Cincinnati

I've spent a lot of time lately on my two hobbies: 1) golf, and 2) applying to faculty positions. I find these pastimes to be wonderfully fulfilling. But how best to share these activities with those who read my blog?

Well, I have grand plans to post on Ben Hogan, and perhaps even on Francis Ouimet. I'm also thinking of rating all the books in my golf library, something along the lines of the Movies I've Seen This Year section of Pete's blog. Won't that be thrilling?

As for hobby #2, one thing I can do is disseminate some of the vast trivial knowledge that I've gathered about otherwise random cities where I have applied for jobs.

Speaking of trivial knowledge, man I really broke out a doozy yesterday. At the driving range, this guy mentioned to me that he belongs to Olde Kinderhook Golf Club. I said, "I read once that Olde Kinderhook is the origin of the phrase okay, and that Olde Kinderhook was the nickname of an American president who used to sign bills into law with the initials o.k." "That's true," he said, "not many people know that. It was president Van Buren."

True story! By the way, he was right about Van Buren.

So anyway, my latest application went to (drum roll)...Cincinnati Ohio! Did you know that Cincinnati is practically in Kentucky? I had no idea. Also, Cincinnati was home to the 2001 Cincinnati Race Riots. Nothing like a history of race riots to make me want to pack up and head south (actually more like southwest)!

But none of these things is what popped in my head when I first considered applying to the University of Cincinnati. Instead, from the depths of my aforementioned trivial knowledge base, I produced a flawless rendition of the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song:

Pete With a Mustache

Keeping Busy

My blogging has been way down over the last month, but not without reason. I'm aboard the emotional roller coaster of a job search. I want to be a professor when I grow up, so I've been busily applying to open faculty positions. Twenty-three so far:

"But wait," you say, "that's only nineteen!" Right you are. There are actually two in Pittsburgh, and I think some of the east coast ones got bunched up. Number twenty-three is here:

Although it may appear that I'm just applying to any place with an opening, that is in fact only partially true. My vetos fall into one of two catagories: 1) schools that are lame, and 2) schools that are in Texas. Actually, I'm okay with a semi-lame school if it's in a really cool place. I also bent the rules and vetoed Louisiana Tech under option 2.

So far, only two responses, both rejections. Oh well, they're all long shots. All part of the aforementioned emotional roller coaster.

I have at least four more applications to go, which all fit nicely on an east-coast map.

Big Snow

What better way to celebrate our recent three feet of snow than with some cat pictures?

Swayze doesn't like to go outside when it's below 45 degrees, but he made an exception yesterday when he inexplicably climbed onto the big snow and started swimming across the yard. He got about 15 feet in, sat down, and started crying for his mommy, who proceeded to rescue him.

St. Augustine

Greetings from St. Augustine! Okay, so maybe I'm a few weeks late posting about my trip to Florida, but better late than never. Here's a lovely picture of the Casa Monica hotel where I stayed (work picked up the bill). It's right across the street from Flagler College.

My first three days in Florida were spent cranking out data for our Powerpoint slides, and my last two days were spent outside in the not-freezing weather. I played a round of golf on Thursday, and did some sight seeing down by the ocean on Friday. There's a fort in St. Augustine called Castillo de San Marcos that dates back to 1672. Phallic symbols were apparently in vogue back then.

Sweet Anti-Tobacco Propaganda

I came across this in an airport over Christmas...

Christmas Lights in Troy

Whoever owns this apartment building goes nuts with the lights every Christmas. It's pretty impressive. Is that Winnie the Pooh on the roof? I couldn't even get everything in a single picture. The reindeer there on the left has friends over on the other side of the building. Lots of other inflatable stuff too.

Picture of My Mother-In-Law

Yikes!

Visiting Pete

This year's plan for traveling to Montana to visit Kate and Ruth looked like this:
1. Fly from Syracuse to Philadelphia to Denver to Missoula.
2. Commence visiting and snowboarding.

The year's reality looked like this:
1. Fly from Syracuse to Philadelphia.
2. Have flight to Denver canceled due to big snow.
3. Have US Airways tell me that I've been rebooked on Lufthansa.
4. Discover that Lufthansa has only one flight out of Philly (destination Frankfurt).
5. Re-rebook, this time to Minneapolis, with a flight to Missoula the next morning.
6. Call Pete in Minneapolis to tell him I'll be spending the night.

So I got to visit my brother Pete, and he even took me out to dinner at his favorite Thai restaurant. This is what Pete looks like when seated at a Thai restaurant:

In his own words, "looking a little Lyle Lovett."

Unbeknownst to me, Pete has been working on his own blog, Peter Unzipped. He's very prolific--lots of book reviews and snarky commentary.

Happy New Year Everyone!

As a token of friendship, and as an apology for making zero posts over the past month, I would like to present to you the following picture of a squirrel eating a donut:

Amazing, no? I caught him with the camera phone on my way back from lunch.