The Paper and Pencil Campus -- Cheshirekitty speaks

I work at Northwest Missouri State University, known as "The Electronic Campus" since 1986, when we were the first university in the US with a comprehensive networked campus. We pride ourselves on how "wired" our campus is. Students can register for classes online, check grades in most of their classes online, and even finish one or two of our degree programs online. So what happens when the university's servers go offline?

Nothing. A whole LOT of nothing.

The entire university community was without email, where many timely announcements are normally made. (And obviously, sending an email to everyone to let them know how long the outage would last was out of the question.) Students could not sign on to computers in the computer labs even if they simply wanted to use Word, because signing on was dependent on getting onto the network. One student's laptop was stuck in a perpetual cycle of trying to download the latest Vista upgrade -- because he could not access the Web, the computer could chug hopelessly, then shut itself down repeatedly. Professors could not enter grades or accept homework from the course management software. One colleague, who had just returned from a conference, could not access her Outlook calendar -- and therefore did not know when or even if she had appointments or meetings today.

In my first class of the day, there were to be student presentations -- but the group of students had saved their presentation on "student storage", which can only be accessed through the server.

A rumor had circulated that the reason for the power surges that downed the servers was the Dierks Bentley concert held at Bearcat Stadium last night, but this was just local urban legend. Bentley's road crew came with their own generators, which were powerful enough that his sound check interrupted my 9 AM class yesterday (all the way across campus, I may add). Had the rumor been true, it would have given the Northwest Missourian a great headline: "Dierks Bentley Throttles Campus Internet".

How does our garden grow? (Cheshirekitty speaks)

Last night, much of our garden almost was a loss!

We came home from dinner and I went to check the greenhouse. My tomatoes and eggplant on the bottom shelf were thirstier than I had thought -- they were dry and very wilted. In addition, the lemon catnip (for the kitty garden, of course) looked downright shriveled. So I panicked, and mourned, and watered and watered.

The next morning, one Thai eggplant has lost one leaf. There were a few leaves wilted on the Cherokee Purple and Coyote (white cherry) tomatoes. One of the Cherokees lost the top of its stem but is still nearly a foot tall. I may have to pot up the Coyote in hanging baskets and bring them in at night, because they're too tall for the greenhouse and starting to flower.

And the lemon catnip? It doesn't even look like it had been thirsty a day in its life.

All in all, it's been a good year for the greenhouse. I'm almost ready to outgrow it, which means ... nothing until we can afford or build a bigger one.

In the raised beds, the lettuces and greens are growing slowly, the peas are finally starting to show themselves -- and so are a gazillion baby weeds that are probably lamb's quarters. I will get at those with a scuffle hoe while they're still only mildly annoying. (Except for the lettuce garden, where I will leave them go, pick while young, and stir-fry with the rapa I have in there. Despite the above link characterizing lamb's quarters as bland, they're actually a lot like spinach, only better!)

In other garden news, the pussy toes are surviving their transplanting into the kitty garden, and hopefully they will spread and be fuzzy. The daffodils are starting to bloom, and other plants are coming up. There are mystery seedlings in a couple places -- in the bird feeder garden, they're hopefully either sweet violet or wintergreen; in the herb garden, they're hopefully either dwarf winter savory or thyme.

Sunday Gardening ...

After church this morning, we stopped off at Ali's bakery for coffee ... according to Lauren, if he's offering free coffee, it means he wants advice on something. However, he was too busy to ask, and instead, we shared a good conversation with a fellow professor at the college and her husband, who I may have recruited (or at least tempted to apply) for a tech writing slot at my current company.

After that, we had thought that I would finish off the last of the taxes (the one attendant schedule and one additional form we needed to file), and then we would go to the contra dance at the Presbyterian Church (the husband of the aforementioned professor is the caller), as we thought that it might be too cold this afternoon to work on the lawn and garden. To be honest, it was a bit brisk, but it stayed warm enough that we could trench, edge, and start planting on the "Kitty garden" ... something that's been in planning since last year. Now it will be a work in progress as we plant more, add a couple more paving stones for steps, and add some kitty-themed decorations.

That said, I've gone back to doing a little more on the taxes, while Lauren's resting from the gardening. A little later, I'm going to attempt some Thai black pepper pork for dinner.

Taking a Break From All Your Worries ...

Yeah, I know, it's shameless of me to borrow a riff from both Cheers and Battlestar Galactica, but hey, if BSG can borrow a riff from Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix in their previous season's finale, so can I.

I'm taking a small break from doing our taxes. Yes, I know, it's pushing the edge on the deadline, but we wanted to make sure we had enough money to cover our payments ... we weren't exactly sure how much the new job and the marriage would impact our taxes, but now we know: we owed just a little bit more than we did last year, and we're probably not getting a refund. However, we will get the tax relief rebate later this year, which will help a lot and will likely go toward debt reduction.

Taxes normally wouldn't be a problem, but it seems like I've rarely had a case where I could use tax prep software, due to changing situations that the software couldn't handle correctly or due to farm payment income or something that the software didn't quite process correctly. And don't get me started on e-filing. I'm in IT, and I work in the security arena, so if you think I'm going to trust my electronic personal data to the IRS, think again :-).

On one hand, I am proud knowing that I've done my taxes myself either by hand or with the assistance of tax software every year since I started filing. On the other, I wish that my former state of residence would have gotten on the ball and updated their PDF fill-in forms so that you could actually SAVE the darn things rather than have to re-do the entire form to do a correction.

And on other fronts, this morning was a series of errand runs: I found it rather amusing to be taking the mower in for annual service while it was snowing outside. It didn't stick, but it snowed from about 8ish this morning until around 2. After that, it was off to the store for some gardening/landscaping supplies, and then to the post office to get birthday gifts for my niece and nephew into the mail.

So for now, I'm working on the numbers for the Iowa return, Lauren's making coffee after taking a winter nap (she'd rather be gardening), and the laundry is being done as well.

Morgan Spurlock

This has been a busy weekend here in the 'ville.

Friday night and most of Saturday found us doing yard work: moving brush pile items from the ice storm to the curb for pick up next week, when the city will be sending around pickup crews, re-edging most of the gardens, adding more rock to finish the newly rebuilt watercourse, and some assorted plantings (as well as a quick trip Saturday afternoon to St. Joe for some rock, since the local Earl May garden shop closed up their Maryville branch, forcing us to go to the one down the road). Add to that doing taxes and the laundry, and we're both tired.

But we've also had a moment of celebrity this weekend. I'm blogging this from the auditorium on campus, where indie documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, 30 Days, Where Is Osama Bin Laden?) is about to speak.

EDIT:

Lauren and I have never laughed so hard for so long ... Morgan Spurlock is GENIUS!

Unassuming, humble, but funny as hell, the writer/producer/star of Super Size Me! reminded all of us that careers don't happen overnight: telling us his story, Morgan related how he'd graduated from the NYC Film School after countless rejections from the UCLA film program, and how he had happened to graduate in the same class as M. Night Shamalayan ("you may have heard of him"), before becoming a runner/gofer for Tribeca Films (Martin Scorcese's studio) and later working as an intern on The Professional with Luc-Besson. After a short acting career (including the mental ward aide who is assisting Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) during the first part of Terminator 2 (who knew???)), Spurlock then became a live media spokesperson for Sony and later a producer of promotional films for Sony before developing a web-based show for MTV.

He then laid out the story of Super Size Me! Spurlock related that he had come up with what a friend and fellow producer called "the worst good idea" that Spurlock had ever had over a Thanksgiving, where after watching a news report about the two girls who were suing McDonald's restaurants as the cause of their weight gain, he decided to do a movie about the fast food industry and McDonald's in particular. He noted that he did it using $50,000 he had in hand (despite being in extreme credit debt), plus a cashed in annuity from his grandparents, and how he went from relative obscurity to overnight success at Sundance almost a year and a day after finishing the film.

Mixing that in with funny movie related tidbits: "America's number one steakhouse is Australian (Outback)", and that your average Bloomin' Onion appetizer has roughly 2,500 calories, Spurlock managed to convey that, jokes aside, the fast food lifestyle is unhealthy (even though he sometimes causes his vegan wife issues as he admits to still liking a good burger ... the kind you get from a local diner).

Following his talk, he opened the floor to questions, which ranged from the silly "want to come to our place for a beer bash afterward?" to the serious "how has becoming a father affected your work?"

The questions, and the evening, ended all too soon, but it was a great evening nonetheless.

Every family has one

...this is what my sister always said about me.

Going Out Like a Lion ...

It's the last Sunday of the month here in the 'ville, and we just got back from Kansas City, where Cheshirewoodgie and I spent a weekend with part two of our wedding anniversary celebration.

Friday found us staying at the Plaza Marriott, with an excellent view of the Kansas City Plaza. Woodgie spent a bit of Friday walking the Plaza and stopping at a gourmet cheese shop, Better Cheddar, while I was at work, and then after meeting up at the hotel, we discovered quite possibly the best Indian restaurant in KC (almost as good as, and probably better than, gasp!, our previous fave, Swagat). The restaurant, Korma Sutra (the name a play on a certain, ahem, book of Indian origin), has two locations, one of which is in the historic Westport area in KC.

We had their combination platter, featuring a dizzying array of dishes, including a free first order of papadam (lentil wafer) for an appetizer, followed by chicken samosas, a sublime coconut soup, bowls of a just-right spicy lamb saag and chicken tika masala served with a generous helping of basamati rice, two kinds of naan (regular and onion), and for dessert, galub jamin and cubes of frozen mango ice cream (which appeared to be frozen cubes of mango rose lassi).

Honestly, calling Korma Sutra a "better" restaurant than Swagat does a disservice to the latter. We both attempted to determine what the difference was. To be honest, we think it's that the style of Korma Sutra's cuisine was a little spicer, with the flavors bolder and more traditional, while Swagat's items are very good but a little too "Americanized" in contrast.

Needless to say, we left happy. And quite full.

Saturday found us with Lauren's friend Jenny touring the KC Home and Garden Show at the Bartle Hall Convention Center, which is turning into an annual pilgrimage for us. As always, we spent the afternoon wishing we had more home space, and thinking of ideas for things to do to our home. If anything, I know that should we ever win the Powerball lottery, that we are getting Viking appliances ... actually, we would settle for a Viking range; Lauren's heart has been set on an Aga , but from what we understand, using one requires changing your whole style of cooking to accomodate it ;-).

We had planned to head down to Union Station this afternoon (Sunday) to catch the KC Rail Experience and Science City exhibits, but we were a little bit worn down after the previous two days. The party next door to our room kept us up for a bit, so we were both a bit tired. At first, we had headed off to the hotel's hot tub in hopes that by the time we got back to our room, the party would have moved down to Westport, but the neighbors continued rowdiness required a small call to the desk due to the excessive noise and alcohol consumption. We'll save Union Station for a later day.

Instead of doing Union Station, we journeyed over to Cho Ga, our favorite Korean restaurant over on Metcalf Ave., with a prior stop at a Whole Foods (actually, a Wild Oats that is transitioning), for our foodie fix; neither one of us had ever been to one before, as we don't live in an area large enough to support one, so it was a treat for both of us.

So that ended part two of our anniversary ... not sure yet what we'll do for next year, but we hope it is just as entertaining.

More work update:

Did a little kitchen cleaning
Fixed the dust vac holder in the kitchen that was threatening to fall off the wall
Graded five issues papers
Got the root bed and the bean pole ready for planting
Pulled more weeds
Transplanted a bunch of pepper plants into bigger pots
Oh, yeah, and I napped.

And this is my vacation. Wow.

Garden work update (more Cheshirekitty)

Update: Today's tasks done:

1) Made the frame for the hay bale gardens smaller so it sits on top of the hay bales.
2) Dug two bushels of dirt/compost (some frozen) from the composter and put in hay bale garden.
3) Moved the composter. This sounds like it should have been easy, but see 2).
4) Fixed the antique bed frame, which consisted of moving the mattress and box spring and reattaching the board which holds the slats in, this time using longer screws.

Oh, am I sore!

Spring Break Work (Cheshirekitty speaks)

Well, my spring break was going to be all about home and garden (although there are a couple dozen papers I need to grade as well), and so far, it has been pretty productive:

Saturday: Gingercat (Richard) and I rototilled the kitty garden and made a bigger border around the moon garden, replaced the trellis that had been taken out by the drunk driver last November, cut down the tall grasses by the fence, and tore out the entire pond and watercourse liner because there was a leak in the pond. Oh, yes, and ordered new pond and watercourse liners with geotextile underlay so that there's less of a chance of a rock or tree root tearing holes through the EPDM rubber.

Sunday: Easter. Recovered from Saturday's work.

Today: I got the last bale of hay or straw or something from a freecycler down in Savannah and made a frame so I can plant root crops. Because it's probably hay instead of straw, I am afraid there could be some weed seeds and the like to tussle with. Oh, well. And I need to cut the frame a bit smaller so it sits on top of the lopsided bales.
I also fixed two kitchen drawers and a porch railing, pumped out the mudhole that used to be my pond, put together four vine ladders for the raised beds, set up my worm bin, and even got a nap in. I tried to dismantle and move my compost bin that's full of too much dirt and not enough compost (from throwing sod into it), but the soil inside it is still frozen and it's going nowhere. Oh, yeah, I also washed dishes and cleaned litterboxes, but that's normal chores.

Tomorrow, I hope to put up the tomato ladders and plant peas around them, start a few more herbs in the greenhouse (holy basil, yarrow, Japanese parsley), throw some seeds on the ground outside (sweet violet and johnny jump-up), and remove a couple inches off the frame for the hay bale garden.

We forgot to tell you -- it's been a year! (Cheshirekitty speaks)

On Monday, Gingerkitty and I had our first anniversary. Yes, it's been a year, and yes, we were married on St. Patrick's Day. Well, actually, it was the first day of my spring break, and it just happened to be St. Pat's. (Richard has gotten used to my life being determined by the academic calendar: "We can't DO anything this weekend because the new freshmen are coming in!" and the like).

We celebrated by going to the local "nice restaurant", followed by my homemade Irish Coffee with freshly roasted/ground beans and Jameson's.

Here's a pic of the newlywed couple we were last year:

AW, Cats Are GOOD For You!

In today's Kansas City Star:

According to a study by the American Stroke Association, non-cat owners appear to have a 40 percent higher risk of dying from a heart attack than cat owners. They don't know if there is a correlation between cat ownership and heart health or not, if there is a correlation between the health practices of cat owners vs. non-cat owners, or what the connection is.

Maybe it's the purring.

Various and Sundry Items ....

Sigh ... it's the middle of March here in the 'ville, and winter is still sticking around for a little while longer. Lauren (aka Cheshirewoodgie) is feeling a little bit tummy-ish this evening after lunch at the local Italian restaurant (the food was as excellent as always, but there may have been a bit too much garlic in the oil which came with the excellent bread rolls, so she's sacked out early). It's okay; she needs the rest, especially after the road trip down to Savannah (MO) to pick up a couple of rotten hay bales she picked up off of Freecycle in order to do some root gardening.

We also looked at a nice house which is up for sale near Savannah, as we've been discussing what to do in the long-term for housing space. We've both realized that when Lauren bought our house, she didn't have concerns about the amount of living space: she was the only person living in it, and she had 3 cats, one of whom was an outdoor cat that spent a lot of her days outside. Now that I've moved in with my stuff, we've realized that it's cozy, and certainly comfortable for the most part (thanks to the house's amazing TARDIS-like qualities), but we're a little cramped in a few ways with two people and four indoor cats, we're short on storage space, feeling the pinch of a small kitchen, and wishing that we had more space for hobbies or additional bedroom space so we could put family up on visits. I think we both looked at the situation and realized that while a move to the house we were looking at would save me a half hour each way (or an hour a day) on the commute, the prospect of owning a 5-bedroom, 4-bath house is a bit daunting. So now we're making up a list of things we'd like to do to this house in terms of expansion (now if we only had the money!)

Meanwhile, Lauren's back to bed now, and that leaves me with a little time this evening to blog. A few highlights from the last couple of weeks going into April:

1. I finished my semi-annual review (my first) at my new job. The managers are pretty pleased with me so far, and it looks promising from here. As I noted to Cheshirewoodgie, I'm VERY relieved to get past this milestone.
2. It's banquet season at the college. Last Wednesday was the faculty HR banquet, with tenure awards. Cheshirewoodgie got a very nice ice cream and cake spoon and turner set with the Northwest logo (it's apparently a standard) for 10 years of service. Tomorrow afternoon, one of the sororities has put her up for a teaching award, and there is a reception after church for this. Then Wednesday, it's the departmental banquet. In addition, there were two annual student dinners: the annual international student banquet and the annual foreign language department/club banquet. Then today, we discovered that Lauren has won another service award, the Tower Award that has eluded her for the last few years, so we'll have yet another banquet on April 1st when she is presented with that. The challenge through all of this? Enjoying the food without letting it go to our waists.
   
3. We're heading into the last month of the Spring semester, and by mid-May, Lauren will probably be recuperating from what that entails, including finals week. And then the road-trips begin.
   

Green Things! (Another Cheshirekitty post)

Today, I saw the first signs of spring in the yard. It was 60 degrees out, so I decided after work to do a couple early spring tasks: pumping the nasty water out of the mini-pond where I managed to freeze my fishies last winter, and clearing some stuff off the herb garden to see what grew there.

The first thing I did to the pond was pull off the remaining ice, and then I scooped out the four dead shubunkin and one dead frog that were floating on the top. (Resolution: Place the pond warmer BEFORE four inches of ice have formed on the pond.) Then I ran the pump unattached to the filter until there's only about two inches of mud and leaves and brackish water at the bottom. That will be sucked out sometime in the next two weeks with a shop vac, and the algae that has grown on the pump will be removed.

While pumping the water out, I noticed that the watercress in the "stream" (external filter output spilling back into the mini-pond) was beginning to wake up -- and there's so much of it, and so much root mass, that you can no longer see the EPDM rubber that makes up the stream. The stream will be full of watercress and some Vietnamese coriander, and there will be a floating pot of water spinach in the pond itself. I also want to try growing some chufa (tiger nut or rush nut) -- although it's supposedly good food for wildlife, what I'm trying for is a crop of tiger nuts to make Spanish horchata (orxata in Catalan) with. Mexican rice horchata is NOT the same. Not at all the same.

I then went to the herb garden. Tarragon, oregano and curly mint are starting to wake up, as are the salad burnets. I discovered that I had missed transplanting some baby saffron crocus corms, and moved the little grassy-topped bulblets closer to the porch so they'd survive worse winters than this one (they're zone 6, but growing close to the house on the south side). The thymes and even the hyssop seem to have survived the winter; it's too early to call on the sage. I expect all the mints (contained in root-binding pots, of course) to survive, and the Profusion sorrel is coming up yet again -- it's come up during every warm patch only to get frostbitten and wither back.

Kittens! Kittens!

No, we don't have any new kittens. With four cats in the house, any more kittens would put me into the category of "Crazy old cat lady". But the Gingerkitty keeps sending me pics of every cat offered on Cerner Ebay.

So, to satisfy his kitty cravings, I found the following weblog:
Itty-bitty Kitty Committee. It's enough to satisfy anyone's cute floofy kitten cravings.

We Just Had to Laugh at This One

Last night, I was following a web link off a food blog, and ran into this site:

http://stupidweddingcrap.com/

Needless to say, we were both laughing, in between wondering why we hadn't found the site last year for our own wedding (hint: the ATV bride and groom cake topper was a hoot).

Not Much of Anything Going On ...

Looking back on the last couple of posts, you're probably thinking: "don't these people do ANYTHING?" To be honest, there have been a couple of things getting in the way of that as of late:

1. Both of us are working now: last year about this time, we had time to go do things, because despite the effort involved in getting ready for the wedding, we had time to go do things as I wasn't employed until April, and even after that, my shift work ended at 3, meaning I could rest after work, clean up, and we still had most of an evening left if we wanted to go somewhere. Now, I'm lucky if I get home between 6:30 and 7:00, so the commute means that I not only have less time to do things, but I have even less time to blog than usual.

2. The weather: I hate to admit it, but I used to love winter. Last year wasn't that bad, and despite the zinger of a late frost that almost killed off Lauren's roses and a lot of our outdoor plants and trees, we were still able to start gardening by now. After this past winter, with two ice storms, one of which about finished off our lawn, and more below zero days than I can count, my love of the season has greatly diminished. Now, I'd say that I like fall better.

Today has been a good change of pace. Due to the weather and the roads, I worked from home, which means I'm now home and comfy on the couch (with the kittehs all curled up next to me) at the decent hour of 5:00 rather than the usual, where I would just now be leaving KC with a near-2 hour commute ahead of me. EDIT: Now it's a little later, and Lauren has joined me, but she's feeling a little bit wug, so she's heading back to bed.

That now leaves me time to actually surf the interwebs and write a blog post.

Happy Birthday To You! And Other Events ....

Okay, we know that we haven't posted in a long while, but it's been pretty crazy-busy, between work (mid-term time for Lauren), and work (ramp-up to being productive after training). Between dodging the winter weather and bad drivers, it's been a challenge simply getting up in the morning to make the near-2 hour commute down to KC and back. But it's been worth it; the new job is going wonderfully, and it's nice to finally be with a company that appreciates my skills.

So, in the meantime, what's happening with us? Well, we're planning to travel and simply do things, because March will bring with it our one year wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that a year ago, we were ramping up to March 17th, planning, sending invites, picking colors, setting up the hotel and venues. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

Anyway, we're not going very far, unlike a certain fellow friend and blogger who is going to India for 3 weeks. No, our trips will be a bit shorter this year: in April, we are looking at a weekend trip to Kirksville, MO for an SCA event (we're not members, but we thought it sounded cool to go to, so we're going), and then in May, we plan on heading up to Illinois around Memorial Day, where we'll do an outdoor memorial (now that it's warmer) for Pat, Lauren's mom. Somewhere in there, we hope to spend a weekend in KC to celebrate our anniversary.

Finally, in July, we are planning to go out to Blacksburg, VA, as a longtime friend of Lauren's is celebrating her 60th birthday and possibly (she should know by then) getting tenure from Virginia Tech, her current college. That will mean a trip out and back; due to the smaller size of the nearest airport at Roanoke, 3/4ths of it will be on regional jet (cramped, but reasonably priced). Still, it will be worth it; we hope to do some historical sightseeing and some local winery research, as well as the birthday and tenure celebration.

Speaking of birthdays, it was almost a year ago that we adopted Snowball, following the demise of Kitty. Here's a pic taken the day after we adopted her:










She has grown considerably, so we thought we would post a picture of her now:















The concensus is that she's a little odd looking in some ways, but she's still the sweetest kitteh we've owned in a long time.

Okay, So I'm a Little Disappointed ....

Given the announcement a couple of days ago that, in the reshuffling of release dates following the writer's strike resolution, Paramount has pushed back the release date for the next Star Trek movie to May of 2009, rather than Christmas of this year, it means one less movie to look forward to, and it is a little disappointing.

However, I am hoping that with the writer's strike resolved, that this means Abrams will have extra time for polish, (including updating any potential rough spots with the script, more time for VFX, and more time in the editing bays), so that the movie has a better chance of succeeding at the box office.

And I also hope that this means we will get a final last half of the season for Battlestar Galactica, and a well thought-out end to the series as well.

Still, there is still a lot to look forward to this year. Earlier this week, I was able to catch the just-released trailer for Indiana Jones 4, and it looks great (although it is disconcerting to see Ford as Indy at the actor's current age). Oh well ... to quote Indy from the original Raiders: "It's not the years, it's the mileage."

Chocolate Festival

Today marked an annual Maryville tradition. As a fundraiser for the local Presbyterian Church's food kitchen, the women of the church put on a chocolate festival right before Valentine's Day. In the week before it, they make enough chocolate to rival Willy Wonka, producing everything from cakes to pies to chocolate covered cherries to brownies to cookies ... you name it, they have it for sale.

For a donation, you can also sample plated samples of their wares, as well as hot chocolate, chocolate-flavored coffee, chocolate-flavored tea (this year a chocolate raspberry combination), and, of course, melty chocolate from a chocolate fountain.