Living in the city

Friendly Visits

pkosick — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:59:56 +0000

Oh August, I both love and hate you. I love you because you are still considered summer.

I also hate you because you’re so close to the semester. In many ways, I’m looking forward to the semester because I will see my colleagues, I have a great time teaching, and this may sound strange, but I’m looking forward to a more structured schedule. However, the beginning of the semester means the end of the summer and a big let down for me as it usually happens that I am not able to finish all the great plans and projects I had lined up for the summer.

August, you are also a time to visit with friends and this is another reason I love you. In general, summer allows me to return to a normal life in many ways. I get my weekends back. I sometimes spend week day evenings doing fun things. Days are spent on house projects. Get this, sometimes we even take a vacation! I know, crazy. So, I like to take advantage of this last month before the semester starts to get in one last visit (or in many instances, just one visit) with my friends. In the end this works out very well because dinners with friends and long weekends are a nice break from the stressful weeks leading up to the semester.

What exactly happened to the summer?

pkosick — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:41:47 +0000

With just a few days left in July I find myself asking the questions, what the hell happened to summer? I know I spent some time goofing off, but not a couple months! I do have some things to show for summer like a freshly painted entryway, a new kitten, a draft of a grant proposal, some work towards my research, lecture notes for a class this Fall, and a vacation. Ah, yes, that’s what happened to summer.

Still, it doesn’t feel like I’ve done that much. Or, maybe my anxiety at the summer ending has to do with the fact that the number of unfinished projects is still bigger than the number of finished (or semi-finished) projects? Or maybe this has to do with the fact that during the summer I don’t have to teach and hence my schedule is a little more . . . free . . . ok, lazy.

Here’s my list from before. Let’s take a look at where I am now.

Plan out new courses . . . (Sounds so easy right?) ——– ok, well I have three new courses this coming academic year: one in the Fall and two in the Spring. I have almost complete lecture notes (and even some homework sets!!!) for my Fall course.
~~Plan & run teacher workshop (one of said summer projects)~~
~~Write talk & attend conference in Belgium~~
Make teaching portfolio
~~Paint entryway~~
Write Freshman Seminar Proposal ———- I may not have started the course proposal but I do have a detailed schedule and by the end of today I will have a syllabus.
Repaint heavily traveled areas in the house
Organize office
Work on research ———- I did some work with my advisor and he should be sending me a paper soon to be edited (to be submitted by the end of the summer).

Not bad. Not great either.

Now it’s time to go off and finish that syllabus.

Or maybe take Sadie for a walk . . .

House centipede

pkosick — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:08:04 +0000

Every find any of these guys in your house?

Creepy long bugs with hundreds of long wispy legs. Ugh. Well, I found one this morning in my bath tub. Thankfully, he seems to be stuck in there. Unfortunately, now that I’ve run and had my coffee I would like to shower and he’s in my way. The Husband isn’t here to take care of it and they absolutely terrify me.

My solution? Toss a cat into the bathtub. Our cats love chasing and killing these bugs normally. However, I think it being stuck in a confined space (the bathtub) takes all the fun out of it for the cats. Each time I put them in, they follow the bug, swat him a few times, and promptly jump out of the bathtub.

Oh well, I guess he’s just going to go down the drain.

Bad luck

pkosick — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:20:57 +0000

This past week has not been good for our little family. First, I take a nice tumble onto the pavement (my knees and elbow are very slowly healing). Then over the nice hot and humid weekend our AC freezes over. Finally, poor Miss Sadie seems to be having some digestive problems (we are going to the vet shortly).

And did I mention I got a summons for jury duty?

Oh yes and we are leaving the country for 12 days on Saturday.

Motivation

pkosick — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:31:07 +0000

Today I woke up motivated and ready to work. I have a lot to get done this week (and yes, I know it is already Wednesday), but I have a plan. I woke up invigorated after a great night of sleep, put on my brand new running clothes, and took Sadie out for a run.

It was hot and humid outside, but my run was going well. Until my shoe caught part of the pavement and I went flying forward. Ah, yes, that was graceful. There goes my motivation. (and my pride)

The result: two nasty looking skinned knees, a skinned elbow, a scratched up palm, and let’s not forget my damaged ego. The one positive thing I take away from my oh so graceful swan dive onto the sidewalk is that despite my dropping Sadie’s leash, she did not run off but stood by me (probably wondering what I was doing on the ground).

Do you remember your last skinned knee? Just in case you don’t, it hurts.

Our New Addition

pkosick — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:23:35 +0000

I’d like to introduce you to our newest addition, Sid. He came to live with us on June 4.

So, where did this little man come from? Well, my brother in law’s girlfriend is a receptionist at a vet. They took in a mom cat and her litter to foster. They ended up adopting two of the kittens from the litter and we couldn’t resist adopting this little guy once we met him.

Stay tuned for more photos and stories of this little terror and his razor sharp claws.

Update on progress

pkosick — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:52:37 +0000

Let’s see how I’m doing with my summer list, well here she is . . .

Plan out new courses . . . (Sounds so easy right?)
Plan & run teacher workshop (one of said summer projects)
Write talk & attend conference in Belgium
Make teaching portfolio
Paint entryway
Paint kitchen
Start repainting trim in the house
Organize office

After some thought and starting work on some of these projects I’m going to make a few changes. Ah, yes, that’s much better.

Plan out new courses . . . (Sounds so easy right?)
Plan & run teacher workshop (one of said summer projects)
Write talk & attend conference in Belgium
Make teaching portfolio
Paint entryway
Write Freshman Seminar Proposal
Repaint heavily traveled areas in the house
Organize office
Work on research

So far I’ve managed to write about a little over half the lecture notes for one of my classes (1). I have a feeling writing the lecture notes for the other two classes (which I’ll be teaching in the Spring) will end up being something I do in the Fall… and the Spring. The planning for the teacher workshop (2) is coming along nicely. And that’s about it.

Oh no! That’s not it, there is something I can cross off the list – I painted the entryway!

It’s amazing how little one can get done in a month.

Our city dog

pkosick — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:03:24 +0000

Sadie is now a city dog and she seems to be loving it.

The main characteristic that makes her a true city dog is that she no longer needs grassy bits to do her business. Some of her favorite pee spots are actually in the street. This makes life for us much easier. There are some times I wish she wasn’t a city dog, like when she decides to pee a mere couple feet from an outside dining area. Yeah, sorry guys.

Additionally, we have trashcans at regular intervals on our walks. So we don’t have to carry her business gets picked up very far.

I would say her favorite two things in the city are the squirrels and the people.

Of course, she has always loved squirrels. Unfortunately for her, there were none in our last neighborhood. However, now you can barely walk down the street without running into (almost literally) at least one squirrel. Just in case you didn’t notice the squirrels, Sadie will very discreetly point them out to you by pulling desperately to get at them and making a very high pitch barking sound. I’m sure our neighbors appreciate this on our morning walks at 5:45 am. Along with the plethora of squirrels, many of the squirrels are slow. There have been many times I have had to hold Sadie back so that she doesn’t actually get a squirrel.

She also loves seeing all the people around. On our walks, she tries to make eye contact with everyone she sees and wags her tail when they smile back at her. Occasionally, people ask to pet her and she loves it. She acts as if she has never been pet before.

Cold Turkey

pkosick — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:18:28 +0000

Yesterday was the first day of Operation Cold Turkey, an effort to gain back our healthy habits (and lose some of this extra weight). Yesterday started a few new trends in our household:

no more drinking on weeknights
we started a new workout schedule to get us in shape and ready to start training for the Philly Half-marathon (formerly the PDR) later this summer
carbs are the enemy, so we are focusing on fruits, veggies, and protein
no more bad foods in the house

So far, so good.

The difficulty for me is that I am now working from home and I have very little will power. I am very guilty of snacking throughout the day when I am home alone. That is why we can no longer have any bad foods in the house. Because if they are here, I will eat them.

Is it Friday yet?

Back on track?

pkosick — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:01:25 +0000

Something tells me that going out to eat for lunch and dinner for the past few days is not helping me get back on track . . .