Twenty-one more days.  If I can just hang in there for 21 more days…  Then it’ll be spring.  And it won’t be a minute too soon.
I love the changing seasons here in northern West Virginia.  The bright, fresh greens of spring, summer’s sunshine-filled days and those vine-ripe tomatoes, the beautiful colors of fall, and yes, […]

I’m up to my eyeballs in papers to grade.
I know — if I didn’t make the homework assignments in the first place, then I wouldn’t have homework myself, but I have yet to figure out how to teach a writing course without actually having the students do some writing.
Most of the time, I just chip […]

Did you watch the Oscars last night?  Did you care?
I was flipping back and forth, so admittedly, I missed about as much as I caught, but I have to tell you, the parts I did see left me a little cold.
First, there was Jon Stewart.  He was horrible!  Talk about a fish out of water!  […]

…as in van Gogh. No, I’m not suddenly a great if troubled post-impressionist painter. I was thinking more about the missing ear thing.
At my insistence, BJ put the bird on my shoulder. I figured (a) he trusts BJ, and (b) I had a rescuer if necessary. It was necessary.
The little brat […]

Sometimes I get myself into interesting but frustrating situations. This is one of those times.
The quartet just bought an awesome CD player with two decks, pitch control, and lots of other bells and whistles. It’s exactly what we’ve been needing; trying to use a home stereo deck for live performances is just asking […]

I think I now know how Tippy Hedron felt in Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Astro the Evil Sun Conyer still doesn’t like me. He’s very gentle when I feed him peanuts, and he’ll allow me into his cage to clean and freshen his food and water dishes. But he still wants to pluck out my […]

Tuesday should have been a big day, but it’s not turning out exactly as planned.
The doc cleared BJ to return to work as of February 19, exactly 12 weeks after the rotator cuff surgery. We were so excited about the healing as well as the return to some degree of normalcy. But then […]

Valentine’s Day sure was busy for my brother’s bloodhounds.
Ellie and Clem are the proud parents of nine — count ‘em — NINE! puppies. Aren’t they precious?

This was Ellie’s first litter, and she’s doing so well. She’s a very doting mama. She’s proud of her babies and doesn’t mind at all if somebody […]

The Summit County jury has returned its verdict, and Bobby Cutts is guilty on all charges — sort of.
He was convicted of the lesser included (simple) murder charge on Count One, the death of Jessie Davis. This means he can NOT receive the death penalty for this count. It also means the jury […]

BJ has been feeling like crap for the past few days. I’m not sure if it’s a cold, or the flu, or some dread tropical malady, but I’m worried the poor thing is going to crack a rib coughing so hard. And I’m doing all I can to avoid contamination.
I stopped at the […]