Bobolink!

Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird? Good question. I have been fortunate to see the bobolink a number of times here in Monroe County, most memorably at the Clear Creek Trail, where several bounced around in the trees above the bend in the river. I'd hate to see them go away. Skep has been kicking around an Indiana-only diet; this would be another of the good consequences. I hope he tries it out, if only so I can see what challenges arise and how they are resolved. All I know is that I have never heard of any Indiana-made olive oil.

I haven't done as much birding in the past few years as I used to, but J got me a really nice pair of binoculars for X-mass, so I have been getting back in the game as much as I can. Scott and I had a good trip out to an abandoned coal mine for some rough-legged hawks, among others. All this leads to my impending return to action as a member of the Rogue Ornithologists for the Monroe County Bird-a-thon in early May. I have been in semi-retirement for too long--I am sure you saw the feature on ESPN about my comeback tour.

Ok. That's about all for today. I assume all who read this have already made plans for next Friday's return of Battlestar Galactica for its final season. It's gonna be good stuff. And if you haven't watched BSG before, for golly's sakes do yerself a favor and check it out.

Cancun + Brown Betty!

Hi. Had an absolutely great time in Cancun with my mom and Becky. Usually, vacation with us means backpacks, tents, friend's couches, etc. "Posh" and "pampered" rarely come into the game. This was clearly how the other half lives. It was truly a vacation, in which everything was covered and provided. Quite, nice, actually. We did escape the resort to head to Chichen Itza for a day, and J and I took a boat trip to Isla Contoy, a national park two hours north of Cancun. There's a rookery of magnificent frigatebirds on the island, which was way cool, and I went snorkeling on the reef offshore, swimming with sharks and rays. Very cool. Jennifer stayed back on the boat, where the crew managed to get her drunk. There are pictures below, if you are interested.



Also, Tom Shover unearthed this clip of Brown Betty in the studio doing "Live It Down." Nice trip to the past (15 years!), where I had hair on my head instead of my back. Sheesh. Ned just lent me his copy of 20th Century Eightball, which totally took me back to those fine, cynical days of the early 90s. Good times, for shure.

See you soon, dearies.

Gygax + "Here's to you..."

E. Gary Gygax died today. There's some controversy about who should share the credit for creating Dungeons and Dragons. Dave Arneson was clearly involved and probably should be noted as well, and there are definitely others. I guess it's a little like Stan Lee versus Ditko and Kirby. Stan and Gary just had better PR agents, I guess. What are geeks gonna do? I haven't rolled the dice in a few years, which is too bad, but I haven't hung up my chainmail. Actually, I have--it's in my office. But I work with Jimmah now, and I figure there might just turn out to be some Star Wars based role playing in my future. Good for us that Gary, Dave, etc. started such a cool game.

My mother retired on Friday. She spent her working years as a rehabilitational psychologist working with adults with disabilities. For a good portion of the time, this was at New Hope, as residential facility. As times changed in the 90s, she helped them shift toward a more community-based setting. She will continue to provide training and staff development on an as needed basis. Thinking about her career, there's a real symbiosis between the two of us. She got interested in disability issues when I was diagnosed with ADHD back in the early 70s. They called in "hyperactivity" back then. Full circle, I am similarly involved with the lives of people with disabilities, and even found my wife through the field. So I owe her a lot. But so do countless people whose lives she touched and who have better access to their community and more independence and choice. That's what it's all about. I couldn't be more proud; she's earned her rest.

The other cool thing about her retirement is that Becky is taking her on a trip to Cancun to celebrate, and Jennifer and I are going with them! I've never been to Mexico, and I have never been to an "all-inclusive" resort before. I guess they give me all the drinks I want. Period. I have no idea how they expect to make money there. Fools.

Soup Bowl!

Last night was the 14th Annual Soup Bowl Benefit in Bloomington. The proceeds ($70K last night alone) go to the local food bank. It's such a great idea--you pay $25, and you get to pick out a donated bowl made by a local potter, and fill it up with soup from local restaurants. J and I have been going for years and our cupboard is filled with several unique bowls. Actually, maybe they need to do plates from here on out. My mom and Becky have started coming in the past few years, along with J's mom. Ned and Shari are typically there, along with plenty of other fine folks from around town. It's really one of those events that reminds me why I love living here--the small-town feeling of community and caring is unmistakable at the Soup Bowl.

Of course, part of the fun is soup. I love soup, and I love it when it's soup season. While I don't compare to many of the yummies available last night, we've been making some tremendous pots here on Maxwell Lane. J's new favorite is a split-pea Parmesan, but other recent winners are a carrot-ginger, potato-leek, chicken velvet, and a constant standby, Cincy-style chili. Yum city. We look forward to warmer weather in the coming weeks, but it's too bad when soup season moves on.

All right. New topic. For years, the tanque teacher cadre has bemoaned the short attention spans, obtuseness, and general lack of academic behavior from too many of our young scholars. These days, I've moved up the chain a bit, and I can't say I am much more impressed. I do lots of workshops and training for teacher in different aspects of special education, especially co-teaching (what b student and I did for a good while). I have a running contract with a school in Indy, and I think I am going to pull what's left of my hair out. I expect teachers to grade papers while I am presenting, and I get that maybe not everyone is interested in what I have to say, but last Friday I wanted to bust some heads. I was in a small group of teachers, all of whom are "co-teaching" (not really--that's why I am there). This was a conversation, not a presentation. I wanted them to help me know where they wanted me to focus my energies. But three of these teachers spent the entire session monkeying around with their cellphones, making calls, texting, and checking voicemail. They would pass the phones around from time to time, giggling and laughing. Not for a minute did these people even pretend they were paying attention. To be fair, their colleagues were clearly embarrassed by them, but also seemed unsurprised. I am back up there this coming Friday, and I need to have a long talk with the principal. Kind of pathetic, really.

Krugman on Obama + Health Care

Uncertainty in the primaries dangles the tantalizing notion that there still may be a decision at hand when the race comes to Indiana in early May--but I won't get my hopes up. We don't elect presidents here in the Hoosier state, and there's no reason to start now. That said, I think I am on the Obama bandwagon now. I was hoping Edwards would come out ahead (and still like Kucinich), but Obama is clearly preferable to Hillary. At least in most aspects. His record on the war is solid, I trust his views on civil rights (read: Supreme Court nominations), he has good economic credentials, and he offers a sense of newness that we need. It's the meme right now, I know, but after the last seven years, it just "feels" better to have someone who is not part of the Bush/Clinton/Bush axis. I don't think Hillary would be a disaster, but I was never impressed with the Clinton's in the 90s, so why should I be now? That said, Paul Krugman has been tenacious in his critique of Obama's health care plan. In the recent posts, he seems more frustrated about Obama's marketing of his plan than the plan itself (kind of), but he does solidly believe that progessives should be pushing for universal health care mandates.

Anybody got an opinion on this?

$20K Joe

My wife turns up her nose at cruddy coffee, and our pals out west are perfectly snobbish about the whole affair, so I am curious to hear what they say about siphon coffee. It sez there's some available in P-ville, so let's get some man-on-the-street feedback, dearies.

Busy, busy, busy here in Hoosier land. But I do want to say congrats here to my sister Natalie and her new husband Craig, who were married in Carmel this past weekend. I love the girl dearly, and they are a perfect match. Here's wishing them years of happiness.

Coon!

I don't want to leave the discussion of presence and bread aside, but I have to share this story and video from last night. I left the house around 6p to go to class. Jennifer had started a fire and planning to curl up with a book all evening. We had recently had some work done on our chimney--most notably installing a cap up top--so Jennifer was quite excited to get to use the fireplace again. It seems that a little while after I left, a raccoon dropped into the fireplace through the flue and began thrashing around in the flames. Soon, he pushed the glass doors open and jumped into the house, his fur smoldering. He ran downstairs into the basement, where he stayed until animal control arrived. I guess he had been there since Wednesday since the cap went on. We thought we heard something in there before last night, but it didn't make sense. The whole reason we had the chimney worked on was because it wasn't drawing very well. Now we know why--big fat raccoon clogging the works. Yikes. Jennifer videotaped part of the excitement--the voiceover is mostly her talking to Kandi on the phone.