paddles

Hi. How are you? Am I in the right place? I think this is where the Siphon used to be... seems pretty quiet though.

So I took a bit of a hiatus. Don't worry, you didn't miss much. Sunshine, beer, morbidly awful French exams. I am now back up North, back to work, and it's like I never had a vacation. I've been back a couple of weeks now, and I guess I really ought to have written something, but I didn't. At first I was not very excited to be here and I wanted to wait until my shock faded and I felt balanced. That only took a couple of days, by which time I had become stupidly busy. Also, not much has been happening, so I don't have much to share about northern life at the moment.

The biggest thing currently looming in my mind is the book I just finished. It was really, really good. It was Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I recognized a few steps of my own walk in her story, and that was both eerie and comforting. I'm not really sure what to read next: I'm sort of off fiction, unless it's light and fluffy. However, I'm feeling chock-full of non-fiction about evolution or the brain or religion. I could happily re-read the Harry Potter string of books, or some ditz book like Confessions of a Shopaholic. What I don't want is to struggle through some depressing post-modern love story that ends with old folks loosing their teeth and being eaten by dogs. Suggestions?

Speaking of dogs, Nalu has taken to talking when she wants something. She reminds me of a grumpy old man who grumbles and moans until you guess what's making him cranky. Fiona, meanwhile, has developed a bizarre obsession with a stuffed moose squeak toy I bought her a few weeks ago. She carries it everywhere in the house and sleeps with her chin on it. She's very protective of it. She chews heck out of it even though she killed the squeaker within about 15 seconds. Hilarious. I'm not sure that my new housemate enjoys their quirks as much as I do.

My students are happy to have me back. My classrooms are not irreparably disarrayed, and I have a reasonable amount of planning done. I'm excited to be teaching an environmental science course this fall - pretty fun, so far.