You saw the "good" butterfly nets at Reny's for 99 cents. Here's the cheap plastic imitation with a much shorter handle and a smaller net for twice the price at Hannaford's (a "local" chain that serves the Eastern United States). This is the very kind I was talking about in the Reny's posting that are the typical butterfly nets.
Seen outside the student center. There was an email to the whole campus saying someone had cleared the snow away from a garden next to the library and that tulips were coming up. I wonder if someone cleared the snow away here, knowing this (whatever it is) would be coming up. I don't know what it is, but I think it's a sure sign of spring.
A pie-eating contest as a fund raiser--there's an interesting notion. So they arranged for two faculty members to be in the contest and then they sold chances for 4 other slots. People bought tickets for the privilege of maybe being in the contest. OR they bought tickets for the privilege of possibly giving someone else the privilege. Three students and the athletic director (second contestant from the left) won. The athletic director said she didn't buy a single ticket. I think they could make even more money if they allowed people the opportunity to buy a ticket back. So for example, if there were 10 tickets with the athletic director's name on it, she could pay $1 a ticket to take those tickets out of the running. It's just an idea. ;-)
Preparation:
Go!
That's my co-teacher Beth in the bandana with "the look" on her face. She was one of the two faculty that agreed ahead of time to participate. I think we can call her "a celebrity contestant".
You guessed it. It's snowing today . . . all day, and into the night.
It's a really bad photo, but it makes the point. I went to the Bob Marley concert at UMF tonight. Bob's a famous comedian who's been on all the late night shows multiple times and has played all the famous comedy clubs. He's famous for his stories about Maine. He's actually FROM Maine and in fact, many people have told me about him and his humor ("You should get his CD, he's really funny" or "If you want to know about Maine, listen to this guy."). But nobody mentioned he was a UMF graduate. Apparently, he was a really good student who majored in Community Health. But he told the chair of the department when he arrived, "I want to get a degree and I want it in Community Health, but my real career aspiration is to be a comedian." He would drive to Boston on a school night, perform in a Boston club, and drive back that night in order to be in class the next day. But it all paid off. He's doing what he loves and he's really good at it. And he comes back to UMF about once a year to do a fund raiser for the Health Club. What a great guy.
So I went to the concert and everyone was right. He's hysterical and if you really want to know Maine, listen to his stories. (Or if you already know Maine, listen to his stories and just laugh a little more than the rest of the audience.) I laughed and laughed and laughed. The event was sold out. This is in the gymnasium, so there are folks filling the bleachers on the side and then the entire gym floor is covered in chairs and there's a little portable stage at one end. As you can see from this photo, it's hard to see him because the stage isn't very tall. But I could see him well enough and the most important thing was to hear him. He's sooo funny.
Any port in a storm . . . Elf will sleep in Benny's dog bed, in his own bed when it's stacked on top of Benny's dog bed, . . .
Today we had a special visitor in our department meeting, Mike (the tenured professor who is on leave of absence for 2 years with a possible one year extension whose position I'm filling as a visiting professor for 2 years with a possible one year extension). He announced that he's resigning his position as of June 1, 2008 which means there will be an open tenure-track position. The department will do a formal national search in the fall. Suddenly my timeline is drastically altered. My visiting professor gig is up earlier than I had planned. I wanted to be a Scarlet O'Hara about it ("I'll think about that . . . tomorrow") but now I have to decide . . . do I want to stay in Maine or move on?
Apparently they ran into issues moving the diner to its new home down the road (it's just moving to Wilton which is the next town west and south of Farmington)--all those permits and having to lift power lines and all those other hassles. Meanwhile, life must go on, so that's the framing for the new Rite Aid going on in the background.
That's actually a Girl Scout wearing a Samoa costume. Samoas are my favorite Girl Scout cookie. Well, they use ABC Bakery in this council and not Little Brownie Bakers, so it's the same recipe (or nearly the same) and the same color box with the same photos, but the name of the cookie is different. All the cookie names (except for Thin Mint) are different. But a Girl Scout cookie by any other name is still a Girl Scout cookie and just as yummy.
Turns out this isn't just a great Dr. Mari gag, but sticking your windshield wipers out when you know there's going to be freezing precipitation means you can easily scrape your windshield without having to dig out or scrape around your windshield wipers. Who knew?!
Benny LOVES the snow. I don't have any photos of his making snow angels, but trust me, he does. These photos give you an idea of a) how hard Benny is willing to work to get to play in the snow and b) how much snow there really is in our yard and in Farmington (it's not just our yard).
A pair of ski patrollers head around the back side of the snowfields at Sugarloaf/USA Thursday afternoon to check out the terrain. With nearly zero wind at the top and bright sunny skies, conditions were perfect not only for riders and skiers, but also for workers getting the mountain ready for next week's US Alpine Championships.
