The Hellish Handbasket

Today I sat in a meeting, looking out the window at an old cherry tree covered in white blossoms, and wondered if I'm going to survive t...

We have an abundance of fresh water here in the Pacific Northwest. Right now, as the meteorologists proclaim the wettest month on record and...

I went on an adventure this evening to downtown Portland. I seldom go downtown, although I used to spend a lot of time there. I went to Port...

My dissertation chair forwarded me a short, but positive comment about my concept paper from someone on my committee: "I found this eas...

I'm enjoying how smartly the water swirls down the drain of my kitchen sink, newly reopened thanks to landlord George's relentless a...

Loud noises are coming from the basement under the Love Shack (the 1940s triplex I live in). A minute ago, the landlord George pounded on my...

Today I met my colleague and now friend for tea and talk. Let's call her Braceletta, no, how about Bravadita. It is hard to choose a pse...

The thought-provoking subject of NPR's Talk of the Nation radio program today  was an all-too-brief exploration of the challenge of usin...

Spring is here, but you wouldn't know it. Typical Pacific Northwest spring. Snow, hail, rain, wind, and the occasional fleeting sunbreak...

My last post probably sounded like I was softening up. Do I sound malcontented now? I am beyond malcontented. I'll tell you why, not tha...

Whenever I feel backed into a corner by life, I ask myself this question. It's the key to my self-made prison door, at least for a few m...

It sounds ominous, but being sent to committee is a good thing in this case. This means my concept paper is making the rounds of my faceless...

Today I watched my group of seven Access students struggle through their first test. They are a motley bunch of unique individuals. Four par...

I believe this is paraphrased from a Biblical reference. Not being a Biblical scholar, or even a Christian, I have no idea whether that is t...

One of my favorite movie lines is from a movie called Elizabethtown:   "If it's not this, it would be something else." That pr...

For the past week I have been valiantly struggling to revise my concept paper. Here's what I think I have figured out. I'm on my o...

I'm baaaaack. Online, that is. See previous post. The phone company came out on Sunday (yes, they do actually work on Sundays, who knew?...

You know how I whine about being in hell, and how I said I'm not on facebook, in my usual slightly snotty, somewhat superior tone? Well,...

If you are an educator no doubt you have had to endure many hours of in-service training. We had ours yesterday. On a day already crowded wi...

The aggressive push of the Obama Administration to make higher education accessible, affordable, and effective is stoking a heated debate. I...