My Night with Johnny Depp*

The Drama Queen is on the mend from her horrendous stomach complaint, but needed a little additional comforting last night. So at 10:30, she came into my room and asked for a song and a cuddle. The cuddle turned into me climbing into bed with her, where she would grab desperately for me every time I made a move to return to my own bed. So eventually I rolled over (well, such as you can in a twin bed) and went to sleep. I awoke next to this:



DQ had left me to sleep in Daddy's (spacious, underoccupied) bed. At last, I was alone with Johnny. Don't you wish you led a life even half as exciting as mine?



*well, the McDonald's Happy Meal version of him, at least!

Reading is Fundamental

I supposedly napped while my children supposedly napped today. Of course, I was in an out of consciousness enough to know that DQ was not so much napping as wandering about the upstairs figuring out how to keep herself occupied until it was time to "wake up." This included coming into my room and wandering around my bedside table.

But I wasn't quite prepared for the following wake-up call: "Mommy, can you read this book to me?" In her outstretched hand, she held Lillian Faderman's Surpassing the Love of Men, a lit/history monograph that traces lesbian and romantic relationships between women over the past several centuries.

She liked it 'cause it had girls in big floofy dresses on the front.

Oh no! It's a breast!

The recent cover of Babytalk magazine is getting heat for (eek!) showing a baby nursing from a breast. CNN's got an article on the uproar this has caused.

I have posted earlier about how increasing breastfeeding visibility might be a more positive approach than guilting mothers into breastfeeding. The argument being that people are still (unnecessarily, in my opinion) rather skittish about breasts. A couple of my readers suggested that breastfeeding images are no big deal. Really?

Next to the photo: "Why women don't nurse longer?" Gee, I wonder.

Hat Tip to new mother E for sending this my way.

Random Observation

Is it just me, or is TLC the "Skinemax" of educational television?

Laundry, Laundry

Ok, so here's a question for all the parents on teh internets: The Wild Boy sleeps about 10-11 hours overnight now, and his diaper just isn't doing the trick. We're talking a complete soaking roughly 3 nights a week. This doesn't seem to bother him, but it sure as heckfire bothers me (the one doing the laundry). Anybody recommend a good diaper solution?

More than just a pretty face...

A new departure for Th-Hers-Day... the audible sexiness edition. Who are the men out there who just make you melt with the sound of their voice? I can break this down into two possible categories:

Musicians:

Sting

Rob Thomas. I'm not made of stone, people!

Darius Rucker. Sue me. I'm a sap.

Non-Musicians:

Patrick Stewart. Make it so!

Antonio Banderas

John Hannah (from Four Weddings and Sliding Doors)

Perchance I dig accents?

Monday, Monday

Time for new goals for the week:

1. Read through the whole damn thing and start planning out conclusion.
2. While doing #1, jot down possible titles to form a short list.
3. Finish reading the context material (from Second Reader) for Chapter 2.
4. If there's time, start on edits to chapter 1-2.

I'm avoiding chapter 6 right now. It's just too big a project. Maybe that should be next week's task.

Diss update... again

I think I've come to the sad conclusion that it is time to sit down and read the whole damn thing straight through. Not for editing purposes, but to give me an idea of how the whole thing works together. This will serve two purposes. One, I hope to cull a short list of decent titles for it. (I've come to hate my working title... so much! Flames... on the side of my face!) Two, I need to figure out just where to go with my conclusion, and right now I'm very torn.

I'm hitting the new Cascadia library tomorrow to apply for guest privileges, and to (hopefully) check out the four books Second Reader wanted me to read. I received her full edits in the mail today. Add that to the stack of crap.

On the good side. I bought bookshelves! Yay!!!

Veruca Salt, eat your heart out!

DQ: I want my new toy.
Spouse: It's not here. It's in your backpack, at school.
DQ: Can we go pick up my backpack at school?
Spouse: But you just started your juicepop.
DQ: Can we get it now?
Spouse: Well, then we'll have to be all done with your juicepop.
DQ: We can pick it up and then have more juicepop when we get home.
Spouse (aside to me): I want my cake, but I want to eat it, too.
DQ: There's cake?

It's an Introduction, Charlie Brown!

(Good grief! Where did that title come from?)

Now, I haven't read it over, but I am currently printing the first draft of my dissertation's introduction. After a quick survey, scan of Reviews in American History, and a little experimentation, I've decided to go with the past tense for my lit review. Since I start with some dead authors, it seemed logical. Although I end with one book published in 2006. But whatever. If it's wrong, it will be corrected. For now, I needed to move on.

I've also combined the whole thing into one document so that I could do the wacky formatting and margin stuff desired by my university. Length? As Homer would say, "239 and Feelin' Fine!"

Now it's on to the conclusion (if I'm feeling creative) and revisions (if I'm not.)

Diss To Do List

1. Read through Advisor's comments for Chapter 6 and get cracking!
2. Read through Second Reader's comments for Chapters 1-2 and start pondering (more detailed comments to follow, so wait for those) -- done! Of course, she suggested I read about 4 more books to fill out my analysis, so I guess that's not really done.
3. Do the topic sentence exercise to tighten up the organization of Chapter 2.
4. Fill in historiography and argument section of introduction. -- today's project
5. Whip together a conclusion of some sort.
6. Don't forget to breathe.

Question for the peanut gallery: when doing a lit review in the introduction, do you keep it past tense or present? Ie: do you put "he/she wrote" or "he/she writes" when discussing an author?

It says so in black and white (or black and pink)

Tomorrow, I start writing again. Seriously.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Sexual Chocolate!

K-lyn recently tipped me off about the extravaganza that is the World Series of Pop Culture, on VH1. Well, now that I've seen a couple of episodes, I have to say I'm mildly intrigued. Not obsessed, but I may come back and watch some more. But I fear that the thing that most interests me is over: the team names.

A sampling from teams in the tournament:

The Laser Wolves (obscure is fun!)

I [Heart] Jake Ryan

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike

(and my personal favorite) Sexual Chocolate

She also wants Neel and I on her team. Which begs the question: what would your World Series of Pop Culture team name be?

Mr. Zero (as in "Don't fuck with")

The Laminated List

Super Karate Monkey Death Car

Chotchkie's Extreme Fajitas

The Wild Boy Adjust to the Time Change... Or Not

As soon as we're praising the kids about how well they've done getting acclimated to their new home, we have a night like last night. From 12:30 to 3:30, WB decided it was time for bonus bottle, diaper change, and PLAY! PLAY! PLAY!

Batter up! Th-hers-day

This Th-Hers-day... for the Ladies is inspired (or demanded?) by good friend Julie, who insists nicely that I do a baseball edition of my increasingly-popular series, Th-Hers-Day for the Ladies. She's got a thing for Alex Rios.

so with out further ado... [cue "Take me out to the Ballgame" and shirtless shortstops]

I nominate the following selections, which will go to show that I don't follow baseball much:

There's Derek Jeter. Duh.

I also like Carlos Beltran.

My friend T likes Brad Ausmus.


My friend E likes Andy Pettitte, although I think he has two many T's in his name.

Thoughts? (Apologies to K for including a Yankee and no Red Sox on the list. I'll let my contributors add.)

Random Bullets of Moving

(TM Phantom Scribbler Ianqui)

Forgive me as I shamelessly steal terminology from Ianqui, but the random bullets method seems to really be effective for covering vast amounts of material in a short time. Too bad my dissertation couldn't be written in random bullets! :)

The house:
*LOVE IT!
*no train. I was amazed at how much I had grown accustomed to living near a train crossing (5 years). But the silence at night is spectacular.
*we have butterflies who congregate in the backyard. DQ is fascinated.
*the cavernous master bedroom looks like it will accomodate my rocker and a "crafting nook." Yay! Currently shopping for a low shelving/drawer unit to put under the window there.
*Don't hate the paint colors as much as I did when we first house-hunted. One of the main reasons we selected this house was that it had great spaces, but poor cosmetic appeal. And for the price (about 50,000 less than many others we considered), we can buy lots of paint. Now, that's not become to vital.
*Neighborhood. We have just about everything within walking distance. Including an Indian grocery store. Go figure.

Settling in:
*Seven days without phone lines, cable, or internet. I come to realize it really is the internet I miss most (although I could do with a good dose of cable right about now... give me my Colbert Report!)
*Kids start "summer camp" this week. I'll keep everyone posted.
*We've got at least 3 pre-schoolers on our block. We've got at least two parks within walking distance. We've walked there everyday.

Getting back on track:
*the last thing to unpack is my office. Unfortunately, we have no bookshelves at present, so we have to do a little shopping before my 27 boxes of books get cleared. Urgh.
*I received preliminary comments on Chapter 6 right before leaving Lawndale. In short, needs a lot of work (I agree.) But the next thing Advisor wants to see is THE WHOLE DRAFT! Complete with rudimentary introduction and conclusion, and all the fun stuff I've added into chapters 1-5. So that's a big step. Advisor also floated a suggestion to send the draft to the other committee members when I send it to her, which I think bodes well.
*I'm emotionally and mentally ready to work again. Once childcare gets situated, I may actually get some stuff done!

Life moves pretty fast...

If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Turns out that in my 13 day hiatus, Corndog declared his love for me. It's a veritable love-fest, as I have to share him with about 20 other lovely bloggers. But I'm ok with that. (I'm such a slut!)

Seriously, true story: I told Spouse about my affection for Corndog, who rolled his eyes (as per usual when I mention bloggers). But unlike other blog mentions (with the notable exception of Angry Pregnant Lawyer -- "she's exactly like you, except she likes beer"), he actually read the site. His comment: "This guy is funny! He's like, Neel funny. IS he Neel?"

If you know Spouse, or know Neel, you'll know that's a compliment of the highest order.

I'm back, bitches!

Having been called out by Neel, I will now resume blogging duties. I have a reasonable explanation forthcoming, I promise...