Coffee Flavored Kisses

The temperatures tell me it is as does the calendar.  However, I usually feel way more rejuvenated–too many classes in the school year.  I am looking forward to July when I am off for the whole month.

I am still treadmilling.  I do at least 30 minutes a day–6 days out of 7.  I am now watching BlackAdder as I treadmill.  At least I have something to laugh about.

I am reading a book by Martin Millar called Lonely Werewolf Girl. I find that I am really liking this book–it’s amusing, full of interesting characters, and well good.  If you want to get off the pretentious literary novel genre wheel try Millar.  I had read Good Fairies of New York and enjoyed it, but LWG is much better–it’s focused more.  Good Fairies was a hoot, but I really wanted Millar to stay with the fairies and dump the BORING humans!

I have a huge to read list which includes: The Book of Lost Things, You Suck, Under Orders, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, The Spiritualist, Sin and the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul, Sad Cypress, The Planets, and so forth.  It’s a large list, so I should get to reading instead of blogging.

He may have been “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” but Byron was a snark who loved dogs and pranks.

He sent clippings of his dog’s fur to  his lady fans!

Jilly in a comment asked about my poor, neglected dissertation.  It remains poor and very neglected.  I’ve had little time to write on it, and in the six years away from grad school, I’ve lost interest in the topic and fallen rather deeply into a love of teaching rather than researching.

However, I haven’t fallen out of love with writing.  Last year, I participated in the Little Rock Writing Project which had me writing everyday, and I loved it.  Unfortunately, I have had virtually no time to write anything new in the last year.  I’ve been swamped with teaching and work.  I stopped to figure out why I’ve felt so tired this year, and I realized in this school year that I taught some 14 classes between fall and spring and 1 so far this summer.  For those of you in higher education, you know that’s a lot of classes.  Most community colleges keep their instructors at a 5/5 load (5 courses a semester).  Most four years schools are 4/4 or 3/4 (4/3).  This allows instructors not to burn out and to write.  Somedays, I wish for that lighter load.  (Some school offer 3/3 and 2/2 loads!)

I have something I must write though–a book review.  I need to get to work on it.  I had started it, then lost that start, and now must start again.  Two scholarly books on Frances “Fanny” Burney.  These two books have sort of interested me in my dissertation again. But who has the time to even work on it?

I can hardly believe June is half gone.  It feels as if it just started!

I’ve been hitting the treadmill with a great deal of regularity.  I am up to 45 minutes a day.  I hope I can keep this up when school starts.  I must say that the ability to watch our multitude of DVDs while treadmilling keeps me from being bored.  I finished the first Feasting on Asphalt, and will finish the second one tomorrow.  Alton Brown enters the pantheon of famous people I would stand in a long line to meet.  It’s a short list–Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, A.S. Byatt…heh, he’s the only American–how odd.

In class, we have hit the Roman and Medieval plays part of the class.  Part of me is contemplating showing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum rather than reading the Plautus play of Pseudolus. Since Forum is based on Plautus’s play, it’s a way to see how these plays still live. And really–it is Zero Mostel!

I’m reading a melange of various things as little is holding my interest. I am working on my review books mostly.  I do need to get that done.

Well, my pulse has returned to normal, and it’s time for me to move on with the day.

I have as you can see started a new blog; however, life hasn’t really changed, and things go on as they usually do.

Summer school is one week in. I am not hating it, but I am not loving it. Things are moving along nicely; we start reading Lysistrata this evening. After slogging through Agamemnon, Oedipus, and Medea, we need some good laughter. This is my favorite play to teach; it’s always great to watch the students realize that sex comedies are as old as civilization.

I’ve just finished reading Robert Graysmith’s book Zodiac about the Zodiac killer. I do not recommend this book. I’m not really a true crime fan anyway, but this particular book is so full of speculation and circumstantial evidence and very little else. Granted I knew it would mostly be speculative going in since the Zodiac killer has never been caught, but I found myself frustrated about halfway through, when the author’s own investigation takes over the book. My frustration came about because he simply focuses on his “favorite” suspect and stops looking at other theories. In effect, he begins to make what little evidence there is fit his theory. He also starts grouping a number of unsolved murders together as Zodiac killings on fairly slim evidence. Reading the book, I was annoyed by theories he didn’t even touch on–such as the idea of the Zodiac letters connection to the crimes. It’s simply not a book I can recommend.

Now, I have to pick something from my to read pile, or steal something from my husband

This is my new blog. I have changed both the address and the name. It was time for a change, and this is it.  The site is presently under construction. Please be patient.