TGIF

It was a long week with lots of intensive work. I've realized the significance of being the editor responsible for ethical conduct of the chapter writers, which means I'm spending quite a bit of time applying for permission to reprint extensive quotes and tables from other books and articles. It's coming together s-l-o-w-l-y. I've received all the copy, but still need to "deSwinglish" several papers and make a final check that all references are correct and correspond, text to reference list. And write my introductions to various sections. And keep nagging the typographic designer ...

But as my faithful followers well know, the week was not all grind. Today's "expedition" was to Charleston --RI that is -- in search of a new outboard engine mount.

Not that we will use it, dedicated "raggies" that we are. But I did get some ideas for other boats while at the marina -- maybe a "party boat" to cruise the shoreline at sunset?

Tomorrow will be yet another new experience. But you'll have to check back here in 24 hours or so to learn about it.

Meeting

Today's activities centered around the Welch College of Business:

Lunch with "the ladies" -- good food and lots of laughs.

Advising three members who will be putting together their tenure packet during the summer -- plus freeing up some space on my bookshelves by loaning out my tenure packet.

Talking with the Associate Dean -- sitting at the table in my former office.

Seeing and chatting with several former colleagues -- the offices and coffee room are just the same!

A fun day -- quite unlike this time last year!

(And I didn't take any photos!)

Talk and more talk

If yesterday was reading day, today was talking day, evenly divided between colleagues in Sweden (Kasja, Gothenburg U Director of International Accreditation, about how I can advise on AACSB, and Ulla on the status of 8 papers we have in the pipeline, including today's acceptance of one for the Design Management Review), and in Massachusetts (Diana and Deb about our upcoming presentation at EAM and generally catching up.)

Afterwards I had to rush to make the first pie in the bakeoff.

I thought it was called Jumble Berry, but when I looked at the recipe from "The Complete Book of Pies" by Julie Hanson, (published 2008 by Robert Rose Inc., Toronto), I saw it was Jam Berry Crumble Pie.

The chief taster gave it a 6 pie rating = "incredibly delicious."

(The rating scale has been extended for this round, with 1-3 as before; 4=not as good as I remembered, 5=delicious (highest before), 6=incredibly delicious, and 7= heavenly.)

The jam berry crumble pie also earned my "foolproof to make" star.

Reading

I've spent most of the day doing the intense reading that is necessary for text editing. I'll be glad when this is over. I even changed my "postcard display" from inspiring castles to postcards of women at work. (Yes, gardening counts as work). That picture of me is at Alcatraz, reading Lyotard - must have been taken in mid- 1990s. It was part of a series of photos called "scholar at work." I must hunt up some of the others and make a display-- though I hardly call the editing work I'm doing at the moment, as truely "scholarly."

But I have also been reading other texts. Yesterday I finished a novel, "The diary of Mattie Spenser." It was OK -- written well, but the story of prairie home life during the depression really didn't engage me, and the clues as to the dark side of the story were far too obvious for my taste. The one advantage was that the size of the book was a bit smaller than normal, and it was very comfortable to hold to read in bed! Then I read about Politico and Playbook in Washington from Sunday's Times while I was exercising -- now that's a world completely alien to me. And, for breakfast I selected, "A case for those extra 10 lbs." from today's Wall Street Journal. I thought for sure it would be the most emailed article, but somehow news of Goldman Sachs won that honor! And in-between times I've been skimming my cookbooks to try to find the recipes for the pies in the alphabet bake-off. So I have Fannie Farmer, The Joy of Cooking, and pages copied from the library copy of the Complete Book of Pies on my desk, and my browser set to pie recipes online for those I made while in Florida.

And, as if that isn't enough, I've been steeling myself to begin reading the AASCB Standards again, in preparation for my phone conversation with my Swedish contact tomorrow.

No wonder I feel as if I have been reading ALL day!

Monday power and purpose

How about this for power? My fame as an AACSB-nag, oops, I mean "force," has preceded me to the university in Sweden, and the business school has changed the date of their AACSB workshop to one when I will be there to be a major contributor! I'd better start memorizing the Standards again!

All else pales beside this news: or rather, it was a very dull day, weatherwise and workwise. There's not much I can reflect on about changing yet another page of references to APA -6th edition format. Last name, comma, initial, period, comma before the & if more than one author, umpteen periods along the way, and comma not colon before the page number in a journal. See, I've bored you, and that's only one reference done!

But I do have all the papers/chapters in hand, except for the prefaces by the two men who came up with the idea of the Business & Design Lab. But before I ask them I need to make an annotated table of contents. Tomorrow maybe ....

Again?

Yes! More gardening! Back to Holdridge's Nursery in Ledyard for azaleas for the east side of the house -- we are replacing the fir "bushes" surrounding the air handler. They had grown too big and the carpenter who replaced the east side siding last year said they were contributing to the mildew problem.

And while we were there I spotted some portulaca to replenish the rose-rock

bed. It's an annual but reseeds itself every year, if I have patience to wait till the seeds spout and grow. This way I get a head start!

I'm getting a head start on my EAM presentation as well. I blocked out the "Wicked Problem" slides and spent/wasted? a good hour searching for suitable images to add to make the design more interesting. I'm working on a handout, too. I have to blame my insistence on a handout from a presentation by Edward Tufte of Yale that I attended in about 1993! It makes a pleasant diversion from my editing chore that otherwise could take over my waking moments.

Editing slog

I have little to reflect on or blog about today. I spent the whole day -- or at least it seemed like the whole day -- formatting papers for my book-editing task. I need an assistant to do this, it's way beneath my skill set -- and Jack was busy painting the deck so I couldn't even con him into helping me. I know every job has a 99% perspiration piece, but this seems like 199% at the moment! And I haven't yet found a way to "nag" the young man in Sweden who is doing the technical part of the book compilation -- maybe I'm losing those skills! As it is, I have the sense that I will soon be revisiting all these manuscripts to change everything again. Skype is all very well, but there are times when it's advantageous to be able to park myself outside someone's door!

Back to the task at hand.

Specially for Mary - and other gardeners & Earth Day followers

We set up our LP vegetable garden today. Well, I transplanted the lettuce, tomatoes, and various herbs into the pots that will live on the deck after Jack has painted it (date TBD). Still to find a home are the 6 brussel sprouts plants Jack could not resist buying. He didn't look at the plant spacing or growing conditions before making his "impulse purchase"! Will we have home grown brussel sprouts to offer David when he comes to visit? (For non-family members, it's a well-publicized fact that David HATES brussel sprouts and sees absolutely no reason for their existence!)

Gardening twice in a week. Whatever is happening to me?

Looking back, looking forward

I've spent the better part of the last couple of days catching up with friends from previous "lives." It's been fun, but now I'm behind with my current life, which is to prepare the manuscript for a collection of papers by members of the Business & Design Lab. I have a lot of editing and formatting work to do, plus chasing up several people who have not sent their promised contribution. So, I plan to be in nose-to-the-grindstone, nothing-earth-shattering-happening mode for the next several days. It must be completed by May 1 -- ees! that's only 10 days away!

Last pie

Today I made the N pie -- and it was a disaster! First, having decided on NIsselrode (Nectarine would have been too much like peach), I had three recipes from the internet, with widely differing ingredients and process. I settled on one and bought the ingredients. I should have stopped right there: 2 cups heavy cream PLUS 6 cups vanilla pudding in a 9 inch pie shell? But I decided to "work through it." After a bit I realized this recipe was in fact two recipes combined, so I quickly changed my process. Just as I was congratulating myself that I had surely diverted disaster, more problems emerged. The chestnut puree plus two cups of cream plus just one tablespoon of cornstarch cooked over boiling watery refused to thicken (and I stirred constantly for the best part of an hour). Plan -- or recipe -- B, two eggs separated, yolks in chestnut custard to thicken it. Still no luck, move to recipe C and add a pack of gelatin. By this point my patience had given up, and I pulled out all the stops. I stirred the (still thin) mixture into 2 cups of vanilla pudding and added the egg whites beaten to stiff peaks. Oh, and some glace fruit, toasted chopped almonds, and orange zest as called for by recipe C. As you might expect, I had more than enough filling for two pie shells, and a huge pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

Along the way I realized that Nesselrode Pie was a holiday pie where different families would have their own favored ingredients to add to a "Classic Bavarian Cream Pie." Clearly I made a pie with a whole village's worth of fillings!


And the verdict: Jack gave it 4 pies. I did not think it warranted that many!

So, my alphabet pie quest is complete! Six pies are advancing to the next round; they all received the highest rating from the chief tester. They are:
* Goat cheese pie
* Honey crunch pecan pie
* Jumble berry pie
* Key lime pie
* Peach custard pie
* Uncle Hip's favorite apple pie.

The ultimate winner of the taste-off will join my ongoing pie repertoire: Apple, blueberry, rhubarb strawberry, and quiche.
(Full list of pies and ratings is available on request. Recipes are not available.)

Done ....but ...

... not done well! My design homework "didn't come together." I don't know if my design was too ambitious or my art (for drawing the design) or craft (for cutting and glueing) insufficient, but whatever the reason, I felt little satisfaction as I crafted the final piece. My workspace was as messy as usual, and try as I might to do otherwise, I kept leaving little paper burrs from my Xacto knife cuts, and these collected little pieces of rubber cement as I tried to rub off excess glue. And when I tried to repair pieces in place, I just made even more mess. Anyway, I can't do anything more in a purposeful way -- and fortunately I don't have time to try different colored papers ad hoc. So here are my two "Snakes-in-the-Grass" The top one should "vibrate" - or at least the snake should be obvious; the second one should "reveal" the snake hiding in the grass.

I hope the prof responds with a crit -- I'd like to know how it could be better.

Saturday snakes

Apart from a trip to the True Value hardware store for a new shovel that ended up being $400+ of a new Bar-B-Q and various yard stuff, I devoted my time to my design assignment. The "snake in the grass" inspired by "Mr. Snake" who has lived here close to the front door for several years, went well in the conceptualizing and articulation of the color palette phases.

But after the prototype my impatience took over and I went on a binge of trying different colors and cutting grass on a whim rather than to a pattern.

The result is unsatisfactory.


I have neither time nor energy nor an inexhaustible supply of color paper to make it better. Tomorrow I will attack the second part of the assignment (the same design with a "revealing" color palette) and try to make my previous errors good. Only then will I return to this board to try to improve it.

Back to a different world

This morning we drove to Fairfield intent on "beautifying" the little patch of ground in front of the condo. I feel compelled to do whatever I can to make the place inviting for prospective buyers. The complex looks as nice as it ever does with many flowering trees in bloom, so there was no reason that our 12ft by 6ft patch out front shouldn't match the season. I'd forgotten -- long forgotten -- how restorative gardening is And in the process I realized that what had changed most for me over the past 6 months or so was the renewed ability to enjoy tasks for themselves, without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else.

In the process Jack sheared off the bottom of his favorite shovel. HIt's been cracked for years, but the roots and rocks finally did it in. I wonder where (if?) I can find a replacement that will last as long.

Mary -- a colleague from SHU -- stopped by and we chatted for quite a while. She brought me up to date on various comings and goings. I didn't stop by campus, but planned with Mary to have a "ladies' lunch" sometime soon to see everyone whose available and interested.

And I did no intellectual work -- a good thing. Tomorrow I MUST conquer the anatomy of a snake (what??) and finish my design assignment. No word yet from the prof on my last assignment. Maybe it's a new experience for him to have a student who completes work, and on time!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Good news day

THE VERY BEST: Lynda, a friend and colleague from SHU. had the courage to sell her house CT, where she had lived all (?) her life, and move to North Carolina to a place she had dreamed of living for several years. Today her three month intensive job search paid off, and next week she will start in a new position in new industry in an organization with (yet again) a new religious affiliation different from her own. Jack and I toasted her future with champagne. I have no doubt she will soon be as indispensable to her new bosses as she was at SHU.

Good luck, Lynda!










GOOD: I finished and emailed the chapter revision (2nd) that has been haunting me for the last couple of weeks. No word from the editor yet -- I hope it doesn't come back again. In the interim I had a Skype meeting withe the designer I will be working with on my next project -- that one sounds like fun!

NOT SO GOOD: I started to work out the details and cut colored paper for my "snake in the grass" design class project. At first all went well, but now I cannot capture the essence or "snakeness" with my limited design and craft ability. I put the exercise to one side, hoping for inspiration tomorrow. Otherwise I will need to think up a new design. I hope not.

MORE? The evening is young ....

Nothing different

Except I worked all day on the paper revision with no time for the design assignment. I'm down to the final formatting, expect to hear from my co-author with her sign-off -- or changes -- in the morning, then punctuation editor-in-chief will take his red pen to the text. A final word count and, if I hit the magic number of less than 6,500, I may be able to ship it before heading for Boston in the afternoon. My train is due back after 11 so don't look for a blog post!

This part of paper-writing always takes even longer than I remember. And I still have to eliminate 34 words!

Monday slog

I worked as hard/long as I have for a long while on two "intense" projects. One is a final revision for a book chapter with the need to shorten the text by 1000 words (7,500 to 6,500). The project does not have good vibes for a number of reasons, including prior (lack of) editorial reviews and a wild-goose chase for some professional help, and it was tough to get started and stay on track. Once I overcame the activation energy hurdle I made good progress and I'm hopeful I'll finish the job by Thursday when it is due. Tomorrow I have to write some new text, which may mean some rearranging of the current argument. I'll be happy when it's finished.

The other project is the detailed manual work of my design assignment. I thought I would alternate between this and the writing task, but it didn't work out that way. I've made piles of colored paper in various combinations; now I need to actually cut out the parts of the design and see if I can create the effect I have in my head. Once I know if/that I CAN do it, the project will become fun again as I see it taking shape in final -- not imaginary -- form.

And that sums up my whole day.

Penultimate Pie

#25 Uncle Hip's Favorite Apple Pie.

Val sent me the recipe back in the Fall when my alphabet pie quest was new news, but I couldn't find the varieties of apples called for in the recipe. By the time I realized that the only place to get them was Vermont at a certain time of year, I had a list of plenty of other pies to bake. So now, with only 2 to go, I looked up the apple varieties in Wikipedia and tried to purchase cultivars (new word here!) that tasted similar

The pie earned the highest rating -- 5 pies -- from the chief judge.

Now only the N pie remains. I have a recipe for a Nesselrode pie, but I have doubts about its appeal.

What do do afterwards? I have decided to hold a 5-pie bakeoff. So far 6 pies have earned this coveted rating (#26 may join them, but I am doubtful.) I'll make all 6 again, and they will be evaluated on a 10-pie scale. The process will continue until THE pie remains!

Other news pales in comparison with this trivia:

My Skype connection to the design class did not work. Apparently the prof could not load Skype onto the classroom computer. Too bad. I'll wait for my crit via email.

Worked hard on a grant application to go to East Africa. Due tomorrow. Not sure when we will hear.

And for those of you still interested in the Space Shuttle launch, Jack posted his pictures -- click here to view.

Return Checklist

Laundry: done

Everything put away: almost -- well, almost almost.

Checked the beaches for sand and seaweed: stinky beach - ferocious!

Stocked refrigerator: done

Inventoried local supermarkets: bananas still green

Window shopped in new trendy clothing stores in downtown Mystic: plenty of them, but bank, bookstore and Drawbridge Ice Cream still there

Used internet: works here just as well as in Sarasota

Enjoyed the spring flowers: especially forsythia and daffodils

Glad to be here: it's where I'm at.

Return journey statistics

95.25 hours elapsed time door-to-door

28.02 hours "engine on" driving time

1495.3 miles driven

51 mph average speed

32 mpg average fuel consumption

Wednesday

We abandoned our car in Alexandria, took the Metro to Smithsonian, then navigated the "dreaded signs of the day" down to the Tidal Basin to see the long-anticiapted Cherry Blossoms -

They were over!

There was just a brownish rim to the Tidal Basin, and the branches had empty flower centers. There were no petals on the ground.

Not all was lost: a few trees in shady places were still in full bloom- and they were beautiful!

We spent some time in the museum below the Jefferson Memorial learning about the life and interests of one of Jack's heros

Were we disappointed -- of course yes. Did we enjoy ourselves -- of course yes!

We retraced our steps back to the car and headed north again, arriving at the home of "our friends of the most years" in late afternoon. We exchanged news of our total of 9 children + 9 partners and 9 grandchildren, and especially plans for the upcoming Labor Day wedding on a hop farm in Idaho. (Of course we plan to go!) It's always good to get together and talk f2f rather than virtually. It was a full day.

Progressing northeastwards

We had a difficult journey of 8.5 hours today. We saw this sign far too often, and that meant long stretches of crawl.

But we made progress towards the NE as far as:

N 34 deg., 11 min., 14 sec. (i.e., we're 4 deg., 35 min., 11 sec. further north than we were at 8 AM this morning.)

W 79 deg., 50 min., 11 sec, (i.e., we're 7 deg., 46 min., 43 sec. further east than this morning.)

120 ft above sea level, or 50 ft lower in elevation!

Ok, we're in Alexandria VA. Tomorrow first thing we head for the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. You'll have to make do with this link till I'm able to post photos.

Awesome!

We set off at 2:15 AM and by 4 AM had passed through the various security checkpoints and found a spot in the general viewing area. We discovered how the experienced do it -- the Space Center opened at 9 PM last night and some people pitched tents in a prime viewing spot!

While we waited we watched the NASA TV countdown on a giant screen and a former astronaut provided commentary and answered questions from the crowd -- like "How do you go to the bathroom in space?"

Finally... a picture-perfect launch

At 6:05 the orbiting space shuttle appeared in the south-east and crossed in front of the moon towards the east.

At 6:21:25 the rocket launched the Discovery with a crew of 7 on a mission to rendez-vous with the shuttle

The dawn sunshine illuminated the smoke trails left by the rockets

By 8 Am the sun was up and the crowds (we estimated 10,000) had dispersed.

And in case you are wondering where we are: @ N 34deg 11min 14sec, W 79deg 50min 11sec; 120 ft. elevation.

i.e., Florence, SC

Lift off

Here are our cargo bays as we head north! ... Note improvement over trip down - we can see out of the back window!

All systems are still go for tomorrow morning's launch @0621. Click here to see it yourself: NASA TV link. ... Watch for a blog post as soon as I have a connection I'll let you know how much we saw.

Emotions?

Sad to be leaving, especially because the weather is so beautiful, but looking forward to spring "up north."

Apprehensive about congestion getting to the Space Center tomorrow morning (doors close @ 4AM and we will be about 35 miles away), but eager for the launch experience (wherever we are, we'll be closer than we've ever been before!)

Reading for the journey: "Design Disasters: Great designers, fabulous failures & lessons learned" Edited by Steven Heller.