Аврора (Avrora)

This is me with my certified Disney rip-off Аврора mug.  I look great, I know.  Mr. Wonderful was the camera man.

La gave it to me for my 21st birthday while we were in Russia.  It's pretty sweet.  I enjoy drinking chai from it while studying.  I also enjoy that there's a Disney castle and princess but no Disney trademark.  Do you think Disney will sue me for using it?  Shhhh.  Don't tell.  I really, really like this mug.

Also, Аврора is not my favorite Disney princess.  I like Belle.  She likes books and is in a great movie with a teapot voiced by Angela Landsbury, who is also great.  I remember being really, really scared of Sleeping Beauty when I was little.  Correction.  I was TERRIFIED of the dragon queen and her evil spindle.  I also thought Аврора looked best in blue, not pink, and even at a young age I was exasperated with the fairy who couldn't make a cake.  Ridiculous!  Who can't make cake by the time they're five?  ;)  However, I think that Sleeping beauty has one of my favorite scores.  Who doesn't appreciate Tchaikovsky?
"I know you.  I walked with you once upon a dream."

How do these things happen?

This is my leg, fyi.  The pic is blurry, but well, I don't show my legs off.  So the fuzziness suits my concerns about "modesty."  (I don't need to scare any of you.)
So yesterday I found these three bruises on the back/outside of my calf.  They hurt when I touch them.  My question: how did I get them?  I have no idea.  I do bruise easily, but I cannot remember hitting my leg or pushing my leg against anything.  I usually bruise my knees and shins (especially on my coffee table.)  What is going on with me?

Freedom isn't free. It costs a buck - O - five.

This isn't a post about freedom.  It's a post about "free things."

Don't you love ads that tell you that if you pay them money you will get "free" services as a result?  They are my fav.  No lie.  They bring a special kind of joy to my heart.  I mean, I am being LIED to, and yet, well, it's so funny.  They're so sure I will see the word free and PAY THEM MORE MONEY.  Only, that's not how I roll.  I love free stuff, but I really prefer the kind that's truly free, not the kind that ups my monthly bill.  Quest recently informed me that for $12.99/month I can get "free" online & phone support and "free" certified tech home repair visits if required.  So if those are free, what extra service am I paying for that isn't free?

Thoughts?

Communication Fail

A thought on trying to explain a point to someone who's not listening:

So if you were to spend 50 minutes constantly repeating that the test your students are going to take has 4 ID terms that they must explain in a paragraph and two essays, would you hope that you'd explained it from enough angles and enough times that the students staring at you would eventually think "Four and two"?  What would you do if the first student to talk with you after the class asked, "So the test will be all multiple choice, right?" very serioulsy?  How would you talk to that person? 

Please leave your kernels of wisdom so that I may add them to my arsenal.

Thoughts on today

Today was lovely.  It rained.  It was cold.  I loved it.  It reminded me of fall in the Midwest, which is my favorite season.  (Fall in the Midwest is a season in my humble estimation.)

 My first pepper has finally turned red.  Most of the previous ones got soft spots and rotted.  I am ready to eat delicious red bell peppers!  Yum!

I had to read a really boring book.  It took all day.  It took all of yesterday.  I kept falling asleep while reading it.  Ugh.

My husband successfully executed his weekly fish tank cleaning.  I told him he was a good fish father after encouraging him to suck his fish up with the refuse water.  He refused to suck them up, which makes him a good fish father.

My professor told me I should write and present a paper at UCLA in February.  Now I have to write a proposal by next week.  We'll see if anything comes of it.

I watched an episode of "30 Rock" that perfectly illustrated an academic article I discussed in class last Thursday.  Props to "30 Rock" for making fun of "diversity" as a way to make money.  Hilarious!

Tomorrow I get to walk around and take pictures of gravestones in Denver's oldest cemetery.  It's going to be fabulous.

Chocolate Explosion

This is me covered in cocoa.  How did I get this way?  I opened a new container of cocoa.  Apparently, its contents were under pressure, which I didn't know was even really a 'thing' that happened to cocoa.  I pulled on the tab, and POOF!  Cocoa went everywhere--in my eyes, up my nose, in my mouth, on my shirt, on my chin, on the floor, etc.  To be clear, I DID NOT jerk the cocoa container while opening.  It exploded in my hands.

P.S. I do not recommend inhaling cocoa.  It hurts.  So does getting it in your eyes.