Busy?

So you'd think I just gave up on the blog, but in fact that would be a wrong way to look at things. I prefer to think that I have just been too stinking busy to post as frequently as I should. Of course, in the bigger scheme of things it's far more important that I keep up the writing on my dissertation, and that I make sure my class is going reasonably well. But my (3) loyal readers out there are surely pining for the occasional note about my foot's verrrrrrry slow recovery, as well as any events that might be of more general interest. I'll start with the latter: our good friend Past-Sho managed, though means unknown to us, to snag a huge trove of tickets to the local (amateur) hockey team, the Cincinnati Cyclones. So we have been fortunate enough to accompany him to some of those games throughout the season. Now that the playoffs are into full swing, we have been trying to follow "our" team, even attending some of the playoff games just to make sure that we maintain our winning ways. I have discovered that I am the single weak link in the Cyclones' chain, because they seem to lose when I come to games, but they win every other game. I should note that it's a bit weird to be attending hockey games now that summer is really starting to shine, but I guess that's how these things work.

As for my foot's progress, I'm pleased to report that it feels today exactly as it did nearly three months ago, when the operation was done. I have a visit to the surgeon tomorrow, and am really hoping that the x-rays will convince him that the bone is completely healed. But I have learned enough over the past months to know that that's unlikely at best. He may say the bone is healed, but he'll also warn me to take it easy on it for a while longer. Or, more likely, he'll say that this darn' bone just doesn't seem to want to heal, so I should keep taking it easy for a couple more weeks (or months). I'm mostly just planning for the worst case scenario, so that if I get any news other than that, I'll be quite pleased.

We're doing the Aeneid in my class these days, and so I should get back to that.

Happy (almost) May, y'all!

More stuff?

Man, it sure has been a while since I wrote anything. (I don't mean I haven't been working on my dissertation or my class, I mean I haven't been "blogging..." - in case anyone's wondering) So what's going on lately? Nothing. Well, almost nothing. I have been working on the dissertation, teaching the class, and spending time with Alicia. I also recently discovered this new website called "ebay," which apparently allows people to buy and sell stuff in auctions, most of which are probably rigged. I have been researching the proper lens for my camera, so that I can suddenly and magically learn how to take good pictures with it. I'm not talking about the digital camera, of course, all those pictures turn out great every time. I'm talking about the old-fashioned film camera that I have. I have been kicking around the idea of getting into archaeological photography for a couple years now, and one of the things that I'll have to do is learn how to actually take a decent picture. So, I shot a roll of pictures last month. Most of them turned out ok at best, and part of the reason for this is that I'm not very good at it. But I also noticed that some of the pictures aren't very good because there are some issues with the lenses - so parts of the picture (the corners and edges) might be underexposed or slightly out of focus even though the rest (usually the middle portion) looks fine. As it turns out, there's more to taking pictures than just pulling the trigger. I don't care much about most of that, but the point of all of this is that I am trying to track down a really good lens so I won't be able to blame my poor photography on my equipment. Then I can figure out how to fix my problems and maybe actually become a decent photographer.

As far as the "fixed" foot goes, I'm still just walking around and taking it really easy on the foot. I'm not supposed to be doing anything more than that for three more weeks or so - remember, I decided to wait until I have gotten a good x-ray from the surgeon before I can do anything even remotely strenuous.

I guess that's as exciting as it gets around here. At least, that's all I can think of right now. Not very interesting, but that's what I have to work with right now!