snowcat

I spent the last hour outside in the snow, building a snowkitten with Sue and some guys from Richards second floor and Childs. It was supposed to be a snowman bigger than the law school dorms' snowman, but we had some trouble with the building of it so we decided to make it unique instead.



Making snowballs takes some technique. You have to start with a compacted handful of snow, and then you just roll it around and it grows like crazy. It was tons of fun but now my gloves and my pants and my jacket and my boots are all hanging up to dry...

snowmelt

While I was eating dumplings for breakfast I saw the snowplow drive by, plowing the paths. Then I started seeing shards of ice coming off the roof. Now the snow is blowing off the tree branches in chunks. I think I'm starting to be a little worried about the process of getting to class. The path goes right through a grove. I may look like a snowman by the time I'm through. Either that or I'll be lying flat on my back somewhere between here and the Science Center, knocked out by a mischievous tree with a massive snowball.

let it snow

Just woke up and glanced bleary-eyed out the window, then did a double-take and bolted out of bed. It's snowing! And for the first time, it's snowing hard enough that the branches of the trees are caked with white. It's incredibly pretty. Down and the street the the bicycles and parked cars have been blanketed too. In a moment you can watch the pace and direction of the snowfall change from rushing straight down to drifting horizontally, or gusting upward even.

Of course, I haven't gone outside yet, so I thought I'd better say how much I like looking at it from indoors before I try to make it to class.

Monday Night Practice Session

Tonight I went dancing at the Monday Night Practice Session (that's the one run by the five guys named Mike) for the first time in a couple of weeks. I've been so busy with papers that I haven't had the time or energy recently to go dancing anywhere.

For the first half hour there weren't any guys there, so I was starting to think about heading back to the dorm, but then they began to trickle in one by one. The first few dances I was pretty rusty. Then it turned into a flow of one great dance after another, and I hardly got to sit down. It was really great exercise, but I was regretting not having brought an extra blouse.

There were two highlights of my evening, which I was contemplating as I walked back in the rain. The first was when I finished a dance with Dudley, and he told me that he really liked my following in general (as opposed to Lindy-style following), which cheered me up tremendously. Dudley is quite difficult to follow. He does lots of full stops and syncopations.

The second great moment was when a guy I had never seen before came up to me and hesitantly said, "Would you like to dance? I was told you were beginner-friendly, and I've just started." Isn't that great? His name was Adam, and I hope he comes back. But I think the Practice Session really intimidated him, so I have a feeling he may not. It seems counterintuitive, but the Practice Session folks are incredibly high-level dancers and can be really rather offputting. What they're "practicing" half the time is fancy steps rather than anything basic. It's a wonder I ever got started there.

laundry list

So I was doing laundry this morning and trying to figure out what the little symbols on the washing tag of my new camisoles meant. I've seen these before but always just took a guess at what they might mean, based on looking at the fabric. Well, anyway, I found a nice website online to explain it all. Now maybe I won't shrink so many of my clothes.

Leonids

When the alarm went off at 4:15 Sandra and I peeled ourselves off her mattress and began putting on layers of clothing to go outside and see the Leonids. Cream fleece long johns; midnight blue pajama pants; black nylon overpants; camisole; turtleneck; brown cashmere pullover; thick black wool felt coat; crimson cashmere scarf; double-layer grey-and-black wool felt hat; cashmere-lined leather gloves. By 4:30 or so I was downstairs trying to stuff my feet (thick with socks) into my shoes. Sandra looked like a walking pillow, wearing Katie's fluffy white down jacket.

We tried to keep the house dark while we got ready so that our eyes wouldn't have to adjust when we went out, but as it turned out it was brighter outside than in. After wandering around the neighborhood confronted at every turn by streetlights, we settled for lying down on the concrete ramp up to the house across from John & Karen's. There were lights all around, and the moon was full and bright, so I cupped my face with gloved hands to block the glare, and tried to focus on the sky.

The sky was dark blue and the only two major constellations I know were visible: we could pick out the Big Dipper to our right and Orion to our left. Our first few meteors were spectacular; bright thick streaks across the sky directly overhead. We saw eight or so in the first ten minutes before we decided to go in and make some tea. With our mugs of lychee black in hand, we were more intrepid. In hopes that there would be less light at the back of the local church, we walked the few minutes' distance through the frosty grass and leaves; but no such luck. We came back to the concrete ramp.

It was about 5:10. We squinted into the sky. My back tried to mold itself to the cold concrete. My glasses fogged with the warmth of my breath. We chatted about nothing in particular, punctuated with exclamations of Did you see that one! and Wow! That was so bright! and occasionally we both dropped the conversation entirely when we saw the same meteor glow and fade. The anticipation quickly became addictive. By the end we were chanting "Come on! Big money!" The most beautiful one I saw streaked bright golden-red through the Big Dipper. By the time we went back in around 5:30, stiff with cold, we had counted 63 meteors. It was hard not to keep glancing out the windows in hopes of seeing "just one more".

By the time we left the house again, the sky was paling with sunrise. On the way back to my dorm in John's Range Rover we stopped at McDonald's for two cups of hot cocoa and four hash browns. So we've made a date in advance to try to see the next big Leonid shower together--when we're 58...

garlic twists

It was supposed to snow an inch this morning, but instead it was just windy and very cold. Brrrrr.

I had a proposal for a term paper due today, so I was up till 1 am or so working on it, and then I woke up at 7:45, a full hour before my alarm was set to go off. So I'm pretty tired right now.

I just got out of class and I'm munching on a pizza-box's worth of garlic twists which I bought on my way home at the Greenhouse, the cafe on the ground floor of the Science Center that is freezing cold because it has one wall that is all glass, from which the place was presumably named. What do you want to bet the guy who designed it was from California and totally clueless?

I must admit I spent the last half-hour of class looking forward to these garlic twists instead of listening to the discussion.

blog debugging

I finally fixed a bug in the code for the bookworm blog which was making the archive pages invisible, with Kekoa's help. I spent two hours comparing my code line by line by line, and then Kekoa told me what the problem was in 2 minutes on the phone! Argh! Well, anyway, I'm VERY happy that the problem is solved.

This morning I had coffee at Starbucks with Nick Rasmussen, who is visiting his family in Boston for just a couple of weeks; normally he's a Senior Lecturer (=Assistant Professor) in Australia. He taught me when he was visiting Berkeley a few years ago. Anyway, he gave me lots of good advice about applying to graduate school, and it was really nice to have the chance to chat.

I had lunch and dinner in the dorm today. I made rice and shrimp gyoza for lunch, and ate at the common room table with Giulia (from Italy) and Michelle (from Korea). I got to explain the difference between Asian pears and European pears to them. Giulia had never seen an Asian pear and Michelle had never eaten a fresh European pear. Michelle had just gone to the supermarket and picked out the firmest green pears she could find, not realizing that European pears are meant to be eaten when they're soft from ripening! It was no wonder her mouth had been puckering from eating her very sour pear.

Later, for dinner, Michelle borrowed my pot to cook ox-tail rice soup (which I then got to eat!), and I sat with Paromita (from India) and Michelle talking about different spices, and laughing at my inability to eat spicy food. I tried Michelle's kimchee. I drank LOTS of soup. Whoo.

bedding upgrade

It has been very hectic the past couple of weeks. I have a take-home midterm due next Wednesday to work on, so I guess it's just the normal midterm-time crunch. All of a sudden there seems to be a ton of reading and writing to do, plus my grad school applications, and lots of talks to attend. Next Tuesday one of the professors from Berkeley will be visiting, for example. She's up for consideration for a job here at Harvard.

This morning two big boxes arrived for me from Sierra Trading Post. One had the featherbed and the other had the down comforter--both of which looked very unimpressive right after I unpacked them, but looked a little better after I fluffed them up. The thread count of the comforter is very high (700 ct instead of the average 200-300), and you can tell by the hand of the material; it's very smooth. My bed feels like a nice big pillow now. The only problem is that I haven't got a duvet cover for the comforter and since it's white I'm sure it will get dirty very easily. Maybe I can look for a cover when I go home for Christmas. I think Mom said there was a good outlet store for linens somewhere.

I am eating corned beef and rice with stir-fried mushrooms, water chestnuts, and baby corn. These are actually leftovers from last night. I walked all the way to the dining hall in the wind and rain, only to figure out when I got there that I left my ID card back in my room on the bed. Grr. I didn't want to go back out again (since it was late anyway and you feel like a scavenging dog near the end of the mealtime--there's hardly anything left on the warming trays or in the salad bar, and good luck finding any ice cream) and so I made myself some food. A lot of food. It's hard cooking for one.

more maintenance

So I haven't been posting much because I have been doing maintenance stuff on the blog. I've switched to a different hosting service which is supposed to be more stable, and also allows me to host several ad-free blogs from the same address. And just since I can do it, I've started two new blogs--one detailing what I'm reading (because it just seemed like it was really a separate issue from my general journal) and the other on whatever wines I manage to drink. I hardly ever drink, really, which is annoying because then I can never remember what it was I had that I liked or hated so that I can find or avoid something like it again. So there are links now to these blogs on the right. Not that there is anything much there yet, but there will be.