What do you do when you need pen holders in your office but don't feel like buying any?

Take one old Crystal Light container and one old peanut butter jar, or whatever cylindrical container you have around. Then hot-glue tissue paper from your stash of gift bags/wrap from presents you've received onto the containers (I used three layers). Then take some of those parade beads you saved and swore you'd find something to do with someday and wrap them around the jars. You'll have the following:

• Hey everyone, don't submit anything to CCC for a while.
• I had a dream the other night that Brooke Shields was my cousin. She was very snooty and unpleasant, and she smoked. She also didn't have any children. I woke up puzzled because that's not at all how I imagine Brooke Shields. I read her book, Down Came the Rain, and I like her, based on the book. I imagine she'd be friendly, genuine, and fun.
• I got an email a while back saying that I'd been nominated to submit materials to run for the CCCC Executive Committee and the Nominating Committee. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it. I might run for the Nominating Committee. The Executive Committee requires NCTE and CCCC attendance, and I don't want to commit to that. We'll see, though. Whoever nominated me, if you're reading this, thanks for thinking of me.
• I dread going to work tomorrow. I'm so behind on just about everything, gah.
• Okay, Jack Bauer now.

The next couple of weeks may be hectic and stressful due to the beginning of the semester, but there will be some great premieres:

January 11, 12: 24
January 16: Battlestar Galactica
January 18: Big Love
January 21: Lost

I've basically spent this entire winter break visiting family and doing home improvement projects. I wonder if this is how my years are going to go: teaching/administration during the fall, family/home in the winter, teaching/administration in the spring, research/writing in the summer. These are predominant themes, of course; it's not as though I don't do research and family/home year-round.

Ugh, it's been forever since I posted. Not much has been happening to speak of, really -- Henry is growing, of course; he has his two front lower teeth, but those top teeth have been taking their time coming in. He laughs all the time, especially when I laugh at something. I'm watching him gum Cheerios right now. We're finally getting his nursery in shape; I just bought a 4-in-1 crib that converts into a toddler bed, a day bed, and a full-size bed. I also got him some wall-mounted shelves for books and these prints, which I hung up in a windowpane configuration.

I have a ton of research work and teaching prep to do, as one would expect, and not much time for it. However, I am making one much-needed trip to Florence, AL before the semester starts. I leave tomorrow. More soon.

By the way, I am so glad I'm not at MLA.

For years now, I've been wanting my mom to send me our old Christmas tree ornaments, of which there are boxes and boxes (and boxes!). Now that we're homeowners, she has sent us these boxes. I've had this craft project planned since probably 2006 or so; I know we had some very nice ornaments, but we also had some cheapo ornaments too. I thought I'd upcycle them into a wreath. Finally I have had the opportunity to do this, and here's the result on our door:

human milk
formula
apple juice
applesauce (baby kind)
applesauce (adult kind with cranberry and raspberry)
rice cereal
barley cereal
prunes
pears
whole wheat toast
yams (at a restaurant I gave him a bite of mine)
hummus (ditto)
peas
yogurt
"green vegetables" with brown rice, which he hated
butternut squash, which he also hated
carrots
oatmeal (Quaker Nutrition for Women kind, vanilla cinnamon flavor)
smoothie (Naked brand, the green one)
bananas (both fresh and pureed)

• Today I bought four bags of books at my university library's used book sale. Score!
• Henry has TWO teeth now, and he likes to chew my fingers with them.
• I'm doing a conference presentation at LACC on Saturday, and I think I might do a ten-minute presentation containing the primary information/argument, then use whatever time I have left for some outtakes. The title is "'No More Than a Year': Isocrates and the Assessment of First-Year Writing." With this presentation, I may or may not be embarking on a new series of research projects. I am definitely entering an area that is not very familiar to me (assessment) and another area that is outside my main specialty (classical rhetoric). The outtakes, which have to do with ideas of natural ability, are interesting, but they don't quite fit into the main focus of the presentation.

He's good. Two weeks ago today, we saw him for Henry's six-month visit, and I showed him Henry's shaky sitting-up technique. He took one look and said, "I give it two weeks, then he'll be sitting up without assistance." One week and six days later, Henry did it. Here's a video from earlier this morning:

In case you were wondering, immediately after I shot this video, I covered up that electrical outlet in the background with a couple of those plastic dummy plugs.