Just read

I finally finished the new Missouri Review. It was fun. This round has some really good poetry (what were the odds?). It also has (oh, bliss) a piece by Scott Russell Sanders, who is always worth reading.

Read it.

The doctor finally called

My dad called me last night with the last of his health news, for now. His recent biopsies had come back negative for cancer, but his doctor said that something else was going on. The doctor finally called last week to fill Dad in on the something else. Unfortunately for me, Dad can't pronounce it, so I still don't know what the condition is.

He has something going on, though, that requires a checkup every three months for a while, and a gradual scaling back of checkups if no other problems develop. It could be a lot worse. Frankly, I'm grateful that all he has to do is visit the doctor more often. Dad doesn't even have any extra meds to take or anything.

Relieved.

It's so very true

Which country should you REALLY be living in? The United Kingdom You have pride in yourself and pride in your country. You believe that history and culture is an important factor to the future of your country, and that traditions and values should be upheld. You love your scones and tea, and reading soppy romance novels. The UK is where you should be...

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

My dream has finally come true

Which Annoying B-list Celebrity Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey.

Shakespeare for Saturday

"...His inclination--after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or, rather, unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion...."
--"Love's Labor's Lost": 4.1.16-18

and

"...An you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had as lief be wooed of a snail."
--"As You Like It" : 4.1.46-47

Lunch

Mmmm. Peanut butter.

Work overload

How can a snow day make me more behind?

We had a snow day Tuesday, and we were out of school Monday. Now I'm back to my usual 11 or 12 hours of work a day. Maybe I'm not behind. Maybe I just relaxed for a day. I can't remember.

Off to schedule some photos.

It's not cancer

My father called me yesterday evening with the results from his recent biopsies. The results were good, sort of. He doesn't have cancer. He does, he said, have something though. The doctor wants to talk to him about it but won't say what the problem is.

I find this unnerving.

Still, the results could have been worse, whatever they are. I guess.

Just read

This slim volume (84 pages) summarizes Merton's thought on a variety of eastern religions and philosophies. Although he is quite clear on points at which they are incompatible with Christianity, he concentrates on points where Christians can learn from those of other viewpoints. Merton is, as usual, humbling and profound in his observation. He is also much more poetic in his prose style than he is in (for example) No Man is an Island.

This book can be a challenging read, especially for low church Protestants like me, but is well worth the time. Most readers will spend more time pondering the book's contents than reading its few pages.

Word cloud

I found one of these on David's blog and had to make my own.

You can make your own too.

Small community life

The kids were sick yesterday. The Woman kept them home from school. She was, though, supposed to go visit her grandmother that morning. She called Grandma and left an answering machine message explaining the situation and stayed home-- nothing unusual.

This morning, one of my desk monkeys asked me if my kids were still sick. I said, "No but how did you know my kids were sick?"

"Your wife called," she said, "and left a message on our machine. Why do you have our phone number?"

I said, "I don't have your number. How did you know that was my wife calling?"

"Just a guess," she said.

Evidently, The Woman had misdialed and left a message on the wrong machine. What are the odds that the wrong machine would belong to the parents of one of my desk monkeys?

Sometimes this place creeps me out.

A quote

I had this quote on my white board today:

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. --Gene Fowler

One of my desk monkeys read the quote and proclaimed, "It's not hard for me!"

My tongue is still a little sore from my having bitten it so hard.

Book post

I finished reading A. J. Jacobs's The Know-It-All a couple of weeks ago, but I have not had time to blog a review of it. This is a really fun book. It is a quick read, due mostly to Jacobs's Esquire style-- light, breezy, and filled with witticisms. Sometimes his witticisms were a little too crude for my own taste, but usually they were hysterical.

The book is a memoir of his successful attempt to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He chronicles his odyssey of knowledge by describing, in alphabetical order of course, the most bizarre facts he finds. As he does this, he also gives readers glimpses of his life (struggles at work, marriage difficulties, family woes) as the Britannica changes his own preconceptions and sense of self. The book is simultaneously informative, fascinating, funny, and sad. By the time I had finished the book, I wanted to find Jacobs in New York and give him a hug.

I could see myself getting arrested for that.

I do plan to keep Know-It-All as a part of my permanent library though.

After the holiday

I brought home The Woman's Valentine's Day gift yesterday evening. I ordered her some purple roses. Purple flowers are a tradition for us on Valentine's Day. I have bought them for her every year since our first Valentine's Day together. After about four (or so) years of marriage, I thought she might be tires of purple flowers, so I bought her an expensive piece of jewelry.

It was really expensive.

It didn't matter.

There were tears.

I felt really bad



Really bad.

So anyway, I brought home the purple flowers for The Woman and some flowers for Chaos and Mayhem. They were all thrilled. What does that make me?

A hero!

The Woman gave me chocolate from Rosewood Farms. This is my preferred gift for any occasion. The evening was wonderful. Now I feel fat.

Saint Valentine's Day

In honor of today's holiday, here are 14 things I love about The Woman:

1. She's hot.
   
2. She's nearsighted.
3. She thinks I'm cute (see #2).
   
4. She cooks for me, even though she hates the kitchen.
5. She's raising my warped kids to be as warped as I am.
6. She's a better poet than she knows.
7. She has a disturbing sense of humor.
8. She watches "Firefly" and "Serenity" with me over and over and over and.....
9. Her fondness for edged weapons.
10. She can kiss like a, um, well a... er, yeah.
11. She likes the same thing for Valentine's Day every year (purple flowers).
12. She buys me the same thing for Valentine's Day every year (chocolate).
13. She lets me read her books
14. She lets me read her books, even when she's not finished with them (except for the Thomas Merton-- I have to buy my own copies of those).
    

Retro activity

I've been hearing that the eighties are coming back. Yesterday I saw proof. Our church rented a local roller skating rink for a families and youth skate night. I remember roller skating being a trendy activity in the eighties, and I used to go fairly frequently. That was about twenty years ago.

Last night I was a little rusty.

Still, I only fell once. The Woman came too. She said that she fell three times (I think), but I never saw her fall. We skated together and held hands. It was sweet. We skated with Chaos and Mayhem. That was sweet too. Chaos, a timid child, held on to the wall the whole time. She did have fun though. Mayhem, who has been skating a couple of times before, was like a fish in water. That kid is ready for roller derby. She did hurt her wrist on one fall. It's nothing serious though.

In retrospect, I'm glad the Vice president wasn't at the skating rink. He seems to be hard on people doing things with him.

Biopsy bulletin

I called my dad last night to see how the biopsies went. He was in a lot of pain, but he was in pretty good spirits in spite of it. He told me that the surgeon told him that the tissue looks more like scar tissue from infection than like cancer. That's good news; this surgeon has performed this procedure for years, so he knows what he's looking at. The official test results will be back from the lab some time near the end of this month.

Now we wait but with good reason to hope.

Cancer quest

Even as I write this post my father is having several biopsies done to see if he has cancer. This is his second cancer scare in (I think) the last five years. The last time this happened, his doctor thought he might have melanoma. Actually he didn't. I'm hoping for the same results this time as well-- negative.

Your Inner Blood Type is Type B

You follow your own rules in life, even if you change the rules every day. Sure, you tend to be off the wall and unpredictable, but that's what makes you lovable. And even though you're a wild child, you have the tools to be a great success. You are able to concentrate intently - and make the impossible possible. You are most compatible with: B and AB Famous Type B's: Leonardo Di Caprio and

What's Your Inner Blood Type?

Why I'm so wonderful

LiveScience.com has recently reported the results of a study linking altruism with happy marriages. According to the story, researchers at the University of Chicago have found that people who report having happy marriages also report being happier than average in general and (in answering questions on a personality test) show high levels of altruism. The researchers haven't been able, though, to determine what causes what or if something else causes all three personal attributes. Still, the association is nice.

The Woman and I seem to have a happy marriage (as far as I know). We've certainly had rough times in the past, but those seem to be over. We fight very rarely now and usually seek out each other's company when given a chance. We have a lot of goofy interests in common, which probably helps. We both also tend to be altruistic. Neat.

I like learning nice things about me.

Just read

I just finished reading Guy Claxton's Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. It was a pretty good read. Claxton's argument is that we have access to heightened creativity and problem solving when we learn to relax and listen to what he calls "the undermind." Nice pun. What he means is the unconscious mind, not to be confused with the subconscious mind. He backs up his argument with lots of examples, both researched and anecdotal. I suspect he's probably right. He's also a little dry too, not something I had expected from someone who scored a blurb from John Cleese.

On the whole, I liked Hare Brain, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did Malcom Gladwell's new book on the same subject (though Gladwell also gave Claxton a blurb). Blink is written in Gladwell's unique mix of casual breeziness and insightful, well, insight. If you have the time and money, read both books. If you must pick one, though, be sure to blink.

Snot

I've been sick again this weekend. I must be having a bad year with my health. This, newest, episode began as a mild sinus infection last Monday. By Friday I felt fine. I thought I had beaten it, so I made plans for a big weekend of work, family stuff, and excessive viewing of Firefly reruns. Saturday morning I woke up feeling as if I had been beaten with a wet rope. With The Woman around, things like that can happen, especially if I have annoyed her recently. Actually, though, I was sick, as the semi-solidified snot sticking my head to the pillow proved. Things did not improve from there. I spent three days in mucusy misery, calling in sick to school on Monday. I'm back today, still feeling miserable, but able to stand up and breathe at the same time.

I love pie

You Are Mud Pie

You're the perfect combo of flavor and depth Those who like you give into their impulses

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Work, work, work

Here I sit grading. Work is taking over my life lately. I don't have anything to post here because my entire life is consumed with work. I just finished printing a school paper to pass out today. Another one is already done. My publications monkeys are working on yearbook pages, which I will have to grade. The English class monkeys need papers graded. Watch me retch.

Bleh.

To top things off, I have a cold. Mayhem has been home from school with some sort of pestilence. Chaos is sniffly. The Woman is sick as well.

Is it summer yet?

A quote

There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either.
-- Robert Graves