First Week of Teaching

This week was my first week of teaching. It went pretty well, although I planned my first lecture a little short (1 hr instead of 1.5 hrs). Now that I know how fast I lecture, though, I know to plan a little longer. Here is a picture of me packing my bag in preparation for the first day.

I joined Curves (a gym for women) in July. So far, I like it. I go in 3 times a week and do a mix of cardio and weights. In the first month, I gained a pound (I think this was due to the weighlifting) but I lost several inches from the areas they measure (upper arms, thighs, waist, etc) and my BMI went down. Overall, I am happy with the results. I hope to continue going 3 times a week once school starts. My plan is to go first thing in the morning after I bring Brian to work.

Disc Golf

The past few weekends, Brian and I have been playing disc golf at the local course on Saturday late afternoons. Here is the course we go to: http://www.talgov.com/parks/tombrownpk.cfm . It is nice to get outside and see friends. Some of my anthropology buddies are getting into disc golf, so we have been out with them once.

First Shift

Not much to report on my end of things.

This week I change over to taking the early shift. So I'll be going in weekdays by 7:15 or 7:30 and staying until 5. I am adjusting my sleeping habits accordingly and will be in bed momentarily. I've been thinking about just staying until 6pm or so every day so that there's less likely to be a need to come in on the weekends. But I'm a little concerned about planning to spend 11 hours a day at work. I have my first major assignment at work now (by "major" I mean "largest type of assignment I'll likely have, and the sort I'll normally have"). It's exciting but will be a lot of work.

Next week (that is, a week from tomorrow) FSU will start up again. I hope to be attending classes with Professor Gey as a sort of volunteer teaching assistant three days a week. I don't know what exactly that will entail, and I don't know if Professor Gey does either. I hope I can help him with whatever he needs. It will be nice to have some connection to academia still - it might push me to write articles, which I really need to keep doing.

Han and I had a few social functions with her Anthro friends this week. I'll let her post on them if so-inclined. We went frisbee golfing yesterday (Saturday) and that was fun.

Not much else to report on my end. We mailed out copies of Hanneke's book chapter and my article reprint (the writing contest version), so if you got one in the mail and wondered what it was, voila. Han didn't put in a note explaining what they were because she wanted to send them media mail and USPS employees previously told her that putting any notes in with the books turns it into non-media mail.

We hope you're well.

You will need to ask Brian about these...

...because I do not know anything about them. These are pictures from Brian's weekend activities, and I was not there. I hope he will post captions soon! [captions by Brian]

[These are several bagpipers at the Dublin Irish Fest that we went to. They were from Windsor - why didn't Wooster sends its group?]
[This is one of many booths inside the vendor area of the Ohio State Fair. This particular booth was a travel booth and feature only two places: Smoky Mt. and Myrtle Beach. Amusing that the latter is where Dave spent the last several years.]
[This is a Civil War Reenactment at the Irish Fest. What does it have to do with an Irish Fest? I'm not exactly sure - it was for the US Civil War.]

[I took this picture for Hanneke; it is a Budweiser Clydesdale, which she mentioned she liked before I left. This picture is at the Ohio State Fair. The horse on the left was trying to eat its hanging chain, though you can't see that in this picture.]

new pie

Over the last week, I came across some key limes. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making key lime pie. I found a recipe for a low-fat version. Below is a picture of the results. It is so yummy!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Bathroom Upgrade

Last weekend, Brian and I installed a new light fixture in our bathroom. The old fixture was a very basic holder for a bare bulb, which was kind of ugly. Now we have a row of three globe lights, which provide lots of light (but are kind of hard to photograph because they are so bright).

Our visitor, Mollie

Brian and I are currently dog-sitting my advisor's dog, Mollie. She is still a puppy, and she is very dependent on people. The original plan was to have her stay at her own house, and to have me drop by in the morning and evening to feed her and let her in and out of the house. The problem with this plan was that Mollie does not like being alone, so she whined when I left the house. That would be okay, except that her whine is so high pitched that it sets off the burglar alarm. So now, Mollie has been sleeping at our house (in her cage).


Mollie likes Brian a lot, because he pets her. She likes to sit close to him and get petted. She also likes to lick him (arms, face, legs, etc). He doesn't really like getting licked in the face. Neither do I.



Mollie and I have been going for walks in the evening to give her a chance to run around. She doesn't really walk in one direction at any sort of consistent pace. Instead, she runs from place to place, sniffing at everything. She also likes to stop right where I am going to walk, which makes me trip over her. But she is getting better.


So far, this experience has shown us that we are not ready for a dog yet (which is good). But she is still a nice dog to have visiting.