What we're listening to

Need a little lift to your Christmas listening? Try NPR's Jingle Jams. I'll credit this find to Jeremy.

Best Film of 2009

Hands down, Little Dorrit. I was absolutely riveted for nearly eight hours. Highly worth watching. Highly.

Biggest Accomplishments of 2009

..Jonathan.. Our little Bug gets to have two biggest accomplishments: finally learned to walk (at nearly 15 months) and finally learning to say Mama (after probably two full months of saying "Dada"). Here's a moving picture of him walking. Such a sweet baby!



..Clara.. This is the face of a girl who no longer wears nappies! (I thought just a picture of Clara would be better than an "action shot," if you know what I mean.)



..Rachel.. If I do a repeat performance of this accomplishment, my only goal is to not come in last in my age division. I aim high.



..Jeremy.. I really debated about this one. At first I thought I could list all the progress he's made on his dissertation, or the publications he's had accepted. Then I realized that nothing says "biggest accomplishment" like jumping over a 6'5" man. Even though Jeremy screams like a girl and nearly kills himself (as you'll see in the video), it's still impressive. Six foot five. Wow. (Additional information, as (truthfully) provided by Jeremy: 1)the sun was in his eyes; 2)he had already lept gracefully over me twice, which is fatiguing even though I'm only 5'4"; 3)he'd eaten a worrisome amount of roasted pig.) I recognize that it doesn't look that impressive in the video, but in the moment it was truly a sight to behold.

Best Book of 2009

Looking back over my Goodreads list, I noticed that I read several books that I quite liked this year. But if I had to choose one book that I read in the last 12 months and truly enjoyed, I'd have to go with Life of Pi. There's a chance I actually read this just before the New Year, but even so it meets all of the qualifications of good reading to me: great writing, a gripping story, sympathetic characters, and--perhaps most importantly--it stayed with me. Even after a full year (if not more) I still find myself thinking about Life of Pi. Great read.

At the same time, I vaguely remember having shed actual tears while reading this year. What book was that? Does anyone remember?

Lights!

Last evening we braved some very chilly weather (18 degrees--but it isn't getting any warmer in the next week, if you know what I'm saying) to see the Christmas lights downtown. Perhaps you are not aware that the Coeur d'Alene Resort features The Largest Floating Resort Holiday Light Show in America, but it is indeed true.


We are fortunate that one of Jonathan's only words is "lights," which meant that he was an active and blissful participant in the evening's conversation ("What do you see, Jonathan?" "Ites!" "What's that, Jonathan?" "Ites!"). Clara was disappointed to not be able to "go through" the castle of lights, but she was pretty excited about the lit Nativity, the lit sea monster, the lit Noah's Ark, and the lit world. And she was particularly thrilled to meet Rudolph and Frosty on the boardwalk (The World's Longest Floating Boardwalk, as it happens), both of whom gave her a hug and a candy cane.



It was a fun, if cold night. We were practically running towards the end, both to expidite the holiday cheer and to increase our distance from the random person in a Santa suit lurking at one of the docks. Odd.

Stay tuned for our holiday cruise to the North Pole, upon which we will hopefully embark when temperatures are out of the teens. Brrrr...

Best Article of 2009

A fellow instructor shared this article with me, and I had my students read and discuss it. The article is from a 1996 edition of Newsweek and talks about how some (many!) college students are prone to, you know, not really doing anything in class for an entire semester. Then when they receive their well-deserved (and dismal) grade they start in with the phone calls and emails begging for extra credit and leniency. Well, my friend Kurt Wiesenfeld and I do not buy their sob stories, no indeed we do not. I am much more merciful as an instructor to my students who communicate with me throughout the semester than I am to the students who come in the 13th hour and just cannot understand why never coming to class or doing any homework warrants a failing grade.

Can you tell it's almost the end of the semester? I think if any such emails from students start coming my way I will just forward them a link to this article with my kindest regards for better luck next time. If only luck was all it took...

Best Restaurant Moment of 2009

In times like these, you know...

Best of 2009

I've decided to let myself be inspired by my sister Megan and my friend Reba, both of whom are doing a little "Best of 2009" series on their blogs. I think I'll march to my own drummer here, though, rather than following a specific list. This is primarily because when I looked at the prompt for December 3rd and it asked me whether I have "delicious'd" anything this year I just stared blankly at the computer screen. I am not hip, and I had to google "delicious," which clearly means I need to make up my own entries.

Nevertheless, here's a moment for December 1st.

Best Trip of 2009


Twenty-four hours in Seattle, 10 hours in the car, two parents, two kids, one day of sun, one day of rain, and hundreds of zoo animals.