visitors!!!

Just thought I'd share my joy. This week I get to see my adorable niece and nephew for the first time in 10 months!

This is what they look like now:

And this is what they looked like last time Andy and I saw them:

...ten months makes a big difference when you're less than three feet tall!

an excerpt from La Lecturess

Yesterday Andy read a post from a blog entitled, La Lecturess to me. It is called "To Those Who Fell Along the Way" and includes the following excerpts (for those of you who don't want to go actually read it--it is rather long):

As for my cohort, 10 people began my program not quite seven years ago...But we lost 50% of our already small entering class, none of them for financial or family reasons. Two of them were even, I'd say, among the three smartest and coolest of us all, and one of them is the child of academics...But even with their advantages, the five people we lost in my year left (with one exception) simply because they were deeply and profoundly unhappy. Yes, they were doing what they'd always thought they wanted to do. And yes, they truly loved what they were reading and teaching and researching. And yet, they were so unhappy that they couldn't function.

It's hard to explain this to someone who hasn't been through grad school, but of course most of my readership probably knows what I'm talking about; I myself was so depressed my second year of grad school that the only way I got through many days was by telling myself that I could drop out in May, after I'd gotten the M.A. I think, in fact, that part of what makes grad school so hard is that when you're unhappy doing what you love, you look at yourself and think, "what else is there? if I'm not good at this one thing that really matters to me, what am I good at?"

..."most of my readership probably knows what I'm talking about," she says.

I know what she's talking about.

Me and Mary

I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend Alison who made this bizarre discovery while in Scotland. Apparently I look like a Scottish woman-missionary to Nigeria, who promoted women's rights. Mary Slessor's picture can be found on the Scottish 10 pound note. Which basically means there is a picture of 'me' on the Scottish 10 pound note. Sweet.

Home sweet home...to be

We would like to introduce to you our new home-to-be:

Beginning this August, you'll be able to find Andy and I here...and we'll finally have REAL space to host guests! We'll let you all know when the house-warming party is ;-).

wooohooooo!

It is my
s p r i n g
b r e a k !

Yippee!

In other news, we are considering changing the name of our blog.

Any suggestions?

a night at the rink

Above is a photograph of the 1945 Thief River Falls high school hockey team, who lost to Eveleth in the final game of the 1945 Minnesota Boys' State Hockey Tournament.

And this...

...is a photo of the next boys' hockey team from Thief River Falls to make it to the state tournament...41 years later, in 2006.

We witnessed the historic moment Wednesday night when the Prowlers took the ice at the Xcel Center, watched them take a 3-1 lead over a team that had beaten them 9-1 earlier in the season, and then watched as (sadly), in the third period, they lost that lead and ended up losing their quarterfinal game, 4-3.

It was quite an exciting night.

(For those of you wondering how this is relevant to us: Andy's dad grew up in Thief River Falls, where many of Andy's relatives still live. His cousin is a senior on the 2006 team.)

some reading material

A few days ago, my husband stumbled upon/was directed to/discovered some new online reading material: Dispatches from a Public Librarian, written by Scott Douglas. Andy has been reading it voraciously ever since, catching up on past posts and frequently interrupting my vain attempts at homework with "wait, let me read you just one more..."

Now that it's Saturday morning (well, almost noon now, I see) and I have survived a very busy and stressful two-week stretch, I decided these humorous librarian stories were worth taking a little time to investigate on my own. And so I can now heartily recommend them to all of you, particularly the one of you who often wishes she were a librarian rather than a graduate student.

While investigating the librarian dispatches, however, I stumbled upon another dispatch, more suited to my own potential future: Dispatches from Adjunct Faculty at a Large State University, written by Oronte Churm. Why is this one worth reading? Well, if you're in academics--particularly if you are a potential-future-or-current-lecturer...just read it.