dr_mk's Profile

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I recently went back to see the house I'd grown up in. It's only one owner removed from my family; my mother was the original owner of the house and owned it for more than 30 years, and when she retired and moved she sold it to a family who sold it to the current owners.

They let me wander through the house, and as it turns out I was able to tell them a whole bunch of things about the house they didn't know -- like, for example, that my grandfather had built the porch on the back, and that he and my father together had built the beautiful built-in shelves in the den. (I was so happy to see those were still there and still in good condition!) Also, the shutters my mother had had custom-made for the strangely shaped windows in the upstairs dormers were still there as well.

They had redone the kitchen (which desperately needed it), but that was basically the only change that had been made. But it was a beautiful house to begin with.

So not fair that it's LA only. It's bad enough that I don't even live in a proper city ... I have to deal with crappy closets as well.

Oh, god. So, so cute. Want!

Am I the only one hearing WALL-E yelling "Eve-ahhhh! Eve-ahhh!'

I was teaching at UIUC then. I didn't have a television, and for some reason I wasn't listening to the radio on the way in to school, so I got to school and taught my first class, completely oblivious.

At the end of the class, which I noticed was only about half full, some students came up to me and said, "Haven't you heard? They've crashed a plane into the White House." (Obviously a bit of miscommunication there, but it was still early.) At that point I said the one thing I've ever said in front of a student that I wished I could take back the moment I said it ... I said, "Did they get him?" (meaning George Bush. *cringe* )

I spent the rest of the day listening to the radio and constantly refreshing CNN and MSNBC websites trying to keep up with what was happening. I was in a relatively tall building on campus, and I heard low-flying planes around me, which was unusual since the radio was saying all air traffic had been grounded. I later found out that military planes were guarding the airspace over the university because it hosted a supercomputing center, or something like that.

I'm not surprised the cats avoid this box during the day -- there's only one entrance/exit and so with the dog around they may feel threatened.

My cats would never use this kind of setup, no matter how much I like the idea.

My office is painted orange -- it was supposed to be a terracotta, but it turned out a little bit brighter orange than I'd thought. I really like it, especially since I live somewhere where the winters are long and dark; it brightens up the room quite a bit.

I get a lot of positive comments on it. I also get people who say, "I could never live with it, but it is bright!"

I was there for a conference a few years ago. I saw a gorgeous photo opportunity and waited for twenty minutes hoping that a guy who was just standing in the walkway, not moving, would leave! I finally had to take the picture because I was going to be late ... but it still turned out to be a beautiful picture, I think.

I keep thinking I'll get ambitious someday and photoshop him out of the walkway.