The baby wants pineapple again.
This is problematic only because I have to pace myself. I love pineapple, but if I eat too much of it, I'll give myself mouth sores. But I'll let you guess what I just had as an afternoon snack.
(Also, sausage balls may be the perfect food. Protein, dairy, and carbs, all wrapped up into one. And so delicious.)
Anyway, in what has actually happened this week, versus a post that is me complaining about my neighbor. I finished conferences with my 1301 students last week, so conferencing is finally done this semester (yay!) I have no idea what I'm going to do about conferences for next semester, except perhaps have them when I get back to catch up with my students.
My Brit Lit students have done Milton the last few class sessions, which has been great fun and in which I've been able to show off a bit. We're getting into the realm of literature that is my expertise. This class runs through the long 18th century, which is one of my areas, so from here on out, I should be able to do a lot with the material. Certainly, I won't have to prep so much. (Though we're doing Dryden tomorrow, and that I will have to bone up on a little.)
Mogo did her jumping about thing in church again Sunday, though more so, and I suspect it had something to do with the brass quintet we had for Easter. I think the organ, and the brass (and her daddy's voice) resonate at a frequency that she can hear, and she gets very excited. Of course, that meant I was once again trying not to laugh through the homily. But Easter service was very nice--the church was packed, and I hope our priests took a well-deserved post-Holy Week day off yesterday.
Of other interest has been a continuing argument that's been going on on the Victoria listserv, centering around a manifesto put forth by something known as the V21 Collective. If any members of the V21 Collective are on the listserv, they've been curiously quiet as their manifesto has been--well, not torn to shreds...Victorians seem to absorb some of the manners of the era...but certainly debated strenuously. With the exception of a email at the beginning of the argument (which I really didn't say much in), I've stayed out of it and just watched as scholars far more important than myself have been debating this for the last two weeks. It's been quite an eye-opener, and it is very interesting that not many are jumping to defend this manifesto.
I've also sent a paper abstract out to a journal with an eye for their special issue. Wish me luck.
I've mentioned that I'm on the program review committee for the department, and that has continued to be an enlightening experience. My section is fairly easy, as it deals with curriculum mobility and integration--basically, how do our classes fit in to other programs at the college and across the state and can people transfer to a 4-year university easily and with minimal loss of credit (the answer is yes, as Texas has a state-mandated core curriculum, and all but one of our classes have been approved as core courses.) My other colleagues have been dealing with trickier issues, like cost-effectiveness and personnel management. It's been interesting to hear their reports about how our program is running--which it's running just fine--but it really gives you an inside look at how the nuts and bolts of this stuff really work. Most faculty, I don't think, ever give much consideration to the actual dispersal of funds and where they go (other than to perhaps complain about funds going places we think they ought not go). So learning how the finances of not just the department but the college itself has been very enlightening. I'm not sure I ever want to be an administrator, but it's good to know these things. The more knowledge the better, and certainly, the more the faculty knows about these sort of things, the better we can support our faculty administrators (like department chairs).
(I just realized how very academic-sounding that last sentence was.)
I have an appointment with maternal fetal medicine on Monday to do the anatomy scan for the baby, so say a prayer that everything continues as it has gone--just fine. I have been feeling dizzy and weak here and there--standing for too long can really make the room swim--so it's something I want to discuss, but my reading says that it's not uncommon for that to happen in the second trimester, particularly for women who have low blood pressure (which I always have), because your blood pressure actually lowers in pregnancy (because you have to make more and sometimes it doesn't keep up, etc.). Anyway, I'm now trying to keep a snack and some water with me at all times, so if it's a blood sugar thing, I can spike it back up, and if it's a dehydration thing, I'm combating that constantly--and that's all I can do. But I should have new pictures of Mogo on Monday.
There was also no joy in Mudville this week--or I should say, couches were set on fire in Lexington when my Wildcats lost, and we were quite upset here. (Duke winning the championship only added insult to injury, though Dear Husband said that if we had to lose, better to Wisconsin than Duke, and I think he's right.) In any case, it's now baseball season, and my Reds won their first game yesterday, and I get MLB at Bat free through T-Mobile, so I can listen to all the games--and listen to them from WLW, so I'm getting Marty and Jeff (and listening to the same commentary that my daddy is). And baseball is so calming after the excitement of basketball season. (Some would say boring, but they don't know what they're talking about.)
So now you see why yesterday's post was cut in two. It hasn't seemed eventful, but looking back, a lot seems to have happened. But since it's Tuesday when I'm writing this, maybe next week's will be shorter? (I doubt it.)
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