I'm a little frustrated that I haven't heard back from my advisor about my portfolio components yet, but I've been so busy with end-of-the-quarter papers for both 521 and 531 (one was due yesterday and one on the 1st), that I haven't really had much time to think about it. Or write on this blog.

But now that I do think about it I realize just how frustrated I'm getting - or maybe it's impatient. I don't know for sure, but I'd like to have some final word from him before Winter break. Besides working on the Katrina article I want to get all my portfolio pages finalized before the start of Winter quarter. Which I'll do regardless of whether I hear back from him or not.

Just saw Jarhead tonight - had to get a night out - good flick, reasonably well adapted from the book, well acted. I appreciate the cynical realism about war and being a soldier too.

Saw Henry Rollins last Sunday at The Nightlight - good show. It was great to finally see him do his spoken word stuff. Really gave it to the Bush mis-administration too. Pretty much a punk crowd - sold out seats - to see him.

Just sent my Portfolio components off to my advisor! I know it's a minor thing, but it's a weight off my shoulders to finally have the process moving forward. Plus it felt good to get it written up. As long as he approves of everything it shouldn't be too difficult to finish it...

Went to the Washington Association of Library Employees (WALE) conference in Lk. Chelan last week - saw Julia from SPL, got my own hotel room, went to some interesting presentations and tried to keep up on my schoolwork.

It's midquarter now and I'm tired. I'm also starting to stress out about my portfolio - I need to get it whipped into shape ASAP. And I need to apply to the NC fellowship ASAP. Sigh.

What I really need is more time. And more sleep.

Apple Fest yesterday - had a fun time, lots of chess/music/beer and conversation with friends.

And H suprised me with a 10 yr anniversary present: she got Feed & Seed to play in our basement!

Today we spent recovering/cleaning after Apple Fest - went to breakfast at the Old Town and saw Wallace & Grommit and the Wererabbit with the kids.

Missed seeing E as he was up for a conference in Redmond from L.A., but just couldn't figure out a way to get down to Lynwood to see him today. We didn't even do any grocery shopping this weekend...

School work is going steadily along - grades are 4.0 so far. I think I will apply for that N.C. fellowship afterall.

Saw Mark Ribot tonight at the Nightlight - great, inspiring show. Wot a guitar player - brought me close to tears...

Saw it with Paul after playing chess with Isaac (1-1).

Asked Paul to sell me my Ovation back, which I miss for sentimental reasons.

Another late night - went to see a Thelonious Monk tribute show - jazz quartet. Pretty good, especially the sax player.

And now to my school work.

Took the kids to see H doing improv tonight. It was fun, but makes for a very late start for my schoolwork....in fact, I only have 15 minutes of "official" school work time left for tonight!

But the kids and I enjoyed ourselves, and H was having fun on stage. And it was nice to just hang out with the fam.

I'm in the thick of it now. School work is eating up my sleeping and recreating time, but I'm getting a pretty good handle on the subjects this quarter (reference services and cataloging).

We've set up a workable schedule with the kids - after 9pm I'm no longer available. Then it's school time (from 9-11). The only other time I have for schoolwork is my lunch hour. No more chess...

What else do I have going on?

I've got to finish up a report for the usability group I'm involved in at work.
I'm working on another article with Paul - this one about information use and breakdowns during Hurricane Katrina.
Paul and I have submitted a proposal for the LOEX conference next year in Hawaii.
I'm going to the WALE conference in a couple of weeks.
Apple fest is in two weeks.
I've got to figure out how to help Windward High School with their library and maybe do an Information Literacy workshop for them.
I'm considering applying for a fellowship with UNC.
I'm still thinking about a Fulbright fellowship.
H and I are looking at Vancouver, BC much more seriously now as a place to live.

Speaking of which, we just celebrated our 10th anniversary up there over a three day weekend, which was a lot of fun. Saw a premier at VIFF, ate some great food, and slept in a lot.

Well, I guess that's enough for now. I've made this blog my home page to encourage myself to post to it more often. Hope it works!

That's it?! Summer's over?!?

Oh well, it's been a fun one. I've been happily slacking off (as is apparent by my lack of posts), but school starts up again in a few weeks (thankfully I only have two more quarters left!), and I've got several projects to finish....

Not the least of which is a Newsbreak article my editor called me about writing this morning on how the blogosphere is reacting to hurricane Katrina....which is due this Friday - so I've been working on that and should have it done on time.

I'll try to post some more stuff here soon.

The quarter is almost over now - just three more rather large projects to go, all due on June 5th (!) and then I'll be done for the summer....

Can't wait to catch up on my sleep.

Racing in the road bike leg of Ski to Sea on Sunday. Really looking forward to it, though I know it's going to be a crazy scene.

H is hard at work almost every night on the scripts for her kid's plays.

M&N&S continue to do their thing - playing, reading, fighting, eating, learning, growing, running, falling - being kids.

About half way through Spring quarter.... Feeling tired every day and looking forward to Summer break, and then only one more year to go!

It's been hot and sunny all week and I've been outside every lunch hour. It's felt real good. And the bike rides have been nice, though I did have one foggy morning ride and one super windy ride home.

H has been working on the garden a lot, doing some new stuff in the front yard. Her improv classes are going well too.

The kids are all in various stages of colds right now. I've been playing a lot of Pokemon battles with them. It's fascinating to relate to them on the level of game-play, especially their games.

Guess that's all for now.

The quarter is off to a roaring start! Got test pages up on the web server for 543 and will start doing PHP scripts soon. 560 is moving into Information Literacy, and I have a paper due on Sunday about the ARCS motivational model.

H is working on a barter deal with the Mt. Baker Theatre where she would help manage one of their summer programs in exchange for the use of their space for Kids At Play performances. It's a great deal and hopefully will go through.

I'm on the transfer list for a reference position that's opening up at WWU - it would be a step in the right direction career-wise and I've been encouraged by Paul to go for it. He hasn't steered me wrong yet so I am.

Allen and I continue collaborating on our Crime Doctor story over at the Mandala Press blog. It's a lot of fun. My chapter is due this Friday.

The kids have had a couple of rough days but seem to be on the mend, though we continue to be plagued with negative sibling interactions. On the other hand they are super enthusiastic about learning, and are especially jazzed about doing their learning in a more structured way, i.e. with "textbooks" and other educational materials. I think they like having the process/product dynamic right in front of them, and surely feel a great sense of accomplishment and self-worth when they can see their learning result in tangible products.

Bought Popcorn DVD writing software, and with MacTheRipper was able to make a copy of Playtime. Much easier than having to remake the whole movie. We also bought a Porsche-designed Lacie 250gb hard-drive with which we've backed everything up on our two computers. *And* I bought myself a 60gb iPod Photo. It's sweet. I've been listening to a lot of music. I've got about 20gbs of music on it so far...

What else? Went up to Vancouver last Friday with Andrew, Dave, Ken and Dean to play darts. We took the train up and back. It was a hoot, though I drank a few pints too many. Speaking of which I finally bottled my super hoppy IPA. It went from an OG of 1.050 to a FG of 1.010, making it around 5% alcohol. It tasted great too. Can't wait to try a bottle in a couple of weeks. I'm down to my last few bottles of stout. Will have to brew something soon, and get started on that Lambic....

Just finished my residency for Spring '05. Should be a good quarter - 560 looks interesting and 543 will be a good challenge. I have schoolwork to do already, though I don't feel like starting in on it quite yet...

Celebrated Jim L's 40th yesterday and AnD's house, which was combined with a Hotluck they were hosting and was a total surprise for Jim. Had fun with the kids there and played lots of guitar with Brian and Shannon. Got home late, though, and I'm still pretty tired.

Set up my new 250gb hard drive today and am currently backing up my music collection on it.

Spring Break!! Yay!

It's been nice going to bed early, not having to do any school work. But it all starts up again next week...

Got good grades, all A's, last quarter. Good classes, and I'm looking forward to my next ones.

The play H is in won the regional competition - now they're going to Nationals in Kalamazoo, MI, in June!

The kids are visiting their Grandparents and cousins down in Oregon, so H and I have a few days to just be with one another. Its been nice, going out to movies and dinner, just being together.

But I'm missing the kids too and look forward to seeing them this Friday.

Brewed an IPA over the weekend - it's bubbling away in the stairwell as I write. Hope it turns out good. It should be nice and hoppy.

"Sons of A Common Mother", the play H is in and that was in competition, won!! That's a state-level competition. Now she's on her way to Oregon in two weeks to compete in the regionals (six states). Since the competition is close to H's parents it looks like she's going to combine a visit down there with the kids.

She's pretty excited.

Today is our 11th dateversary. We used to give each other white chocolate-chip macadamia nut cookies on this day (that was a cookie we shared together on our first date), but since H doesn't eat sugar anymore we haven't done that in a few years. This year I bought H an iPod Shuffle, along with Tori Amos' and Kings of Leon's new albums. I loaded those and some other albums from her iTunes onto the Shuffle and then put it into a container of macadamia nuts.

She didn't even see it at first. I had to get her to pour the nuts into a bowl. She really likes it though. It's a cool mp3 player, very small and light.

It was a good surprise.

Now back to the 580 case study paper - it's due tomorrow by midnight.
The 542 Database Design project due date has been pushed back a week, which allows me to focus on the 580 paper.

I'm really looking forward to Spring break.

Big push this week to get a project done for each of my classes, one due Saturday, one due Monday. After that I'll be pretty much done for the quarter as far as the really heavy stuff goes.

Work on those two projects is going slow but steady - I'm pacing myself...

Next quarter I'll be taking my last required class, 560 "Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals", as well as the next database class, 543 "Design of Information Systems".

H is going down to Tacoma this Saturday to compete with her cast in the play festival - she's going to take N with her to give them some one-on-one time. I get to hang out with M and S, which should be fun. We're going to the first annual "Food Not Lawns" work-party at the co-op.

Had a terrible "shopping" experience last night at Best Buy. What a crappy place. I'm never going there again if I can help it.

It's been a busy weekend! Yesterday H went to an improv workshop taught by Keith Johnstone, an improv guru. Though the politics involved with getting into the class have been tiring, the class itself seems to have been worth it. She also went today and will go again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I went to Seattle last night to see Steve Earle at the Showbox. I hooked up with Allen in Ballard, where we had a pint before heading downtown to the show. Though we got there about thirty minutes late it was well worth it. Steve's such a performer, a great singer and songwriter, and has some great things to say about current politics. He's a real activist/advocate. He did three encores for the sold-out show.

I've got two deadlines hanging over me right now, both due on Tuesday. One is this tsunami blogs article (which I'm almost done with), and the other is a three page paper for LIS580 (which I haven't started yet but I'm not too stressed about).

Writing this little bit is taking me away from those, so I'm going to cut this short and get back to work.

P.S. Got to play frisbee and basketball with the kids today - had a fun time with them. I wish I could be home more often to play with them like that....

P.P.S. We finally bought a digital camera (nothing too fancy, 3.2 mpixels, compact design, kodak brand). So, pictures should be appearing here sometime, as well as at my other blogs ::))

I'm very tired tonight.

H has been co-teaching the positive discipline class for the last few weeks and it seems to be going well for her. She also finished up "Plummet" (which she was great in) and is in rehearsal for "Sons of a Common Mother", which is a role she did last year and which will be in competition this year at the Tacoma Little Theater as part of the Washington State Community Theatre Festival.

All three kids are having fun with acting/dance classes and Pokemon collecting.

School work continues to be challenging, both the management and the database design class, but for very different reasons. The management class has a lot to, well, manage, with many different group projects and papers to write. The DB class is just hard to wrap one's head around, but I think I'm getting it (mostly).

Tomorrow the kids and H get to go see Cirque Eloize at the Mt. Baker Theater. It should be a great show and I wish I could join them for it.

The article I co-wrote with Paul is up at Searcher's website, "The Blogs of War". It's cool to see it published this way. It's also coming out as a hard copy, and it's the cover article to boot!

I don't feel like I've been working enough on the Tsunami blogs article we're working on now, but I'm also finding it hard to find the time - schoolwork is really taking it all up.....

And I still have to finish reading Under the Banner of Heaven before the Book of the Quarter. Sigh.

I should also mention that I visited Windward High School last Friday to talk to the students about what I want to do for their library and to meet my student intern. The response was great! Everyone clapped and cheered when it was announced that I would be helping them get their library off the ground. It'll be a long, slow process, but my goal is to have it done by the beginning of the next school year. I have to write it all up for my portfolio too....

On one last note, here's a link to an old friend's website that's all about the Rugby House days.

H started co-teaching a Positive Discipline Parenting class tonight at the Bellingham Technical College. Though she's not getting paid for it it's a good experience and may lead to a paid teaching position later this year. When she got home we both agreed how lucky we are to already practice PD with our kids and how much of a difference it makes for all of us.

Had a mellow, pleasant evening with the kids. N read a whole graphic novel on his own tonight! He really got into Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted Naifeh. I'd read this before and knew it was engaging, with great art. H got it from the library today because it looked good and it was recommended for 7yr olds and up. It was really cool to see N so enthralled with the book, he just got very focused and read it all "in his head" - I don't think he "got" it all conceptually but it's still a big leap. I'm going to read it to him and M & S tomorrow to reinforce his conceptions and to help explain things. We're going to look for more graphic novels for both N&M to read, and inevitably S will want to too. I think we'll start with Jeff Smith's Bone books. Should also mention that M read Monkey vs. Robot by James Kochalka, another cool graphic novel. It was fun to listen to him read the words out loud: "Boooom!" "Crash!"

I'm keeping on top of my schoolwork but it still feels like I'm juggling a lot of slippery balls. And I need to work on the Tsunami blog article more this week too! And the 580 paper that's due Monday! And continue to wrap my head around the database concepts for 542!!

I'm listening to Wilco's Bonus Tracks EP that I downloaded for free from their site. It's great, with six songs new and old and reworked. Man, they're an awesome band. Sometime I'll have to write the story of H and my trip to Vancouver to see Wilco live and following Tweedy around for awhile on the street and my one-of-a-kind souvenir.

I'm failing miserably at my new goal to stop doing schoolwork by 11pm so that I can get a few more minutes of sleep every night (it's 11:31 as I type this). I've got to work harder at that, because the one night this week I did manage to stop by 11 I felt more rested the next day.

But tomorrow's Saturday and I don't have to get up early and better yet it's a three day weekend!!

H's play opened on Thursday to a packed house. There was a good review in the paper of it that day (from the preview show) and H felt pretty good about her performance. Tonight's show went well too.

The kids have had a couple of hard days, especially N - just lots of fighting, squabbling and bickering. Something's out of balance...

I'm going to be bottling my stout this weekend - it's been in the carboy for a week for the secondary fermentation - it looks dark and tasty. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks.

B is coming up on his way to Vancouver, BC this weekend. We should be able to get together and jam on Sunday - I'm looking forward to it. Played a new song for the kids tonight about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and the Tar Baby. They liked it.

I've been working hard this week on my classes, but I've also been really productive too, which feels good. Tomorrow I've got to get more writing done on the tsunami blogs article P and I are working on. And do more school work, of course.

Oh man, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything.......

Let's see. H's play (Plummet) opens tomorrow night. The preview show last night went well - it should be a good show. Now I just have to figure out a way to go see it.

And speaking of shows I bought tickets to see Steve Earle in Seattle in February with H. That'll be a great time. Plus I've got a ticket to see David Grisman and Ricky Skaggs here in Bellingham.

The Iraq blog article I wrote with PP is coming out in February. It's going to be the cover article too. I'm very stoked about that. Just signed and mailed off my contract to the magazine today, which was cool too. Now we're working on another article, this one about the tsunami blogs that have been started. I've got to finish writing the intro to that tonight.

The kids really enjoyed the snow we got here last week - I think there was 4-5 inches. The only downside for me is that I can't ride my bike for a while. I'm really missing my rides.

The residency in Seattle went well. It was nice to see some of my cohort, especially at a dinner that most of us went to on Friday night. The two classes I'm taking right now (Database Design and Management of Information Organizations) are keeping me very busy, especially the database class. I'm very tired and feel, as usual, like I'm juggling eighteen things at once.

The kids are all doing well. We haven't been able to do any nights out since H has been in rehearsals and now performances, but probably next week we'll be able to do that again. We had a family meeting last Sunday after not having any for about three weeks. It really makes a big difference for all of us! It's quite extraordinary.

H may begin teaching her parenting class next week if Bellingham Technical College gets enough enrollments. I hope that works out for her too.

That's pretty much it for now I think. Work, school, family life, and some personal stuff squeezed in here and there.

Oh yeah, speaking of personal stuff, I got two new guitars (stumbled onto a sale at Mojo Music and with H's enthusiastic support bought two dream guitars). A Martin SWOMGT and a Fender '52 reissue Telecaster. They're both beautiful, superbly playable and make me very happy.