Kazoo

I'm sitting in the lobby of Valley I which is where Kate and I are sharing a room and the lobby is the only place I can get internet reception. It would be such a godsend if we could get it in the room. The trip here was pretty uneventful -- some rain as I was driving us in. We took it easy for the most part and had pizza at Bilbo's (mostly because we figured that the medieval hotspot would be intolerable during the other evenings of the conference). Then I worked on editing an article and looked at my paper. I present it in thirty minutes. I'll be glad to get it over with. I wish I had a better attitude toward this conference. I suppose the upside is that in the bare bones dorm room, I am focused on my work.

I didn't sleep well last night because I was probably thinking of all the work I had to do. Then again, I never sleep well in an unfamiliar place. This morning was particularly noisy -- with garbage trucks, people walking outside, and a few birds having territory or mating battle through songs. You would think they would get tired of the same tune? But I heard the same one echoing far and near. I wonder who won?

In other bird news, the swan is nesting by the lake. A swan's nest is pretty spectacular to see although it would have been nice to see the babies. Okay, more on this later. Must look over the paper one more time. No more coffee though or else I will read my paper in five minutes, not twenty.

The time -- she is a'flying

[insert typical "I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged!"] Okay, so I've been pretty busy. Last week I was in San Fran with Miss Kate and Mr Gene. Much fun and vodka was had. We were blessed by extraordinary weather. Sunny and seventy. Isn't that bliss. And we had lots of yummy food (we serve both kinds of food -- Japanese and Korean). No, really, it's a joy to be in a place with excellent Asian food. Even the food court in the mall around the corner was excellent. Our last night, we went to a Japanese place and we thought we were so smart because there was a Japanese couple eating there. Turns out that they were tourists (maybe Kate has already blogged about this), marveling over the fact that we could use chopsticks. I'm sure I will talk more about this trip later -- like the Asian Art museum fun Kate and I had (how MANY Buddhas do you see in this picture? Where's Buddha? I'll enlighten you -- har-de-har -- it's too late, I'm being silly)

Oh, yeah, my paper(s) went well. I was especially happy with my last minute parody paper. Kate and Gene's guffaws bolstered my humor and emboldened and embiggened me. I only wish I had written it down. My paper, like others on the panel, came dangerously close at times to making sense. That's because none of us had read the silly Korvac sequence when it originally came out like some fanboys.

One amusing animal encounter to report. After the redeye back Monday night and fighting over the armrest with my new "friend" for six hours, I finally got back to the cold and to my car at Logan Express. As I walked up, I saw a little chipmunk go running under my car and up into the undercarriage. Why are these little creatures following me? I beeped the horn a couple times and drove away, praying that I was not carrying a little furry corpse across state lines. Good thing I was so tired and had to concentrate on the road so I wouldn't kill myself to worry about Chip and/or Dale.

In other news, I took the cadet bowling club to West Point this Sunday. It was a long day but we were triumphant! My little freshman whipped on the upperclass Army guys. I feel so proud. I told them I was going to find a trophy of a bear bowling to give to them (that's our mascot).

And in other good news, before I turn to the poor. My paper was accepted at Mechademia AND I'm teaching the graphic novel course in LA this summer (that's six long weeks on the West Coast, and, as Kate has pointed out to me, three weeks in the Valley, like totally fer sure). More on this later.

And in bad news, I took Boo boo to the vet for her yearly checkup and she has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. This means daily medicine for the rest of her life, or surgery, or she could go radioactive for a couple days as they kill the bad cells. This may or may not have the side effect of superpowers. I think I'm opting for surgery. The vet assured me that he has done a lot of these (there are more cases diagnosed in humans and in cats lately and nobody knows why) so I'm hoping to have it done during one of the windows when I'm not traveling. First, she must get her medicine -- tuna-flavored liquid. I did not savor the idea of force-feeding a pill. Apparently, with this disease, she will get hyperactive (and overeat and lose weight -- go figure).

I think everybody is caught up now. I'm sure I'm forgetting a million things (like I saw Jill while I was in San Fran - which was great).

Ta ta for now.