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!

Out with the old

And time to start something new. See, I recently finished a bit of a thesis on late Roman Spain, and I've entered the post-project funk of having nothing important to do (or just not wanting to do the important things that I should now be doing). In any case, I've returned to the laptop to move on with a new project, much shorter in duration (I hope!), focusing mainly on the pottery from somewhere in Spain. Pretty fascinating stuff, if you're interested in this sort of thing, which I am.

My foot hasn't bothered me at all lately, so I'm thinking about developing a new injury elsewhere, perhaps something wii related. Soccer thrice a week in this 90 degree weather isn't going to make my old kelme duende amancios (size 9.5) very happy - they turned 4 this past April - so if anyone finds a lead on some new ones, please to pass along that information. By the way, they stopped making these cleats.

I've recently received a new espresso machine, much happier than the krups xp2070, whose pump seems to have lost a good deal of power and eventually gave me nothing but weak coffees. The new machine (new to me, anyway), was given by a pair of amazing friends from Mexas, and the machine works beautifully. I'm refining my grind settings and tamping procedure to accommodate the new 58mm brewbasket, and as long as I can keep the calcification down in the boiler, it seems like I'll enjoy this new machine for years to come. Of course, I won't object if someone decides to mail me a commercial machine along with those replacement cleats.

Well, since I'm working again, this blog is wasting valuable Spanish emailing time, so I'll get back to that. If you'd like to know more about my soccer cleats, feel free to post something in the comments section. Happy summers!

April, coming and going

Two months, nearly, since I last blogged. Because I have other stuff to do too, you know. What I've done since last I posted:

1. Not gotten a job, but something else came up, so I'll still be getting paid next year. Good times? Maybe. Cincinnatibound.
2. Not experienced any soccer injuries. The foot is 100% of what would be expected in a thirty-something male who has other things to do as well. The screw was definitely the right choice for me, next time I just hope I make that decision sooner (my cousin had a very similar experience over a year ago, with the same set of decisions and, eventually, the same positive outcome).
3. Written a lot of useful stuff. On the dissertation. That's right. Someday it will all be available in pdf format online. Meanwhile, find something more interesting to do with your time.
4. Signed up for a cell phone plan. That's right. Contracts and free phones. But I also liberated my new handset from the bondage of AT&T's proprietary software, unlocking the potential within. Highly recommended for the Sony Ericcson Cybershot c905a. Much better phone than Nokia 1661 I had been using...
5. Got a new family member. Technically, she belongs to my brother and his wife, but they're going to be stuck sharing her with the rest of us, so they'll get used to it. We got to meet my new niece a couple weeks ago, and she seems to like me a lot more than everyone else (she didn't burp up on me once, and she always cried when I had to pass her off to the next person), but she's tough, so I think she'll be fine even if we're not always right there to take care of her.

That's about it. Eventful two months? Probably. But I just take it one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other, and focusing on the here-and-now so I don't get my head in the clouds or miss the forest for the trees. That's just how I do. I'm about to embark on a high glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM program to see if it has any effect on the grinding knee joint. At this point, I'm hugely skeptical, but the good people at target have just priced me into the scam supplement market by posting huge markdowns on all their joint supplements. I expect to post the results of this experiement in about a month. Meanwhile, I teach and work. Happy Spring!

Some tips for my readers

Don't drive in Cincinnati when: it's raining, it's cold, it's snowing, it's sunny, it's dark, it's foggy, it's early, it's late, it's dark, it's hot, it's goign to rain, it's going to snow, the Bengals are/aren't playing, the Bearcats are about to play, the Reds are in town, there's a holiday coming up, there are sales at discount chains, or there's a storm coming. Otherwise, it's perfectly safe to try to drive, just avoid I-75 if you can.

Don't try to play soccer in a rain/snow mix. Mostly because your friends won't be stupid enough to meet you out on the field, and you'll wind up freezing your digits off while waiting for people who aren't coming.

Don't upgrade your OS until the first set of patches has been released. I don't know what that means, but my friends insist it's good advice, and they'd know because they're PC users (jab!).

Order all espresso as "ristretto" or "short" or "corto" or "curto" or "italiano." All lattes in the US should be ordered "without foam," because no matter how vociferously you insist on a clean coffee top, they're going to foam you. But if you insist on no foam, you'll get slightly less, which isn't a bad thing. Foam is the milk that steam has scalded; would you drink a glass of scalded milk?

If the printer/scanner/photocopier is on sale for $39.99 at Target, there's a good reason. Or, there are a number of good reasons. Don't do it, it IS too good to be true.

Nearly everything is cheaper online now, especially if you can get someone else to spring for Amazon Prime.

The dissertation will not write itself, no matter how much you want it to: hint, hint.

This just in:

According to Gmail, Mike Ditka: "If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms."

Me: If God had wanted us to play U.S. football, he wouldn't have given us brains. But at least participants in that sport do their level best to avoid using or keeping those brains into their 30s.

Another Month, Another Blog Posting

That's right, my rate of production is scheduled to be about one per month over the duration of our stay in Spain. It's because I get finger cramps from typing all day every day, sometimes so badly that I can barely type at all the next morning (I have to warm my finger joints on a hot coffee mug, but sadly, we cannot get the good stuff here, and I suffer even more from the swill I am forced to drink). I will keep this short.

First off, the foot is in excellent shape. Never better. Or maybe better at some point, but it's really feeling perfectly well in all respects, with the exception that the scar where they hacked me open is pretty stiff and weird feeling. I should be rubbing it regularly to loosen up the tissues underneath, but it's not worth the effort, or else I just don't remember to do it often enough. I have in fact been running about 15 miles a week on this foot, wich isn't great, but isn't bad either. Since I haven't found anyone willing to invite me into their soccer team, this is my best exercise for now.

And speaking of soccer, Portugal lost (well, tied, but lost, if you get my meaning) to Albania yesterday in their fourth qualifying match for the World Cup. I'm resigning myself to the very strong possibility that they will be missing out on the 2010 event, so if you have any suggestions for teams that are generally enjoyable to watch and at the same time not despicable people, let me know.

We just got back to Mérida from Salamanca on Sunday evening, and I must say that, despite the high volume of U.S. and other foreign nationals in the city (myself included for those few days:), Salamanca is actually a very interesting and comfortable city. Therefore, it comes highly recommended by me to all those seeking a potential out-of-country experience at some point in their Spanish-language-learning careers. So I guess that should be all of us. Based on my very short time there, I found Salamanca to be lively, somewhat expensive-ish in some ways, loud, and terribly confused. See, on the one hand, you have all these thousands upon thousands of university students from all over the world, all partying it up all the time and trying to forget the fact that they're probably supposed to be learning things right now instead of making all kinds of noise in the middle of the night. On the other, you have all the (probably more like hundreds and hundreds of) normal people also living in the city, trying to run shops, go to church (several times a day, it would seem), and just stroll around minding their own business. So from my perspective, you have a nice mix of everything, meaning you could go there and find the out-of-the-way nooks and crannies and just lose yourself in the Spanish culture, which is very much alive in the city. But you could also go there for 9 months and interact with a grand total of maybe 5 actual natives, the rest of your Spanish language experience being limited to the other "Spanish-as-a-second-language" students in your class. I find myself leaning more toward the first option, but maybe that's just because that's exactly where we find ourselves right now, in Mérida where everyone's a native but us. I guess I like Mérida.

I leave you with this thought: how awesome are these new fashion shoes that all the 19th century aristocrats in Spain are buying? I mean, how awesome, right? Jane Austen has to be green with envy at how far society (and fashion) has advanced since her times, and I can't say I blame her--she clearly missed out on some good times. Seriously. It's not clear to me what we should call these things (booties? ankle boots? shoots?), but they're all over the place now so it'd be a good idea for you to do some re-search to avoid being left behind by fashion. It's too late for me, but there's still hope for the rest of you!