Updates

Wow, I have only posted twice this month.  That is just sad.  Here are some updates, which I will pretend are mini-blog-posts:

1. Fail!

For the first time ever, four students have failed my class.  There was a report that was worth 16% of their course grade, which they didn't bother turning in.  It wasn't that hard of an assignment, and I graded it with a very lenient bend (the lowest score, without taking off for turning it in late, was 85%).  So, if they had written five pages of random words, they would have done better.  One of the students contacted me and told me that their report was on their USB stick, which they can no longer find.  Why is it not on their computer?  Well, they didn't want their hard drive to crash, which would wipe it out.  It was the best excuse ever!  One a more positive note, more students got an A+ than failed.  I must be doing something right.  I love teaching, but I hate assigning grades.

2. AGU: Done!

The American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco was just absolutely insane this year.  First, I didn't have either of my two talks even started before I left on Sunday.  Second, I felt like I was shot out of a cannon - I was busy from the moment I woke up until the moment I closed my eyes every day.  As an example, on Sunday, I got up at 5:45 EST, to catch my 9:00 flight. When we got to SFO, we took a taxi directly to the meeting, which started at noon.  Meeting until 7 PM.  Dinner with colleague, work on talk a bit, then bed at 10 PM PST (for a ~19 hour day).  Each day seemed like this, although none were really longer.  I typically take a few hours off on Friday to shop and such for Christmas presents, but this year I didn't get a chance to do this until about 4:30 on Friday.  It turns out that all of the exhibits closed well before then, so I couldn't get fossils and such for the wife and kids.  How sad!

3. PD Update

My PD who is going home for the holidays is going to be gone much longer than expected.  When he came to the US, he bought a round-trip ticket, with a return date last week.  To get back to the US, he had to buy another ticket, which was very expensive at any reasonable time.  This means that he is going to spend 3 weeks in Euro, instead of 2.  And then he has to go back in ~March, because his Visa expires.  Sigh.

4. Wife doing all of the work

Crab Mama has to be pissed off at me.  She has been doing a crap-load of the house work for the last few weeks.  I have been so busy working, that she has had to take over all of the crap work.  Now I am not working, but I am exhausted and still unable to do anything.  Well, I did wash dishes for 3 hours the other day.  But, she cleaned the basement for about 20 hours yesterday, so I can't really say anything about doing anything.  All pales in comparison to the awesomeness of the wife.  I promise that I will step it up soon!

5. Broken!

Crab Boy broke his arm two days ago.  It was a weird series of events that led up to this event.  A few days ago, the kids went down to the pond in our yard and cleared off a bunch of the snow, just to play around.  They spent hours down there, and were having a lot of fun.  We decided that we should get them some ice skates for Christmas, since they were having so much fun just sliding around.  The next day I bought some ice skates.  The day after that, their friends came over, and brought their ice skates.  This is interesting, since we never mentioned to them that the kids were getting ice skates for Christmas.  The mother of the kids knew that our kids didn't have ice skates.  So, why did they bring ice skates? I have no F-ing idea.  So, they all go down to the pond and the friends start ice skating, while my kids just watch them.  Crab Boy comes up to the house and he is practically in tears.  I felt like sh*t.  So, I go to the basement and get them their ice skates.  Lace up and skate!  A few hours later, after I have gone to work, and Crab Mama has come home, Crab Boy falls down and lands on his hands.  His right wrist gave out a bit, and he came back up and complained to Mom.  She felt around and didn't really like what was there.  Call the doctor, call the urgent care place, etc.  Eventually, everyone decides that he should just go to the ER.  After a couple of hours in the ER, he gets an X-ray, and it turns out that he has a buckle fracture, which is basically like a compression of the bone.  The Dr said that if he was a grown up, it would have really broken, but since he is a kid, it just broke a little bit.  He now has a neon-green cast for three weeks.  Not too bad.

6. In Laws!

There are three in law types here (Mother, Sister, Brother in-law-in-law) for the next 4 days.  With two extra dogs.  Yeah.  Enough said.

7. Dance, Dance, Baby!

Crab Boy performed in his dance recital this last weekend.  It was a hip-hop routine with 5 boys that are all under the age of 10.  He tried very hard.

I guess that is about all that has happened in the last few weeks.  I am emerging from the depths of the great blue ocean, so I should be able to write a bit more in the coming weeks.

Merry Christmas.  I hope you get exactly what you want!  I am sure that I will get what I deserve!

PS - If you find out what Crab Mama is getting for Christmas, it is not because I wanted to get it for her.  I didn't want too!  She has been asking and asking and asking!  I had nothing to do with it!  Ok?  I am NOT a bad husband!