three photos

The last two weeks have gone by very quickly. I had a beautiful holiday at home with my family last weekend, and have spent the time since reading, visiting friends and shopping. (Shopping happiness=finding jeans that fit really well and then discovering they are only $18! WOOT.)

Because I couldn't decide what to write, I thought I'd share a few photos from my post-holiday week:
















The wind blew leaves into beautiful swirl patterns on the lawn below my apartment.
















Rather than preparing for his upcoming match with J.S. Bach, Casanova spent much time browsing my bookshelves. He appears to be very interested in either Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France or Radcliffe's The Italian.
















Caitlin, Sean, Rick, Nate and I played "Zing!", a new boardgame Caitlin and Sean gave me for my birthday. It's really difficult to explain how silly and incredibly fun this game was.

Happy end-of-2006 to everyone!

Oh. It's ON.

I received the Casanova action figure for my birthday:




















And my dad has the Bach action figure:





















So I ask my learned audience, who would win in a death match?

Winner fights Jane Austen.

Helsinki Complaints Choir

My friend Jackie first pointed me to complaints choirs on YouTube. I like the Helsinki one!

I'm here, under the papers I'm grading!

Fourteen down, sixteen to go! (That doesn't sound too bad.)

November by the numbers

Where did November go? It will have to go down as a Blogging Month of Mystery, I'm afraid. I will explain...no, no time. I will sum up.

In November, the number of...

times I voted: 1 (nothing shady here)

midterms graded: 30

students I lectured in front of: 55? some of them were absent

choir rehearsals I played piano for: 3

interesting, post-modern concerts I attended: 1

18th-century receptions I attended: 1 (not, like, via time machine or anything)

theme parks I visited: 2 (I had a park-hopper pass, so it was 2-for-1)

phone calls from sisters I received: 2 (at the same time)

turkeys I ate: 0

slices of pumpkin bread I ate: 7

farmers markets I attended: 3

mandarin oranges I bought: 12ish

pages I read: too many and not enough

friends I have who wrote novels: 3, sir!

I hope you are all doing well (if there's anyone still checking this)!