Questions

Why do thunderstorms almost always seem to happen at night? I'm sure there is an explanation for this. We get rain in the daytime, but the thunder and lightening almost always waits for night, particularly after midnight.

What is Nora plotting here?

Why is Milo trying to walk down the slide? It had something to do with a ladybug, but it wasn't clear to me.

What on earth is going on here? Yoga? Is Nora praying that I won't make her go to bed?

Today at the park Milo embarrassed me by being a toddleresque jerk. He and Nora were on the merry go round, and another little boy got on with them. This kid was half a year younger than M&N. Milo said, "I don't like that girl." I said, "That's a boy, honey" and Milo said "I don't like that boy." Fortunately the kid was too out of it to have any idea what he was saying, but his PARENTS were right there. I told Milo that it's not polite to say you don't like people, and the kid could be on the merry go round if he wanted, but it seemed like a completely insufficient response to his mean remark. Huh. Come to think of it, I probably should have made Milo apologize after saying that. It didn't occur to me at the time. I was so embarrassed that my mind turned into a complete blank.

Usually Milo is so sweet with the other kids, so I don't know what he had against this random kid.

Today Jake was tickling Nora and she said "Stop harassing me!" Then a bit later Milo tried to give Nora a hug and she said "Let me be!" This kid does not welcome too much touching, that's for sure.

Last night we were eating pasta and Milo said "My pasta is red!" Then he thought for a moment, and said "Actually, it's orange!" Somehow his use of actually just cracks me up.

I have to travel again next week. I leave on Monday and return Thursday night. Poor Jake. Then I'm home for a week and then I have to travel again. After that, no more travel for 6 weeks.

US News & World Report came out today. Our dept. is #1. You'd think that if we were as great as we supposedly are, then we wouldn't be the worst paid group of faculty in the big 10. But we are. So, hmmm. Why is that? And why do I have to go on the market and get another job offer if I ever want to get a raise?

Speaking of which, why is my grad student, who just got hired at a nice state university in a hot deserty state, getting a salary of exactly 10k more that I currently make? It's called compression. I am genuinely glad for him, but ticked off on my own behalf.

In other news, we have this guy on campus whose job it is to communicate our research, awards, contributions, etc. to the public. So he called to see what additional venues he could use to advertise my recent NSF grant, where to get it written up, etc. And the only thing I could think of was, can you get me a spread in my alumni magazine? Because then all the jerks who dumped my ass in college can see how great I am now! Mwah hah hah. Okay, not really. They would probably see it and think "Wow, what a nerd, and boy does she look old, and her front teeth didn't get any smaller in the meantime either, and what's up with that hair?" So maybe it's best to stay away from any alumni news write-ups!