Moving!

Hi to anyone who reads this blog. I've moved over to WordPress because Blogger isn't sufficiently supported on iPads and I want to be able to blog while sitting on the couch instead of hunched over my computer. Plus I really don't like the new blogger format. I don't know that I even liked the original one. WordPress is way better. Anyway, it's the same url, just replacing "blogspot" with "wordpress:"

dancingmathprofessor.wordpress.com

I've moved everything over already. Happy reading!

Looking up

Things have, indeed, gotten better. As I'm sure is no surprise to anyone, most of the improvements have to do with Kraig and me honing our puppy skills.

I spent an hour yesterday afternoon chatting with my mom on the bed in my room with the dog gated off in the livingroom and diningroom. I needed a break away from her company. Mom had some good suggestions that my sleep-deprived brain hadn't come up with, like putting something that smelled like us out for her to curl up with. Finally, I have something to do with Kraig's stinky hockey shirts other than gag while putting them in the washing machine!

Anyway, that worked. We also talked about whether she was leashed trained or not, and I realized that, no, she's not the least bit leash trained, and that what Kraig and I were expecting of her on walks was simply not realistic. I also tried using her kibbles as treats instead of the "grain-free, organic chicken" treats we bought her as a present. I thought we'd adopted a mutant dog who didn't like treats. Turns out, those things were just crap (and also didn't agree with her stomach). Now all we have to do to get her attention is hold up a kibble. I spent 10 minutes with her on-leash walking slowly around the apartment next to me, sitting whenever I stopped walking. Success! I even got her to do it twice outside this morning when she went out to pee. It's still a bit too busy outside during the day to expect her to focus, but I'm going to keep working inside and hopefully it'll translate naturally to her walks once she gets the hang of it.

The VERY BEST bit of progress from yesterday is that she SLEPT BY HERSELF IN THE LIVINGROOM!!! Kraig and I have been taking turns sleeping on the couch and keeping her company, which sucks, and last night we decided that she was used to the house and was going to have to suck it up and deal. She whined for about an hour (apparently; I passed out immediately) and then settled down and slept through the night without any accidents. She was even still asleep when we went to take her out in the morning, so maybe we can sleep in a little on weekends.

At the moment she's playing contentedly with her tennis ball and fabric frisbee in and around my office while Kraig showers and shaves. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get some work done later today while she amuses herself. She's figured out a neat trick of picking up the ball wrapped inside of the frisbee so that she can carry them both around at the same time. She has a seriously adorable puppy prance when she's proud of herself.

Kids have GOT to be easier than this

It's been a rough day with the dog. Given the following my posts about her on Facebook have received, I am not saying anything about it there. The LAST thing I feel like getting is a barrage of sympathy and advice and, "Don't worry, it will get better!" Damn fucking straight it'll get better. It still sucks now.

This morning started fine. Serif nosed me when she woke up and needed to go out to pee around 7am. Kraig and I are taking turns sleeping on the couch in the living room with her. She doesn't like crates because of her previous owners who kept her locked in one all the time, and she isn't secure enough to sleep in her bed in the living room. She'll sleep in our bedroom eventually, but for now that's the cats' territory.

I drove to Northwestern with her this morning to meet with a student. Also fine, though she's shy now that she has "her people." She met my student and the department admin, and after my meeting I went outside to take her back to the car and home. She was being really fractious outside because the area around the math department is so busy. I was waiting for her to calm down to pee and looking around thinking, "where's my car? Did I park somewhere else?" Normally this is the case; I routinely forget where I've parked and think my car's been towed. This time it really had been towed. There's street cleaning every third Monday of the month. Instead of just leaving a ticket like Chicago, however, Evanston tows immediately.

So I freak out because now I have a misbehaving dog who won't pee because she's too distracted outside and no way to get home (dogs aren't allowed on the trains anyway and OH BOY am I not getting on a noisy train platform with a skittish dog who doesn't even like squeaky toys because they make noise). Oh and I left my cell phone plugged in by the bed because I wasn't sleeping there and so didn't grab it when I woke up like I normally would.

Solution: head back to the office and enlist Kraig's aid via gchat. He's at work 2 hours away via public transportation. So he stops at home to get spare keys and look up the license plate number (haven't bothered to memorize it yet since moving to IL). He had lunch while he was home, figured out that the plate number is not on the car title or the insurance paperwork, found it on our garage lease, and then left to go get the car -- without the spare keys.

So then Kraig takes a train and a bus to the lot where the car is, figures out he doesn't have the keys, and then has to take a taxi to the math department where I've been holed up with the dog in my office. Fortunately, my friend Bethany who also works at Northwestern is an angel and brought me some grilled cheese for lunch (comfort food!!!).

I went out to take Serif home at 11:30am. We'd been there since 9:20am. By the time Kraig, Serif, and I got home, it was almost 4pm and we were all EXHAUSTED.

And now, she just took a big, liquidy shit on the carpet in my office. Oh the joys of pet ownership. Either the shelter didn't give us the same food that she's been on, the treats don't agree with her, or all of the stress has mixed up her digestion (probably a bit of all three -- she doesn't care for the treats much).

Tomorrow we have a vet appointment at 10am and then I am staying home for the rest of the day with her and relaxing. It's supposed to be super hot out so there isn't any point in taking her on any kind of significant walk. Fortunately, it's Kraig's turn to sleep on the couch tonight, because I'm exhausted.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I left my Petit Ecolier by the windowsill out of reach of the dog last night and they're melted today? Sigh...

How to "seduce" your SO

It seems like people in long-term relationships, and especially married people, frequently complain that their sex life isn't as busy as it was way back when they first met, and in the case of married people, before they got married. Here are my suggestions for how to get your special someone so riled up that they simply can't resist you:

1. Do random little nice things for them. This will make them like you and think kindly of you. It's entirely possible that they'll stop leaving the room when you enter, giving you more seduction opportunities. They may even start reciprocating and doing nice things for you, and then you might start to like them more as well.

2. Treat them with respect and support their ambitions. This will make them feel good about themselves. How does that work to your advantage? Well, people are more likely to feel sexy when they are confident and happy with themselves, and remembering that you're to thank for this new-found self-esteem will make them that much more susceptible to your charms.

3. Make sure your personal hygiene and general physical appearance are comparable to what they were when you two first met. I know, I know, why should you make an effort when you've already got a stable thing going? First, this will make you feel more confident, and make you more likely to close the deal with aplomb. Second, despite loving all of your imperfections and being used to your slovenly state after so long together, even an indifferent mate is going to notice an extra 150 lbs and gingivitis. Go hit the gym and get that cute butt back.

4. Pick your sexy moments with care. Birthdays and anniversaries are a good time to ramp up your seduction (see steps 1-3). Some bad times to move in for the coup de gras include any time your SO is exhausted after a long day, more than 36 hours after you last had a shower, any time you're in public or at a relative's/friend's house (unless they were into that kind of thing back when you were having sex regularly), and whenever they are annoyed with you because of something you did. This last part is especially tricky, since you may or may not have any way of knowing when your mate is irritated with you (depending on how prone they are to throwing household objects). Hopefully, steps 1 and 2 above should make these moments less frequent and of a lesser duration. If you are truly diligent with your seduction, especially with step 3, sexy moments will eventually begin to present themselves naturally when your SO approaches you for sex. Do your utmost to encourage these occurrences.

5. Lastly, once you've followed the other steps and your special someone is raring to go, make sure you beef up your bedroom skills and bring your A-game to the tussle. Everyone loves good sex (yes, even your asexual SO) so they'll be back for more if they like what they got the first time.

What about all of the classic approaches that involve getting them drunk, doing it when they're asleep, or conning them with expensive presents? These approaches can certainly work, but only occasionally and with mixed effectiveness. They are, in particular, either costly or borderline illegal. My approach promises consistent results and will actually work better the longer you employ these techniques. They will even make you less likely to be on the receiving end of legal action from your partner.

Enjoy your seduction!

Mental Health Day

Kraig and I took a mental health day today. This is something that my mom let my brothers and me do when we were in school (mostly high school) when our workloads or extracurricular life got overwhelming and we just needed a day to catch up or unwind. Neither Kraig nor I had to go into work today, and since we've been running non-stop since the beginning of January (probably longer for Kraig), we went out for dinner last night, split a bottle of wine, and slept late today.

Then I sat down with the interwebs and taught myself how to purl. (It's a stitch used in knitting.) Actually, if you go to your closet and find a sweater, chances are that large parts of it are knit with a purl stitch. It's the one that looks like rows and rows of nested v's. I'm getting pretty obsessed with this knitting stuff. It's really nice to have a hobby where I can decide when and where I'm going to do it, and have something physical to show for a half-hour's work. It's also pretty mindless if you're working on easy stuff (which I am for the moment). I have a few projects in mind to do, and hopefully by xmas time, I'll be good enough to make people their gifts! Let me know if there's something you'd like and I'll try to figure it out by then :p

Holly is a big fan of my knitting. She likes to sit next to me and keep an eye on the working end of the yarn (the part that gets jerked around as I loop it around the knitting needles). I had a scrap piece of yarn that got turned into a cat toy earlier today. The only down-side for the cats is that my hands are busy while I'm knitting, so they don't actually get petted.

On a related cat note, I recently got a carpet remnant to put down on the floor in my office just to add a bit of softness, and it is already coated in cat hair. I'm going to have to vacuum in here twice a week just to keep it from looking completely disreputable. Le sigh.

Full Day

Quick blog entry before I sit down to prep my lectures for tomorrow and grade some quizzes. I just had a really good, full day.

I went to a ballet class this morning, which was great. There's a studio right off of the train stop where I get off for Northwestern, and one of the co-owners does a once-a-week advanced/pro ballet class. My right leg/hip is still being bothersome, but at least my over-stretched/pulled hamstring seems to be getting better. I've been careful about trying not to overtax my hips in general. It occurred to me last week that it's been almost a year exactly since I was "training," i.e. staying in good enough shape to perform. I'm not necessarily trying to get to that point again, but it's going to take some consistent effort to build up the strength to dance without having to worry about blowing things up (things generally being joints and ligaments).

Then I moseyed over to my office where I started looking into the various details of grants that I want to apply for and conferences that I want to attend. A month ago I was worried that I wasn't hearing about conferences anymore. Now there are three that I want to go to, all between March and June of this year, and in three different countries. I'm pretty sure that I'll manage to go to two out of three of them, though I'm not sure which two that will be. It was a little overwhelming at the time, but overall it's more motivation to WRITE MY DAMN PAPERS!

After finishing up in the department, including going to tea (department social hour) and having a great conversation with a grad student about adopting/fostering dogs from shelters in the Chicago area, I went to a yarn shop with a member of my cohort, Anna Marie, and bought some lovely dandelion-yellow yarn and a pair of knitting needles. Anna Marie happens to be a whiz knitter, and I've decided that I could use a hobby that is productive, portable, and potentially mindless. So yeah, I'm learning how to knit. So far I can cast on and do a slightly uneven garter stitch. Sweet :)

Happy New Year!

Time for some resolutions? Definitely. And what better place to record them than my oft neglected blog?

1. I will write here more often. I'll aim for once a week, except for possibly when I'm writing exams.
2. I will track my food daily and my weight weekly on WW. 
3. I will attend yoga and dance classes at least twice a week.
4. I will prep for classes and write quizzes and exams ahead of time and not at the last minute. I will also not spend more time writing exams than I need to.
5. I will write three or more papers this year (two of these should have been finished last summer). 
6. I will not feel guilty about scheduling "me time," understanding that it will ultimately make me more productive. 
7. I will keep in touch with my friends by email, phone, or in person.
8. I will always have a "just-for-fun" book that I am reading. 

 2011 was jam-packed full of life changes, so here's to a less eventful 2012.