Elfwren's adventures

Still alive

2011-09-23T14:01:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic for fun :-)

Bobo the bear, Gavin, and me .

Sabbatical in the Fall :-)

2011-04-19T17:27:00.002-05:00

It's a good year so far. I'll be researching barnacles in the fall for my sabbatical. I'm looking forward to the time off and the time to do research.

Also I got reviews back on a manuscript revision and it should (with more revisions) be heading off to being published in the next 6 months. Woohoo!

Tenure!

2011-03-22T14:32:00.001-05:00

So I have been awarded tenure starting in Fall 2011 and will become an associate professor.

WOOHOO!!!

now back to spring break grading and other work.

Pictures

2010-05-26T09:05:00.000-05:00

The kitchen with me for scale. :-)

Front Yard by the driveway

View of the dining room from the sunroom (kitchen is to the right of the DR and foyer is to the left)

Moved and Settling in

2010-05-18T17:51:00.002-05:00

Really I haven't entirely dropped off the face of the planet.

But I'm in my new house - pictures will be posted soonish. I spent today not grading finals but trimming hedges and cutting grass and trying to breakdown boxes. I now have blisters (sigh) and have discovered a few more muscles in my arms that I had forgotten about.

Back to grading (maybe) at least until the hubby gets home. This is my week "off" between semesters meaning that I have copious amounts of work and grading and very little motivation.

To the knitting crew - there is plenty of room to come visit and we're just off the metra line so it's easy to get to the city.

So packing?

2010-03-22T17:55:00.002-05:00

hasn't happened. I got another cold. sigh

But it will happen later this week. My plan for spring break is to 1)relax 2) get my grading done 3) get a bunch packed

Boxes

2010-03-13T17:40:00.003-06:00

We now have lots and lots of boxes :-) I love Uline - if you need boxes, check them out they're inexpensive and local to Chicago (and some other places) so we drove up and picked a FULL SUV of them. Go Toyota - it held lots and lots of boxes. We haven't started much packing yet but I know one of my goals for spring break.

And - more importantly the secondary inspections looked good for the new place. So now it's just a matter of figuring out the details and the exact timing of it all. Woohoo!!!!!! We should be moving before the end of April to Homewood!

Under Contract x2

2010-03-08T22:25:00.001-06:00

It's official - we're under contract x2. Details are stil being worked out but it looks we'll be moving in April. :-)

Pictures and the nitty gritty soon.

Adventure

2010-02-24T21:16:00.003-06:00

There's progress towards the house goal from my New Years list. I'll keep everyone updated as I know more but... we might be moving sooner rather than later. :-)

Submitted and Fun

2010-01-25T16:59:00.000-06:00

As per the previous stated goals:

1) Got a paper submitted this morning. Woot! Now onto the next one.

2) Had lots of fun this weekend - hanging out with friends and going to a party, more hanging out this week to come.

3) Am prepping for my classes - we started today. I'm teaching all classes that I've taught before so that should be better.

4) Thanks to SS for helping me on the fun front :-)

5) Open House this coming weekend is scheduled.

New Year and some New Goals

2010-01-12T18:59:00.003-06:00

Ok well not all the goals are new.

Happy New Year to all!

My goals for this year include
1) Talking to my friends more - I never seem to spend enough time visiting or talking with them. (also I hope to be able to visit more once we move at the TBD date)

2) Get publications out - if any of you readers want to help read drafts and or keep me motivated let me know. I need to get more out and have been working on the first of two that need to go asap. I need something out before September if possible.

3) Relaxing more - I can't stress about everything all the time. It doesn't help me get anything done or enjoy my relaxation time.

4) Get the darn house sold so we can move. I hate cleaning all the time and want to enjoy a new house with the hubby and puppy.

There are lots of other goals but if I can accomplish those four I'll be content with the year. :-) Oh and if I could have all my classes run for the Spring to avoid a new prep that would be AWESOME. I'm in a holding pattern for that at the moment.

For your amusment

2009-12-23T10:07:00.000-06:00

Enjoy! And Happy Holidays to all.

Update - Ack it's October

2009-10-05T16:02:00.003-05:00

So, I can't believe that it's October. It's been a busy Fall. The Race for the Cure went well. It was rather bitter sweet and a little sad. My mom has walked in the Race for many years but couldn't this year. She's now been a survivor for 15 years. Go Mom!!! And, it was hard seeing so many women who are way too young to be fighting cancer. Here's a picture of me at the race. I was fighting off pink-eye and a sinus infection in case you were wondering about the glasses. My friend is trying to raise awareness for metastatic breast cancer so if you know anyone else who's interested - her sign has the info. Our team, Breast Canter, walked with people from the Young Survival Coalition. So, all together we had a group of about 10 of us walked the 1K including a 3 year old (walked most of the way) and a 6 month old (in a stroller).

On, the home front, we're still on the market. I'm still cleaning house and cleaning house and .... you get the picture. But I'm hopeful that even without 2016 that things will work out. Gavin is doing well and is very cute and snuggley. There are new pics of him on Facebook - let me know if you want a few here.

On the hubby front, the latest and greatest new feature of Cinekin, Matchmaking by Cinekin has launched. For amusing video, check out the site - I make an appearance. Also, if you want to try out the site for either matchmaking or friendmatching it's free for a little while. We've been posterizing and street teaming to try to get the word out.

On the work front, busy but good. Too much to do, too little time. Have I mentioned the panic that this is my last year to get shit done before I apply for tenure. :-)

Race for the Cure

2009-09-04T19:01:00.002-05:00

I'm going to walk the race for the cure in September. Our team is http://komenchicagoraceforthecure.kintera.org/breastcanter and my site is http://komenchicagoraceforthecure.kintera.org/bethdavisberg.

Just wanted to let everyone know. :-)

Summer

2009-07-09T13:32:00.002-05:00

So adventures of summer? Ack - too much to do and not enough motivation. Um, I taught - it was fun. Went to St. Louis, played in the city museum and ate yummy indian food with Tim and Jenny and went to a mexican/jewish wedding. The city museum is AWESOME and I really wish I lived closer to it - I would so go play there instead of not-going to the gym. We went to Rose City, Mi for the 4th and read 5 books (Harry Dresden books 2 - 4 and some fluffy paranormal's in the Marcy Thompson series) and hung out with friends. Gavin had a great time and jumped into the lake - although he was surpised and climbed back out very quickly. Now, we're back and cleaning house again. Our house has been on the market since mid-April and I'm getting tired of maintaining a spotless house. We've decided to move and want to move but can't until this place moves. sigh. I'm also trying but not well to get some writing done this summer since I apply for tenure in Fall 2010 and need more papers to my name. Any advice from my readers in getting writing done (it's editing really not much new) but I'm stuck. Oh, and I'm also writing quizzes for a publisher. But, I'm back to getting more off my to-do list and intend to post a real post soon that isn't a litany of what I'm doing.

ROFL

2009-05-28T15:42:00.002-05:00

For amusement - check out the latest pictures on www.dooce.com.

They've made my day and made me laugh. I've spent today doing paperwork from last semester (emailing back students with questions) and setting up my gradebook for the much too bast 4.5 week summer term where I teach twice a week in 4.5 hour stretches.

There will be knitting pictures coming up soon.

Too busy

2009-03-17T22:14:00.002-05:00

I'd like to apologize to my readers (the few of you out there) for my lack of posting. Life has been a busy mess of grading and web design work. I've been working on my faculty organization site and the ever so fun election madness, the alumni group for the camp I used to go to and work at needs a site update (more on that soon), and assisting with some tedious but necessarily store updates on zazzle (see previous post). Oh, and we've had three faculty searches going on too. Ack. But spring break starts next week and I promise to post more since I have been knitting a sweater.

more later

New Items at Cinekin

2009-03-17T22:12:00.003-05:00

I've been working on helping to update the gallery of cinekin products. So here's a flash panel of some of the items. The rest of the site which does custom tailored movie and critic recommendations is up at www.cinekin.com.

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Free issue on Darwin!!!

2009-02-11T13:14:00.002-06:00

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v6167602g164/?p=071f38dabe04459e8f12387817174cd3&pi=0

Evolution: Outreach and Education has a free issue on Darwin, woot!!

Muppets!!

2009-02-10T14:21:00.001-06:00

Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters - CNN.com

Source: www.cnn.com

Like a lot of people, I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets. But did you ever stop to wonder where they came from?

----

I love the Muppets and this is a fun article about where they came from. I now need to find the episodes where Beaker talks...

Giant African Snail book online

2009-02-06T00:07:00.004-06:00

Woot.

I just found out that Albert Mead's The Giant African Snail book is now available online.

This is an excellent book about the history of Achatina fulica and its spread throughout the world. It's one of my favorite books on the subject. Yes, I'm a snail nerd.

http://www.hear.org/books/tgas1961/

Website launch

2008-12-18T15:17:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that the website that my hubby's been working on for a while has launched. So please check out www.cinekin.com for your movie recommendations and critic recommendations. It's really cool and will tell you which movies in theaters that you should go see and also ones that are on dvd or unbox. Send comments too - since the site is still undergoing revisons.

And now, back to grading...

Last week of the semester

2008-12-08T09:48:00.001-06:00

too much to do, too little time, too little motivation

sigh

I want vacation now!

Joshoween and Election Insanity

2008-11-02T20:51:00.003-06:00

So, I've been busy with the semester but wanted to post a quick hello.

Joshoween was on Friday and it was a great sucess with lots of fun and candy. We had the annual donut eating contest, the pumpkin carving contest, and apple bobbing. Pictures will be posted soon.

As for the election insanity - my class on Tuesday night has been canceled in anticipation of the rally on Tuesday night. Woot! I guess... I'm still not sure how I'm going to deal with the lost week but I'll figure it out.

Time to finish the annual report corrections that are due tomorrow.

One week down, fourteen to go

2008-09-08T23:35:00.002-05:00

So I finished my first week of teaching and coordinating and so far so good. I've gotten up over my head in service and am trying to get a handle on that with everything else. But, week one is over, week two is about to start (at least for my teaching) and I think I'm ready to go for tomorrow. Later in the week is another story right now.

Gavin is about 130 lbs and is starting to mellow at least on some days.

My real issue right now is motivating myself to get enough done quickly. sigh.

Time to finish an abstract for SICB in Boston in Jan.

fun stuff

Book review: A Midwife's Tale

2008-08-03T23:20:00.004-05:00

I just finished A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 - it was a "good for me" book - i.e. not a fantasy book or directly related to biology book. And it was really interesting. It's about Martha Ballard, who was a midwife in Maine in the later 1700's and early 1800's based on her diary from 1785 - 1812. It wasn't really a page-turner (go figure) but it had a a neat perspective on the role of women and the role of a midwife in colonial society.

Summer is ending... :-(

2008-08-03T23:10:00.005-05:00

So I've been hiding from my blog for the last few weeks. I've mostly been writing (I'm working on manuscript two of the summer) and just got my first one out of the year last week. Woohoo! It's a short note and I hope that it will be accepted but it's submitted. I'm currently working on re-writing and re-analyzing one of the chapters of my dissertation. I'm guessing that the models are going to be totally re-done with the new data that I'm currently finding. But it's painful. I feel like this is a paper that will never end - it's been so close for so long. However, since I last looked, more museums have locality data digitally available so I should be able to add some more data points before we run the models again.

On the non-research front, things are going well. I'm not ready for the school year to start up. I've got three preps for the fall and need to get my supply orders in. I have managed to get a custom lab manual for my marine biology course together which should make life easier. But I'm still getting all my studd figured out for my new zoology course. ack!

As far as life goes - things are also going well. Gavin is now a "dog" well at least he's no longer capable of reproduction although he's still mentally a puppy. He's asleep on the couch behind me looking very cute. I'll try to get some more pictures of that soon. My hubby is doing well. We went to the RenFaire here last weekend and it was lots of fun. We're hoping to go back next weekend. Other than that, we've been playing WoW together and having fun with WiiFit. We really should play that more often than we do but life just seems to get busy.

I'm totally not ready for my summer to be over. I want more time to play, to relax, to be outside, and see my friends. sigh. I guess it's good that classes don't start until September. :-)

teaching is over and so is the meeting

2008-07-03T19:13:00.002-05:00

So I just got back from the American Malacological Society meeting in Carbondale, IL. A wonderful city to spend my anniversary and my hubby got to be the only guest of the 100 people registered at the meeting. Woohoo! I'm done teaching my summer class but not done grading...

I just gave Gavin a bath so I'll report more later once I've recovered from the trip.

Summer Teaching and Snails Sorting

2008-06-11T10:44:00.002-05:00

So, I've been hiding and teaching and sorting. A fun summer activity, on Mondays and Wednesdays I sit in my office for my two hours of office hours (I should be grading currently) and then eat lunch and teach for 4.5 hours. This means my class is 3x faster than normal.... ACK!!! Lots of grading and material and 4.5 hours is LONG. I've been doing one or two breaks but the attention span of everyone is difficult, not to mention switching topics or doing two labs a class....

Oh and the sorting - so when I signed up for the conference at the end of June I thought I'd have plenty of time to work. It was in March - I still hadn't really started the sorting but it was March. Fast-forward to the end of May - still not started.... I've now logged more hours sorting in the past week than is healthy for my wrist, back, eyes, life, etc but am almost done. And then I get to ID the little buggers.... I'll post some pictures when I get to that stage I think. But back to grading and sorting.

btw - WiiFit is Awesome!

Puppy Pictures

2008-05-20T08:23:00.011-05:00

So we got Gavin in August a few weeks after our last Great Dane passed away. Gavin is an undercolored harlequin meaning that he doesn't look like a BIG dalmation but a very white and pink dane.

(above) This is Gavin when he was about 25 lbs and although it's a little blurry. It's one of our favorities of the little puppy. You can't see his spot but you can see his pink nose and big paws.

Gavin has lots more energy than our last dane and is very smart. He watches when you put something away and will try to get it back hours later. I think that more submissive puppies would be easier to deal with at times. But more cute pictures coming up.

(left) This is Gavin at about 40 lbs. There's a maglite in the back for scale.

Gavin got very sick around the holidays - he had an elbow hygroma which got infected. But after surgery and recovery - he's doing much better now and doesn't seem to have any lasting issues.

Here's a picture of a sick Gavin from near Thanksgiving - he has his snoopy toy near him and post-its and grading for scale. Oh and you can see his spot in this one.

Last but not least - here's a picture from last week or so of Gavin and my sweetie. He's gotten much bigger now.

Enjoy!

Year three is done!

2008-05-20T08:12:00.002-05:00

So I'm currently awake and tired because a certain puppy decided that 7 hours of sleep was enough for him. Or more accurately that he needed to go out and then run around so he's tired again and I'm tired and awake.... grrr.... (pictures of puppy will be posted soon - he's now about 140 lbs of muscle but is still growing)

But this week marks the end of my third year of teaching. And I have exactly 8 days until the summer semester starts. I'll let you know at the end of the 5 weeks if I'll be doing this again. The money and incentive to get me to my office seemed like a good plan. But I'm not so sure right now since I really want a little bit of time to myself.

Well, the puppy is lying down - I wonder if I can sneak back into bed for a few minutes. My plan was to get up at 9 am and return to the grading of final projects. I'm off to see if the puppy will return to bed...

Hi

2008-03-26T00:17:00.000-05:00

This is my first post to my blog. I've realized that I check my friend's blogs hoping that they'll post but that I don't actually post enough on the knitting blog or on others blogs. So this will hopefully get me posting about my adventures (however small they sometimes are) and give me an outlet for life when I need it.

My current addiction is knighthood on facebook - this is an evil application that is drawing me away from other game pursuits at the moment. I think this is because it constantly changes so people can steal my vassels at any point it it just changes everything. But it's a large waste of time and I really shouldn't be playing it as much as I do. sigh.

It's currently my spring break and I've been helping my hubby do work and neither getting mine done or really having fun. Tonight we had friend's over to game which was lots of fun but my goals of playing video games, reading books, and generally relaxing are falling a bit short. But I still have time to get those two tasks done before Monday.

Off to bed I go...