you are teh fun middle-aged mama: when your daughter says, "mama, do you want to roll down the hill with me?" you say yes, and then you get motion sick. (In my defense, it was a very big hill. Dizzymaking for the 44 year old roller, not so much for the 4 year old roller.)

In case anyone out there has adopted Curious Girl's habit of using duper as an intensifier, here's how to express even more intensity. That is super duper cooper fun! Curious Girl was heard to say about some wondrous object in the car. Rhyming intensity.

More seriously--although there are few things more serious than my love of language--thank you all for those lovely comments on the previous post. It's an honor to share my stories with you. I'm glad you're reading.