Congratulations to Beth and Catie and big brother Sam on the birth of baby Sarah! Very happy for you all!
I realized that lots of you probably don't have the context for my last post. If you're interested in learning more about academic infighting and some of the issues at stake, you could check out "Sincerely yours, department of miserable bastards", a response to that same letter I responded to. I'd say that that response and the letter itself do a decent job of framing two major sides of the debate, and my own response falls somewhere in the middle. Perhaps because of Kevin, I have somewhat more sympathy for the science guys' take on all this than many English folks (and non-tenured folks) normally have.
We had inspection on the Elmwood house yesterday, and were encouraged to see a POD out front, and many boxes inside. They appear to actually be getting ready to move! Since we're supposed to be in there in about, oh, ten days or so, that's a good sign that this is actually going to happen. The inspection went reasonably well -- in the sense that we found knob-and-tube wiring, and lead paint, and probably asbestos, and a portion of the roof that needs re-doing. But this is also all to be expected in a 102-year-old house, and can be coped with, one way or another. There didn't appear to be any catastrophic problems, thank the gods.
I bought some sheet music for the piano! Six Schirmer books (the classic, inexpensive, yellow-covered books I had when studying piano as a kid): Hanon's Virtuoso Pianist, Czerny's School of Velocity, Burgmuller's 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, 19 Mozart Sonatas, 26 Chopin Preludes, Nocturnes, and Waltzes, and their Complete First Lessons in Bach. Any other recommendations for an intermediate pianist who could once handle and perform a twenty-page Rachmaninoff piece passably well, but who hasn't played seriously in twenty years, would be welcome. I think I'm reasonably well-covered on the classical front, but it'd be fun to have some lighter options: folk, Celtic, pop, kids, Christmas, etc. I'll probably pick up some comprehensive fake books at some point, so I can sight-read a bunch of favorite songs without practicing, but it'd be nice to have some proper sheet music in those areas too.
I have a new plan for our master bedroom. On looking at the space again, I think two-tone is not the way I want to go in there; it's probably going to be a straight-up off-white, something like bone. I think I can keep it from being boring. More on decorating in a separate post, along with a review of some of the decorating books I've been looking at.
Plan for today: write with Lori. Catch up on backlogged e-mail. Start packing master bedroom and bath. Have Oriental rugs taken away to be cleaned (desperately needed) and delivered to new house on completion of cleaning.
2 thoughts on “A few quick…”
Lori
We’re writing today? I guess I’d better go get ready then.
We’re writing today? I guess I’d better go get ready then.
Well, in theory. 🙂