October 16, 2004
Managing Expectations
OK. That's all that I wrote while I was in Vermont. Spark and family obligations kept me too busy to write any more than that.
Just wanted to say that I'll be posting even less than my already sporadic self until the election is over. What time I have for blogging will mostly be used to write political posts on a different site. So don't expect much from me here in the next few weeks.
Jet Lag
It is amazing how flying cross-country can drain you. All you do is sit on your butt for hours and then maybe walk from one terminal to another. Total calories burned: maybe 100. Yet at the end of the trip, you are totally wiped out. Why is that?
Kudos to Kim
Kim, the employee working the front desk at the Day's Inn by the airport, she rocks! She managed to score both milk and ketchup for us after we forgot to get both at McDonalds.
In Flight Entertainment
On the plane, I saw an equal number of iPods, portable CD players, and portable DVD players. However, there were more laptop computers than any of the other options.
The flight to Vermont
We boarded early onto our totally full flight--no extra seat for Spark so he was a lap baby. As we settled into our aisle and middle seats, the guy who had the window seat showed up. He saw Spark and I watched as a look of dread fell across his face. Somehow I managed to refrain from saying "Congratulations! You've just won the I-get-to-sit-next-to-a-screaming-baby-for-an-entire-flight Sweepstakes!" He promptly called a flight attendant over to ask if there were any open seats. He was politely told "No", seeing as it was a full flight and all.
During the flight, Spark didn't cry much at all. When he did, he was rather quiet about it. He was clearly irritated at being cooped up in an airplane without all of his toys for so long, but he did very well. I felt kinda bad for the guy sitting next to us, but as Spark was very well behaved, there wasn't much to worry about. And if he couldn't appreciate Spark's company, then too bad for him.
By the time we boarded our connecting flight, Spark was two hours overdue for his nap. He was doing great considering and was becoming increasingly mellow instead of melting down. The guy in the window seat was much friendlier than his counterpart on the previous flight. Shortly after takeoff, he pulled out a portable DVD player and started playing Shrek. Spark was entranced. He sat totally still staring at the screen until he fell asleep in my arms about ten minutes into the movie. He slept for the remainder of the flight.
We may have to get one of those portable DVD players before me make another trip like this.
October 15, 2004
Back from Vermont
We're back from Vermont. It was a great trip. Fall in New England is without a doubt one of the greatest places on Earth. The wedding was gorgeous and everything went off without a hitch.
We stayed in an old farmhouse. Rustic. Charming. Yadda yadda. More important--it was mazelike. It took me several tries to figure out where my room was. Rustic of course entails the lack of many amenitites. The most important of which was internet access. The next most important: cell phone coverage. Also: too many flies and bees and not terribly clean.
But all was forgiven because it bordered a national forest and had hiking trails. And the weather was and unseasonable 70 degrees and sunny.
The next few posts were jotted down on paper awaiting my return to civilization and internet access.
October 14, 2004
Pre-emptive self-punishment
Spark is turning out to be very easy to discipline. He starts getting upset if he even thinks that he has done something wrong. We don't even need to punish him; he pre-emptively punishes himself.
For example, when my friend was visiting, he left his wallet on a table by the door. Spark wandered over to the table and grabbed the wallet and walked into the study where we were talking. My response: "Oh Ho! [laughter] What have you got there?" My friend's response: "You've got a very smart boy there."
Somehow in those responses, Spark got the idea that he had done something wrong. He froze in his tracks and got a very worried look on his face. He then proceeded to burst into tears. No amount of reassurance that he was not in trouble and that he had done nothing wrong would console him.
So he's very easy to keep in line. Now how do I keep him from being oversensitive?
October 07, 2004
Depakote is dense
I was going through our prescription bottles and getting rid of the old meds that we aren't ever going to use. Among the discards was my bottle of Depakote which I stopped taking because it didn't seem to be doing any good and it made me feel slightly nausiated all the time as well as making me a bit emotionally roller-coastery.
So how do you get rid of meds? You flush them down the toilet. So I dumped the Depakote and hear it make a disturbing clank-clank-clank as the pills hit the bottom of the bowl. Depakote, it turns out, is as dense as lead. So now I have what amounts to a pile of lead shot sitting at the bottom of my toilet. Flushing acomplishes nothing because the pills are to heavy to budge.
I say to myself, "Who cares. They'll just dissolve overnight and be gone in the morning."
That was four days ago.
And still they remain at the bottom of the bowl mocking me. The coatings fo the pills have fused into one large membrane, but you can still make out the individual pills. And they just aren't going anywhere despite dozens of fluses and even a go with the plunger. I have no idea what it takes to make this stuff dissolve. Do I need to pour a bunch of HCl into my toilet?
I know that I should just stick my hand in there and pull them out, but I'd rather not do that if I can in any way avoid it.
Busy
I just finished teaching a week's worth of class for my prof who is curently at a conference. Whew. Unfortunately, the timing was such that I had to give them an exam. I hate being the bad guy. The upside of giving an exam is that that is one less hour of lecture that I had to prepare.
We're heading out to Vermont tomorrow morning for my sister-in-law's wedding. I'm excited to be able to see NewEngland in the fall again. We'll get back on Monday.
Tuesday, my parents come in to town for about a week. I'm not sure how best to entertain them. They'll be staying at my sister's house, and her family will do most of the entertaining, but I still don't know what to do with them. We're not very creative on the hosting side. I just like to hang out and talk. Unfortunately, my parents and I run out of thing to talk about fairly quickly. Sigh.
By the time the 20th rolls around, I should be irrecoverably behind in my schoolwork.
October 04, 2004
October 03, 2004
Hydrofluoric Acid
Back in college, I did research in a chem lab. Some of our experiments essentially created glass. This glass would end up being bound to the glass test tubes in which we ran our experiments. Cleaning glass out of glass is extremely difficult. The worst cases required using Hydrofluoric Acid.
I hated doing that. I was always creeped out for days afterwards.
I'd describe what it would do to you if you spilled any on you, but Joshua does it much better than I can:
Well, let me see. It's highly corrosive. In its pure form, like we have it here, it volatizes at room temperature. As a vapor, it explodes on contact with metal. In liquid form it can soak in wood, concrete, cloth or plastic and make the surface it's soaked into corrosive to human flesh for years afterward. And it passes through your skin and binds up with the calcium in your bones. So basically, you get this stuff on you, your bones turn to jelly, your skin starts coming off in sloughs, your nervous system shuts down and you die. Then your body's categorized as toxic waste and disposed of by being encased in molten glass.