midterm blues

So many of you probably remember the stress of mid-terms when you were undergraduates. Well, let me tell you that it is much worse for your professors. I just finished grading my exams and the average grade was considerably lower than I had expected. That sort of thing causes the same cruddy feeling that earning an unexpected low grade on an exam did when I was a student even though it was my students performing poorly instead of me.

On top of it all, I saw students whom I had never seen in my office the day before the exam hoping for some help. If there is anyone out there reading this who is still in college, PLEASE set aside the week BEFORE any major exam to see your professor for help. It will earn their respect more than you can imagine. So many leave things until the last minute (I did too when I was in their place) and then no longer have the time required to do well in all of their classes.

I had so many students in my office that I had to resort to preparing lectures and the exam itself at night when they couldn't get into the building. We had an evening study session, I posted all of my lectures online as well as two sample exams.

But in spite of all of that, not a single student earned an "A" on the exam. I had to listen to all sorts of sob stories about why they were stressed or too busy or had conflicts with another class (despite having exam dates and times written out on their syllabus) and so the midterm was expected to be moved to accommodate them. I now have students who shoot daggers at me every time they see me. I had to send out low grade notices for nearly half of my students in spite of all of this (C- or lower).

ARRRRRGGGHH!

Stitches West

Stitches West was great fun. I got to see several old friends from Chicago and Miss Anne spoiled me as always. I bought yarn (pics tomorrow) and got a new lace book that is fantastic titled "Victorian Lace Today" by Jane Sowerby.

Not only are the patterns pretty and functional, but most of them don't require 3,000 yards of yarn (unlike some other lace books many of us own) so you may find that you are able to reduce your stash a bit while working your way through the book. Jane knit most patterns in a variety of yarns so that you could see what they would look like and is an absolutely lovely person to chat with about lace and her knitting.

Her philosophy on lace is that it doesn't have to be difficult and so she starts at the beginning of Victorian lace when it was simple and utilitarian and then progresses to more difficult and more recent patterns reflecting when knitting became a fad in Victorian times. As soon as I finish all of the current gifts in the works, the next new project I will cast on will be out of this book.

She hopes to write another book after she finishes promoting this one and I hope she does!

a on the way to ascad

We take a break from our regularly scheduled ascad to show you the scenery along the way to the sc.



Who is that in the passenger seat?



I mean really, who can resist a big goofy dog in a beat up old blue pick-up truck?

I think it would un-American.

ascad

Just in case you didn't believe that I was there too!

ascad

Looking straight up.

ascad

Today there are two photos I want to share. My fabulous little camera does have limits. In the first photo, the exposure is set to show you the wonderful blue of the sky and the tree hanging over the edge of the canyon.



The second, I changed the exposure so you can see the color of the rocks. If I were any good with photoshop (and had a copy!) I figure I might be able to merge these so that eventually you could see it just as we did. In the meantime you have to content yourself with the thought that the over exposed white area up at the top of the rock photo is really an amazing blue sky.

ascad

And one of Marius...

cheddar cam

I'm cheating a bit and doing a second post for the day completely unrelated to slot canyons. If you're a fan of webcam's you might want to check this out. It is literally of a wedge of cheese developing. Very dramatic stuff as I'm sure you could guess...

I got the link from Chez Pim, food blogger extraordinaire.

ascad

This is Kurt who took us on this hike. Thanks Kurt!!!

What did you do this weekend?

I was in St. George visiting the marital unit. Kurt, another faculty member in Marius' department took us on a fantastic hike up to and through a slot canyon most people don't know exist.

So to share the absurd number of photos I took on the hike I will do ascad (a slot canyon a day) in honor of thuy's current afad (a flower a day).

continuing the dork theme

I had a student come into my office today to let me know that she would be missing two lectures.

I told her that it was fine and that I hoped that she was missing them for something fun since she didn't say why (normally a good indication that they think it might be an excuse that won't fly with the prof.).

Of course, she has a funeral she has to attend.

Doh!

Chalk one up for the dorky prof.

Facing facts... I am a dork

Just in case there was any lingering doubt, Thuy sent me a link to a photo from a camping trip we went on last spring. That's me in the fleece with the hood and sunglasses trying to warm my hands over the pot of heating water. She thinks it's cute. I think she must have issues or just be a fan of dorks.

Ever wondered what it is that I do?

For the first time ever one of my papers is available online for free. You don't need a subscription or anything to read it.

Just go to the Proceedings of the Royal Academy website and scroll down to the photo of flowers and the link "Roots in Space."

A small warning though. It is math heavy. Most of the math is in the ESM file with a link at the bottom of the page that comes up when you click on the title link. To just get the gist of it all with minimal math you want to use one of the links to the right and I can even promise a few pretty pictures (okay they're all the result of computer simulations but they are still nice looking).

It's a bit of an honor for them to make the paper available this way so I'm fairly thrilled with it all.

What sick twisted mind...

Came up with crab cakes made from immitation crab meat????

One of the perks of working for my department is that we get five meals a week in the dinning halls. The idea is to foster greater interactions with the other faculty and students.

Today they had "crab cakes" and they looked good (and like they were not a ton of filler) so I grabbed two only to find that the crab was really "crab." I ate them anyway but what a disappointment. Here I was all prepared to go on about how good the students here have it (and me as well) but alas, it was not meant to be. The lunch service is still much better than many other places but fake crab cakes?

Pul-eze!

Dr. Bob's as milkshake

It's done!
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster.

Go directly to Pop's.

Do not pass go.

Dr. Bob's is great ice cream and makes fantastic shakes and malts.

More Dr. Bob's

Oh, the Choices...
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster.

The Menu

The Menu
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster.

So I'm uploading this from flickr (Ruth's account) and it will only allow me to blog a photo at a time it turns out. So you'll get these in reverse order. Here are the flavors of the day.

Pop's/Dr Bob's ice cream

Peekaboo...
Originally uploaded by OriginalTwistedSpinster.

It's funny how having your husband living in another state suddenly gives you the time to catch up on your blog.

Sometime last November or December I was bragging about how we had the only dipping shop for Dr. Bob's ice cream in the country. Ruth came along for the ride and it is really wonderful stuff. I even have a pint of the dark chocolate in my freezer as I type. However, now seeing how flickr posts photos to your blog, this will be the last time I do it this way. It seemed convenient but it doesn't look nice.

Just a bit nippy outside

Okay, sadly it appears that we are experiencing some major problems here in Southern California. Some odd arctic blast (probably due to global warming -ah, at last LA's love of smog comes home to roost!) has hit the LA area and pipes are bursting, plants are dying and my cats have decided that they really are friends after all. There's really nothing like a cold house to bring two former feline adversaries together in love and friendship.

So in the spirit of all of those other bloggers that seem to need to post cat pics constantly, I bring you Sam (of the nicked jugular last year) and Moon.



and a close up:



The only other thing to do during a cold snap is to bake as far as I'm concerned. I haven't really been in the mood for anything super fancy so I made a rum bundt cake and chocolate chip cookies this weekend. The cake includes both a box of cake mix and a box of pudding mix in its ingredients and the cookies were off the back of the bag for anyone who was getting too comfortable calling me a foodie or a food snob. They are both tasty and easy recipes, so what's not to love? Particularly when you can get preservative and scary chemical free cake mixes these days that are as good as the stuff they stock an entire aisle with at your local big chain supermarket.

Santa Barbara Farmers Market

Okay, I know these photos are nearly two months late but many were so nice I still wanted to share them. It really is amazing how much you take for granted when you live in a place. Returning to Santa Barbara just reinforced how much I miss the farmers markets and CSA there.