Today was sunny and only *barely* below freezing so the outside was much more enjoyable for both of us.

Got a plaintive email from a student two minutes after class started (only saw it after class), asking, "Why aren't you letting me into the Zoom??" Baby! Sweetheart! Child! I only set up the livestream if I know in advance that you need it! You gotta tell me things!

This morning I put on Gold Diggers of 1933 (on Criterion in a collection of pre-Code films) and boy, it was a hoot. Ludicrous, but a hoot. It's got a very young Ginger Rogers! Genuinely lightly racy! The final very solemn dance number is a wild tonal shift. 🎥

Requiem for a Dream, American History X (watched both in a college film class, oof).

Cuteness from the dogs on the snowy trail today. I just love Chuck's saunter when she's feeling good.

The venerable girl is mostly doing fine, but in taking her to the vet for a checkup, we discussed her symptoms and the vet felt it was time to add another medication. She is almost 16, so I know our time remaining is limited but this feels like such a sharp reminder.

Gym day with my friend today and I guess I was so expressive with my hands while we were warming up on the treadmill that my Fitbit gave up and just called it "SPORT". (I had a major vent about a frustrating work thing.)

We wound up walking a different section of the trail today: it was sunny and almost 50° so everybody was out and the parking lot at the trailhead was full. The dogs didn't mind a bit, though.

On Valentine's Day, I finally put away the last of the Christmas decorations. Please clap.

It's been a real bad week in terms of the brain weasels, but I got to do bedtime stories over FaceTime with my sister's kids in Cape Town and genuinely that was healing.

I do love my students, but one of them asked me where the stuff I taught about citations this morning was posted, & I said, "It's in your Turabian handbook! like I said in class!" (I even put the book cover on the slide!) and then I want to tenderly wring their necks.

Student: "Wow, I was so anxious about coming to office hours. But this was so much less stressful than I thought it would be!" Me: "Also you can pet the dog before you go." Student: "I'm definitely going to come again."

Today I am grateful for temperatures above freezing, my slow cooker, and that miracle product Resolve. (The dog knows what she did.)

1,000 reskeets and it's totally made up, that's a photo from Los Angeles, stop sharing this disinfo-spreader

Someone decided that Saturday should start with barfing and she's not sorry. It's fine, she immediately wanted bacon afterwards and settled for the sensitive stomach wet food, which has stayed down. She's just literally sick of winter, I guess!

"I am half sick of shovels," Said the Lady of Shalott. Just in case you wondered what it would be like if Tennyson had been a midwesterner.

Such a well read dog is clearly #2.

Chuck had had too many bad walks in the neighborhood lately (snow and salt on her poor feet and no, she will not do booties) so she just hates walks at the moment. This afternoon I just scooped her up as soon as I got home & we hit the rail trail, & life was good again.

There is a Stephen Dobyns poem that describes art as "white silks from muddy paws," describing exactly this difficult truth, & that simple but tough summation has lived in my head ever since I read it. Extraordinary art can absolutely come from bad people, unfortunately.

I'm really hoping the end of February isn't quite so relentlessly hard frozen as the beginning, but we shall see. At least it's good weather for being cozy inside with books, and thus: my February reads. 📚💙

In all seriousness, this continuation of TPS for Haitians is something I have been praying for this week. Still nervous about the stay being observed, but I'm relieved by the decision.

A dog dreams of summertime's return.

Poet Mary O'Malley is one of my favorites, and she had this response to recent events in Minneapolis in the Irish Times yesterday. 📚💙

Picked up these "pineberries" at the grocery store yesterday because in the midst of the Horrors one might as well eat the peculiar fruits. And they are pretty delicious! A bit more tangy than a strawberry but with ripe strawberry texture. (The name is meant to indicate a pineapple flavor.)

Adding to the chorus of people saying how Hamnet made them cry. Really a beautiful film, & Jessie Buckley & Paul Mescal are just riveting. There are a lot of little graceful moments throughout & I think even the sentimental or seemingly self-indulgent spots help build to the catharsis at the end.

Friend came over to fix my washing machine, which was not draining, and while he didn't find a clear problem, he did clean up some hoses and pipes and the drain pump, and now...it appears to be draining? (Running a load of hot water and vinegar right now.)

Nothing hits like a thank you note from a student that arrives *after* final grades are turned in. But really, this was a little salve for the soul.

Donated to several of these other fundraisers with much smaller totals. All these families deserve so much more.

Forcing my dog to labor hard in the cuteness mines today in order to help with the Horrors. Here she is for all the rest of you, too. Much love to Minnesota today, and to all with grieving hearts. No one should have to endure what's happening now.

Christ, this is awful.

In a small interruption to the Everything Is Terrible (which it is) here is the very small way the universe is fucking with me this term. I have back-to-back intro sections that I teach & in both, I have students with Androgynous Name 1 & Androgynous Name 2.

Got 8 good hours of sleep last night & I still feel wrecked today. At least it's my WFH day, & I can do everything in soft clothes while huddled in blankets (it's flipping freezing today) with the dog.

Got halfway through the Nia DaCosta/Tessa Thompson "Hedda" tonight and it is an intoxicating ride so far. Beautiful lighting, beautiful sets, costumes, sound design, & Thompson is doing a great spin on Hedda & her poisonous boredom/frustration.

Just lil recovery things: the elliptical is a total no-go at this stage of surgery recovery (even though I am greenlit for exercising). Way too much stress on my poor core, and probably shoveling snow this morning did not help either.

The PhDog has reported for spring semester duty.

Survived teaching, am completely exhausted. It has snowed almost all day. But good groups overall, I think. One intro class is rather quiet, so we'll see if they relax as the semester progresses; the other is more willing to talk. My Victorian/Modern group seems like they'll be delightful.

Well, despite everything, a new semester begins tomorrow. Syllabi are printed, course websites are updated, nails are painted, and I feel hideously unready nonetheless.

There's also a Second Harvest Northland that focuses on the northern part of the state; I split a donation between the two. Feeding America: Minnesota has several MN groups you can support, including both Second Harvest groups. www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-am...

Trying not to judge myself, or my January reads, as harshly as my dog is clearly judging me in this photo. She is small but her opinions are large. Anyway, here's what I read that she probably disapproves of. 📚💙

Someone was cleared of all lifting and exercise restrictions today! Time to (carefully, slowly, incrementally) get back to it! (This is absolutely going to drive me a little crazy but I will be good.)

Finishing up Niall Williams's The Time of the Child and there are some great passages here in the last part of the text. ✒️📚💙

I've got 6 exams & 6 papers to grade in order to actually put last semester to bed and get my grades turned in, and dammit I WILL have that done by the end of the week. (Also 2 recommendations to write.) The new semester starts next Wednesday but getting my materials updated will be a weekend task.

Absolutely lethal levels of cuteness from this tiny, venerable lady today.

I dropped by campus today to get a couple things from my office & was met with a card from my seminar students, with sweet messages & also one of them drew this Tommy in the trenches on the facing page. My lil heart is feeling so warmed.

Made duck breast with crispy prosciutto and sage for Christmas Eve dinner (plated over seared peach slices) and it was amazing if I do say so myself.

My parents are visiting for Christmas (since I could not travel to CA this year) & my dad has unwittingly chosen to play chicken with me: we're supposed to meet up with a friend to walk at 11, & if he is not ready, I am simply leaving without him.

I remembered today that I'd downloaded Monument Valley 3, and playing that while watching Midsomer Murders was basically a perfect quiet evening, especially after kinda overdoing it otherwise today.

The only context necessary here is that my dad really does send me 8 point text messages, and they are absolutely RIDDLED with typos, and tonight I chose loving violence when responding.

Was going to grade exams today and then remembered I needed to write a recommendation letter for a student, so that has eaten my afternoon. Pile of grading? still huge. Mood? great, because it's always pretty nice to sing the praises of a terrific student.

It was cold enough today that Chuck needed her jacket for her afternoon walk & she was furious about it.