I really don't have much to say. But I saw this image on Comedy Central's webpage and thought, "this would go nicely with my new green blog."

What a game and what a shame we lost. I couldn't move from about 11:15 until the end of the game. It is too bad that Ortiz didn't come through, but I can't really blame him. He's come through so many times before. As long as we win the big one's, these little big one's make everything more exciting. It's too bad too that Manny couldn't come back for this weekend. But c'est la vie.

Other than that, I really didn't do much of anything that was "fun" this weekend. We did work on the house. Mike replaced the trim in the window of the downstairs bathroom and it looks sooooo much better. He also put in baseboard that I painted in the room we sheetrocked upstairs. It is really starting to look like a room again!

OK, so now for something not boring. I have tickets to Stephen Colbert. We're going on October 2, so watch for us. It's going to be fantastic for sure!!!

I am so...

30

I increasingly hear about SUPERcapitalism on NPR. This is the kind of capitalism we are in right now, where the super rich continue to get richer, but the middle class stays the same. It's a bit disturbing because it results in a culture based on debt and borrowing rather than saving. The difficulty is that, keeping the salaries of the middle class low, the superrich floods the market with their spending, thus creating a market where high prices work -- making the middle class borrow to buy what they think they need. The problem is...how do we get out of this mess? Or do we?

Other than worrying about the superrich, I have been, of course, worrying about my dissertation and the job market. I have this short window to get done what I need to get done. And unfortunately, it gets shorter as every day passes. On top of this, Mike has some sort of cold/flu...which I haven't caught...yet. I hope I don't get it as, clearly, now is not a good time to get sick.

I'm feeling green.

Today marked the end of the fellowship year. That means I had to leave my house by 6am to commute to the city to teach. Still, teaching was refreshing. It feels good to get out of the house and actually work away from the articles and dissertation. This afternoon, of course, I was back at it with the article. On the schedule for tonight: more article. Tomorrow: article and Fordham syllabus. Now that I think about it, I don't think I blogged about my two teaching jobs yet. Both of them are for teaching freshmen writing. The first (the one that started today) is at CUNY Baruch. The second is at Fordham in the Bronx. Thursday is my only crazy day. It's the day when I have to teach at both...which means kind of a pain in the ass commute. But Fordham doesn't start until next week, so I won't find out until then...

Did I mention I have a severely sprained ankle? Well, I do and it sucks.
This is a 4 Things Survey.
Four jobs I've had:
1. teacher
2. floating legal secretary
3. "the girl" (i.e. secretary at a marina)
4. mucker (shoveling horseshit...literally)
Four Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Gangs of New York
2. Dune
3. The Royal Tennenbaums
4. Kill Bill
Four places I've lived:
1.Quincy
2. Knoxville, TN
3. Lawrence, KS
4. Yorktown Heights ("The Heights"), NY
Four places I've vacationed:
1. Greece!
2. Ireland
3. Spain
4. England
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. pizza with spinach and chicken or turkey at The Tomato Head in Knoxville, TN
2. gnocchi with marinara at Zaza's in Ithaca, NY
3. pizza from New Haven. Did you know that New Haven has the best pizza in the world? It does. Even pizza from the Bronx can't beat it.
4. french toast I had at a restaurant in Hartford when I was in college -- I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was the best french toast I've ever had
Four sites I visit daily:
1. nytimes.com
2. cnn.com
3. redsox.com
4. boston.com
Four blogs I visit daily. I don't visit blogs daily. And I don't think I visit four blogs regularly.

So last week I went to a Justin Timberlake concert. Needless to say, it was fabulous. I do have a lot of respect for JT as a performer and as someone who hires other performers for their vocal and dancing talents as opposed to hiring them for the excellent plastic surgery jobs they have had done on their bodies. He did a group bow in the end and seemed like an all around generous guy and great performer. Indeed, he played several instruments at the gig and did some mixing with Timbaland. Who could ask for anything more?

I haven't written in awhile and thus I haven't told you about my trip to New Orleans. New Orleans is by far the best city to have a conference in. Sadly, because I went for a conference I did not get to see much outside the business section and french quarter. This means I didn't see any of the destruction -- something New Orleans residents say is a must-see. I guess, I'll have to go back. I'd like to think that by the time I go back it will be gone, but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, while I was there, I rode a mechanical bull. It was spectacular. I got up the next day and had this bruise on my chest. And I thought, "Where did that come from?" And then I remembered, "Oh yes. I rode a mechanical bull last night." When I've told people I did this, they have asked if I fell off. Hell yes! I mean, does anyone ride a mechanical bull and not fall off? Please let me know if that is the case. Nonetheless, it was fun. And it's something to check off the list of life accomplishments.

Reading: Syllabii. I should be teaching freshmen writing at Baruch and Fordham Colleges this fall. I don't have sections yet, so I hesitate to say whether or not this is true.
Writing: An article.
Watching: I started watching some of the TNT shows online. I enjoy The Closer, like The Company, enjoy the parts of Saving Grace without Earl, and hate Heartland. Recently, Mike and I also finished the Sopranos last season. I guess since everyone hated the ending I didn't expect anything much. But for a show that didn't wrap-up en finale, it sure did too much wrapping up throughout the season. Except...whatever happened to Jennifer's son and ex? We also saw The Simpson Movie. I found "Spiderpig" most pleasing.
Blooming: I purchased a yellow rose plant today and it's next to the pink one's. I also bought some Astilbe to fill in the front. The Astilbe is done blooming, and the roses are forming buds. Right now I have a butterfly bush, monarda, pink and white phlox, some yellow daisies, black eyed susans, gayfeather, catmint, coneflower, one tiger lily, dahlia...I think that's it. The gladiolus bloomed when I was in New Orleans. Of course.
Sitting: My cousin's dog: "Hero." Hero is a female rat terrier. She is three years old and absolutely a delight to be with. Julie will be coming to get her tomorrow. But my week with the dog was fabulous. I'm returning her smelly and with overgrown nails.

I was at Borders at 9:00 a.m. this morning to obtain a bracelet for tonight. My stomach is filled with butterflies over HP. And I wonder how quickly I will be able to get through the book.

Here I am as a Simpson's character. I tried using their "upload a photo" to Simpsonize yourself, but it didn't really work. When they Simpsonized me, I was a really beautiful black woman. I'm not quite sure how that happened. So instead I created my own avatar. And here she is.

Last weekend I was in MA for my cousin Carolyn's baby shower. I'm still fascinated with babies in tummies. It's just so amazing. I mean, I guess it's always been amazing, but it seems more amazing to me now as I'm about to enter my thirties.

While I was in MA, I had the pleasure of eating with the Myers (Christopher too!). I also joined Becky on a trip up to Siggy's house. They just purchased it on Friday and it's a lovely cape. I love capes. I kept wishing there were more on the market around here when we were looking. We saw one with a huge crack in the foundation and our realtor told us to run for the hills. Good advice. Anyway, now I'm back from MA and I'm trying to finish a boatload of stuff before I'm off to New Orleans next week.

Yes. I did it. I went to Dollywood on the 4th (after all, everything else is closed), and I loved it. If you didn't know, my favorite rides are rides that resemble roller coasters but involve water. Dollywood has more of those than Disneyworld. In fact, that's basically what Dollywood is all about -- see the picture. Actually, Dollywood is about the Smoky mountains, and for a theme park, I was suprised at the amount of actual artistry Dollywood had going on. There was a Blacksmith's shop where you could watch blacksmiths work and purchase their items. And it's not what you think, their items were not all butterflies and hokey Dollywood stuff. Rather, they were useful items -- like hinges. They were beautiful, but terribly expensive. Dollywood also had a glassblower's shop, a pottery shop, and a musician's shop that featured authentic items. Dollywood is a problematic place on the Baudrillard scale. After all, the buildings were made of actual weathered wood, and the chapel must have been original to the area. I don't really know what to make of it in terms of postmodern theory. After all, the roofs were made of real cedar shingles!

While we were there, our friend Jeff (who we were staying with) met a young deaf boy and tried to sign with him (Jeff is a deaf interpreter). The young boy of about 5 years had difficulty signing his name in letters, and Jeff found out that the boy attended the Palmer School, which is a school for special ed. students -- not for deaf children. I'm sure that this kind of thing happens all over the country in areas where children do not have easy access to a deaf school. Still, it reminded me of the poverty and bad health conditions I encountered while living in Tennessee. Remember my trip to a Knoxville dentist where I was told I had the best set of teeth the hygenist had seen? Yeah, my hygenist in NY thinks "not so much." Or the trip to the other dentist who told me I had nine cavities and needed two crowns? Yeah, the second opinion I immediately got from my childhood dentist in MA also said "not so much."

Anyway, back to the vacation. We were in Tennessee from Monday night to Friday morning. Monday night we didn't do anything too spectactular. We just visited Market Square, which has transformed from an abandoned outdoor shopping place to a locale teeming with delicious restaurants and funky shops. We ate dinner at a place called Koi -- apparently it's a chain (we didn't realize) featuring Thai fusion. It really wasn't all that great. Then on Tuesday, we went kayaking on the Hiawassee river. Mike and I had a two person floating kayak, and we kept getting stuck on all the rocks. It was definitely a workout getting unstuck. After that we visited the Sweetwater cheese farm and purchased some Tomato Basil Cheese. Delish. At night we ate at my favorite restaurant in Knoxville -- The Tomato Head. I am still relishing that first bite of pizza. I can't even tell you how wonderfully fresh their pizza is. I don't know what they do to it, but it's tasty.

We had drinks at La Costa with many of Mike's old work friends. On the 4th, after Dollywood, we ate at LaCosta, which was delicious. Every night I would look at the bill and laugh because dinner for 3 people came to $30. Unbelievable.

Thursday started out by a visit to Mike's former boss's (and mine for a short time too) house. It was quite beautiful as the entire back wall was made of windows which brought in an incredible amount of natural light. Then I went to the law firm and had fun seeing people I worked with five years ago. I was amazed at how many people had left. I guess that since a lot of the older secretaries retired, there is more turnover with the new secretaries. Thursday night we ate at another old haunt of ours called Sunspot -- though I was disappointed that they no longer had raspberry lemonade. That night we saw Sicko, which I highly recommend...though Jeff mentioned that the information given about cochlear implants is somewhat tainted. Anyway, if you have seen it, and are interested in moving to France, let me know. Perhaps we can look for flats together.

En finale, we left for NY. On the way down and back up we stayed at an absolutely gorgeous inn in Virginia. Let me know if you are ever passing through Virginia on 81. I highly recommend this place -- especially for romantic getaways.

And the sign on the Broadway Baptist Church had an advertisement for a 4th of July picnic.

Recently I've been seeing a lot of wildlife.
First of all, when Mike and I were going up to Ithaca, I was driving and something started to run across the highway. At first, I thought: Is that a dog? And then, I realized it was too big and not moving correctly to be a dog. Then I thought: Is that a jaguar? There are actually jaguars in New York. But it wasn't. Finally, we both realized that it was a black bear running across the road. I have to say that I had always heard bears could run, but I never saw it. Most of the time when I've seen bears in the past, they have been lumbering along somewhere in New Hampshire, or going through the trash. But this one was booking it. And I'm pretty thankful it was racing too, as I certainly did not want to encounter it, in the car or no.

Second, I was again driving -- though this time in my neighborhood and I saw this little thing leap across the road. It was blackis and was about the size of a cat, but didn't move at all like a cat. For days, I wondered what it could have been. Then Diana and Andrei (friends from Cornell) visited, and Andrei pointed out that what I saw was probably a pine marten. After much googling, we all agreed that I either saw a pine marten or a sable. The pine marten is pictured above. I wanted to put a picture of a sable up, but all the pictures of sables were of dead sables. :^(

Thirdly, when Diana and Andrei were here, Diana saw a fox. I have also seen foxes in the neighborhood, but none too recently. Apparently, it lives in a field that borders on our property -- or at least that is what she thought.

And finally, Mike and I were driving back from having dinner at a diner last night. Yeah, it was way too hot to cook and eat here. And in the middle of our street, there was a deer nursing a fawn. There was another fawn too. But it was wonderful to see the mom deer nursing. I've never seen that before! Though admittedly, we were both a little distraught that she was nursing in the middle of the road.

And the usual:

Watching: Casino Royale. Without a doubt, the best Bond movie in a long time. I'm so glad they got back to the basics. Watching did not happen on Sunday. I was painting the carport outside and I took off my glasses because they were sunglasses and it was getting a bit dark. A second later, I looked up at the carport ceiling as I was descending the ladder, and a part that I had already painted was apparently dripping. It dripped paint directly into my eye -- splashing my eyeball with a lovely layer of primer called "The Gripper." Needless to say, I was a little panicky. Luckily, I have a husband with hours and hours of lab safety training -- much of which is concentrated on what happens if you or a person near you gets chemical in his/her eye. So we flushed out the paint in the shower and proceeded to the emergency room where the doctor checked my eye with a blacklight. I'm fine, thankfully. I just have to drip Cipro in my eye so I don't get chemical conjunctivitis. Party on. I'm also supposed to rest my eye. The directions from the emergency room said "no reading" -- which is a funny mandate for a grad student. I did manage to stay away from work on Monday though. And now I'm back in action with occasional rests for my eye.
Writing: An article on Aeschylus' Oresteia.
Reading: My article in revision.
Planning: Still planning the trip to Tennessee.
Blooming: Tiger lilies. I also planted some Dahlias and some Alyssum over the weekend. The next day I got up and the Alyssum was strewn all over my front garden area. It was like some animal had it out for me and chose to rip up my garden -- but only what I just planted thankfully. Odd.

Asking: Why oh why am I going to New Orleans on THE WEEKEND THAT RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE I'VE EVER WANTED TO SEE IS PLAYING???? Can't they play another weekend?
Additional Information:
Talent lineup includes (subject to change): Rage Against The Machine, The Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, The Roots, Mos Def, EPMD, Pharoahe Monch, FELT *, Sage Francis, Immortal Technique, Living Legends*, Murs*, Jedi Mind Tricks, Brother Ali*, Cage*, Mr. Lif*, Grouch & Eligh*, Hangar 18*, Blueprint* and Lucky I AM*, + guests Public Enemy. DJs incl Mike Realm, C-Minus, Icy Ice and Rocky Rock. The festival will be hosted by Supernatural, Rahzel and Hi-Tek.
Do you think they will add shows? I doubt it. I'm almost in tears.
Planning: The trip to Tennessee. I booked a lovely little Inn on the border of Virginia for the way down, and I'm trying to find something in Gettysburg for the way back. The way back up is a little bit difficult because, hey, it's July 4 weekend. When I'm in TN, I will go to Dollywood.
Blooming: A rose! I'm so excited. I brought these little babies back from the dead (they were less expensive that way) and they are doing well. If it weren't for the Japanese Beetles, they would be doing a lot better. Also, there is one tiger lily blooming. And the peonies are still blooming.
Eating: Tonight I will partake in pizza from my favorite pizza place -- Three Brothers. It's on par with New Haven pizza, which is a difficult thing to accomplish.

Guess what I'm eating?

STEPHEN COLBERT'S AMERICONE DREAM.

I finally found it last night at the Shoprite by the gym. I had been trying the Shoprite by the video store (whenever I went to rent or return LOST -- which as you may have guessed was a lot) but found only the label with Vermonty Python in its place.

Anyway, last night I finally had a bowl. It was everything I could have hoped for.

Watching: OK, so we are still on a LOST kick. That will end soon though...as we are ready for the 6th disc in the second season.
Reading: Yesterday I was rereading the dis Chapter 1. Today I will be rereading Chapter 2. If I have time I'll reread Chapter 1.
Writing: Revising Chapters 1 & 2.
Blooming: Peonies! As you may have guessed... I have obviously included pictures of some of them. I feel like I need to plant more and more of them. I didn't even plant these actually. Perhaps instead I should expand into different territory so that I can enhance my flower collection. Some of the irises are still blooming as well. Same deal with some of the bleeding heart. Otherwise nothing else is blooming.
In other news: I got my own domain. There's nothing up right now...though I've tried to upload a temporary webpage. As soon as I have a school affiliation (other than the one that is 4 hours away), I will create a professional webpage for myself using Dreamweaver (which I hope the school will have).

Watching: CHILDREN OF MEN and the entire first season of LOST. Well, actually I had already seen the first pilot episodes. But Mike hadn't. We managed to make it through the entire season over the Holiday weekend. I'm not necessarily proud of that. But it was good to relax. CHILDREN OF MEN was O.K. Alfonso's direction was superb. The movie had a look different from what one normally sees. The story held a lot of potential, but the script just didn't work. It seemed like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be cheesy or totally and completely serious. What a shame.
Reading: Most recently? Herodotus.
Writing: Yesterday I wrote an abstract. I also revised half of dissertation Chapter One. On the docket for today: Dissertation - Chapter Two. Maybe a cover letter as well.
Blooming: Irises! In purple, yellow and lavender. Japanese lavender bush. Hydrangea. And I purchased my favorite kind of annual: Double Impatients.
Aside from watching tv serial drama this weekend, I worked on preparing the carport for a layer of paint. I have to say, of all the things to paint, the carport ceiling is simply the most disgusting. It has to be cleaned off (an impossibility, really) and some parts of it have to be scraped. Plus, I'm not overly convinced that I'm going to get that feeling of satisfaction when I stand back and it's done. I mean, it's a carport for god's sake. I also worked on the yard a bit and found out an interesting fact. Did you know that bumblebees nest in the dirt? Yes, indeed they do. Lys and I were digging a place to put in some edging, and surprise, surprise, we dug up a bees' nest. Now you may think that a bees' nest has an obvious look to it. Well, you would be wrong. These bees don't make a nest. They just burrow into the dirt. Unfortunately, this resulted in Lys getting stung. So take heed! If your digging, and you suddenly see bees, run away. Stop digging! They'll come after you.

I forgot to mention that I discovered yet ANOTHER reason why Ben & Jerry's is a fabulous company. You can go on their website, put in a flavor, put in your zip code, and it will tell you which stores around you have recently sold your flavor. Apparently, Americone Dream is waiting for me at the Shoprite by my gym. Of course, I had already looked there once. But now that I know that they sometimes get it in and probably run out of it immediately, I will look with more fervor.

Watching: LOST. And the answer is...I couldn't wait. I have to say there were parts when I was on the exercise bike (I did one hour orbiter and one hour exercise bike) when I drew my hands up to my chest in horror. Thankfully, there were only a couple people at the gym and none of them were near me.
Listening: Right now I'm listening to the soundtrack that plays on the Lost, Season One DVD menu (I'm renting the seasons I haven't seen). Unlike most repeating DVD menus, this one is quite calming as it is simply the ocean.
Reading: Deleuze and Guattari. Anti-Oedipus. Again. Because I'm writing about it. But I've moved onto a new section. Yay!
Writing: My dissertation - Chapter Two.
Blooming: Still the Lavender, Bleeding Heart, that one Hydrangea, and the Azaleas (sort of). I read about where Azaleas should be planted and I don't really have a space like that, unless I place them in the middle of the yard -- which would just be weird. They grow and bloom ideally under a tree that covers them just enough so that when the wind blows, they get full sun.

Where oh where can I get a carton of Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream?

So, as you may know, I have returned from Greece. What you probably do not know is that I returned in the midst of a storm with tornado like winds. While Mike and I were riding the train back to Croton-Harmon station, we looked outside the window to find a strangely colored sky and a dark gray -- almost black -- Hudson River. When we got off the train, it was raining terribly hard and we quickly entered a cab. The cabbie then told us that the winds were so high that his car was rocking back and forth. As we headed down the road, we found ourselves trapped. There were trees down everywhere. After 50 minutes, we finally got home -- but only because the cabbie was extremely resourceful in terms of finding roads that I had no idea existed. Keep in mind that I travel to Croton everyday to go to the gym. The train station is 15 minutes away usually. I was really thankful that the winds didn't hit our street. Hunterbrook is a forest filled street, and there are many tall and beautiful trees surrounding the house. Thankfully, none of them were down. When I returned, I was glad to see my gladiolus shooting up from the ground with determination. And one of my Stella d'Oro day lilies, planted in a container, is starting to peek out and say hello. Inside, I found my little greenhouse of impatients happily waiting for me. The will need about two more weeks of inside growth before they can go outside. In addition to these delights, my lilac and one of my hydrangeas are blooming. I need to go out on a sunny day and document this delight. Perhaps I will continue to blog in the Lisa Renzi format: Reading, watching, listening, and I'll add: blooming.
Reading: While I was in Greece, I read Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" and "Breakfast of Champions." I enjoyed "Cat's Cradle" more because it mentions Cornell and Ithaca (called Ilium in the book). Actually, I enjoyed it more for other reasons as well, but I'm not really sure what they are.
Watching: I too am watching Lost. Actually, I'm not just watching it. I'm obsessed. I started getting into it this year when I was directing at Cornell and my friend Anne pointed out that ABC puts their shows online. Back then, I was watching Lost, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy. But that was back when I needed some things to calm me down. Now I find Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty trite. Grey's Anatomy is still good -- though I know I'm somewhat taken by "bad TV" when watching that. Lost, on the other had, is fabulous. I was going to say "spectacular," but as fabulous as it is, it is nowhere near The Sopranos, which must be the TV show of the decade. Admittedly, I haven't seen all episodes of Lost. So you could argue that I shouldn's judge early. But really -- no one can match the acting performances in the Sopranos. Period. So the real question is, will I be able to wait until ABC puts the season finale of Lost online? Or will I have to go to the gym and work out for two hours in order to watch it? Only time will tell...
Listening: Mostly, I listen to hip hop stations and NPR. Unfortunately, I only heard part of "This American Life" this week and part of the news. I have to make more of an effort to listen to NPR. It's an assignment I'm giving myself in preparation for applying for jobs. Small talk during interviews is important, and I plan to use NPR stories as my way in.
Writing (just added this spontaneously): An abstract for ASTR, cover letters for adjunct jobs, and tomorrow: Dissertation Chapter 2.
Blooming: As I've already mentioned, lilac and one hydrangea. The bleeding heart plants are still blooming as well. I have many azaleas all blooming slightly, but none to the point that they should be. I guess I will have to try some acid fertilizer, and remember to put that in next year.

Finally, you may wonder why this entry is not about Greece. Well, I poured my heart out on Greece in my descriptions for the photos I've sent to people through Kodak Gallery. If I haven't sent you an invitation to view my photos, e-mail me, or comment on this entry, and I will be sure to send you one.

So a week from today we fly to Greece. I am so excited, but I can't believe that it is already here! On Wednesday (tomorrow), I will head up to Ithaca (NY) for my last gig as dramaturg. I'm really hoping that June will be the first month all year I won't have to head up there. But there is always something...

In other news, I've been working on my garden. If it weren't for the damn weeds I'd have a lot of fun things planted by now. Well, I still have some fun things planted. For instance, I planted Gladiolus, a Hydrangea, Asiatic Lilies, Stella D'Oro day lilies, Bleeding Heart, and Astilbe. I want to move the tiger lilies from the area in front of the house (I'm going for a blue/pink/white/yellow thing in that area -- not an orange thing), but I don't know that I'll be able to determine which one's they are. I'm dying to put some phlox in, but that will have to wait until I get back. Any other blue/white/yellow suggestions?

Back to the dis.