Omg I was so far behind. I am taking a wee break from obsessive political following. Kat, I will check around my hood for books.

Congrats bt.

We are headed to "boo at the zoo" this weekend. Mac is excited to dress up, see bats and birds of prey, and get candy. I am excited to see red pandas.

ita, have you seen this? Jamaican ski team (of one) trains in SF

Kat, we have a ton of classics on campus for the Nidorf kids and they are not all that interested in them. I'll check to see what we have (I'll be there on Monday).

I'm bored, bored! I'm the Chairman of the Bored!

I'm so bored I'm reading Columbia/Magenta (RHPS) fanfiction.

Guess which is the latest entity to dis Sarah Palin. Go on, guess....

Bush Administration Contacts Obama, McCain, Biden On Iraq Troop Deal — But Snubs Palin

eta:

In today’s State Department briefing, reporters got a chuckle out of Palin being left out:

Q: You called Senator Biden, you called McCain. Did you also call Governor Palin?

McCORMACK: No. If you hadn’t noticed, she’s a governor. Not a senator or a congressman.

Q: She’s a vice presidential candidate.

McCORMACK: Right.

Q: She also has extensive foreign affairs experience. (LAUGHTER)

McCORMACK: Right. I explained to you the reasoning behind the phone call.

Q: Maybe if this has to do with Russia, you would have called her.

From Andrew Sullivan's blog: Face Of The Day

I just had a random thought - that I should take violin lessons. I've had this random thought before.

I've had this thought, too. When I was in 7th grade I signed up for orchestra, with the idea of learning the violin. But they cut the class at the last minute and I got shoved into band. Not that there's anything wrong with trumpet, but it's not a violin.

Maybe I should try it now.

I was surprised at how cheap violins were on eBay. I don't need one that sounds amazing, at least not right away when I'm learning. I also found cheap electric violins, which would allow me to mess around without annoying neighbors (by using headphones).

I used to think learning violin would be extremely hard because they're fretless. Now that's something that fascinates me about them.

I also found cheap electric violins

I like to play unusual music for my students. One of my favorites to spring on them is violinist Vanessa Mae. At first they look like, "What is this!" and then some of them are truly intrigued by an electric violin.

Today I played The Royal Philharmonic playing alternative hits during lunch. Yesterday was the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Earlier in the week it was the best of college acapella. (My iPod is considered quite a legend on campus.)

The red panda convo today was timely. I was doing artwork and layout for an animal-themed online ancillary all week, and guess what sort of hyper-cute wild animal is making a surprise appearance...