Dr. B.'s Blog - Not Your Usual Domestic Goddess

Baby Meme

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:42:16 -0400

From Clancy even though she didn't tag me :-)

1. Cloth or disposable? Both, prefer cloth.
2. Breast or bottle? Bottle
3. Eczema or reflux? Reflux, and it's pretty bad.
4. Jumparoo or play mat? Playmat, she's too young for jumparoo.
5. Mommy or Daddy? Mommy, of course.
6. Sling, front carrier, or stroller? Front carrier
7. Pacifier or thumb? BINKY!
8. Bumbo seat or bouncy seat? BOUNCY, STILL TOO YOUNG FOR BUMBO
9. White noise or silence while sleeping? White noise, LOUD -- and ceiling fan
10. Crib, Pack'n'Play, or parents' bed? Pack'n'Play

Resolutions (not of the New Year's variety)

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:55:35 -0500

I don't like New Year's Resolutions, so this isn't really one. Let's think of this as an amended scholarly work plan. Here goes. This year I will:

1. Write more. This includes blog posts, articles, book chapters (as in for one book), and grant applications.

2. Read more. Read more scholarly work (including more stuff that is not specifically about video games or virtual worlds)

3. Relax more. Unplug at night (from work stuff at least). This may include removing the laptop from the family room and actually using my office to work rather than working all day and night because the laptop is in front of me guilting me into working. This will also include not answering my cell phone after work hours, if they don't have my home phone number they don't need to get me, right? I also reserve the right to ignore calls to my home phone from whiny ass friends and relatives. (If you are in my family and reading this...no, I am not talking about you)

4. Observe the date night law. I am no longer allowed to bow out of date night because I have "too much work to do". If I have that much damned work to do it will still be there after dinner and a movie and 3-4 hours really is not going to make a big damned dent in it. This is my resolution all on my own...really! Lisa really shouldn't let me get away with that shit.

5. Spend more time on the things that make me feel good...make time for things that feed the spirit. Charities, public service, religion, you name it.

6. Go back to playing racquetball. Stop letting my health slip (ok, plummet) into the f*cking toilet.

All of this more is going to involve some reorganizing on my part. This means I get to stop doing things that I don't want to do and stop wasting so much time dealing with other peoples' problems when I have a life of my own to live.

Lisa Made Dinner

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:58:46 -0500

For over a week now Lisa has been claiming the right to make dinner for Christmas Eve. Then she started in with "How about hot dogs?" and other craziness. Well today she called me to the front door and said "Look!". This is what I saw...

Open

Yep, Chicago Style Hot Dogs with everything including Celery Salt and the funky bright green relish

Baby Back Ribs and Eli's Cheesecake

And Finally, a deep dish sausage pizza

Of course we won't eat it all tonight, but there will be lots of sampling :-)

Back to Reality

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:58:48 -0400

So I have served my time as a yarnista (think a barista for yarn shops) and while I won't be resigning from the university to open a yarn shop I can definitely say that if I were to become an overnight super multi-millionaire I could see the yarn/coffee/pastry shop in our future.

Mmmmmmmmm...knitting, eating pastries, and drinking coffee all day! I can dream, right?

Dream Job!

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:42:01 -0400

Tomorrow (ok, today) I get to work my dream job. Yep, I get to work in a yarn shop...at least for a day. I can't tell you how many times I've threatened to kick the whole academic thing to the curb, move to a quiet town near some big water (one with real seasons) and open a yarn and coffee shop. Let's see if I still feel that way after a day of actually working my "dream job" :-)

Let Us Never Speak of This Again!

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:58:47 -0400

The Put Sam in Pink Challenge is over and I lost. Fellow sock knitters finished 8 pair of of socks by Saturday so I had to wear a pink Sock Boot Camp t-shirt to sock club (Mignon's green socks with pink accents didn't make the picture, but I saw them as she was finishing them up). I tried to butch it up with green camo shorts and gym shoes. At least I know that my public humiliation will lead to 8 orphans with warm feet.

It is over and we will never speak of this again.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:50:19 -0400

Today I drove a dump truck!

'Nuff said.

It Should Be a National Holiday!

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:05:50 -0400

Oh well, back to my C&W presentation!

A Few Pictures

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:00:27 -0400

I didn't take very many pictures at the 4Cs SnB, but I did finally take them off of the memory stick. Here they are! I never cease to be impressed by the creativity of a bunch of Rhet Comp folks.

Pictures are below the jump. Click the title of the post to get the pictures.

Bread!

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:58:17 -0400

Remember the bread that I was making on Sunday/Monday? Well I forgot to post pictures. It came out well. I am going to tweak the wheat recipe a bit and play around with add-ins for the white. Maybe I'll work with some whole grain white flour so it's at least a little healthy!

Here's the wheat:

Sliced:

Now for the white:

Sliced. The crumb and interior was much better for this one.

Now that I am posting pictures I am really wanting to make some more bread!

It's the End of Days...

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:43:02 -0400

as my granny would say. Yep, snow in April. The world is coming to an end. The driving rain of the morning turned to snow by the afternoon and the dog wouldn't go for my suggestion that he just stay inside and hold it until the weather changed. *sigh* The odd wintry mix has inspired me to do some cold weather cooking. I checked the deep freezer and found both chili and beef stew. Did some thinking and decided to mix up a batch of No Knead bread to serve up with some kind of soup/stew for dinner tomorrow. I used half whole wheat flour so we'll see how that turns out. Since this process takes about 24 hours total there will be no whipping up a new loaf if this one fails miserably. I'll have to run out and find bread at the store.

On a more scholarly note, as I start prepping for my C&W presentation I am struggling with the ethics of using game ROMS and emulators for research purposes. My talk is going to cover some hand held games and I can't think of any easy way to record game play that would make decent video. The only thing that I can think of is using emulators and recording the game play from my computer. So the question is...is it still wrong if I already own the game? If a ROM runs in the forest and no one is around to catch me doing it is it still illegal? :-)

I Still Hate Pink

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:48:13 -0400

My friends (and I use the word loosely) down at River Knits have taken up a challenge. In order to get me to wear a pink shirt (in public) they are knitting socks for charity. If they all get their socks done I'll wear the damned shirt, but I won't like it!

Now Elizabeth is opening up the challenge to whoever wants to join. So here's the deal...knit the socks and I'll post a picture to the blog.

The details of the amended challenge are here.

Knitoricians of the world unite

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 10:55:33 -0400

In order to try to facilitate knitting related activities at future conferences and just to give us someplace to talk to one another, I have started a Google group for knitting rhetoricians and compositionists (at the request of others). If you're interested in joining in on the fun feel free to use subscription box below or keep an eye out for the posts on WPA-L and techrhet.

Knitoricians

Visit this group

Learning Something New and Resisting Getting Old?

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:24:43 -0400

Just in case video games aren't enough to stave off Alzheimer's I decided to learn a new knitting technique as well. And because I can't do anything the easy way I decided to do a fairly difficult pattern to learn it. I'm making these socks:

Entrelac socks. I'm not making them knee highs of course, but there is something about the socks that made me really want them! After I cussed a lot and depended on the kindness of friends I got them up and going:

I am still working on my research, but there is nothing really new that I am really want to share yet. If you want to learn more be sure to come to my C&W session in the "D".

Knitting at Cs? (3rd annual 4Cs Stitch N Bitch)

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:55:50 -0500

So it's that time again. When we think of Cs we think of knitting (and crocheting and tatting and any other fiber related craft) :-)

How would folks feel about a Wednesday Happy Hour for knitting. Last year we talked about taking the yarn bus up to Flying Fingers, but it seems that the bus has been damaged by a freak tornado that touched down in the driveway of the shop. (no shit, it really happened)

I would love to do a 6-8 dinner/drinks type thing again (but I doubt that I can trick my partner into coming this time). I don't know New York as well as I know Chicago so I would love to have a suggestion for a pub near the conference hotel.