The "Re-Penthouse"

247/365: Sunday, 09/04/2011

One of traditions at Miami U. involves off-campus students giving their houses catchy/punny/suggestive names. They often have something to do with the street they are on and yes quite a few involve references to alcohol. This one is situated right next to a church and it's also on Church St. Hence it's moniker: Re-Penthouse...

245/365 Friday 09/02/2011

Here we are back on track with a cute shot of Bill and George reacquainting themselves with one another after a fairly long absence. (about a month). 

241/365 Monday, 08/29/2011

This is more or less what my desk looks like at the moment. I got the kitty calender for a dollar when I went to Walgreen's on Sunday. I am noticing that it is more difficult to devote mind-space to this project when one has a full-time job...I hope my pictures don't become too boring! 

240/365 Sunday, 08/28/2011

And so the grading begins....this was my first quiz. I will be receiving many more before the semester is out...(sorry this is still too blue). And I did take this one on Sunday.

238/365 Friday, 08/26/2011

Georgie usually gets a little scoop of catnip in  the evenings. He likes it.

237/365 Thursday, 08/25/2011

I apologize for the blueness of this and a few other of my pics--I had the phone camera on an "incandescent" setting and hence overly blue-ish tinged photos were the result...This is a picture of the traffic logjam that occurs regularly on weekdays on Spring St. at Miami U. I wait here for my shuttle to take me home, and so I see this particular procession quite frequently.

My first "Bagel&Deli" bagel

236/365 Wednesday, 08/24/2011

This yummy bagel was consumed by little ol' me when I went to lunch with my department colleague (my co-German-teaching co-Vap=Visiting prof)  on this Wednesday. We almost walked past the Bagel&Deli, but we turned around to give it a go...

This place is great! It has a mellow 70's vibe and a crazy long menu! Very nice steamed bagels with all sorts of different toppings--can't wait to go back!!

233/365 Sunday, 08/21/2011

My last day before school started was peaceful and uneventful. Here's a picture of a happy George. (and a rather grubby carpet--I may have to cover it with something!

232/365 Saturday, 08/20/2011

Today was the first day of a nice quiet weekend -- the calm before the beginning of the semester. I probably did laundry and at some point (I think it was Sunday though) I'm sure I went to Kroger. This is a picture of my desk here in the apartment. (which of course has a picture of Hansi on it). 

231/365 Friday 08/19/2011

It was so hot that walking was a bit of a chore this week. I forced myself to "take the long way home" on Friday, because it was my last "free" Friday before the semester started. I took a picture of these flowers that were outside a church along the main street here: High St. before heading into Starbucks to grab a cool drink for the rest of the walk to Kroger and then home. 

230/365 Thursday, 08/18/2011

Towards the end of the week the streets of Oxford started to get more lively due to the influx of new and then returning students. I have heard that about 16 000 students attend Miami, which of course has a large (economic etc.) impact on Oxford, which is actually quite small at least in terms of non-student population. Wikipedia tells us that of the 21,943 people that were counted in Oxford during the 2000 census, 15,726 were students. Wow that means Oxford is actually smaller than Albion! (But the two are just so different in terms of atmosphere and ambiance and of course decent places to eat!) 

229/2011 Wednesday, 08/17/2011

A fun day! New faculty orientation in the morning and then I helped me new colleague in German move into her cute little house. (It so happens we know each other). It was hot, but we had a very nice lunch at a lovely sandwich place that I will definitely go back to. 

219/365 Sunday, 08/07/2011

Today was the day we took George with us back to my apartment in Oxford. Since we wanted to drive all the way through without stopping for a meal, we drove to Jackson for a big breakfast at our favorite breakfast place: Roxy's. This is their toilets sign, and since I thought it was funny (as did Bill) it became the pic of the day...Everything went well but true to his scaredy-cat ways George is still spending most of his time under the duvet that is on my bed. (It's Thursday now, so it hasn't been that long yet).  In the evenings I force him out from under the bed and chase him into the living/dining area and close the bedroom door behind him so he cannot run straight back. He complains but he does eventually calm down enough to wolf down some food. He likes to sit under the new orange IKEA blanket I got for him. during the night when everything is dark and quiet he takes care of business (kitty-litter business that is). I'm hoping he'll come out of his shell more eventually. It just takes time. 

215/365 Wednesday, 08/03/2011

This is a picture of the IKEA restaurant area, fairly early on Wednesday morning. We decided to eat a bit more breakfast before commencing the looking and shopping spree.We always have fun at IKEA and today was no exception. It IS tiring though. I noticed more IKEA-newbies at this store, who stood around wondering how to go about getting the things they want--they apparently had overlooked the little pencil and paper dispencers that one uses to write down the item name/number plus where the item is in the warehouse area. Sometimes you heard people say things like: "They're going to have to order that..." 

We made it through the showroom, marketplace and warehouse area in about 3.5 or 4 hours--after which we  paid for everything loaded up the car and went back inside to get our fill of cheap Swedish meatballs and a piece of chocolate overload cake for lunch.  My excuse for eating more than usual is that I have not been sleeping all that well-I regularly get up from about 3am-5am and so lose a coupe of hours of rest--hence chocolate cake must come to the rescue. (We split a piece). 

Then we moseyed on home in our trusty civic and Bill immediately set to putting all the pieces together. I continued getting settled and cleaning the apartment. We had decided that instead of Bill coming back and having to re-load the car and George all by himself I would accompany him back to Albion the next day, in order to offer moral etc. support for the trip back to Oxford with George and the rest of my stuff. (which will take place on Sunday). 

I thought I would have more to do, but since most of my clothes etc are coming on this next trip I didn't have that much to do yet - I had already taken care of work-related tasks such as getting an ID and showing my employment documentation. So as I write this I am back at my old desk, for a short while longer at least. 

Once we go back I'm sure I'll want to get cracking on course-preparation -- it will be Miami's first semester using a new e-learning system that I need to figure out how to use, plus there is all the usual prepping/planning necessary before classes start. I have seen my office and it is quite nice--it might be a bit noisy since it is directly opposite a door to the stairs.