Guess Who?

New pictures are on Flickr.

Schooling

I have to go to class now. My belief in our system of education has been waning a lot lately. I never understood why people hated school and until I started teaching all those people who hate school. They make me hate it too!

Composting Mentor

I just may have a Composting Mentor (CM), which is great because someone else made me their CM awhile back, so I have a title to live up to! This guy composts everything - as in paper plates, napkins, etc. He told me that it's important to compost food-soiled paper products because they put carbon into the mix, and food sources mostly add nitrogen. You need a nitrogen/carbon balance. He also has composting worms that seriously cut the turn around time.

He also has a giant composting space, which makes it easier to compost everything.

He told me that he and his roommate only generated a grocery-sized plastic bag of trash a month because they were able to recycle and compost so much. Impressive.

Latte Days

I'm just ending another latte phase - this time it was lattes with milk. As usual, the milk eventually stopped tasting good. Today I stopped by Starbucks and got the soy latte instead and was surprised at how much I liked it. (Perhaps it helped to have just had a conversation with friends about how milk has been associated with cancer.)

I've also been trying to only get coffee when I can stay and drink it in a mug instead of getting yet another paper cup (which I do recycle, but that's still not as good as just washing a cup.)

Ideal Bite seems to have been thinking of me today:

The Bite
Cut the junk by cutting your disposable cup habit. Instead of a foam or paper cup, sip your daily dose out of your own travel mug if you are on the go, or ask the café for a "to stay" mug if you have a few minutes to hang.

The Benefits

• Cutting waste. If you purchase one cup of coffee every day in a disposable container, you create about 23 lb of waste each year.
  
• Fewer noxious chems. Polystyrene (aka Styrofoam) can actually disrupt your hormones, and the chlorine used to bleach paper cups creates carcinogenic dioxins during production.
  
• Saving cash. Many coffeehouses offer a small discount to customers who bring in their own reusable containers.
  

I am like Dirk

I finished the homework assignment that is due AFTER Thanksgiving so I can enjoy my holiday. I am like Dirk. I am awesome.

Milky Way Ads

Milky Way has several billboards posted around town and one touts that Milky Way is "a natural source of caramel." I am curious if people think this is a serious attempt to get me thinking there's something healthy about Milky Way bars or if it's a joke about being health conscious that's supposed to encourage me to live a little and have a candy bar.

All Me, All Night Long

I was officially in for the night at 3:30 pm. I already put on my pajamas, glasses and slippers and I plan to do whatever I feel like tonight. There may be some watching of The Wire (of which I have now seen 45 minutes), some math doing, some eating of rosemary and potatoes if I get motivated, or some reading of O Magazine. Or maybe none of the above. It all depends on my whims.

Dirk is in Oregon giving a colloqium talk today at Oregon State University. I was supposed to go to a local conference this afternoon and tomorrow, but I decided I didn't want to. Luckily, I decided this after cancelling my two afternoon physics labs. So I taught my Calculus II class this morning (we started sequences and series) and then headed home for lunch and the 45 minutes of The Wire. Then I headed out in the car to pick up groceries.

Incidentally, I've had occasion to drive a ZipCar three times in the past two weeks, and I really like driving. I hardly ever drive anywhere anymore, so it's extra fun.

And the test did not work.

Alternate Identity

This is a test. I am logged in as myself, from a different account because I noticed that Google could remember me when I had last used my Gmail account, but can never remember my Yahoo person. This confuses me.

Normal Day

I find myself in a very strange position today... I seem to have nothing to do. By "nothing" I mean there is nothing breathing down my neck and I am forced to rack my brain for the smaller "somethings" I meant to do when I had time - like blogging! I'm 100% caught up with my second job at the school and nothing new has been sent my way. That's a huge WOW right there. I did all my grading except for a little bit I left at home. I have some prep to do, but not much. I have homework to do, but it's not here at work with me and my class is cancelled tonight due to the holiday. (My school where I work was NOT cancelled today however, so I had to be a teacher, just not a student.)

This weekend I did nothing that could be called work. Dirk and I took the bus to NYC to see the new Aaron Sorkin Broadway play. My roommate was meeting us there - she and Dirk are huge Sorkin fans. She called us during our journey to tell us the play had been cancelled due to the stagehands striking. We had no choice but to continue on to the city anyway. My friend, T*, was hosting us and she put us up in her new man, S*'s corporate apartment. (Her new man is an A+ by the way.) This was absolutely wonderful because we were in a hi-rise in Manhattan with cable television, a comfy bed, easy delivery options, and just the two of us. It was better than a hotel. We slept all afternoon and then met T*, S*, my roommate and her college friend for what Dirk and I considered an overpriced Japanese dinner. My friends however are much more worldly than we and declared it a bargain relative to NYC and London prices. So they are probably right, but that doesn't make me feel much different. :)

Dirk and I got a good 40 minute walk up Broadway and back down it. We later got sushi delivered and watched Paula Poundstone, the comedian, on cable. A good time indeed!

We met up with T* & S* for breakfast after another morning walk about Manhattan and headed up to Boston on the bus via Highway 15. The trees were gorgeous and it was well worth the hours spent in transit to see them.

I've decided that it's now time to go home and there I can do some homework and whatnot.

Jesus' Slave

I get a e-newsletter from a college classmate and her husband who are missionaries. They send updates about their work, their family, God's blah blah blah, etc. I can't bear to cancel my "subscription" to their mailing list because I have some interest in what's happening to their many children and also can't quite rip my eyes away from the blatant religiosity of the writing. The most recent note took the cake when the writer signed it, "Jesus' Slave."

I can just see Christ up there with the whip.