the toilet incident

I admit it, the toilet incident was my fault. It's just best to get that out of the way now. It makes the whole story that's about to follow much easier to tell.

Sunday night we had some people over for dinner, among them our home teacher Jim. When everyone had left, around 10:00, Margo and I went to find Erin. She had disappeared an hour or two earlier, when the phone rang, and we assumed it was this guy she’s interested in, who lives in Colorado. Wanting to satisfy our curiosity, we found her sitting on the floor of our walk-in closet, talking on the phone. When we asked who it was, she told us it was her sister, and that they were having a serious conversation. Knowing as we did that Erin and her sister have plenty of material for serious conversations these days, we respectfully left her there on the floor of the closet and cleaned up the kitchen and dining room.

After a half hour of cleaning, which was punctuated by a brief but loud argument between Erin and her sister from our bedroom, I decided it was definitely time for bed. So I went into our room, where I found that Erin had come out of the closet and was still talking on the phone. Realizing now that everyone had left for the night, she moved out into the living room to continue her conversation. In the meantime, I changed into my pajamas and started my bed-time routine. A few minutes later, I ran at full speed into the living room, pausing just long enough to yell at Erin, “Help! How do you stop an overflowing toilet?!” I then proceeded to find as many towels and rags as I could to at least sop up some of the water, while Erin followed, laughing, into our bedroom. There she also helped to find some more towels, while I awkwardly positioned myself in our Cracker-Jack-box of a bathroom in such a way that I could hold up the auto leveling assembly in the toilet’s tank to stop the flow of water, whilst and at the same time attempting to hold up the cuff of my pajama bottoms so they wouldn’t get wet.

By this time, Margo had come in as well, and she suggested that we try calling one of the guys who’d just left our apartment — surely one of them would know how to take care of this problem, right? So, I called Jim, our home teacher, worrying that he wouldn’t even be home yet, as he has a good drive from our house to his. But he was home, and he explained to me where the emergency shut off valve was, and Margo managed to get it turned off. So, now there was no longer any water flowing out of the toilet onto our floor. Jim offered to come over and help us unclog the toilet, since we didn’t have a plunger (and, in fact, have still to buy one). I thanked him profusely, hung up the phone, and turned to the business of getting all the water soaked up from the floor.

While Margo and I did what we could with the rags, I realized that the conversation Erin was having on the phone didn’t actually sound her sister was on the other end. “Are you actually talking to Eric?” I asked.

“Yes,” she responded.

“You’ve been talking to him this whole time?”

“Yeah.”

“And you told us you were talking to Christine? You lied to us?”

“Well,” she explained, “I didn’t realize everyone had left already, and I didn’t want you to go back and tell them I was talking to Eric and make fun of me.”

“So, you just said it was Christine so that we wouldn’t tell anyone it was Eric?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe you’d do that!” I exclaimed with indignation.

“Oh come on,” Erin laughed, “ you guys should know me better than that.”

“Right,” Margo contended, “and you actually thought that we would go back there and make fun of you with everyone? You should know us better than that!”

Erin, who was feeling particularly amused that night, laughed at Margo’s quick come-back and continued to find more towels for us.

“So what’s going on then?” she asked. She had, understandably, missed most of my conversation with Jim, being caught up in her own conversation with Eric.

I explained that Jim was going to come try to unclog the toilet for us, adding just how embarrassing I found the whole situation. I didn’t like having to rely on anyone else to fix our toilet, and for reasons of my own, I found it particularly galling to have to confide in Jim for that help. Erin offered to claim that the whole thing was her fault, if it would make me feel any better. I answered her only with a laugh, thinking she probably wasn’t serious, and also feeling unable to lie so blatantly to Jim.

Eventually, Jim arrived, with two plungers in tow. By this time, we had sopped up all the water from the bathroom, wrung out all the cloths into the bathtub, started a load of laundry, and thoroughly rubbed down the tub and the bathroom floor with a Clorox disinfectant cloth. When Jim arrived, then, Erin and I were both in the living room, and Margo had gone to bed already. He started to make for the guest bathroom, but we quickly disabused him and led him into our bedroom to the smaller (“Master”) bathroom. I stood just outside the door (I would defy anyone to get two people and two plungers into that bathroom, ever, with enough room left over for a sneeze) and watched while he went to work. As Erin wandered back into the living room, I tried to think of something to say to Jim, and came out with the first thing that came to mind: “So ... have you plunged many toilets in your life?”

I could hear Erin in the other room, guffawing at my masterful conversational skills. Jim stopped what he was doing, turned to look at me squarely, and replied, “No, not many. How about you?”

Feeling about as idiotic as I ever have in my entire life, I made some mild answer to this and kept up as a good a flow of mundane conversation as possible while Jim continued to plunge away. However, as both of the plungers he’d brought were too small for our toilet, he didn’t make much headway after getting the water to drain out of the bowl. Eventually, he had to give it up, recommending that we put in a work order the next morning. I again thanked him profusely, offered a grocery bag for his now wet plungers, and saw him to the door.

As soon as he had left, I found Erin, who was still sitting on the couch talking to Eric, and explained to her the epiphany I had about half-way through Jim’s attempt at clearing our toilet.

“So, the toilet is not in Margo’s bathroom — clearly, you’ve been on the phone for hours ... Jim is a smart guy, whose fault is he going to think it is?”

After a few more hearty rounds of laughter, assurances from Eric that this is a situation where it is perfectly acceptable to call your home teacher, and some anecdotes about toilets in general, I managed to get myself in bed, though it was a full three hours later than I had planned. In the morning, I called the office to put in a work order, and they were able to come by before the end of the day to fix things. Ah, the joys of a flushing toilet.

a whole month

It doesn't seem like it has been that long, but really it has. One whole month since the last time I posted on my blog here. A lot of little, uninteresting things have happened during that month, but nothing worth talking about on here. Oh, except that I'm now 27. According to my friend Katie, that means I'm now old.

I'm not at all happy about school this semester. I just don't feel like being here. Last year when this happened, I had a better social life to make up for my lack of scholastic enthusiasm. I hope something as good comes along today.

Tonight I've been feeling really annoyed. I'm tired as it is, and then when I went to Curves (which took great effort, as I really didn't want to go), the bus was a half hour late, and for reasons I don't want to take the time to explain right now, that meant that I couldn't actually go to Curves. So I wasted an entire hour of my life. Very frustrating. It made me want to eat something sweet to compensate for my anger (I'm very much an emotional eater), but I'm on a diet right now, so I had to try some low-carb brownies. I haven't actually tasted them yet, so we'll see how that goes.

Well, I have absolutely nothing else to say about anything (or at least not something that anyone cares to hear about), so I'll go ahead and go.

The last quote was from The Rocketeer.

I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours. (3 points, I expect most of you to know it)

And to make up for that easy quote, here's another.

I'm afraid after we're married a while, a beautiful young girl will come along and you'll forget all about me.

Don't be silly! I'll write you twice a week. (73 points, with half points for Margo, since she watched the movie with me recently, though I don't think she'll get this right away)

squeaky clean music

I'm really frustrated, because I spent a good, long time updating my blog earlier, but before I could get it published, Firefox malfunctioned and had to close down.

This morning I finished the two-day task of cleaning out my music files. I had collected about 15 gigs of music, and since I only have about 25G on my hard drive, I figured it was time to get rid of some of it. It's now down to about 11G. The task is not complete yet, since I still plan burn some music onto CDs (stuff like Christmas music that I don't listen to a lot but still want), but it sure feels good to have that much of it done.

I've been feeling really awful the last few days, with a terrbile cold. At least I think it's a cold, but it's quite different from my usual cold. Yesterday I even had my home teachers come over to give me a blessing. I felt silly getting a blessing for a cold, but it has seemed to help -- I feel a lot better today.

Right now I'm watching Going My Way with Bing Crosby on TCM. Bing is the star of the month, but I've seen very little on TCM with him in it. Tonight, though, they're showing three of his classic films, including Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's. It's making me pine for some >Road movies.

The last quote was from The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Acting is acting like you're not acting! (28 points)

graduating in England

Dad and I had a good time in England. Once we actually got there. We both were delayed getting to Chicago, where we were supposed to meet up for the same flight to Manchester. We had to stay over in Chicago for a night to take thse same flight one day later, but that turned out to be fine. We got really well acquainted with the international terminal of the O'Hare airport, that's all.

We got to Lancaster on Saturday. Riding the train from Manchester, I kept feeling like I was coming home again. Everything was just so familiar and comfortable.

On Sunday we went to church at the Lancaster ward, where I got to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and lead the closing hymn in Relief Society. I also got lots of hugs and got to introduce Dad to many of the ward. Vic and Sue Kureczko had invited Denise and Diana to dinner for that afternoon, and they asked us to come along as well. That made me very happy, because I really love spending time with Vic and Sue, and I also wanted Dad to get to know them a little, since they were such an important part of my life in Lancaster.

Monday was my graduation day. We spent about an hour in the morning doing a little shopping downtown, where I managed to find really good presents for Margo, Erin, and Kimberly. I was so excited about them! I could hardly wait for them to open their presents. :) But I still had about 48 hours before that, so ... Instead I showered and got pretty for graduation, and then Dad and I headed up to campus around noon. I got my robes and got dressed, and we went back to the Linguistics Department for our reception. (It was here that I fatally heard the song "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon. More about that later.) We got to speak to Jonathan and Elena, as well as Marj and a lot of the students who were there with me on the same course. I got pictures with them as well, some of which I've posted below.



me with Jonathan Culpeper (who supervised my dissertation)


me in Alexandra Park at Lancaster University

The graduation ceremony started at 3:00, so I had to be in my place by 2:00. Unfortunately, they didn't have the information that I would be attending, so I had to get them to squeeze me in to the line somewhere. I ended up with all the LLM graduands (as they're called in England), so I didn't have anyone near me that I knew. The girl next to me was really nice, though, so that made things better. (Oh, LLM is a Master's law degree, by the way.)

The ceremony itself was quite ... ceremonious. We had a knight and a princess present. Princess Alexandra, is a cousin to Queen Elizabeth, and she's nearly the same age as the Queen. She helped Lancaster University get its charter back in 1964 and served as Chancellor to the university from 1964 to 2004. At the end of the calendar year 2004 she retired from this (largely ceremonial) position, and Sir Christian Bonington took her place. Sir Christian is, I just learned, a famous mountaineer, and as Chancellor, he is the one all the graduands get to shake hands with when crossing the stage. I couldn't even tell, personally, which one was Princess Alexandra until after we had all walked, and she stood to receive an honorary doctorate in Music. There was a lot of standing up and sitting down, and there were trumpet fanfares when the academic procession entered and left the hall ... very ceremonious, as I said. Oh, and we also sang the first verse of the British national anthem right before the academic procession left the Great Hall. (I did sing along, in case anyone was wondering.)

That night, I went to sleep around 9:30, being very tired. I only slept a few hours, though, and woke up again just after midnight. I laid there for a while, found that I had John Lennon's "Happy Christmas" in my head, and eventually got up to sit in the bathroom and read a Georgette Heyer book I had bought on Saturday. After an hour or so of this, I got back in bed, closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing. Instead, I found I still had "Happy Christmas" running constantly through my mind. Try as I might to get it out, it just stuck like glue. After a few more hours, I got up and went back into the bathroom to read again. Eventually Dad got up -- apparently he was worried about me, sitting in the bathroom so long, and that woke him. He let me turn the light on again, so I got back in bed and read for a few more hours. Around 5:45, I finally fell asleep again. Unfortunately, we were planning to get up at 6:00 that morning to catch the train to the airport. Dad woke me around 6:40, and I happily still managed to get everything together all right.

We caught our train just fine, but it kept getting delayed on our way to Manchester. It seemed to barely crawl along most of the time, and I was getting pretty annoyed with them. Finally, they decided to terminate the service at Manchester Piccadilly, so we had to get out there and wait for the next train. That meant that we got to the airport around 9:15 instead of 8:45, and my plane was scheduled to leave at 10:00. Even after arriving there, we still had to go find the terminal, which took another 15 minutes. When I finally got to the American Airlines counter, the man asked me where I was going, and I said Boston. He looked at me and said, "You're joking?" Nope, I sure wasn't! He took me over to another lady, explained that I was going to Boston. She looked at him, looked at me, and asked, "You're joking?" When I managed to convince that I was not trying to play a very terrible prank on them, they got me a boarding pass and asked one of the security guys to take me down to the gate express. (Naturally, my bag was subjected to a random search on the way there.) We got to the gate before they had finished boarding, so it wasn't too awful. My flight was rather uneventful (except that the girl next to me got up to use the bathroom twice), and things were quite nice when I got to Boston. I hadn't checked any baggage, so I got through passport control and customs very quickly and had plenty of time left to get to my gate, have some lunch, and even finish grading my students' papers.

My roommates picked me up in Dallas, and we stopped off and had some dinner on the way home. It turns out that Erin and our friends Matt and Kimberly were going to see King Kong at the midnight show, and they had one ticket left. After a long struggle with myself, I decided to go with them. We enjoyed it immensely. It was very intense, and I found myself squirming in my seat a lot. I really love Jack Black, though, and he was wonderful in this role. The special effects were fantastic, too. All in all, we had a good time.

The last quote was from Dickens's "A Christmas Carol."

"I have a plan."
"Oh, you have a plan. You, who are practically incapable of any thought entering your head that is not - trivial."
(13 points)

nothing particular

Well, here I am. I really wanted to post today mostly so that I could inform my acquaintance that I have a new desktop/wallpaper picture. It has a picture of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby from one of the "Road to" films (I'm not sure which one). I found it on this great website called reeljewels.com. Great stuff.

Bing Crosby is this month's star on TCM, and we enjoyed that thoroughly last night. We watched the end of a film called Going Hollywood, then Pennies from Heaven was on. "Pennies from Heaven" is one of my favorite songs, and it was fun to see and hear it in its world premiere context. After that, they had two of the "Road to" shows (Singapore and Zanzibar, the first two), and then they played three Bob Hope movies to fill up the wee hours of the night. I really wanted to watch Bob, but I knew I was too tired to stay up for long, so I decided to sleep in the living room with the TV on all night. That way, I reasoned, if I woke up during the night, I would have some Bob Hope to watch. I didn't wake up at all, and I woke this morning with a terrible headache. (Now that I think about it, we probably could have recorded the movies, but I didn't think of that at the time. It was late.)

I'm getting excited to go to England in two days. :) I need to spend the rest of the day here trying to finish up some of my work so that I'll be ready to leave then. I have lots of writing to do for the Teaching Composition class I had at the beginning of the semester -- we have to turn in a Writer's Notebook, but it is due at the end of the semester instead of in the middle, when the class actually ended. So now I have to finish up all that work. I also have to work on a set of phonology problems, and continue reading about syntax for my online Linguistics class (which I really wish I hadn't taken).

Somehow, this all reminded me that I wanted to tell Elizabeth in particular about our cool friend Andrew. Andrew is in our singles ward down here, and he's a Thurber. His last name is Thurber. Right after I first met him, I asked if he might be related to James Thurber, and to my surprise he said he was. Just the other day I was talking to his dad about it too, and he says they're related to James on two different lines. In fact, Myron (Andrew's dad) has all kinds of genealogy and family history information about the Thurbers, which has never been published. Having read some Thurber and seen a few pictures, I can see the resemblance in both Myron and Andrew -- both their looks and their humor remind me of James.

Well, I suppose I'd better get along now. The last quote was from The Spanish Prisoner, a movie I really enjoy. It's by David Mamet, who also did The Winslow Boy (thanks, Emily!). The full quote is actually, "It just shows to go ya, you never know who anybody is."

This next quote is from one of my all-time favorite works. I just ran across it again the other day, and I have a new appreciation for it now, having been to St. Paul's Churchyard, which is undoubtedly one of the most "breezy" spots on the face of the planet.

If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind. (32 points)

home again

I had a super time in Kansas and Oklahoma City this week. I feel very much like part of Margo's family now -- they were all wonderful! I'm really happy for Warren and Rachael, too, and I'm sure they'll be very happy together. Rachael has such a fun sense of humor, and she and Warren are really fun together.

On Thursday we went over to Margo's Aunt Shelly's house, and there I realized that I had lived with Margo's cousin Kristie for a semseter at BYU. It was the one semester before I left for my mission. It was an odd coincidence, but I spent Thanksgiving in part with one of my roommates from six years ago. It was fun to see Kristie again, and it made me remember all kinds of fun things that happened that semester.

Friday we drove down to Oklahoma City, and the next morning Warren and Rachael got married. (Warren is Margo's older brother.) Margo's grandfather is currently serving as first counselor in the presidency at the Oklahoma City temple, and they have a condo right across the street from the temple. We had a little luncheon there for the family and a few friends who had come for the sealing. President and Sister Hill (Margo's grandparents) had invited the other members of the temple presidency to come over in the afternoon whenever they had time, to have some lunch. When the president and his wife came over, there were very few of us left. Sister Hill convinced Margo to play the piano for us, and at one point when everyone else was out of the room, a slightly uncomfortable silence fell, and I decided I'd best make some conversation. So I asked President Gillespie how things were over there. I really meant just over there by the window, where he and Sister Gillespie were eating. But he assumed I meant over there at the temple, so he started in to a long discussion of how this was one of the best assignments they'd had. He said they really enjoyed it because they could work together in this calling, where in all of their other callings, they hadn't really been able to. In the middle of this conversation, I began to realize that President Gillespie is also Elder Gillespie -- Elder H. Aldridge Gillespie of the Quorum of Seventy. I thought it was kind of funny, because it made me think how differently I would have behaved if I had realized that right away, but at the same time there was nothing at all wrong with the way I did behave. I was just much more relaxed and informal with them than I would otherwise have been. And President Gillespie seemed to really enjoy Margo's playing. A lot.

That night we slept at Margo's grandparents' condo. They put out an air mattress for us, and we put on a movie and lay in bed watching it. It was a great movie, Maytime, with Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald. I really liked it a lot! I wish that I could find it sometime so that all my friends can watch it. Until then, I guess I'll have to be content with the knowledge that Margo has seen it and can share all the little jokes with me.

The last quote was, indeed, Bob Hope. Congrats to Elizabeth, who gets 53 points (10 off for not knowing the exact source).

It just shows to go ya. (28 points -- another of those things that I always wish others were familiar with so I could share the joke, so if you know it, be sure and tell me and we'll be much closer friends!)

recent activities and Thanksgiving plans

All right, I know it's been close to forever since I posted, so I decided it's about time.

This morning I took Erin to the airport. She let me drive Sweetie (her new Scion) down to DFW and back. What an adventure! I've always enjoyed driving, and it's been a long time since I have, so that was nice. Plus, there were a couple of incidents that could have been much more serious than they were, so I was grateful to get home in one piece. I said a little prayer of thanksgiving. :)

Right now I'm watching Matlock on TV. Mysteries always make me happy, so that means I'm feeling pretty happy. Besides that, I'm having a great time procrastinating some of my more pressing schoolwork. I have at least three minor to major projects that I need to work on during Thanksgiving break, and I keep telling myself that I ought to be working on them now, but I just don't have the oomph to do it. I have to get them all done by Dec. 6, though, so that I don't have to worry about them once I'm ready to leave for England on Dec. 8.

For Thanksgiving, I'm going up to Kansas with Margo. I'm looking forward to meeting her family, and I also get to see two (count 'em, two!) new states. I've never been to Kansas before, and on Friday we're going to Oklahoma as well, where Margo's brother is getting married. Should make for a fun rest of the week. I'm a little sad that we'll have to miss our ward on Sunday, but beggars can't be choosers and all that. Plus, I'm actually looking forward to spending a Sunday in a family ward and seeing some new faces and all.

Speaking of church, I had a tithing settlement interview on Sunday, and the bishop did something I've always hated and dreaded. After talking about my tithing and making sure my records are correct, he asked me (and I quote): "Have you met any young men?" I really wasn't sure what to say to that. Sure, I've met plenty of guys here, but did he really expect me to tell him who I'm crushing on? What would he have if I had given him somebody's name? What makes it worse, I specifically asked Margo, and she says he didn't ask her about it. Does this mean that he's specifically concerned about me? that he knows of someone who's interested? I'm probably making a bigger deal about this than I need to, but I just can't help wondering.

Well, I suppose I'll get going now. I don't have anything else mildly interesting to say, and you're probably all bored to tears already anyway.

The last quote was from Clue, a movie that I just love! Tim Curry has always cracked me up, and he's especially wonderful in that one.

I'll have to kiss this girl because she's got just the kind of lips I love: one on top and one on bottom. (63 points, since this is a rather obscure one)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween weekend has been interesting. On Friday, Erin took me to go get the finishing touches for me costume, and that night we all went to a YSA dance in Hearst (about 45 mins away). The dance ended at midnight, and after that we decided to go to IHOP. However, Matt got us a little lost on the way back to Denton, and we took quite the detour through the heart of Dallas. We finally got to IHOP around 1:45, and we got back to our apartment about 3:00. That was not a good decision -- I'm still recovering from it!

On Saturday we mostly hung around in the apartment, recuperating. We got a couple of Hitchcock films from the UNT Media Library and watched those. In the evening we went to the Institute Halloween Party. We hung out there for about an hour or so, and then we all went over to Matt's house to watch Rope, another Hitchcock film. The Hitchcock touch is very apparent in that one.

Sunday we had been invited over to have dinner with some friends of ours in the ward, Nikki and Lauren. They fed us Hawaiian Haystacks, which was very good, and we had a fun conversation afterward. Nikki is fast becoming one of my favorite people in our ward.

Despite sleeping in quite a bit both Saturday and Sunday, I still have not fully recovered from Friday's lat night, as previously mentioned. In my first class this morning, one of my students even commented on it: "Wow, you look tired! Are you OK?" Well, at least I know they care about my well-being, huh?

Oh! and it rained today, too, which is always welcome, especially here in Texas. I had to walk through it in the rain to go to Institute today, and that was wonderful!

All right, here's the moment I know you've all been waiting for -- drumroll please! -- the pictures of my goth costume. (Well, all right, it's really only one, at least for right now.) I must add that I had a super time being gothic, and I have some fun stories about shopping at Hot Topic.



And finally, a great quote for the day. The last one was specifically from School of Rock, a hilarious movie.

"To make a long story short --" "Too late." (23 points)

just cuz

This Sunday my roommates and I all stayed at home and just hung out. We haven't done that in a long time, and it was nice to just relax and have all that time. Not that we don't enjoy having people over, or going to other people's houses, but it's always nice to have a little change. We played Trouble, which Erin won, and then lots of Boggle, which Erin definitely won too. She's disturbingly good at that game. I might not be able to play with her any more.

I'm getting really excited for Halloween, but unfortunately my roommates this year aren't into it that much. I hadn't enjoyed Halloween much for several years, until I lived with Katie and Holly. Between the two of them, you would have thought Halloween was the biggest event of the entire year. Anyway, I couldn't get either Erin or Margo to take me over to Kroger last night for a pumpkin to carve. I might have to just do it on my own during the next day or two.

I also really need to get going on my costume. Ever since I went to Whitby last Halloween, I've been planning on dressing up as a Goth for this year. I have been intending to go out to Hot Topic at the mall and buy some clothes for that, but I haven't gotten to it yet. For one thing, I was hoping Erin would come with so that (1) I could ride in her car and wouldn't have to worry about taking the bus, and (2) I would have some moral support while I was in the store trying things on. That store still just makes me nervous, even though I've been in there several times before and have always found the people (especially the employees) to be super-nice. I guess it's just a little too far out of my comfort zone. But, the point is, I may have to go by myself tomorrow afternoon anyway. And hope they still have clothes left that fit me.

The last quote was from Chicken Run -- good job Paul and Elizabeth.

Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym. (20)

the weekend

Last night we went to our friend Matt's house. His family lives in Corinth, just a few miles south of Denton, and they let us come over all the time and feed us good food. His mom was making ribs last night for dinner, and she let us come and join them. Boy, was it good! After that we watched Sahara with her on DVD. Much better than I had been expecting. (I also figured out last night why it is that I always have to go to the bathroom so much at Matt's -- it's because I always go over there and drink all their Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. :))

After that we went back into Denton and met our friend Andrew at the mall to see Redeye at the cheap-o theater. Kimberly and I enjoyed it a lot (partly because we really like Cillian Murphy), but pretty much everyone else felt that it was ... what were the words? ... I believe they said, "The worst movie I have ever seen." Yeah, that's right. To be honest, it wasn't that great, but I wasn't expecting it to be any better than that. After all, it was a rather low-budget thriller movie -- how much can you really expect from those these days?

Oh, yeah, and tonight is the ward Hay Ride. Whoopee! They're planning to give us hot chocolate ... I'm not sure how necessary that will be, since it's currently 74 degrees.

Now, the most important thing is, we have to work as a team. Which means, you do everything I say. (18)

Yesterday's quote was, indeed, from Batman Begins. I am going to try really hard from now on to use quotes that my roommates won't have an advantage in. Though, I was trying to do that last time, and it turned out that Margo remembered I had said earlier that day how excited I was the Batman Begins was out on DVD. Hmm. I obviously have to be much more careful, eh?

another update

So, life here has been pretty hectic lately. However, this is the celebratory week of the semester, since my nasty six-hour-a-week graduate class on teaching composition is over now. YIPPEEE!!!!

On the other hand, that also means that this is now the middle of the semester, and classes are starting to get a lot harder. I have a Phonology test in a week and a half, and I need to start going on memorizing (and understanding) a whole bunch of phonological features and phonological processes. Yikes! That's what's got me most worried right now.

I am starting work on a new website that I would like to use for supplemental materials for the classes I teach. I'm trying to see if I can get it up to speed so that I can use it for next semester when I teach 1320. Speaking of which, I'm very excited about 1320, since it is more literature-based and has fewer actual papers for the students to write (or for me to grade).

Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding. (21 points)

P.S. I forgot to tell you the answers from the last post.
(1) "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." --The Princess Bride
(2) a word that is 'sandwiched' in another word (e.g., scrumdiddlyumptious) --tmesis
(3) "She foresaw that she was doomed to a lonely spinsterhood." --Gerogette Heyer, Regency Buck (BTW, I decided to give Emily 20 points for that, since she did know it was Heyer, just not which book it was.)

a new life, a new template, and a new scoreboard

Well, here is. Welcome to my re-designed blog. Happily, this one renders correctly. Let's hope that lasts.

I'm also starting the scoreboard over again. Congrats to Kimberly for winning on the last one. And congrats to Emily, for getting the Henry V quote from the last post. The final score stand as follows:

• Kimberly: 465


• Erin: 437


• Paul: 279


• Elizabeth: 263


• Donovan: 205


• Emily: 178


• Margo: 107


• Amber: 50


• Christina: 10

We'll now start over on the points. Let me explain the rules again ... "No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (15 points for that one)

• If you know the answer, post it to my blog. Answers will not be awarded points if submitted in person, in emails, or by any other method.


• Even if someone else has already answered, you can still get points. (We're on the honor system here; if you say you know it, I believe you.)


• However, you can't look the quote up. You have to know it in your head without help from others (the Internet is an other).


• Points will no longer be awarded retro-actively; in other words, you can only get points for the quote in the current post.

In other news, a cold front has swept into the Denton area, and I've been having a fandiddlytastic time with it. (An extra 60 points if you know the term for a word embedded within another word, e.g. 'fandiddlytastic'.) I wore my black boots, black raincoat, and black Harry Lime scarf. Boy, did that feel good!

She foresaw that she was doomed to a lonely spinsterhood. (40 points)

a new post, for Erin

Erin has been telling me that I need to post something new, so here it is.

Today has been bee-yutiful weather here. If you remember, when I lived in Lancaster, the phrase meant that the sun was out and it was over 60 degrees. Here in Denton, it means almost the opposite: the sun is not shining, the temperature is under 70. I was actually cold today when I went to Curves, and I was even wearing a long-sleeved shirt! The temperature was around 63 today, and the sun was nowhere visible. Oh, it was wonderful! It reminded me of school at Ricks College.

The other day I got my first paycheck from the university for teaching my composition sections. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm being paid twice as much for this job as I thought I was. Yay! That means I can afford to do things like getting a Roth IRA, and buying some clothes.

Now, though, I'm starting (already!) to get worried about the need for a summer job. I'm not sure yet whether or not I'll be going to school this summer, but I know I'll need a job. Dr. Raign reccommended that we apply at the local community colleges, but I don't have a car, and it'll be difficult to get that far to work every day. I have also been planning to start selling Pre-Paid Legal, but I'm not sure I can get that working for me enough to support myself in the summer. I'm going to have to give this some serious consideration.

Also, I just was looking at the website for the local community theater, and it made me think that I need to go see them about working as a techie backstage. They're about to hold auditions (Oct. 30-31) for Romeo and Juliet, which they'll be performing in January.

Oh! and my most exciting news. I'm going to England for a few days in December for my graduation. I bought the tickets on Sunday, and now I'm waiting to see if my dad or my friend Katie wants to come with me. Katie says she wants to, but she has to get some extra personal days off work, so she's waiting for approval from the powers that be.

You'll be interested to see that there's a new contender on the points board. Welcome, Kimberly! Kimberly is a friend of ours here in Denton, and she's studying for her Master's in Library Science (just like Erin, which is how they met). She's already out-stripped Erin on points, mainly due to the fact that she got my quote from Holiday Inn, which earned her 380 points off the bat.

At the suggestion and insistence of several persons (Erin among them), I am going to re-set the point board. But not until tomorrow. I thought I'd give you some fair warning before doing that, and a farewell quote.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. (30 points)

the results are in!

And they're good! I got a 76 on my dissertation (remember, anything above a 70 is an A grade at Lancaster). That means I also earned an overall distinction for my Master's degree, and that's definitely a good thing. :)

Erin wants me to mention her, so I just did. She is sitting on the couch behind me while I type this. I also have to just say that Erin is one of the best roommates I've ever had. She makes life very entertaining, and she's really mellow and laid-back about roommate-y issues (like clutter in the room, or who gets the bathroom when, or whose turn it is to do the dishes).

A couple of weeks ago, I had a really wacky dream about my classes, in which Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart were listed on my roll. Cary came, but Jimmy was absent that day. So when I went to teach that day, I told my students about it, and I was quite surprised by the reaction it got: "Who's Cary Grant?" Wow. The things my students don't know sometimes really shock me. I plan to show them a clip from a Cary Grant movie soon, in an effort to educate them for life and broaden their horizons -- while at the same time teaching them how to write, of course.

eagerly awaiting ...

Assuming that Marj (the Linguistics Department secretary at Lancaster University) was nice and not overly annoyed by my early email and those of dozens of other eager Master's students, I should have an email waiting for me tomorrow to announce the results of my Master's dissertation. I'll be sure to let you all know right away as soon as I learn anything.

I have to get up extra early tomorrow morning so that I have time to go over to the media library on campus and check out 'Shrek'. I want to use the "ogres-are-like-onions-because-they-have-layers" clip tomorrow in my composition classes. We're doing a pracitce peer review in my classes, and I want to first discuss all the different layers of writing (e.g., grammar, spelling, wording, ideas, organization, etc.) and make sure the students understand that peer reviewing is much more than just saying that someone spelled a word wrong. Although I suppose I should check the media library's hours first, just to make sure they'll actually be there when I plan to be.

life in Texas

Well, here I am in Texas, and we finally just got our router working the other day so that I can get internet access on my own computer (instead of using Erin's to check my email, etc).

The first week of school was pretty hard to take. I just feel so disorganized and unprepared for everything, and it has already caused some small trouble. Luckily, with this being Labor Day, I've got some time to get myself organized and prepared before anything else really major comes up.

I am teaching two sections of Freshman Composition, which is a challenge. Along with that, I'm taking three graduate courses: one in teaching composition (which only lasts half the semester, thank heavens!), one in phonology (which makes me feel like a linguist again, since lots of other things are making me feel more like an English major these days), and one online course in principles of linguistics.

My roommate's family was wonderful in donating lots of furniture to us when we moved in to our new, unfurnished apartment. That means that all three of have beds (halelujah!), and we have a couch, a kitchen table and chairs, and lots of dishes and cleaning supplies. My other roommate also bought a washer and dryer, so we have our own laundry facilities, which is also great.

We are living just a few blocks away from campus, so we can walk to classes and to institute and church. I'm taking a church history institute class, which I'm pretty excited for. Also, all three of us just got callings at church yesterday. Margo is the ward pianist and Erin is a family history consultant. I'm either a Visiting Teaching supervisor or coordinator -- there was a slight confusion, and the RS president wasn't there, so we couldn't ask her. I haven't been set apart yet, and we'll wait until next week so that we can be sure I get set apart as the right thing. Either way, though, I'm feeling pretty happy about that calling. I do love Visiting Teaching, even though I'm not always great about getting it down, and I think it's frequently misunderstood and underused. And besides, I think it will take a lot less effort and time than many of the callings I've had recently -- no ward council meetings, no conducting RS meetings, etc.

Last, but not least, here's the movie I just finished watching on TV:

A man in a really nice capmer wants to put our song on the radio! (76 points)

Travelling to Texas

I am here sitting in our hotel room in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Dad’s on the phone with Mom, who claims to have been sitting by the phone waiting for our call, though we don’t quite believe her. Last night we stayed in Blanding, Utah, and this morning we went to church there. That means we got a later start today, and then we went to both Four Corners monument and Monument Valley. Dad was pretty excited about the latter of these, as there were apparently some great westerns filmed there. His favorite of those is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, a John Ford film starring John Wayne. We stopped several times to take pictures. We were hoping to make it to Tucumcari, New Mexico, tonight, but with our late start, we decided that was just a bit too far. Tomorrow we will be going through Amarillo on our way to Denton, where I will be installed in a hotel for the rest of the week to wait for Erin and Margo to show up. On Friday we will then move into our new apartment. I just hope I don’t get bored to death waiting for that day.

My dissertation

I haven’t written much during the summer, as I’ve mostly been very busy with other things. I sent off my dissertation last Thursday, which was a great feeling. I felt like there should be someone there taking my picture at the post office while I handed it over.

I had the devil of a time of it getting my dissertation printed in the first place, actually. I had forgotten until Thursday morning that it had to be printed and handed in on A4 paper. A4 is the standard letter-size paper throughout Europe, but we don’t use it here in the States. I knew before I left England that it would have to be printed on A4 paper, but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. And, unfortunately, I had forgotten about that detail until Thursday. I called around to a few places to find out if anyone sold A4 (which they don’t), and got hold of someone at Falls Printing who suggested that I print it on 11x14 paper and then cut it down the right size (A4 is about 8.3 by 11.7 inches). When I got to the place, though, I talked to someone completely different who said it was really odd to want 11x14 paper, which it is. She cut some paper for me, though, probably close to 1,000 sheets of it, and gave it to me for free, referring me to Zip Print a few streets over to get it printed. Zip Print was unable to print it, though they tried diligently, and it was there that I had the inspiration to use a standard legal size paper, 85.x14, and then cut *that* down. The folks at Zip Print sent to someone at a place called Beta Graphics, telling me that he could do it if anyone could. So I tried him. His office was supposed to be just a few streets over again, but when I got there I found that he had moved. So I found his new location, clear on the other side of town. But no one was there. So I sat on the curb and called his number on Mom’s cell phone. I got him fairly easily, but it turned out that he was on vacation in Reno, Nevada, until Tuesday. Of course, I needed the job done by the next day at the latest. He suggested I try Eagle Press, so I headed over there. Happily, the folks at Eagle Press were able to get it taken care of for me. Sheesh, though! I sure wish I had thought about that particular complication much earlier. Although I guess I’m mostly just glad that I remembered it at all, and didn’t try sending it on 8.5x11 paper — that would have been a much bigger mess in the end.

Going to storage

The only other terribly important thing that happened since coming home from England actually happened during the first week. I went down to the family storage unit to get some things out of there and found that my big metal trunk, which was stuffed with my possessions, had been leaked into and several of my things were both water-logged and mildewy. I had to throw away several of my books, including my Holladay lexicon of the Hebrew Bible, my Hebrew grammar, and my cherished American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. I was seriously bummed! In fact, I was so upset about my American Heritage that I almost cried about it if I thought too long. A large part of my attachment to that particular dictionary was that it was a gift from my parents when I graduated from high school, so there will never really be another like it. Luckily, though, most of my other books were just fine, including my actual Hebrew Bible — I’d much rather have to replace my lexicon and grammar than the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

Well, I suppose that’s about it for now. Dad and I are watching an old western on TV, and I’m feeling pretty tired, so I’d better go to sleep now. In any case, it’s certainly time to get dressed for bed. I’ll let you all know when I get to Denton ... provided, that is, that there is wireless internet access in that hotel.

what i love about President Bush

I was just watching Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, answering questions on MSNBC. The reporter started out with several questions about John Roberts, and then moved on to the ubiquitous Karl Rove-Valerie Plame "scandal". He asked Card whether there was an internal investigation going on and didn't get the answer he wanted. So he asked the question another way. And then another. Finally, Card said, "Look, you can ask the question any way you want, the answer is still going to be the same."

This is the kind of thing that I love about President Bush and the people he asks to work with him. They are not about appearances and looking good all the time, they're about doing what they believe is right. And they're not afraid of being looked at unfavorably for doing that. They don't allow the media, other politicians, or opinion polls to dictate the terms on which they will operate. As Jay Nordlinger frequently says, there will never be another quite like him.

still alive

I just want to reassure everyone that I am, indeed, still alive. I know I haven't been around much on the 'Net lately, as I've been working hard on my dissertation. I did read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince during the weekend, though, and I'm excited to discuss with anyone and everyone, particularly on Chronicles. But right now, back to the old grindstone ...

He who hesitates is sometimes saved. (23 points)

a big update, and coming home

Amazingly, I finished packing myself up and cleaning my room about 10 minutes before the porter was supposed to come check me out (and he's still not here yet, anyway). So, I thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to for the last week or so, before starting War of the Worlds for the Chronicles book club (finally!).

Scotland

From the 14th to the 21st of June, I travelled around Scotland. I first went to Inverness and 'made camp' there for the night. Inverness was a very lovely little town, the kind of place where I thought I could live. I also stayed in what became one of my favorite hostels (Eastgate Backpackers, if anyone's interested). The next morning I went out to Culloden Battlefield, to see where the Jacobites and Bonnie Prince Charlie were defeated in 1746, in the last battle to be fought on British soil (so far).

After Culloden, I hopped on a bus to Ullapool and then took the ferry to Stornoway, in the Outer Hebrides. Stornoway is the capital of the Outer Hebrides, and it's a 'big' port on the Isle of Lewis. The main part of town is rather blah, but when I walked out into the residential areas a bit more, I found it quite lovely. While there I also travelled across the island to see the Callanish Standing Stones, which were quite fascinating. After that I tried to take the bus up to the northern tip of the island to see the lighthouse at the Butt of Lewis, but I missed a connecting bus and ended up having to hitch-hike the 14 miles to the lighthouse. The first man who picked me up was a local, and he took me about halfway to where I was going, chatting amiably the whole way. (He had a great Hebridean accent, which is quite unique, and it was fun to listen to him talk.) After he let me out, I then found a nice little family from Wigan who took me the rest of the way to the lighthouse. There were a husband and wife, Terry and Irene, along with Irene's Aunt Irene and their dog Marcus. They were there on holiday, and they happened to be going to the lighthouse, so they took me there with them. In fact, when we arrived there, they offered to take me back to Stornoway. They were a very sweet family, quintessentially English, and I was very glad to have met them.

After a few days in the Outer Hebrides, I then went down to stay a few days in a little village a few miles from Loch Ness. I had to wait two hours in Inverness for a connecting bus, and while I was there, I ran into the missionaries, so I stopped and asked them if there was a ward in Inverness, where and when they met, and promised to do my best to make it there on Sunday. When I got to the hostel in Lewiston, there were lots of people there, all of whom seemed to know each other. I met a girl named Scout from Austin, Texas, who had been backpacking around the UK by herself for the last month or so. We walked down the road to see Urquhart Castle together, and I had a really nice time chatting with her. The castle (which has been in ruins since 1691) is closed at night, so we climbed a fence to get to it (only after having been assured by the lady at the hostel that no one would care). In fact, when we got down to the castle, we found half a dozen others there. We had a fun time exploring the ruins in the semi-darkness, having set out from the hostel around 11:00 pm. When we got back to the hostel at 1:00 am, there was still visible daylight in the west. That's one of the cool things about Scotland, how little darkness there is in the summer. In fact, that's one of the reasons I waited so long to go to Scotland -- I had thought about going in November last year, but decided I couldn't cope with the darkness for practically the whole day. There was very little to do in Lewiston or Drumnadrochit, unless you wanted to pay exorbitant fees, which I didn't, so I spent most of the day on some walks around the area. In the morning I walked through a wetland forest to get to the edge of Loch Ness, and when I got there I found a film crew just taking down their equipment. I got chatting with them and learned that they were filming a program for the National Geographic Channel about the science of the loch. Gotta watch out for that one in the future. (They said it was supposed to air in the States in about 3-4 months.)

The next day was Sunday, and so I first went to church in Inverness. The ward there was very small, but I found them very friendly. In fact, they were so friendly that they asked me to bear my testimony as the first speaker in Sacrament Meeting. (!) I told them I would, even though I felt very self-conscious and out of place in my courderoy pants and Lancaster University hoodie. I left church about 15 minutes early to catch my train to Edinburgh, where I spent the last two days of my trip. When I first got there on Sunday afternoon and checked in to the hostel, I really didn't like the city, and told my dad that when I called him to wish him a happy Father's Day. But as I walked around the city the next day and got more familiar with it, I began to like it a lot. Enough that I think I could live there, after all, but only for a few months at a time. Unless, that is, I could convince them to let me be a tour guide at the Georgian House. :)

Last Days in England

So, here I am, all packed and ready to come home. I was quite sure that there was no possible way to get everything I own into the two suitcases and two carry-ons that I have. Shockingly, though, I got it all in, and finished quite a bit earlier than I had expected to. The GradStock end-of-year festival is going on right outside my window (and I do mean right outside), so I get to listen to all kinds of loud live music until well into the night. Unfortunately, most of it is terrible, but occasionally a good band comes along. It's now well over an hour past the time when the porter was supposed to come check me out of my room, so I suppose I'd better go make sure he realizes he's supposed to see me. After that I'll call and order a cab for tomorrow, then call my parents, and then do some reading before going to bed.

"Let their motto be, 'Hunt, shoot, and fight - the rest is not worth a fillip!' Such should be my device, were I a man." (15 points for the source, plus an extra 10 if you can name the person who says it)