Off the Wagon?

Well, not really, not like that. But I haven't posted in a long time, so I thought I should update my status. Since I last posted, I found out that I'm going to be a dad, and I taught two new classes, and I finished writing an article on something about pottery, and I was asked to review an article for a very interesting journal, and I bought a whole slew of books, and I got to see Paul Simon and La Bohème and the Nutcracker, and I got a new espresso machine, and I discovered Portuguese coffee in Bloomington, and I learned about how heat pumps work, and I did a lot of other things too. We had several really good friends come visit us over the past few months, and then some of them moved off to other parts of the country/world, but it was awesome to have them visit us here in the Middle, because it really is a very nice place to be. We're planning to have other people visit us in the near future, because until the new person comes along, we're going to have at least one fully extra room, and we can arrange things to work out even after he's here - he won't need his own room for a few months, anyway.

I haven't been keeping up with my old soccer regimen; the weather, my work schedule, and the people in charge of the field space around here have all conspired to keep me off the grass. Fortunately, I can still ride my bike as often as I want to, and whenever I'm on campus I get to climb 6 or 7 flights of stairs, to keep me at least a little bit fit. I do have a great view out my office window, I've posted a couple pictures on that "networking" site, but here's one such view:

Since I'm going to be a dad, I am now accepting mailed gifts - preferably things like Benfica jerseys and Portugal costumes. Well, Portugal did manage to qualify for the 2012 European Cup and Benfica managed to make it out of a really easy group in the Champions League, so that's the justification for those two selections.

Oh, you probably want to see the new espresso machine. My friend Alex gave me a Gaggia Espresso a few months back (quite a few months back, as it turns out!), and I have been happily trucking along with that for quite some time. But I recently developed an urge to go with a machine that has an all brass boiler system, and the Gaggia is only halfway there, so I had to explore my options. I happen to know a guy who knows everything there is to know about such things, so I contacted him and he told me a small portion of what he knows - enough for me to know that I should just take his advice and get a killer deal on the Rancilio Silvia.

So that's the new machine. Thanks to Mr. Les for making that dream possible. I'm currently seeking a new home for the Gaggia, so if you know anyone, tell them to email me. Works perfectly, I have even been keeping it set up, just in case I need to entertain a dozen people with espresso some afternoon (which seems highly unlikely). You can see that the Gaggia has some pretty unique styling, and I can assure you that it makes espresso as well as it looks like it should! I'll be sorry to see it go, but I'm not allowed to keep two machines, according to the contract that I signed way back when.

Ok, I have to go learn some more songs for a thing I'm doing in a few days. Should be a good time for everyone, but for now I have a lot of work to do. That guitar I bought a few months (years) back is still doing its job, I suppose I should upload pictures of one or the other of those sometime.

Finally, the foot is great, no issues, no problems, not even something I think about anymore! The screw they put in my foot so many months and years ago seems to be doing everything it is supposed to do, and in fact I haven't even noticed any issues with the weather changes over the past several months, unlike my knee, which sometimes is disappointed with these pressure fluctuations. Ok, that's really all I have to say about all of that. Happy Christmas, everybody! Or Happy New Year, or Happy Spring, since I probably won't blather on again until sometime in March!

Another year, another chapter.

Well, I'm staring at a rough draft right now, but I suppose the final version will not be done until next year. Actually, there are a few of them that look like that now, so it's going better than some people may have expected, though as always not as well as I had hoped. That's all I have to say about the dissertation for now, otherwise I'll probably get distracted again...

Here we are at the end of December, and it is beginning to look like I've posted too many times in the past few weeks. Fortunately, I haven't run out of nothings to talk about! Obviously, the Christmas holiday is one of the many subjects of this post, but there will also be a bit in here about my guitar, and maybe something about how we won't be celebrating the New Year like everyone else we know.

First off, the most exciting thing to have happened in the last two days is that I finally got my guitar. Yes, that's right, my guitar is finally here, in my very own home, sitting quietly (for now) in its sad little cold room. It's not allowed into the "hot" part of the house just yet, because I'm convinced it will explode the instant warm air touches its fragile wood frame. See, I've even given it our guest bed, at least until we have company. Some of you will remember that the guitar was supposed to be here a few weeks ago, but such are the cruelties which I daily face that I was forced to send the original back to the manufacturer due to numerous miniscule imperfections in the finish around the guitar's shoulder. That was a sad day for me; I had been able to try out the 7c and the 5c after many weeks of patient waiting, and I had even decided that I much prefer the 7c to its less numerically impressive sibling (mostly because the shop clearly took a lot more time putting together the 7 than the 5--I can't guarantee that they sound substantially different, but I do believe that the action and scale on the 7 are marginally superior), only to discover the flaws that would force me to reject the chosen guitar and wait another uncertain period for the arrival of a more perfect instrument. I was very happy yesterday to determine that the replacement is far better than the original, and I can now finally get on with my life. Hopefully that will end the guitar saga.

Alicia and I were able to take some days away from home to visit another home, Portugal, with our friends Mariana and Alex. We ate food most of the time, but we also drank coffee, watched movies, explored certain parts of Lisbon, and hung out with some friends. All in all, we had an awesome time, but I think all four of us were left with the feeling that it would have been nice to spend at least some time with family during the Christmas holidays. After all, we graduate students spend little enough time with the family as it is, and moving overseas for an extended period like this certainly doesn't make that situation any better. On the other hand, I don't think I could have bought a Spanish guitar in the U.S. for even twice what I paid here, and then of course the coffee in Portugal is reason enough to justify a few months in Iberia. Oh, and the dissertation, that's a good reason too, the main reason, even...that's right.

As for the New Year's festivities, it doesn't look like we're going to have much of a celebration on that front. Maybe there will be some grape eating, though frankly I don't see the fascination of that particular tradition, but that's about it. Our friends (at least half of whom are named Paco these days, for real!) have invited us to the bar "Claca" or "Claka" for a celebration, but the tickets they had showed a price tag of 55 euros/person, which is about what I'd pay to see U2 here, but definitely more than I can justify for the right to sit in a very smoky bar and watch people get drunk. Thus, it appears quite likely that we'll wander the streets tomorrow evening and see how rowdy things get in a laid back provincial town before retiring to our home, where we'll probably watch a movie and get ready for a day of work on the 1st. Anyone jealous yet?

There you have it, my last blogging fit of 2008. Maybe I'll resolve to write more interesting things in 2009, but I might also resolve to only write when interesting things happen! Happy 2009 a day or two in advance!!!