sanpaku_backup | (no subject)

As the completion of my 33rd journey around the sun approached, I was confident of one thing. I told the Mrs. that when we were in Pittsburgh for that day, there surely would be cake.

All grandchild, no cake. Well, the good thing about being a grown-up is you can go out and buy your own damn cake. Mine came from Giant Eagle; it was like a Ding-Dong filled with peanut butter frosting. Not bad, but not a real birthday cake, which, as we know, only tastes good because someone else got it for you.

Ah well. We were in Pittsburgh on Friday, which I'll have you know is now officially the day when Pittsburgh got the most rain in its recorded history. It was... a lot of rain. Fun ensued on Saturday when the water filtration system shut down and we had no water in my parents' building. It was even on WPXI. We survived by learning how to drink our own urine. No, actually we just sat around and watched televised scenes of nearby destruction and wondered when the water would come back on. Before you could say "Let's go to the Olive Garden!" it was back.

So, since we arrived on Monday, and Jewish holidays started Wednesday night, we didn't do much this trip. We went to to zoo; we went to Eide's (why?); we went to the Biscotti Factory; we went to Gullifty's. We were negligent about contacting our Pittsburgh friends.

I had my usual number of Holden-Caulfield-at-the-Museum-of-Natural-History-esque moments, especially walking with the baby over to Hoover School. They took the playground equipment off the concrete and put in safe plastic-slide things on wood chips nearby. And the path up to Grace's is gone, because Grace's (place to buy comic books and Pac-Man bubble gum cards) is gone, to be replaced with an Eckerd Drugs and its massive retaining wall. Otherwise, that place has not changed a bit in 25 years.

Also, my Pittsburgh friends will be curious to hear of the fate of the Tom's Diner killers, whose trial coincided with my visit. Unintentionally.

A grueling 11-hour drive back yesterday and now I have to leave on a pointless trip to New Jersey today. Not to mention two copyediting assignments, a paper due this time next week, and a lot of actual work-work. Throw in a 3 am baby session and you have some idea of my frame of mind. But it was a nice trip and I'm glad we went.

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URI offered me some adjunct teaching for the spring, and I surprised myself by taking it. It's my vanity. I miss being able to tell people that I teach. But I also miss the fun of the academic year, too. And it's my usual American Culture course, so it won't be a lot of work.

The baby: now naming colors and speaking in short sentences. And reading to herself for long periods at a time. And not crying in the car during the 11-hour trip. Whoa.

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You don't believe me that Kerry's in trouble, believe Kerry: they've stopped running ads in the South and Colorado, basically conceding everything Bush won last time except for Ohio, Florida, and West Virginia. It will be hard enough to win everything that Gore won last time. It's just surreal. You can't find anyone who thinks Dubya has done a good job, but there's something Kerry hasn't done yet to connect with people. It's hard to pick up on one concrete thing or bold idea that he'd execute, just that he'd be better than Dubya. Every time he says something about Iraq, it's hard for me not to think, "well why did you vote for it then, dummy?" I'm sure I'm not the only one.

But to continue my musical-redemption theme from last post, the one bright spot for my birthday was that