timna

not much new to report

almond joy is on the kibbutz which is closer to Gaza, but an unlikely target since it's such a speck in the desert. her grandmother in Beer Sheva is ok, just sad that aj is leaving so soon.

aj continues to work on college apps. the common app is freezing up -- perhaps that's true everywhere during these last 24-48 hours before major deadlines.

quilting. pictures to come soon.

we'll leave tomorrow for another trip to Chicago. how can I explain that there is only one train per day to people in countries with trains as real options? if aj were to take the train to our house, she'd probably miss the 4pm train departure (her flight is supposed to land at 2pm) and the next one is the next day at 4pm. She'd get home maybe by midnight a day and a half later. so, no, that's not a great alternative. I also looked into a one-way flight: it would be cheaper to send her back to Israel (ok, for some of the tickets. others had her flying all over the US -- more flight time than the trans-atlantic flights). so I'll be there to pick her up.

writing college essays in the safe room

(translation: hadar betechon -- I'd call it a security room or shelter, but since it's integrated into the house, it's just the room with the computer in it anyway).

that's the news this morning. almond joy should be back on Friday.

I just keep quilting.

quilting today

getting this off my to-do list before the "baby's" 2nd birthday in January. and before his little sister is born in the next week or two. yes, I know, sometimes I procrastinate.

on the other hand, now I know what kinds of interests he has: trains. so here comes the quilt!

wish me luck! this is still the internet pattern picture. I haven't started cutting yet. I'm using very different colors. what's really fun is using some of the materials from his mom and dad's wedding quilt I made a couple of years ago.

predictions?

I love that I have no idea where I'm going to be next year at this time.

I'm a little nervous that I have no clue how that's going to work out for my family and our re-uniting after this adventure.

I expect that almond joy will go to college somewhere warmer than this place we live. maybe. or she'll get drafted and not defer (in Israel). or, if she doesn't have the options she wants for college, then maybe she'd consider exploring somewhere else with me.

I've applied for both a sabbatical and a scholarship and have an invitation from a university in a country on a continent I've never been to.  everything seems to be moving forward. so far.

ben t. will have some choices. he can either stay here with his dad or join me in far-off country (or if that doesn't come through, I expect I'll be in Israel for most of the school year and he's said he'd like to do that).

in any case, I also really like the idea that my job will be waiting for me when I return. that ben t. will have 2 more years of high school here before he goes to college. that this is still home.

but it's not in the NYTimes yet, Ema

as she woke me up this morning to say there's a lot going on in Gaza.

I'd wondered how much she'd been getting the news seeing it mostly in Hebrew. It's definitely in the Times now.

friends have written asking if we'd like them to invite her to the "mercaz" (central) Israel. I suspect she'd feel more anxious leaving what has always seemed to be a very secure place.

(map taken down.) 

blog 2008

(via revisionspiral) The year by first-of-the-month posts (plus/minus one or two days)

Jan 2008

two weeks is too short to visit Israel

short rundown:

Feb 2008

good class

the small contemporary world lit class is coming together.

March 2008

most interesting email today

a grad student on the west coast being advised by an old friend of mine is told go read my articles.

April 2008

have I mentioned how much I love this class?

in spite of not being a night person (and I am so not a night person),

May 2008

quiet Saturday morning at home

alone. I do like that sometimes.

June 2008

writing quizzes and still thinking about the piano

next step in making this online class run smoothly: get 28 quizzes up

July 2008

home sleep home

I'm not a fan of 4:30am and I don't usually see this hour except when travel interrupts sleep

Aug 2008

plans change

my father-in-law had a heart attack yesterday and while it looks like he will be ok, he will not be visiting at the end of the month. have to figure out who might be going from here and when.

Sept 2008

some candles

Oct 2008

Humans are social creatures, and without socialism humans cannot excel as a species.

Sometimes I love grading.

Nov 2008

orchestra retreat

even more stunningly beautiful than I could imagine. in the afternoons, I slept in the sun on the edge of a lake while the kids rehearsed inside the lodge.

Dec 2008

out of town

the 4th visit to the big city since early Oct. starting to feel like we're seeing each other every other weekend (we are!).  

short rundown:

the small contemporary world lit class is coming together.

a grad student on the west coast being advised by an old friend of mine is told go read my articles.

in spite of not being a night person (and I am so not a night person),

alone. I do like that sometimes.

next step in making this online class run smoothly: get 28 quizzes up

I'm not a fan of 4:30am and I don't usually see this hour except when travel interrupts sleep

my father-in-law had a heart attack yesterday and while it looks like he will be ok, he will not be visiting at the end of the month. have to figure out who might be going from here and when.

Sometimes I love grading.

even more stunningly beautiful than I could imagine. in the afternoons, I slept in the sun on the edge of a lake while the kids rehearsed inside the lodge.

the 4th visit to the big city since early Oct. starting to feel like we're seeing each other every other weekend (we are!).  

waterpark

looking out at the snow from inside a steamy waterpark.

lots of people probably not celebrating Christmas, though at the breakfast buffet there were lots of families with grandparents, kids, dolls (new, I think).

we're here for the day and I should be well recharged when we leave.

if I was enlisting and getting married and all I had to do was pass English Composition

would I blow off the major research paper?

maybe this is actually what the student wanted. how am I supposed to know?

in any case, the paper shows no evidence of opening the handbook, no MLA format or parenthetical citations (he made up his own format). nor did he take part in any discussions, turn in an annotated bibliography or a draft in a timely fashion.

interesting. now he's sending email about how I must not have received his essay.

I did read it. that's the grade.

I have been wondering, though, if getting married has a comp requirement now?

grades due at midnight tonight

I don't think I've ever cut it this close. usually we've gone to Israel so that I'd have them done a week early. or the Jewish studies conference which is right now and I'd be done with grades before getting on the plane. nope, here I am, another 5 inches of snow and still one full set of papers to go. plus a few of the research papers.

one seems like plagiarism but it is so strange that I think I'll go the incomplete route and ask to talk to her. why would all the souces be from 2004 or earlier? (this on global warming). how could she have "personal communications" from heads of government offices and scientists -- which would be amazing sources if they were from this semester, but from 2004? I think she was probably 14 then. the thing is, she sent all of her copies of sources by pdf file and it would take me a month to open and evaluate them (that should have been last month, not now!), and it just seems unlikely that I'll get to it today. she did the research process and her annotated bibliography is stellar. so what happened?!

only one trip today to take ben t. to wrestling practice. and to mail the transcript that aj and I didn't mail with the others because it was heavier. so no excuses. just grade.

(tomorrow we're off to a local waterpark/hotel for 24 hours. it's with other Israeli families! I'm glad to be seeing them).

an accident that didn't happen and one that did

on the way to the orthodontist this morning, the car's brakes were sluggish (guess it doesn't like -11 either). at one point I tried to stop and the car didn't respond until I thought we were surely going to slam into the car in front of us. ben t. and I talked about "turning right" as his driving teacher said should be the default instinct solution. I would have maybe hit a car in the right lane, or maybe gone up onto the sidewalk. (his permit test is in January, so we talk about these things a lot).

on the way back from the orthodontist, I saw the police car lights but didn't see an accident. same intersection. then I saw the car tracks up on the sidewalk, actually way past the sidewalk, the car was into the trees towards the house. guess he/she hit the same patch, maybe some of the same non-brake action, and boom, there was the "turning right" default. probably going a little (or a lot) faster than I was.