Tag Archives: christmas

Catchup Time…

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Brand: Dwayne Kohn

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a catchup post on here and thought that today would be good for one of those. Enjoy!

The university semester is almost finished and we’re in the midst of Final Exams Week (or Finals Week as we call it). My students had their final exam for my class last Saturday so I’m immersed in grading those and calculating their overall final grades. (Hooray for Excel sheets. They make life so much easier for this sort of task.) 

It’s been a fun semester teaching this group, and I hope that we’ve both learnt a lot over the past few weeks and months. As much as I love them, I’m ready for a break though, and am looking forward to a few things during the break. 

The first big thing is that we’re going to go to New Orleans for a few days, just to hang out and see things. I’ve been doing some research (as I am wont to do) and have lots of ideas of how and where to spend our time while we’re down in the Big Easy, and so we’re looking forward to the trip. More deets to come. 

The second big thing is that both the Superhero and I are off work until after Christmas so that means loads of time to do not much (or as much as we want to of whatever we want to), so that’s a great holiday present right there. I’m still planning out what I’m thinking of doing, but I’m sure it will be fun (or if not fun, at least productive – I see some cleaning/organizing of the house in my future). 

The third big thing is that my lovely mum is traveling from England for the holidays, so that will be great to spend some time with her. She and I are rather alike in how we like to spend our time, so that makes trips easy and laid-back for the most part, so I see lots of shopping, jigsaw puzzles, reading and going to thrift shops during her visit here in Texas. 

I’ve also been reading, but at not quite the same pace as in November when a lot of us were involved with Nonfiction November. I thoroughly enjoyed this community project and was lucky to be introduced to a lot of new bloggers, so I’m definitely signing up for the next round of that. Thanks to the hosts-with-the-mosts (Doing Dewey, JulzReads, Whats Nonfiction, Sarah’s Bookshelves, and Shelf Aware). 

I will also be having an update on my books in another post to come… So – how’s your life? Are you involved in the academic calendar (on any level)? What are your plans for Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Solstice, something completely different or none-of-the-above? 🙂

Trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico…

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All calculations based on experience elsewhere, fail in New Mexico.

Lew Wallace, Territorial Governor, 1881.

The day after Christmas, the Superhero and I made a quick run to get out of town for a long weekend, and so we ended up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is one of our neighboring states. It also happened to be at the exact same time as what TV stations were calling “the biggest blizzard of the last 20 years”, but we had our new truck with 4×4 and we were looking forward to a bit of snowy adventure so off we set. 🙂

Santa Fe is at a higher altitude than where our home is, and there was an enormous (as wide as New Mexico) blue cloud on the radar. Due to the storm that was slowly plodding across the area, the drive was a bit of an adventure. In the end, the total time in the car was about nine hours which is almost double what the typical journey takes. Snow really slows you down.

Luckily, New Mexico is very good with its snow management so there were enough snow-ploughs to keep the roads mostly clear, but we were pretty grateful to be in the Superhero’s four-wheel drive truck. (There were so many cars who had slithered off the road and were waiting somewhat forlornly for a rescue truck. We would have stopped to help if anyone was in critical danger from cold or otherwise, but most of the cars that littered the roadsides were perfectly fine. Just stuck.) 

We had splashed out and booked up at La Fonda, one of the nicest hotels in the city, and although it was really only an overnight trip, the hotel made it more special than usual since it was pretty posh.

Santa Fe is the capital city of the state, and is an interesting place to visit, interesting for many reasons but for this trip, it was notable as it looked so different in the snow. 

The small city has an ordinance that all the buildings within a certain distance of the central town square have to abide by certain architectural standards and design, principally based on using adobe, so there is a pleasing symmetry to the streets as you walk around. It’s an arty community with citizenry from both ends of the income spectrum, but mostly wealthy. It’s a little bit like walking around a rich area such as Aspen, with lots of expensive art shops and restaurants all with the adobe architecture that reflects the area’s influence from the numerous First People’s tribes. 

It’s not a city that looks like any other that I’ve been to (by design), and when it’s snowing, the red sand of the adobe buildings looks very pretty against the falling snow flakes. Plus, since it was only a day or two after Christmas, a lot of the decorations were still up: lights in the trees around the main square, and a Santa Fe version of an adobe gingerbread house in the hotel’s lobby:

The hotel’s version of the classic Christmas gingerbread house… Adobe!

So, that was a fun trip (even with the snow!). The cold weather also meant that not many cars were on the roads, and though the road trip was almost doubled in terms of its typical travel time, we even had a long enough drive-time for us to listen to a complete audio book, which is a record for us. (It was a murder mystery by Mary Higgins Clark, but not sure which one. It was surprisingly good.)

It was great to get out of town for a break of sorts, and when we returned home, we still had another week or two before going back to work (which was nice).

So, since I haven’t said this yet: Happy new year! May you have peace and lots of good reading!

The main square in SF all decorated with colorful fairly lights…

Christmas Greetings!

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Image result for cosy socks fireplace

One of the major benefits of working for a large state-run university happens between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and consists of one solid week when the university shuts down for the holidays. I imagine the Police et al. are still there, but for us worker bees, we have a whole week plus two weekends off. It’s glorious, and one of the best presents that the university can give to us. And that time is now, my friends.

So – have I been using my free time wisely and crossing pesky things off my To-Do list? HA.

Shall we see just what I’ve been doing the last few days?

  • Had quite a few naps. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
  • Read half of a novel, couldn’t get to caring about the characters or the plot, and so it was a DNF. (One off the TBR pile though, so that’s good.)
  • Finished up a British Library Crime Series book called “Crimson Snow” with lots of snowy murder mystery short stories. Another off the TBR…
  • Superhero deserves a big raise for putting together my new large desk. It had so many pieces, and something like 67 cam-bolts, but he did it, and I can’t wait to get situated in the room now. Next step: chair for desk and chair/ottoman for reading. Plus lights.

My ankle is still encased in a plaster cast and so I’m cruising around on this knee-scooter thing. On a nice smooth surface (such as in the university library), it’s really fun to see how fast you can go. It’s fun until you hit the edge of a carpet which then catapults you over the handle bars and gives you bruised knees, a black eye, and breaks your glasses. Not only that, undignified as it was, but it also took three kind people to help me off the floor as I can’t put any weight on that surgery ankle. Needless to say, I have kept to a more sensible speed since then, but it was fun while it lasted. 🙂

It’s been freakishly cold here since Christmas, and so of course, the (mostly outside) cats have been sneaking inside for a nice warm snooze in the evenings. The temps got down to 24 degrees the other night (when 32 is freezing), and who can say no to three small furry faces looking up at you on the door step? Plus there was a dusting of snow the other day…

I caught some of the great Christmas sales for the community stockings that I put together each year. (Total fun to do, and if you time your shopping just right for the sales, you can get some good stuff without breaking the bank.)

Saw the new Star Wars movie, caught up with some friends, and am generally not doing much which is just what we need to get ready for the new year.

I’m working on a Best of… book post, catching up with the book stats and showing off my new acquisitions, so expect those soon, and in the meantime, I’m just diving into Emily Eden’s books, The Semi-Attached Couple and The Semi-Detached House (Virago imprint, 1859/60). It’s very forward thinking for being written more than a hundred years ago, and Eden has been compared with Austen et al., so looking forward to the read.

Hope your holidays and Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Hanukah et al. have been fun for you and yours. I’m off to catch up on some of my blog reading….