Stocked Up the Parental Unit's Fridge & Cupboards, Got Some Grading Done, Walked Karal in a Squall, & Now Needing to Return to Connecticut

Truth be told: I wish I could finish out the semester remotely. Teach from Amalfi Drive. Balance out being a good son and maintaining a teaching career. Ah, work doesn't work this way. Perhaps during Covid-19, but not the years following.

Made omelets for lunch, sloppy joe's for dinner, and another cinnamon cake to leave behind (wondering if Dad will devour this one like he did in the last one). 

Karal and I walked when I needed a break from grading and somehow timed it with the snow. We maintained the pace, even if were both became frosty with snow layer upon us. It was cold. 

Didn't make it to Wegman's this trip, but hit Price Chopper up a few times. There is lunch and dinner for a week, and leftovers to get into as soon as Karal and I leave. Soft foods. Easy to cook foods. Finger foods (like donuts and muffins, which my father will have gone by the time I hit Albany). 

Suppose I'll need to fill the tank. Need my morning coffee first. No rush. Sun's out in CT and I'll lose myself listening to an audiobook. 

Time to get back to the Stratford routine. 

Cuz-o-War After Cicero Country Pizza Dinner, a Day of Grading, the Return of the Cold, and More College Hoops

As I began noting earlier this week, Spring Break matches nicely with the beginning of March Madness, and even though I typically keep the volume off and just look up from time to time, it is 100% conducive with a week-long grading fest (of course, I've only finished done class and now have the other one to dig into). 

Mom wasn't feeling well, so Dad and I drove to Cynde's to get Karal out of the house. It was also physical therapy in the afternoon, so resting wasn't the usual option. It might have been the lunch, too. Kielbasa, taters, and salad didn't appeal to either parent. We had Cicero Country Pizza which tastes exactly the same as it did 40 years ago (it's the Sicilian crust and the sauce....very memorable). I'm amazed the restaurant is still doing at it has always done. That is not the way of all eating places.

I love seeing Lucie and Karal play (talk about two names out of the 40s & 50s), and when they leap from couch to couch. They're both strange pups, but somehow accompany one another well. Love when they begin cuz-o-war. 

Hoping for another productive grading day today, knowing I need to get back to plan the week ahead. And yes it was cold. Yes, it snowed last night. Yes, it hurt. And yes, I knew it wasn't over.

And I think I need to go to Wegman's.

A Gray, Rainy Day for Grading (He Tries to Tell Himself) But He Sees a Spider Plant and a CNY March Cloud Cover with Some Light & All Feels Comfortable

Dad killed the cinnamon cake for breakfast. Guessing he got good and sugared, because it sent him directly to the couch for a nap that lasted most of the day. Louisville won its basketball game. Karal didn't get a walk. The parental units ate McDonald's after news of more medical items needing an eye to keep up with them. The mid-life children, aging parents part of the life cycle.

Perhaps that is why a scene out of the window from North Med caught my attention. The cracks in the sky letting some light down (Lord knows Syracuse fights such light with all its might), the spider plan which was throwing offshoots for the picking, a small pond and leafless trees. The shine of the light trying to peak through the gray seemed to calm the moment.

I also took Alyssa and Bri out to The Retreat...good catching up with them both. Always a good location for a meal.

I seriously need to get serious about serious grading today. I have to put a dent in as much as I possibly can before the weekend, which I need to use to kick multiple plans into action.

Hard to believe it's already mid-march 2026. Also hard to believe the post Spring-break pace is about to launch in 3...2...1. Ugh.

Grading it will be today...and errands. Hoping the rain will keep me indoors once more. 

Spring Break Isn't a Bad Time to Align with Conference Tournaments as Day Long Basketball Seems To Serve as a Decent Distraction

Although I need to be grading. I did conduct an interview in the morning, hit send on another project, attended a national webinar to raise money for teachers in Minneapolis to buy books for kids, and baked a cinnamon coffee cake. Karal was also walked, although she had so much energy all day, especially when Casey stopped by because she had a hair appointment in the area. She finally tuckered out around 8 p.m., but I didn't think she was ever going to settle.

Syracuse lost. Seems to be a common saying to sum up their season. Louisville plays tomorrow. We shall see. Doesn't seem like the tournament has the hype it had during all the years I lived in Kentucky.

Mom has doctor's appointments today (maybe a haircut) and she has her black shoes ready to go. ESPN is only showing Division III games, so I'm thankful my ESPN app online was able to access the games I really wanted to watch (while Dad ate two places of cinnamon swirl cake). 

Got to talk to Sean-man, albeit briefly, as he's up at Clarkson getting ready to head out of his Spring Break - he's off next week and is hoping for a trip to Sydney in the Fall.

It was a beautiful day. 70 degree temperatures with cooler winds...great for hiking around the neighborhood. I do need to tackle materials to be graded, and put it off 24 hours because they're calling for rain the rest of the time I'll be in Syracuse. I figure hunkering under a blanket while the wet stuff falls from traditionally gray CNY skies is totally conducive with a day of assessing student work (although I am trying to have some semblance of down time...just a little)

I Can Hear Abu Hollaring, "Noooooo." My Once-a-Year-Facial Cleanse. I Shaved Down to the Skin, Just Because I'm On Break. The Goatee Will Return

I could never do a ZZ Top beard.  I'm rather regular with the goatee, but trimmed at level 2, because after a certain length, the hair starts to get greasy. I hate when the facial hair gets greasy. And then there's a time that the trimmed hair just gets too think, especially underneath my nostrils. So I shave. I look weird. I get it. It always grows back.

And it grows back all white. There's a little pepper in there, but for the most part, my facial hair is all snow. So, shaved, I look younger (and weird). It is what it is.

Made a pot pie for Mom & Dad last night, worked on a couple of pieces to be published, also shaved my father (whose facial hair was much longer, needing me to go to the store to get shaving cream and better blades), and walked the dog. In the evening, I enjoyed the 3-peat win of the Fairfield Women's Basketball team who outlasted Quinnipiac for another championship. I'm happy for them because they are a fantastic crew of human beings. 

And now for Tuesday...the other day this week will be warm with sun (then the rain returns)(then the facial hair returns).

Shhhh. I know I should be grading and I will regret I haven't started. I promise I'll get on it. But I want to enjoy the sun while it's out. 

Thankful to My Friend Dr. Michelle Farrell for My Penzey Spices Full of Love, Hope, and Meaning. Looking Forward to Getting Them Into My Food

The temperatures warmed up. I got office work done at my parents in the morning, ran errands for them in the afternoon (as they napped), and managed to stop to get them chicken pho and shrimp pho, which I think they enjoyed. Something about the spring forward loss of sleep made me crave one more bout with the universal stomach balm. 

Karal and I also got a long walk in, brushed her down (she's shedding like a fiend), and played some ball. In the evening, I caught the Siena/Fairfield game at night, and began thinking about my Penzey spices back home and getting them to work in all the outdoor cooking to come.

Hoping for a beautiful world on my back porch and with the summer grill.

Looks like two more days of sunshine before several days of rain and a return to snow. I want to take advantage of those days before the temperatures drop...need the Vitamin D and dread the inevitable that winter is not over. I am calling it now. 

Now, I need to think about another day in Syracuse. Mondays are so much better when they come without meetings and don't require courses to teach. I shall enjoy the time to catch up on grading. 

Made It to Central New York and Rode the Entire Way Up with Christina Applegate at My Side (Not My Usual Listen, But Super Glad I Did)

Truth is, I viewed Kelly Bundy in the same way that Christina Applegate did. I had not idea that her character was a spoof on the kind of rock chick at the time, nor that she was far away from what that character portrayed. I also didn't know we were the same age, so much of her memories aligned with my own, including the high school years of finding punks to hang out with, seeking a counter-culture, and trying to make sense of a post-80s childhood. It makes sense that the original plan was not the Huxtables.

Another truth is I would never have paid further attention to her, except the show Dead to Me came highly recommended, it caught my attention, and I enjoyed the performances from the beginning. That is why Season 3 threw me off. What was going on with Christina Applegate. I immediately started reading everything I could, channeling my Grannie Annie who always claimed she much preferred a memoir over any one else's fiction. A lived life holds the greater wisdom.

And Christina Applegate's memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, was exactly that. I have my car loaded with books I want to finish this week, but made time for this memoir, simply because I'm intrigued about someone who was in the limelight, only to learn that the limelight was somewhat of a miraculous story full of hardships, chances, coincidences, and difficulties. Who'd of thought the bombshell was a ball of total insecurities?

Either way. I enjoyed the book and am thankful, too, that Chitunga is doing my taxes. What this means is I need to be by the phone to answer is pop-up questions. Hope I won't owe too much this year. The promotion for Full puts me in another category of nail-biting. We shall see. 

Only time will tell. And now whenever I hear Cindy Lauper's song, I will be thinking of Christina Applegate. The memoir really did take me by surprise as it was not anything like I thought it'd be.