Point of Reference

It's been a bit of an eventful past week in my household, in ways both good and bad. The bad came primarily in the form of more than a week without hot water. We've been running on unmetered hot water for quite some time--one of the side effects of any old house and old electrical system--and Hydro finally demanded that we switch over. So we did. Or rather, we tried. Shortly after the electrician departed, we discovered that we had no longer had hot water of any sort. We called. He came back a couple of days later, tried something, and told us that if it still wasn't working, he'd come back again. It didn't work. We called him. He promised to come over the next day. He didn't show up. We called again. He promised to come over the following day. He didn't show up. In the end, it took him five days to finally show up, and when he did, he concluded that it wasn't his work at all--our hot water tank had broken! So we called the hot water tank repair people, who managed to send someone over the very day we called! (Hurray for prompt service!) Only...it wasn't a problem with our hot water tank after all. No, the electrician had installed the wrong breakers.

The electrician came back the next day. We had hot water that evening.

If the guy hadn't done good work for us in the past, I'd definitely never use him again. As it is...I'm not sure yet. It's not so much the mistake that gets me as the lack of urgency in fixing it. It's not as if we had one light out--no hot water for a week+ is kind of a big deal. And yes, there was a time when there was no such things as running water. But that period (i.e., most of human history) also didn't demand daily showers.

( On the brighter side... )

Winter is slowly returning here, after the unseasonably warm weather we returned to last week. We got a little snow on Sunday, and a little more yesterday--enough to lightly coat the ground, but not enough to create huge piles of snow and slush to wade through. The perfect amount, in other words. January and February are always the time when I really feel the length of winter; there's nothing to do but hunker down against the cold and endure. But it's not too bad right now.

I decided to take on a second TA job this term. I got through last term on just one, but only because I had savings from the previous year, and those are pretty well depleted. The new job is for a Soc of Work course, which is an area I've never studied. I'll have to do a bit of catching up, but hopefully it will be interesting. I've been asked to attend class since I don't know the field, but that will have to wait another week as this week and next, I'm guest lecturing a course on the mass media at the Scarborough campus. That particular course has proven to be a bit of a bad luck course--the original instructor went on sick leave at the beginning of the term, and the replacement instructor had to head home to Europe because of a death in the family. Happily, my only bad luck has been not being able to show my slides during the first lecture because I couldn't get the key to open the computer cabinet. (Happily, I don't believe in bad luck, and I do believe in coincidence.)

I may also have some RA work coming my way this term; it doesn't pay as well as TA work, but the experience can be useful. I may get a chance to edit a book coming from conference proceedings, but that isn't certain yet. I may also get to help with another book, though nothing that would get my name on it. It will be a bit more of a challenge to carve out space to work on my dissertation and my own publications, but maybe being busy will force me to be more efficient, something I usually only accomplish in short spurts, right before deadlines.

I made chocolate profiteroles last weekend, subbing in pastry cream for the whipped cream called for in the recipe. Actually, to be fair, B made chocolate profiteroles last weekend, while I read out the directions. About the only work I did was separating the egg yolks for the pastry cream and holding the pastry shells while B filled them using the old ziploc bag trick semiotic_trader reminded me of. We were a little doubtful about the pastry cream, which on its own had a rather unappetizing texture, but it turned out to be quite good when served with pastry as intended. And now that I've witnessed the making of pâte à choux, perhaps some day I'll try doing it myself. Perhaps when I have guests who can help eat the result.

It was actually quite a social weekend for us, though since we did all of our socializing elsewhere, that was no help in consuming the profiteroles. On Friday night we had a movie night with a friend and his 40-something inch television (or was it 50-something inch?) so that we could all admire the clarity of Blu-ray. On Saturday we saw The Bourne Ultimatum with semiotic_trader and a_just_society and then went down to the Distillery District for (a rather mediocre for the money) supper. semiotic_trader and a_just_society are on vacation right now, which sounds like a lovely idea. It's something I'd like to try again, sometime in the future.

On a completely unrelated note, our regular mail carrier seems to have vanished, leaving behind a rather careless replacement. The replacement carrier apparently hasn't noticed yet that there are mailboxes for the individual apartments inside the side door of the house, so she or he has been leaving piles of mail outside. On Monday, the carrier left the mail outside of the side door. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I found the mail outside of the front door, which serves as a private entrance to one of the apartments. The building has an odd set-up, I admit, and perhaps it's not surprising that the carrier hasn't taken the time to look around, but I'm not enjoying the new daily hunt for the mail. What really worries me is that I didn't discover the new delivery system until Monday, but as we didn't get any mail last Thursday or Friday, there's a possibility that some letters and packages have simply been lost.

Six weeks since my last update...I'm turning into a bad LJer. I'm going to blame my lack of presence on running up against program deadlines. I hit the summer and suddenly realized that I had four months to study for and write my second comprehensive exam, and prepare my proposal. My own fault, for dithering and delaying on a topic (which in turn delayed my comp area was supposed to be related to my thesis topic). I ended up picking a very broad comp area (culture) that I thought related to the general topics I was interested in and that I already knew fairly well from my TA work and running with it. I managed to prepare for it in about half the recommended minimum time, at the rate of one or two books or 5+ articles per day most days. And now that's over and done with, and I'm working on my proposal and changing my research question every other day as I read further in the literature and then go back to the available data. I came up with a new topic today...I'll see if it sticks. (I ended getting a two month extension on the proposal, so I now have until October 31st to finish. I'm aiming for mid-September, though, as I'm tired of having it hang over me.)

With the comp out of the way, I've been going out a little more. On Thursday, B and I went to the new Annex BBQ restaurant, Cluck, Grunt, and Low, where we had a rather unusual experience. They'd been getting good reviews, and the place was packed when we got there. Rather than wait for a table, we opted to sit side-by-side at the counter, facing out onto Bloor Street through a large open window. B ordered ice tea in place of the sweet tea we'd been hoping for, and sat drinking it while we waited for our ribs. A few minutes after it arrived, with scarcely more than a sip gone, a man passing by on the street reached through the window, grabbed the drink off of the table with a grunt, and kept on walking. The man walking behind him paused, looked at us incredulously, and asked if that had really happened, to which we could only shrug and laugh. What else can you do, really? The dry rub ribs were generally good (though the BBQ sauce could have been smokier), and the server replaced our iced tea for free once we convinced her that it really had been stolen, and we'll definitely be back at some point to try the pulled pork. B, Southern boy that he is, has been lamenting the lack of good Southern food for a while, so it's nice that something opened in the neighbourhood.

The Art Gallery of Ontario currently has an Emily Carr exhibit on display. I've been meaning to go for a while, having heard from my roommate that it's fabulous, but kept putting it off for later. Yesterday, however, I realized that it closes on Sunday, and so tonight B and I finally made the time to go. My roommate was right--it is indeed fabulous, with enough paintings to give a real sense of the changes her in style over time (including the influence of the Group of Seven). I was particularly interested in a couple of rugs that she did, which were apparently originally displayed under a different name. The exhibit didn't say why, but I suspect it was because she didn't want to detract from her artistic reputation by becoming known for art in the form of women's crafts. I suppose it takes someone like Joyce Wieland--and a few decades of time--to begin to garner some respect for that kind of work.

I think the rest of the evening will be spent on pop culture, specifically watching season 5 of Gilmore Girls.

My roommate made a good point today. The cat may have been lying on top of me all week not because she was lonely last weekend, but because she's cold. Because there's snow on the ground and we have no heat. My roommate called the landlords this morning, leaving a polite message asking them to please turn on the heat. I called them again this evening leaving a civil message threatening to call the city if they don't get the heat on pronto. So far, no effect.

The cat was left alone for most of the weekend, as I was at my boyfriend's and my roommate was visiting her sister. Wow, is she making me pay for it! Roommate's not back yet, so it's just me and the cat. Every waking moment for the past two days that hasn't been spent paying attention to to the cat has been spent with her trying to get my attention. Usually by knocking things over and generally being a pest. I've picked up more garbage cans over the past two days than I care to think about. I like having a people-oriented cat, but gah. Oh well, at least she's been letting me sleep in the morning.

And what am I doing up so late, you ask? Marking papers, of course. I really don't think this batch of papers are as good as last year's, but that may be my memory playing tricks on me. Nonetheless, I wish someone would explain to these students the difference between a topic and an argument.

I'm back safe and sound from San Francisco, having seen almost nothing of the city itself. We got in one good day of touristing before getting sick, and ended up spending the rest of the trip (once we were able to leave the hotel bathroom) in the suburb's visiting B's brother. Not a bad way to spend the time, I suppose, but I'm sorry I didn't get to see more of the city itself. I did get to watch a tremendous amount of Ultimate Fighting Championship, so I suppose I can add that to my cultural repetoire now. I'm actually rather curious who comprises the main audience for UFC--in what context is knowledge of UFC valuable cultural capital? Mind you, I'm not curious enough to do any actual research on it, but maybe one of my culture students will write a paper about it. (Last year, two people wrote about wrestling, so it's certainly possible.)

In other news, I passed my theory comp. Yay me! Frankly, I'm a bit surprised, as I thought my answer to the last question (of three) was terrible. But I'll take it. Even if it wasn't unanimous, I'll take it.

Happy birthday, villagechick! Hope you're having fun today!

I'm now finished with comp decompression, and onto catch-up-on-everything-that-was-put-on-hold mode. Today was Laundry Day, and I think tomorrow will be Errand Day. Also Library Day I. To be followed by Library Days II, III, and IV. I have a whole lot of books to take back.