Received a postcard (under the office door) from one of my favorite students who just graduated. It is a photo of a quite elderly man with an 11 foot beard which has a cute little black kitty nesting in it. Apparently this man has never shaved.
Part of what D. wrote on the back: "I just wanted to say thank you for all that you've done for me. You have helped me become the person that I am today. (See image on front.)"
Uh, sorry, D -- I don't think I can take any credit for that! Perhaps you'd like some shaving supplies as a graduation gift?
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
The Throwing of the Cat -- a New Year's Tradition for over 20 Years!
In the early 1980's, my husband and I moved to Germany. He went over a few months before I did because I was working in a school and needed to stay until the end of the term, and he needed to find us a place to live. When I finally arrived with our two cats (Beast, or Mr. Beast to you -- a big ball of fluff similar to a Maine Coon, and Wretch, a sweet orange cat), Spence told me, "Oh, by the way, we have to hide the cats, since the lease doesn't allow pets." (WHAT DO YOU MEAN, the lease doesn't allow pets?! We have two cats -- how could you do this?!!!!)
Our apartment was one of 4 in a large building in the northern part of Bavaria. The ground floor held garage space, workshop, storage, and room to store an extensive array of gardening/farming equipment. The first floor had a large apartment inhabited by the landlord's son and daughter-in-law and a smaller apartment that was usually rented to another U.S. military family. The second floor had another large apartment in which the landlords lived (Mr. & Mrs. Amhrein). When you went up the stairs you would turn right to enter their apartment. To enter our apartment you would turn left and walk up two stairs. On the landing were two doors -- one to our bathroom and one to our apartment proper -- so we had to actually leave our apartment to get to the bathroom. It sounds worse than it is, since you couldn't see the doors to our apartment/bath from the stairway or the landlord's place.
We spent two months trying to "hide" the cats, which was rather difficult, them being cats and all. Funny little guys liked to sit in the windows and look out on the parking courtyard or the beautiful garden which went up the hillside in the back of our building. One day I looked out from our library onto the landlord's balcony and started screaming. The landlords had killed and skinned our cats and had hung them up by the feet. At the sound of my shrieking, our two cats came meandering into the room as if to say, "What's the matter with you?" Oh, well, if those aren't our cats, what ARE they? A closer look revealed the mystery -- rabbits, apparently for a stew.
On New Year's Eve, we had a few friends over to our small apartment to celebrate. Since we didn't have enough room for everyone to sit, I was on the floor next to the door basking in the warm glow of sparkling Eastern Bloc wine (from a work trip to Berlin), good conversation, and a contented Beast in my lap. Just before midnight, Spence stepped out to go to the bathroom. After a few minutes, there was a knock at the door. "That's odd," I thought, "why is he knocking?"
With the cat still in my lap, I reached up and pressed down on the door handle. The door opened, and our landlady entered the room and exclaimed quite ebulliently -- "HAPPY NEU JAHR!" At that moment I had an involuntary reflex -- after months of "hiding" the cats, shooing them from windowsills and out of doorways, I was busted with a cat in my lap -- and all I could do was throw the poor dear just as far as I could, in hopes that she wouldn't see him. (This is a teeny apartment, so it wasn't very far, so don't worry that I hurt the Beast.)
Well, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, but apparently, she was so full of holiday cheer and spirit and champagne that either she didn't see the cat, or she saw him and was too "happy" to care. I spent an uneasy week or so anticipating an eviction notice, but it never came. We continued to live there for almost 4 1/2 years with never a rent increase. Over time I learned enough German to renegotiate the lease (a big deal with this family -- it takes 45 minutes or so) and converse with the family on a daily basis.
Beast and Wretch had long, happy lives (except, perhaps for being thrown), and we have three new cats. Every New Year's Eve I give one of them a little toss just to continue the Throwing of the Cat Tradition.
Our apartment was one of 4 in a large building in the northern part of Bavaria. The ground floor held garage space, workshop, storage, and room to store an extensive array of gardening/farming equipment. The first floor had a large apartment inhabited by the landlord's son and daughter-in-law and a smaller apartment that was usually rented to another U.S. military family. The second floor had another large apartment in which the landlords lived (Mr. & Mrs. Amhrein). When you went up the stairs you would turn right to enter their apartment. To enter our apartment you would turn left and walk up two stairs. On the landing were two doors -- one to our bathroom and one to our apartment proper -- so we had to actually leave our apartment to get to the bathroom. It sounds worse than it is, since you couldn't see the doors to our apartment/bath from the stairway or the landlord's place.
We spent two months trying to "hide" the cats, which was rather difficult, them being cats and all. Funny little guys liked to sit in the windows and look out on the parking courtyard or the beautiful garden which went up the hillside in the back of our building. One day I looked out from our library onto the landlord's balcony and started screaming. The landlords had killed and skinned our cats and had hung them up by the feet. At the sound of my shrieking, our two cats came meandering into the room as if to say, "What's the matter with you?" Oh, well, if those aren't our cats, what ARE they? A closer look revealed the mystery -- rabbits, apparently for a stew.
On New Year's Eve, we had a few friends over to our small apartment to celebrate. Since we didn't have enough room for everyone to sit, I was on the floor next to the door basking in the warm glow of sparkling Eastern Bloc wine (from a work trip to Berlin), good conversation, and a contented Beast in my lap. Just before midnight, Spence stepped out to go to the bathroom. After a few minutes, there was a knock at the door. "That's odd," I thought, "why is he knocking?"
With the cat still in my lap, I reached up and pressed down on the door handle. The door opened, and our landlady entered the room and exclaimed quite ebulliently -- "HAPPY NEU JAHR!" At that moment I had an involuntary reflex -- after months of "hiding" the cats, shooing them from windowsills and out of doorways, I was busted with a cat in my lap -- and all I could do was throw the poor dear just as far as I could, in hopes that she wouldn't see him. (This is a teeny apartment, so it wasn't very far, so don't worry that I hurt the Beast.)
Well, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, but apparently, she was so full of holiday cheer and spirit and champagne that either she didn't see the cat, or she saw him and was too "happy" to care. I spent an uneasy week or so anticipating an eviction notice, but it never came. We continued to live there for almost 4 1/2 years with never a rent increase. Over time I learned enough German to renegotiate the lease (a big deal with this family -- it takes 45 minutes or so) and converse with the family on a daily basis.
Beast and Wretch had long, happy lives (except, perhaps for being thrown), and we have three new cats. Every New Year's Eve I give one of them a little toss just to continue the Throwing of the Cat Tradition.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
2005 Recap
Everyone else is doing this, so I may as well -- although, for me, the beginning of the new year is late August, since that's when the school year begins. Next year I shall do the end of the year retrospective in August.
January 2005: Woke up one day and decided I should buy a house. (Well, I'd been going to open houses and looking online for a couple of years, but one day I just woke up and said, I should do this NOW.) Also, our beloved admin assoc. at work, Joe_G found a job that actually will be a challenge for him. We were so sad to see him leave, but it was a good move for him, and he quickly got a promotion.
February 2005: Found our Tejas Trl house
March 2005: Closed on T Trl house
April 2005: Moved to T Trl -- yes, we took the whole month to move
May 2005: Started to unpack. A work still in progress
June, July 2005: Freshman and Transfer Orientation. Need I say more?
August 2005: August in Austin. Yecchh. Actually, it wasn't too bad this year. Sometime during the summer, a bondage crew moved in up the street and started throwing sex parties. (without giving us an invitation, hmpf!) (This is covered in other posts -- look for "Suspicious Activity on Tejas Trl" -- in September, I think.)
September 2005: We were burgled!
October 2005: Detective Tate and crew solve the case, catch the bad guys, and we get our stuff back!
November 2005: Go to Ft. Worth to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with the inlaws.
December 2005: Scott got to stay in Austin for 2 weeks; however, we spend most of one week sick. The rest of the time was spent assembling the new Ikea bookcases for the "Room of Music and Contemplation". For once in our lives we will have enough bookshelf space -- and bookshelves that won't sag from the overload, etc.
Things that didn't happen? Well, I didn't get "Facebook Married", although I did find out what it is. -- in the words of one of my students in response to my shock at her sudden nuptials: "I got facebook married. It just means you post up that you're married to one of your friends or whoever says they'll do it... it's just something funny."
January 2005: Woke up one day and decided I should buy a house. (Well, I'd been going to open houses and looking online for a couple of years, but one day I just woke up and said, I should do this NOW.) Also, our beloved admin assoc. at work, Joe_G found a job that actually will be a challenge for him. We were so sad to see him leave, but it was a good move for him, and he quickly got a promotion.
February 2005: Found our Tejas Trl house
March 2005: Closed on T Trl house
April 2005: Moved to T Trl -- yes, we took the whole month to move
May 2005: Started to unpack. A work still in progress
June, July 2005: Freshman and Transfer Orientation. Need I say more?
August 2005: August in Austin. Yecchh. Actually, it wasn't too bad this year. Sometime during the summer, a bondage crew moved in up the street and started throwing sex parties. (without giving us an invitation, hmpf!) (This is covered in other posts -- look for "Suspicious Activity on Tejas Trl" -- in September, I think.)
September 2005: We were burgled!
October 2005: Detective Tate and crew solve the case, catch the bad guys, and we get our stuff back!
November 2005: Go to Ft. Worth to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with the inlaws.
December 2005: Scott got to stay in Austin for 2 weeks; however, we spend most of one week sick. The rest of the time was spent assembling the new Ikea bookcases for the "Room of Music and Contemplation". For once in our lives we will have enough bookshelf space -- and bookshelves that won't sag from the overload, etc.
Things that didn't happen? Well, I didn't get "Facebook Married", although I did find out what it is. -- in the words of one of my students in response to my shock at her sudden nuptials: "I got facebook married. It just means you post up that you're married to one of your friends or whoever says they'll do it... it's just something funny."
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Postcard Update: Praha
Whenever someone I know goes somewhere, I bug them to send me a postcard. Since winter break is a time when a lot of my victims are traveling, I shall be updating you with my latest acquisitions.
Received 12/05: A cat postcard from Tina in Praha (That's Prague, Czech Republic). (Art, not photo) A funny yellow cat is driving a blue convertible through Praha. www.funexplosive.cz (click gallery on the left, then look for design #60) www.votruba.cz (link to the artist). (I found Tina through the UT Cat Club on Facebook. My stalking in the pursuit of postcards knows no bounds.)
Here is some of what Tina wrote on the postcard:
"Hi
Yay for cats & postcards & mail! This postcard is full of lies, however because there are
A. no cats &
B. no cars with cats in Praha.
When were you in the Czech Republic?
Mluvis Cesky? Tak
Tak Nashledarou a vesel varule!"
Note, I don't have the diacritical marks in the right places (HA -- I have NO diacritical marks!), and I don't know that I got all the letters in the Czech correct, so if you know Czech, I would appreciate corrections. (and a translation, perhaps?)
Well, as the holiday progresses, I'll try to post some more postcard commentaries. (Who knows, perhaps YOUR postcard will be reviewed here?!)
Received 12/05: A cat postcard from Tina in Praha (That's Prague, Czech Republic). (Art, not photo) A funny yellow cat is driving a blue convertible through Praha. www.funexplosive.cz (click gallery on the left, then look for design #60) www.votruba.cz (link to the artist). (I found Tina through the UT Cat Club on Facebook. My stalking in the pursuit of postcards knows no bounds.)
Here is some of what Tina wrote on the postcard:
"Hi
Yay for cats & postcards & mail! This postcard is full of lies, however because there are
A. no cats &
B. no cars with cats in Praha.
When were you in the Czech Republic?
Mluvis Cesky? Tak
Tak Nashledarou a vesel varule!"
Note, I don't have the diacritical marks in the right places (HA -- I have NO diacritical marks!), and I don't know that I got all the letters in the Czech correct, so if you know Czech, I would appreciate corrections. (and a translation, perhaps?)
Well, as the holiday progresses, I'll try to post some more postcard commentaries. (Who knows, perhaps YOUR postcard will be reviewed here?!)
Monday, December 19, 2005
Little Things to do to Make Life More Interesting/Exciting
From time to time I will post little things you can do to make life more interesting/exciting.
Today's idea:
When you go to an ATM, choose Spanish for the transaction language. (Or perhaps French if you are living in a far north state such as Vermont.)
I do this whenever I am bored, and believe me, this will put you on your toes!
Today's idea:
When you go to an ATM, choose Spanish for the transaction language. (Or perhaps French if you are living in a far north state such as Vermont.)
I do this whenever I am bored, and believe me, this will put you on your toes!
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Bad Kitchen Feng Shui
(Disclaimer: I am a sciencey-type girl, and I don't go in for all this new-age woo-woo, but this kitchen DOES have bad feng shui!) (and this picture was taken before we bought the house, so the furnishings are not ours.)
First of all, we're not wild about the color -- blue and white striped wallpaper? blue formica countertops? Well, the floor tiles are o.k. The wallpaper is something easily remedied -- the countertops a little less so. The skylight makes the room a lot brighter, and S. put up a cool pot rack.
We do like all of the counter space and cabinets -- there are even more cabinets and counter space in the upper right of the picture, to the right of the door that is part way open. The cabinet doors do have European hinges, which are nice -- the finish isn't what I would have chosen, but it is something I can live with. That ceiling fan has got to go -- either to be replaced by just a light, or a more streamlined design -- something that doesn't scream "Kountry".
The thing that is really poorly designed is the kitchen island -- correction, this is not an island -- it is more technically a kitchen peninsula, since it is attached on one side by an isthmus to a cabinet and another counter strip -- a true island would be completely surrounded by water, or in the case of a kitchen, flooring. (you can see the isthmus on the left side of this photo.)
The peninsula is too wide, for one thing. The peninsula impedes the flow of traffic from the dining area to the "cave" (more on the cave in another post). If it were 6 inches or so narrower, you wouldn't have that problem. The dishwasher is in the island, but when you open the dishwasher door, it almost touches the refrigerator -- you can't stand directly in front of the dishwasher to load it. And you can't have the dishwasher and the refrigerator open at the same time.
And that isthmus -- why? (although it does give you a little more counter and cabinet space) -- but anyway, let's suppose that you are having a nice dinner with your friends, when you realize that you have left the vinaigrette in the fridge. Can you go directly to the refrigerator to recover this? No, you have to walk all the way around the peninsula to get to it. A little while later, when someone wants some more white wine, you have to take this trek again.
So, one of these days we will remodel the kitchen -- convert the kitchen peninsula to a kitchen island, and scale it down a bit. Granite counters, perhaps? or even tile would be an improvement.
And how to pay for this, since I refuse to do this on credit, or second mortgage, etc? Well, if I cut out my almost daily non-fat double latte at work, I could save around $700 per year.
But I get so much joy from the latte -- the banter with the baristas, the caffeine high, the CALCIUM for goodness sake!
There is more than enough $ for this in the "household emergency fund"; however, that is for true emergencies -- like the new a/c system we'll probably have to get next year, since our a/c is around 12 - 15 years old, and it isn't even sitting on a concrete or rubber slab -- they just plopped it on the dirt for goodness sake! So far, I'm not considering "bad kitchen feng shui" as an emergency, just an aesthetic yecch.
Sigh, we're just going to have to live with bad kitchen feng shui for a little while longer.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
More fun with Pi
Open up multiple browsers of the Pi link mentioned in the post below at different intervals for an interesting fugue effect. (well, probably a faux fugue, since I'm not sure there's any particular musical theme.) (actually, it's pretty annoying, so I'm going to close all of the open browsers now.)
3.141592653589
I like pi (and click on the title for a song about it.) (or a song that is it?) It's got a good beat, and lovely harmonies, but as for dancing to it? Yeah, probably yes.
o.k., I know Thanksgiving is over, but . . . I am the stuffing?
| You Are The Stuffing |
 You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why. |
Thursday, December 08, 2005
The Bridge in to Work is Closed
Lovely. . . we're supposed to be at work at 10 a.m. today; however, two of the bridges across Town Lake are closed due to the ice, and it's not getting any warmer here any time soon. It's almost 8, so I suppose I should leave soon; however, the last time I crawled in during an ice storm I was met with, "Turn around and go home, we're closed for the day!"
There are wrecks all over town, because people here won't slow down for anything, IH 35 is closed in several places as are several other highways and RM/FM (ranch-to-market and farm-to-market) roads. Most of the local public schools are closed. Hmmm, if I ran the zoo, I'd close UT for the day, but there is probably a good reason why I don't run that zoo.
Haven't yet checked to see if the webmail service is back up.
Last night was a 3-cat night -- it was so cold, they forgot their petty squabbles and cuddled up on the bed with me. It was an uneasy truce, but we made it through the night. Well, only two of them have issues -- Yuki stabbed Murasaki once and the wound got infected and she had to make a visit to the vet, so she HATES him. Genji is the Rodney King of cats, "Can't we all just get along?" He's such a happy, friendly guy. Hmm, wonder how these guys would like a puppy?
Going to go cook some oatmeal -- steel cut, big black organic raisins, slivered almonds, cinnamon, and perhaps a bit of light brown muscovado sugar. Then perhaps there will be a message that school is canceled for the day. (I feel for the thousands at UT who rely on their bicycles.)
There are wrecks all over town, because people here won't slow down for anything, IH 35 is closed in several places as are several other highways and RM/FM (ranch-to-market and farm-to-market) roads. Most of the local public schools are closed. Hmmm, if I ran the zoo, I'd close UT for the day, but there is probably a good reason why I don't run that zoo.
Haven't yet checked to see if the webmail service is back up.
Last night was a 3-cat night -- it was so cold, they forgot their petty squabbles and cuddled up on the bed with me. It was an uneasy truce, but we made it through the night. Well, only two of them have issues -- Yuki stabbed Murasaki once and the wound got infected and she had to make a visit to the vet, so she HATES him. Genji is the Rodney King of cats, "Can't we all just get along?" He's such a happy, friendly guy. Hmm, wonder how these guys would like a puppy?
Going to go cook some oatmeal -- steel cut, big black organic raisins, slivered almonds, cinnamon, and perhaps a bit of light brown muscovado sugar. Then perhaps there will be a message that school is canceled for the day. (I feel for the thousands at UT who rely on their bicycles.)
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