Well, I had my teaching observation/evaluation today. And this was a great day for it. I was teaching volumes of solids of revolution, and this class rocked. Two methods of calculating the volume, how to decide whether to integrate with respect to x or y, about eighteen different pictures and gestures and folding-paper-into-shapes on-the-fly to make sure everyone could picture what we were talking about, analogies including Russian stacking dolls with their heads and feet cut off. The students were engaged, they asked questions, there were about five times when someone literally said, "Oh! Now I get it!" This was an awesome class.

And my evaluation? About what I expected from this professor. Three sentences, all of them essentially, "She performs the duties required of a teaching assistant."

{{{{Cashmere}}}} The lip stuff that come in a little round blue container that will also soothe the cold sore a bit.

Yeah, I've used Blistex on cold sores, I think, and it takes some of the pain away.

Thanks, sj.

Man, I hope my sister has a baby so I can buy her this. It's so freakin' cool.

Yeah, I've used Blistex on cold sores, I think, and it takes some of the pain away

Right, blistex. I obviously can't brane today.

I don't get cold sores, but I have gotten chronic cankers since puberty and that's what I use when they close to the lip.

My best friend's little sister is getting married this weekend, and this is freaking me out. First, because I can remember C being a toddler. No way she's old enough to get married yet. (She's 23. Totally old enough. Still freaking me out.) Also, they planned this wedding in about three weeks, including her mother sewing her gown. I could never, in my life, be that organized.

Cash, I just saw a commercial for Orajel, I think it is, who has a new cold sore patch. You might want to look for those.

So I've got 3 Seekrit Santas to shop for at present! Or 2 1/2, I suppose - Buffistas, School and we're doing a collection of shoeboxes filled with presents for orphans - you need to specify the gender and age range on the box, and they give it to someone. I really enjoyed shopping for bits and pieces for a young teenage girl yesterday, and mulling over what she might like, even though I'll never see her. (So far my shoebox contains: a pretty T shirt, some silver flipflops, some strawberry cheesecake shower gel, chocolate flavour lip balm, perfume, crayons & pencils, a small notebook, a calculator shaped like a bar of chocolate, some actual chocolate, a pretty scarf, 3 juggling balls and a bag of balloons.)

Oooh, that sounds like a fun shoebox.

My dissertation is going nowhere. Seriously nowhere. I have no idea where to go next, and all of my adviser's suggestions have been dead ends.

Aw Hil, I'm wanting to say YAY for great eval day, but then you post about your dissertation blues, and saying YAY seems kinda strange.

Am home from Book Club. Apparently these things are more social than book talk. Which is totally cool, just not what I expected. And it appears waking up at 8am EST for a week has got me tired by 9PM CST. Not fair! I'm a night person damn it!