Peter's Cross Station

Babies In the Air Conditioner

Recently I was discussing phantom crying with some new moms and one of them said her mother told her that when she had little kids, she could always hear babies crying in the air conditioner. Yep. Or the heating vents or the washing machine or thin air sometimes.

But I thought of that recently when the squeaks coming from my own bedroom window A/C unit finally roused enough curiosity that I went and looked behind the insulating board we have to take up the window gap and there was a squirrel sitting between my window panes.

The squirrels are always mucking around with our A/C units in the summer. I think they like the condensation dripping off the units on the outside. A couple of summers ago we had styrofoam boards for the insulation pieces and they chewed through them and made a huge mess of little styrofoam bits everywhere in our window sill. So this year we have a sturdy piece of plywood held in place with--of course--duct tape, which has pulled back a little at the corners by now.

I shooed the squirrel away and as she ran off, I realized that she had been sitting in a pile of leaves. Upon closer inspection I saw one of these huddled in a little ball.

I guess that during the couple of weeks we were away, the squirrel decided our bedroom window was a good nest location.

There was also at least one other baby there that looked dead, but I didn't see any others. It could be that they are well hidden in the leaves, though, as I have had trouble spotting the baby since then. Mama Squirrel seems to cover them well when she leaves.

Will they be okay in there, do you suppose? The A/C is continually running which doesn't strike me as pleasant for a nest, but the mother does seem to be doing her job. It's fun to peek in there through the little gap in the duct tape and spy on them. And now that I know what the sound is, the little hungry squeaks from baby/ies is so cute! I have been careful not to startle the mother since the first time I ran her out on purpose. But the one dead baby worries me that it isn't a safe spot for some reason.

I have no idea. I know nothing of squirrels. And I know the last thing the world needs is more squirrels and sparrows, but when they start raising children in your air conditioners, you feel a bit responsible for their survival nonetheless...

Still not Finished

Still saving most of my brain power (what tiny, tiny bit of it there is these sleep-deprived days) for that article. We are determined to be finished by tomorrow evening, so perhaps you'll hear from me this weekend. Not that you (U.S. readers, anyway) are going to be glued to your computer screen over the holiday weekend. Hope the weather is nice where you are and have fun!

If it's not a holiday weekend where you are, hope your weather is nice anyway.

Meme of Five

Everybody's doing it...

What were you doing five years ago?

Counting RSVPs for my wedding and calling tent rental companies at the last minute for fear of rain (it didn't rain); working on my dissertation and learning to cook. Every day around 4 pm, I'd face the choice of continuing work on my dissertation or turning on All Things Considered and making dinner for Cole, who usually got home around 5. Thus I began learning to cook for pretty much the first time in my life.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1. Make green supper cubes for Selina
2. Three loads of laundry
3. Finish an article Cole and I are coauthoring for a journal (due yesterday).
4. Make dinner for tonight and two casseroles to freeze.
5. Clear the 'fridge' of last Sunday's party leftovers.

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Calbee Snap Pea Crisps. I get them by the dozen at Amazon's grocery department.
2. Nachos. I eat a plate of nachos made with organic blue corn chips, organic cheddar cheese and organic (and/or homemade) salsa almost every day.
3. Popcorn. Cole and I eat popcorn of many an evening, made in my college roommate's air popper, now approximately 20 years old and still kickin'.
4. Mint chip ice cream.
5. Frozen blueberries (I'm jealous of the fruit people--I can't eat fresh fruit or I go into anaphylactic shock.)

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

What five things wouldn't I do? After all the obvious setting up of my kith and kin (especially children) for life-long and then some, security:

2. Buy homes in various locations, like London, Amsterdam, Paris, DC, NYC, Honolulu, San Francisco, and probably one in a more rural-ish location but I don't know where. And then just live around in them for months at a time.

3. I don't know if I'd donate huge loads of money to many existing organizations, though I might. I'd be more inclined to start my own foundation or organization. There are plenty of interests I'd have along these lines, but urban, poor women and children's concerns would top out the list. Education, health services, and serious Congressional lobbying for major social structure changes in these departments would be key projects.

4. I would have horses. I guess they would live at the more rurally located home. I don't need fancy, expensive horses, just horses. I really love horses and riding horses but haven't had that kind of disposable cash in a long, long time.

5. I would definitely fly all my favorite people and their families to one of my many homes at least annually for a big hang out week or two, all expenses covered.

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Internet-related procrastination (like everyone else who did this meme).
2. Forgetting to eat major meals and making it up in less-than-nutritious snacking.
3. Letting the kids watch too much t.v. (my idea of "too much" is more than an hour a day. I'd say we average 2 or even 2.5 hours--yikes!)
4. Letting the clutter pile up.
5. Leaving my shoes in various high-traffic locations to be tripped over.

What are five places where you have lived?

1. Hawaii
2. Texas
3. Missouri
4. Oxford (UK)
5. New Jersey

plus three more, but that's my life up to age 25

What are five jobs you've had?

1. Hostess at a dinner theatre
2. Preschool teacher
3. Record store clerk
4. Bookstore clerk
5. Adjunct English instructor

(plus 6 or 7 more, but that's my life up to age 28)

Tag, you're it!

Who Woulda Guessed?

via Susan:

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Yes

We felt it.

There was this wild-eyed prophet of doom-type professor at my college who was always warning us about the New Madrid fault. We were all like, that old thing? Ha.

Ha!

(By the way, it's "MA-drid," not mah-DRID.")

Quick Things

No big posts yet, sorry. My grandmother died yesterday and we're off to Arkansas for the funeral. Two years ago, I had a dream that my grandmother died and I wrote this poem. It's complicated.

So that's one thing.

The second is, I got a thank you note from Gwen Ifill!!!!!! And she said to look for the necklace "on the air!" So by golly, look for the necklace, folks! Remember, it's this one.

I know. I'm such a dweeb.

So Many Posts, So Little Time...

I am strapped for blogging time this month. If I had time, here's what I'd be telling you about:

1. Stuff White People Think is Funny (or not) and Why (or not). (Topic requested by reader and jewelry patron, Martha.)

2. Lazy Home-Made Baby Food Shortcuts Discovered by Shannon the Second Time Around

3. Interesting Ways in which Nat is Beginning to Express Growing Understandings of Her Adoption

4. Cute Things the Sisters Are up to These Days

5. Pics of Nat's Birthday (more than a month later!)

6. More about the Big Freelance Writing Job and Why I am Asking for Your Help and Whose Help I'd Like Next

7. A Roundup of Books I've Been Reading Lately on the Topics of Race and Homeschooling (but not both together in one book)

8. Other (specify)

Please vote for your favorite! I'll try to get them out in order of popularity within the next month.

Air kisses!

Another Meme!

This time, I've been tagged by Dana.

My life story in six words or less:

better and better and better

If you have a blog, I tag you!

Passion Quilt

Tagged by Dawn!
Lessons from the Tortoise: Meme: Passion Quilt
# Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
# Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
# Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
# Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Lots of images might work, but this one, taken by my friend, Donita, recently caught my eye. The title? Love.

Whether I'm teaching college students or my own children, I think love is the center of all my teaching. I teach because I love teaching. No matter how otherwise misanthropic I tend to be, I always fall in love with my students. The heart of my teaching is to learn what it is you love, pursue your love, do all you do with love and for love and in love. Love isn't always easy. Sometimes it requires hard work and sometimes it breaks your heart. But you will always learn something worth learning if you are working and striving and trying and risking failure out of love.

If you're a teacher, consider yourself tagged!

Briefly...

I am still working on that homeschool post--a little bit at a time. I just got a BIG freelance writing job and I have nearly 50 papers to grade and as Spring Break has arrived, the baby sitters have fled to warmer climes, so there is no time to blog.

That said, Donita tagged me so, in short, five things about me that I either never told you or you've forgotten by now:

1. During my junior year in Oxford, as an undergrad, I borrowed a "real" Oxford student's sub-fusc and snuck into the matriculation at the Sheldonian Theatre. So technically, I have matriculated at Oxford University, heh-heh.

2. I lived for a summer in San Fernando, Trinidad working for the Presbyterian Church. During that year, I went out on a full moon night and watched Leatherback turtles lay eggs on the beach. As in, I sat next to a Leatherback turtle and petted her while she laid eggs on a beach in the moonlight. I felt like I was in Land of the Lost.

3. I protested the first GW Bush inauguration. While waiting in line to get security checked for the parade, I politely, subtly called a guy a fascist in front of his 14-year old son. His son was cool. After talking to fellow protester, Sasha, and me for a while, he took off and got his own protest sign, much to his father's chagrin. Sometimes teen rebellion can be fun!

4. I took a graduate seminar with Toni Morrison who gave me an A in spite of the fact that, as she put it, my "computer had an interesting way with commas." I have a tendency to insert a comma every time I stop to think, while writing.

5. I just watched this cool episode of NOVA on Tuesday. Not only did they find a bunch of fossils of this one particular dinosaur with four, feathered wings, this one guy actually believes all the "raptor"-type dinosaurs had feathers. Even T-Rex! T-Rex, with feathers???!! and even maybe little wings??? Crazy, totally crazy. It's still messing with my mind, that one. Does that make me a geek?