Some quick stuff

- Still enjoying my classes but still crazy busy. I forgot how much time and mental energy a from-scratch new prep (as opposed to a "reviewing and updating existing material") takes.

- It's still hot here, which affects my energy level, my tolerance of fellow humans (Seriously: I've wanted to punch at least one person in the nose every time I've gone to the grocery store lately), and my energy levels.

- I'm glad no one was hurt in yesterday's earthquake. I guess east coast and west coast geology must be very different, considering the great distances over which the earthquake was felt.

- I hope they can get the National Cathedral and Washington Monument repaired quickly and well.

- Best joke I heard to come out of it: Obama went on tv and said the cause of the earthquake was Bush's Fault.

- I hope everyone on the east coast stays safe from Irene...if evacuation looks prudent, get out. This could be a really big, really bad thing.

- My local news channel plays music - they try to find topical stuff - in the breaks. Today they played "Come on Eileen" before discussing the hurricane. This bugs me for several reasons:

1. The storm is IRENE, not EILEEN. And there is a perfectly good song - if one a few more decades old - about a woman named Irene.
2. We don't WANT the hurricane to come....we want it to go the opposite direction.
3. I'm gonna be singing that dumb song in my head all morning now. (Maybe I have to go listen to "Safety Dance" and let the earworms battle it out)

- I've begun putting my lunch in the shared food-fridge down the hall after hearing all the scare stories about "The lunch your child packs from home may be UNSAFE!!!" (which I kind of suspect could lead to a run-up of "OH, just have your child eat whatever the school provides...." Though I will say when I was a kid, I hated the cafeteria lunches. So I took my own. Usually peanut butter, which I guess is disallowed at some schools now. I would have been in trouble then.)

- Cold plain lowfat yogurt does taste slightly better than room-temperature plain lowfat yogurt. (Though as I said to one of my colleagues: "Technically, yogurt's already spoiled, so I'm not sure that putting it in the fridge does anything.")

- Not loving what's going on in politics right now. I have to say there's not a single presidential candidate right now I'd vote for without holding my nose more than a little. (Though I guess on the other side of the aisle, there are some calling for Hillary Clinton to challenge Obama next fall).

- I try to remind myself (in re the Maxine Waters outburst) that politics has always been ugly and people have always said nasty things, we just hear them more now. But it doesn't stop me from thinking: "We are in a 'cold' civil war. I wonder if it will escalate to a 'hot' one."

- Then again: I remind myself that I only control what I can control - how I teach, how I do my research, etc. And try to forget people saying nasty and dumb things.