tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144773932011-12-20T23:32:05.677-07:00Welcome to Five O'Clock Somewhere, where it doesn't matter what time zone you're in; it's five o'clock somewhere. We'll look at rural life, especially as it happens in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, cats, sailing (particularly Etchells racing yachts), and bits of grammar and Victorian poetry.Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.comBlogger7851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-36575717832268734492011-12-14T21:44:00.003-07:002011-12-14T21:58:28.819-07:00

Cat Herders Day is here again!It is time once again to celebrate Cat Herders Day, the official holiday of Five O’Clock Somewhere, tomorrow, December 15. Those of my followers in Europe are already enjoying the holiday. The holiday was originally invented by a couple in California who have made up other wacky, offbeat holidays to celebrate. The date for this one, I’m sure, is a reflection on how

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-21297276073080095132011-12-10T23:22:00.002-07:002011-12-10T23:31:13.795-07:00

Please remember, “they” is plural.This past week, as I do at the end of every term, I participated in panel grading of portfolios for the Essay Writing classes. It’s a procedure we use to help maintain consistency; I hand my students’ portfolios over to other instructors for grading, and in turn, I get to grade portfolios of other instructors’ students. The idea is that we’re making sure that we’

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-77071639015559874502011-12-02T00:22:00.000-07:002011-12-02T01:37:33.587-07:00

Trying to keep warm It’s a cold night in Albuquerque. It’s also a windy night. The predicted low is 24 degrees (Fahrenheit), and the winds are howling, gusting to 50 mph and sometimes even higher. According to NOAA, the wind chill means it really feels like 12 degrees or colder. During the day, a wind gust of 78 mph was clocked in the far northeast part of Albuquerque, and the Sunport reported

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-15874337814439527722011-12-01T00:52:00.004-07:002011-12-01T03:32:54.855-07:00

This year's National Novel Writing Month effort seemed much harder than in past years. For most of the month, I was far more behind on word count that I've ever been before. It was only through a heroic effort in the last week that I got to the finish -- I hit the magic 50K mark on the 28th, took a rest on the 29th, and then cranked out another 2278 words on the 30th.Here, on record for posterity

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-65509657598679577692011-11-09T00:35:00.005-07:002011-11-09T02:22:47.337-07:00

My National Novel Writing Month adventures continue. I've fallen behind in my word count, so I'm trying to catch up. In this excerpt, Hannah has given her class an exercise similar to the one that I give in this post, in creating descriptive writing that aims to show, rather than tell, a highly emotional moment in the students' past. In case you're wondering, yes, this sort of thing has actually

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-42395396864021587912011-11-01T00:59:00.000-06:002011-11-01T02:01:55.120-06:00

It’s time for that annual ritual, in which I flog myself until I’ve cranked out 50,000 words in 30 days or less, participating in National Novel Writing Month. As usual, I’m writing a mystery, featuring Hannah Montgomery, community college English instructor and amateur sleuth, into whose life dead bodies continue to fall. In this installment, she’s working on planning her wedding to police

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-90671562999961115682011-09-18T23:55:00.002-06:002011-09-19T00:09:10.588-06:00

Another long way home, this time by way of the Rio Grande Gorge.View Larger MapThis time around, we took the scenic route eastward along U.S. 64, a drive best known for fall colors. This early in the year, just a few of the cottonwoods and willows along the streams were just beginning to turn gold. Unfortunately, insect ravages (tent caterpillars in the aspens, bark beetles in the firs) have made

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-51083620227426335292011-09-03T17:51:00.003-06:002011-09-03T18:00:51.487-06:00

Beefing up your paragraphs When you write an essay, you need to provide sufficient supporting details to prove the point that you are making. If you don’t have enough details, your reader may not be able to figure out exactly what you mean. The same holds true for many types of writing. If all you have is a collection of broad, general ideas, you may have a picture inside your mind of what you

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-46617229833946191892011-08-27T21:57:00.010-06:002011-08-27T22:50:11.709-06:00

Well, I wasn’t REALLY dead, but I don’t blame you if you thought that I was. How time flies. I’ve been working on all sorts of other things, and now it’s been more than a month since my last post (“Father, I have sinned …”). The truth is that my life has gotten filled up with so much going on (most of it, for a change, of a happy sort) that all I’ve had time for lately is more

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-22058970213401473282011-07-22T19:42:00.004-06:002011-07-22T20:24:13.771-06:00

or, at least, we have visitor #100K ...The lucky person who happened to be the 100,000th person to cross the threshold of this blog was a seeker of knowledge. He or she is a Road Runner subscriber from Cincinnati, using Windows NT/Vista and the most recent version of the world's worst browser, late Monday evening, on a search for "find out what part of speech rescue is."For quite some time, I've

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-86016111193925380042011-07-10T19:53:00.004-06:002011-07-10T20:03:06.617-06:00

So, what should the prize be this time?This blog is about to reach a historic milestone. As I start to type this post, Sitemeter has registered 99,677 visitors. That means, in just a few days, I will be seeing the 100,000th visitor to this blog.To mark the event, I want to provide a really cool prize to Visitor #100K. In the past, I've offered such things as dinner at my favorite brewpub or a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-23181532526626458922011-06-27T00:39:00.003-06:002011-06-27T01:43:06.626-06:00

One detour I wish did not have to be ...A major section of the last route shown in the previous post is currently off-limits, and once it is no longer off limits, it may no longer be as scenic as it used to be.The Las Conchas Fire in northern New Mexico began early Sunday afternoon, and within hours, it had consumed several thousand acres. This section of the road is now closed:View Larger MapThe

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-73553663475811972052011-05-31T00:17:00.005-06:002011-05-31T02:06:02.665-06:00

Exercises in getting from here to there, or there to hereIn planning for this weekend, we had a bit of a problem. I had to return to Albuquerque to teach my classes Tuesday, but Pat has to stay at the lake until his dockmaster duties end Wednesday. So we had to drive up Friday in separate vehicles; Pat took Enterprise with the fifth-wheel, while Dulce and I had Galileo.Being in a larger, clumsier

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-54621006421644369972011-05-27T23:05:00.005-06:002011-05-27T23:13:45.705-06:00

Roughing it in luxury ...The New Mexico Sailing Club, which operates the marina at Heron Lake, runs as a co-op. One of the duties of all members who have boats in the marina is to spend half a week on dockmaster duty. One requirement is that the dockmaster be physically at the marina at all times, either sleeping on a boat in the marina or camped out on the point above the marina.Pat's duty

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-26466746948569836872011-05-22T13:08:00.004-06:002011-05-22T13:36:15.426-06:00

Not all who are lost wander … The few people who frequent this blog might have noticed a lack of activity lately. That’s primarily because Pat and I have been on the road for most of the past three weeks. For a detailed travelogue, including pictures, you can look at Pat’s blog, Desert Sea, where he’s gradually putting up posts about the journey. I’ll just touch on highlights here. The trip

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-68778026631394564712011-05-02T13:34:00.002-06:002011-05-02T13:40:30.513-06:00

Some of my students wrote such great essays in response to the cuisine topic that I have asked them to allow me to share their work here. The first (but I hope not the last) to respond to my request is Phil Coen, who wrote a review of his favorite restaurant. OK, so it’s hard to get to – if you ask Google Maps how to get there from New Mexico, one leg of the journey involves getting into a kayak.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-46813629514036982352011-05-01T22:13:00.003-06:002011-05-01T22:20:18.740-06:00

It was one year ago today, May 1, 2010, that we lost our very good friend Marty. He was the sort of person whom you always expect to be there forever, but that day, he went into the water and never came back up. He is still very much missed.Vaya con dios, amigo.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-71187160723381565862011-04-21T21:02:00.001-06:002011-04-21T21:06:01.701-06:00

Not such a great turnout, alas … All right, so the turnout for the invitation to write about cuisine was less than spectacular. We had a total of four entries, by three contributors.First, we had Tillerman with his entry answering New Mexico’s Official State Question: “Red or Green?”Next, O Docker popped up with “A Kernel of Truth,” technically past the deadline, but close enough.So then, I

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-8112764226994125302011-04-03T00:23:00.004-06:002011-04-03T00:48:46.240-06:00

Sometimes, you have to go with the flowOK, so the official deadline has passed for my latest writing challenge. I got one entry before the deadline, from Tillerman, with his own take on New Mexico's Official State Question, "Red or Green?"In addition, I had one other entry that missed the deadline for the Pacific time zone, but which I allowed because O Docker made a persuasive argument that it's

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-9062040747643181092011-03-30T23:56:00.004-06:002011-03-31T00:12:35.739-06:00

There's only one day left ...So far, I've had a grand total of ... uh ... zero entries in the current writing challenge. With only 24 hours to go, that's not exactly a great turnout.To recap, the challenge was to write a blog post in response to an essay prompt that I used in my essay writing class this term. The students had chosen an unusual topic, cuisine, instead of the oft-used contemporary

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-27989012742428211482011-03-19T20:47:00.005-06:002011-03-20T01:32:47.988-06:00

The time of financial austerity is over ...For the past few years, Pat and I have been operating on an austerity budget. Part of that program has meant that I haven't had much in the way of new clothes for a very long time -- we've been shopping at thrift stores for most clothes. But now, at long last, I have the first pair of actual new shoes that I have had in about five years. And they're

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-14350494870150657192011-03-14T23:45:00.003-06:002011-03-15T01:46:33.875-06:00

Imagine you're a student in my class ...OK, I've been accused of trying to turn this into a food blog. It does seem lately that I've been digressing into food-related matters. Well, here's another digression -- and everybody is invited to go foodie.The origin of this writing project is an assignment in my Essay Writing class. During the term, the students write two in-class essays as a way of

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-74103356530428186612011-03-06T19:34:00.008-07:002011-03-06T19:53:21.097-07:00

It's been a long time ...At long last, I got in my first sail of the year. Pat had managed to sneak off to the lake a couple of times to go sailing with Zorro, but often it was mid-week, which meant I had to work. The one previous time I had gotten to the lake, the wind was just too fierce -- if the temperature had been warmer, it might have been good exciting sailing, but that day was just too

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-57482264664228534782011-03-06T15:37:00.007-07:002011-03-06T19:27:59.607-07:00

It's a good thing that in dreams one never gets full ...I had a dream, in which my high school classmates were celebrating a reunion. Yeah, you know this is going to be fun with the classmates I have!The high point of the reunion was a progressive dinner in the finer restaurants in old Santa Fe -- apparently the planners of the reunion couldn't decide on one, so they picked four: one for

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-59895873764646082782011-02-26T16:58:00.009-07:002011-02-26T17:08:55.412-07:00

or, another adventure in getting from here to there ...Why are fire engines red?Well ...There are 12 men on a fire truck.There are also 12 inches on a ruler.Queen Elizabeth is a ruler.The Queen Elizabeth is also a ship.Ships sail on the sea.One sea is the Red Sea.Communist Russians were known as Reds.And fire engines are always Russian around, so they're red too!

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-15854413725001777132011-02-25T00:15:00.012-07:002011-02-26T00:14:14.336-07:00

or, how to get from here to there ...So, do you know the difference between a begonia and a double begonia?Well ...A begonia is a sausage ...A sausage and battery is a crime ...Monkeys crime trees ...Trees a crowd ...The rooster crowd in the morning and made a lot of noise ...The noise is a feature of the face, located near the eyes ...Eyes is the opposite of nays ...A mare nays when it has a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-582720320643110122011-02-16T00:39:00.004-07:002011-02-16T00:52:40.454-07:00

Another family connection ...Over in the sidebar on the left, you may notice a new link, Gab and Glass. This is the blog of my cousin Lanza Teague, who manages the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center in Kerrville, Texas. On her time off, she delves into family history and genealogy and creates works of glass art.Her current (and second ever) blog post recounts the story of her quest for, and eventual

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-91982464506145496522011-02-04T18:11:00.005-07:002011-02-04T18:18:22.557-07:00

A gift that goes vroom ...Five years ago, Pat got me a sailboat for Valentine's Day. This year, it's something a bit different.And it's RED!And this, too, is better than flowers or chocolates.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-48188879197970864212011-02-01T23:58:00.001-07:002011-02-02T00:00:11.006-07:00

due to the fact thatin my humble opinionat this point in time

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-46826361647347554842011-01-31T20:51:00.003-07:002011-01-31T20:56:13.788-07:00

Some thoughts about Home Owners Associations Pat and I have been toying with the idea of buying a house of some sort in Arizona. Real estate prices in that state have plummeted, so there are a lot of good deals out there. The idea is that we would get a place close to ASU that Gerald could live in and that we could stay in when we go to visit him. By the time he graduates, property values will

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-46377159403459456962011-01-28T20:40:00.001-07:002011-01-28T20:42:35.344-07:00

Well, actually YOU aren't here, but I am ...View Larger Map

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-66498741253602554552011-01-27T00:29:00.000-07:002011-01-27T02:36:42.786-07:00

When headlines collide, 21st century style … Way back, eons ago, when I was taking journalism classes in college, one of the courses I took was in page design. In that class, I learned about the dread “tombstone,” when two adjacent headlines on the page seem to merge into each other, conveying an unintended, often humorous and/or macabre meaning. With modern page-layout software, tombstones

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-27489653712453849122011-01-22T00:32:00.002-07:002011-01-22T04:52:47.410-07:00

Which do you find more boring … this … Or this? Time and time again, I have heard parents complaining about how their kids are so picky about food – that they WILL NOT eat this or that or the other, or that they will only eat a select few foods that they trust and are not willing to experiment with anything beyond their range of familiarity. So, the parents moan, when the family goes out

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-48142994962007923122011-01-16T22:21:00.004-07:002011-01-16T22:36:09.836-07:00

Coming back to a hot topic A couple of years ago, I posted a lengthy explanation of the semantic distinctions of two words, Chile vs. chili. In particular, I focused on the New Mexico definitions (drawn from the Albuquerque Journal style guide), which differ from the definitions in the rest of the world. In most places, the word chili is used interchangeably, but in New Mexico, chile with an e

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-26156739087311487692011-01-16T00:33:00.000-07:002011-01-16T02:35:51.112-07:00

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-37515094420844943332011-01-07T00:36:00.004-07:002011-01-07T00:43:10.470-07:00

Strange artifacts from other people’s lives Pat and I seldom buy new books anymore. Partly it’s because we’re in a state of financial austerity, but even if we had plenty of money, we have found that used-book stores and thrift shops offer far better deals on reading material. One side effect of buying used books is that sometimes there’s something extra in the book. Someone will read a book,

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-79946630736324392702010-12-29T01:15:00.003-07:002010-12-29T01:26:26.087-07:00

Take the constraints of a sonnet, and make them even narrower … One of the iconic images of the American Revolution was actually painted 75 years later: “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” painted by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze in 1851, shows George Washington leading his troops in boats across the Delaware River, in preparation for a Christmas surprise attack on Hessian mercenaries camped out near

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-37918507692303539242010-12-27T01:32:00.000-07:002010-12-27T03:35:45.397-07:00

Highlights from a year that didn’t have many Once again, Captain JP has issued a request for his fellow bloggers to submit their top 10 blog posts for the year. As my previous post indicated, this has been, yet again, annus horribilis, with too many disasters to count. But I did find 10 posts that were, at least in some way memorable. Here they are: I started the year with observations about

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-11191235731683005772010-12-25T05:28:00.001-07:002010-12-25T05:32:08.892-07:00

I don’t dare actually mail this … Those of you who know me well know that the past few years have been disastrous. 2007 was calamitous; at the end of that year, I hoped that 2008 would be better. It wasn’t. At the end of 2008, I desperately hoped that 2009 would be better – I even said that things were so bad that they couldn’t possibly get worse. Unh-unh. 2009 was so bad that, by the end if it,

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-33558852905600449972010-12-18T15:48:00.005-07:002010-12-18T16:15:20.100-07:00

An old school friend comments on Facebook, “I need more poetry.” Well, here’s some … Back when I started this blog, I included among the topics that I would be covering “bits of grammar and Victorian poetry.” I haven’t done too badly on the grammar side, but much of the poetry has diverged into 20th century song lyrics. But today I’m returning to the roots of the blog. My very first Poetry

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-56072636576170102072010-12-12T20:23:00.003-07:002010-12-12T20:35:12.220-07:00

It's the most wonderful time ...Yes, once again, National Cat Herders Day, December 15, approaches. What are you going to do to celebrate the day? To make the holiday even easier to celebrate this year, I have established an event on Facebook where we can all share our festivities. Are you organizing a project to help homeless cats? Participating in a feral cat capture-neuter-release program?

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-88251928767909836942010-11-29T00:37:00.004-07:002010-11-29T23:41:33.368-07:00

Of course, that's somewhat relative, since the novel isn't exactly finished ...All right, I've passed the 50,000-word mark on this year's NaNo novel. Problem is, I'm probably only about half finished. I didn't manage to kill the mayor off until more than 38,000 words had passed, and action is still happening rapidly. On the personal front, Hannah has just discovered that she's pregnant; on the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-17963544732857948932010-11-24T01:32:00.003-07:002010-11-24T02:00:09.925-07:00

After more than 38,000 words, at last we reach the first dead body ...So, in the NaNo novel, I have finally killed off my first victim, His Honor the Mayor of Siete Mares, California, George del Selva. Some of you may have seen in my past excerpts that the mayor's name was something else, but I decided I needed to rename him to suit an underlying theme. I also renamed the prostitute who was

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-28421562754281689522010-11-19T18:49:00.002-07:002010-11-19T19:02:42.830-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive, and here's a novel excerpt to prove it ...Day One of the spelling bee: Contestants are supposed to arrive and check in. Of course, things aren't exactly going right. For one thing, a gas leak has forced evacuation of the building where the registration was to take place. For another, the normal warm, sunny weather that Siete Mares usually gets this time of year isn't

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-13668904822269926432010-11-08T00:09:00.004-07:002010-11-08T00:32:31.609-07:00

This time around, a little differentContinuing the annual tradition, I'm posting excerpts from my NaNo novel as I go. Since the primary audience of this blog is interested in sailing, I generally focus on sailing-related excerpts. This year, it took a while before Hannah got out on a boat, and, well, as you will read, the adventure wasn't exactly perfect.Her business with the paper was quickly

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-64995199331549299132010-11-01T00:12:00.003-06:002010-11-01T00:16:41.945-06:00

49,770 words to go ...Spring was in the air. Hannah Montgomery could feel it in the warm sun that shone down on her and illuminated her silky honey-blonde hair as it lifted on the gentle breeze. The spring term was coming to a close at Seaside Community College, so it was the final crunch time for her students as they prepared their papers for the end of term portfolios. The flip side of that

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-68821845532698542202010-10-30T14:30:00.002-06:002010-10-30T14:33:51.606-06:00

There are times when you just have to wonder, “What were they thinking?” In the current economy, dollar stores are a wonderful resource. These stores take unsold inventory from other retailers and from manufacturers and mark it down to ridiculously low prices. Because the selection at a dollar store is determined by somewhat random factors, it is never certain exactly what will turn up. But we

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-17913101782615868732010-10-17T18:43:00.002-06:002010-10-17T18:47:04.177-06:00

Murder at the Spelling Bee Seaside Community College is hosting the regional spelling bee, and English instructor Hannah Montgomery has been asked to be one of the judges. From the beginning, everything just seems to go wrong – contestants fall ill, parents bicker, the newspaper misprints the publicity press releases, the major sponsor withdraws its support, and the weather takes an unusually

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-22815394908910064302010-10-16T18:28:00.002-06:002010-10-16T18:31:39.224-06:00

Prepare to do without me for a while Those of you who know me know that I participate in National Novel Writing Month every year. This is an exercise in simply cranking out the words – 50,000 of them in 30 days.I have been participating in NaNo since 2004. Since 2005, I have written a murder mystery every year, focusing on Hannah Montgomery, a community college English instructor who has a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-6653346621921221832010-09-30T16:44:00.003-06:002010-09-30T16:50:45.252-06:00

Some great performers are never forgotten … The guy who does the weather on the noon television news that I often watch has a holiday for every day of the year. It was through his broadcast that I first heard of National Cat Herders Day, the official holiday of Five O'Clock Somewhere.So today I was watching the weather report, and learned that today is Remember September Day. Nice.I'm sure this

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-69546166297382387412010-09-20T00:16:00.000-06:002010-09-20T01:50:53.383-06:00

There's a new item in the links ...I don't often add new links to the list over on the left, but there's one that I have decided is worthwhile: Food ... have you eaten today? For those of you whose primary interest is sailing, it might be disappointing. It's the blog of a retired schoolteacher in Ohio, and it consists mainly of memories of the past, especially as applied to food, and especially

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-84927175184098097592010-09-17T17:22:00.006-06:002010-09-17T18:04:23.243-06:00

For nearly thirty years, I have wanted to go back … Those who know me know that I have wanted a Mercedes-Benz for a very, very long time, since I was in primary school. I especially love the ones with the diesel engine, not just for the fuel economy but also for the way they run, not like the brutish American trucks, but ticking smoothly along like a European taxi cab. Someday, I hope, I may

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-61598138018585954142010-09-10T23:45:00.005-06:002010-09-11T01:18:03.726-06:00

Open the pod bay doors, Hal ...For quite some time now, our aging Ford Expedition has been having problems. Mostly these have been little quirky things, like insisting that a door is open when they're all solidly shut, or randomly turning pieces of the instrument panel (gauges, lights) on or off.According to the owner's manual, this vehicle has a fairly sophisticated brain. It even does such

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-65017166350051307722010-09-04T22:49:00.004-06:002010-09-04T23:24:07.998-06:00

Here's a device to answer that question ...One of the most frequent searches (perhaps even THE most frequent) that brings people to this blog is, "Where is it five o'clock right now?"Some years ago, I had an idea for something I could sell as a fund-raiser for the Rio Grande Sailing Club -- a clock that would tell its viewers the answer to exactly that question. I ordered clock parts from the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-87881931823268327602010-08-31T23:49:00.003-06:002010-08-31T23:53:00.989-06:00

Courtesy of The Onion ... possibly NSFW, depending on your workplace ...In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?I'm just waiting for TPTB to come down with edicts that there is yet another class of students that we need to make sure we don't discriminate against.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-13723488265230185912010-08-26T03:13:00.001-06:002010-08-26T03:15:57.759-06:00

This sentiment is totally out of date, but I need it right now ...

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-16503390340269634872010-08-26T00:51:00.005-06:002010-08-26T01:04:25.634-06:00

Kids, love your library!This is especially true of your college library. It has tons of resources that can really help you. The narrator of this video is only slightly exaggerating when he extols the benefits of studying there. He makes a brief mention of one of the most powerful resources available through a college library -- databases. They're a gold mine of research information.One caveat:

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-75342276475673029802010-08-25T01:21:00.000-06:002010-08-25T03:49:30.143-06:00

Sometimes something in the blogosphere just demands a response ...For O Docker and everybody else who's talking about oleanders, here's a video of the song that those of us in a certain generation think of the instant somebody mentions them. What I find interesting is that these guys looked really nerdy back in the '70s, but they're way cool now, even with the silver hair.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-12417077243496609382010-08-17T19:42:00.002-06:002010-08-17T19:59:07.018-06:00

Life in the slow lane ...Pat, Dulce and I are at Five O'Clock Somewhere; Gerald has taken Scratch to Tempe for the start of the new school year.Dulce had found the new kitten to be rather irritating, so she had been hiding in her lair under the bed in the master bedroom since his arrival, coming out only briefly to eat or use the litter box. She is now much more at ease, without the vexation of a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-20673010802558282472010-08-10T19:31:00.006-06:002010-08-10T19:56:17.488-06:00

The summer term draws to a close …Because the summer term is shorter than the fall and spring terms, it's more intense. Classes have 12 weeks to get through 15 weeks' worth of material. At least I'm not at a university where the work is packed into eight or (gasp!) four weeks. Still, even condensing the term by three weeks makes for a more intense experience.Making matters worse is that this has

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-48119646690592192952010-08-04T00:22:00.002-06:002010-08-04T00:25:53.952-06:00

Look up and to the north …Gerald is making coffee, preparing to go sit on a mountaintop with a friend and watch for the aurora.Normally, we don't get auroras in New Mexico – we're too far south. But NASA has reported a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun. In plain English, that means that there is an unusually strong wave of ionized particles headed our way. These particles interact

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-57309442993362483842010-07-30T00:10:00.002-06:002010-07-30T00:15:40.436-06:00

He didn't want a funeral; he wanted a partyMy colleague Herman Jottman died back in June in a car crash. His close friends and family had a very quiet funeral shortly afterward, but they wanted the public commemoration of his death to be delayed a while.This evening was the celebration, and a celebration it was. His companion, Nina, said he didn't want a funeral – he wanted a party. And I agree.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-49802398545083285332010-07-27T19:29:00.002-06:002010-07-27T19:33:06.219-06:00

Yee-Haw!Yee-haw!All right, let's try it again, Yee-haw!Now, again, with feeling, Yee-haw! OK, that's better.Everybody who sailed with Richard, whether on the same boat or on another boat at the same regatta, knows yee-haw. It was his signature line.He could use it in many ways. If conditions were brisk, knocking his boat down in ways that only a low-budget, water-ballasted, non-racing boat

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-57552301525729378972010-07-17T22:33:00.003-06:002010-07-18T00:10:47.775-06:00

One more echo from the class reunionI grew up in an extremely odd place. In many ways, it was like a military base, since just about everybody there came from someplace else, and to a certain extent, it was metaphorically distant from the surrounding communities. Many areas are not open to the public, and even away from the lab, what was formerly military-base-style housing is readily visible in

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-65884574645414980612010-07-15T23:48:00.003-06:002010-07-15T23:53:14.432-06:00

Oops, almost forgot ...July 14, 2010, marked the fifth anniversary of this blog. I had meant to create an elaborate post with a retrospective of the best of the past five years, but, well, that isn't happening. I've been buried under piles of papers to grade for so long that I don't even remember what it's like not to have all these papers that always have to be graded in far less time than is

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-87844254387729313522010-06-30T23:36:00.004-06:002010-06-30T23:43:30.192-06:00

Looking goodThanks to classmate Nicki, who got a good photo of me and Pat (well, a good one of me, not necessarily as good of Pat) at the formal Saturday night dinner-dance at the class reunion. I was wearing the Zuni needlepoint turquoise-and-silver jewelry that all of the burglars have missed so far, and my hair was looking really good for a blustery evening more than a month after Vicente had

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-89152583483973448952010-06-27T23:08:00.003-06:002010-06-27T23:18:42.219-06:00

80 rules!This was probably the best class reunion we've had so far. And technology has a lot to do with it. The chairman of the planning committee was in New Jersey, of all places, but thanks to modern communications, he was able to coordinate a team of classmates to put together a great event.And on a personal level, communications helped me a lot. Before the reunion, I was able to re-establish

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-49697820218781059842010-06-18T01:49:00.000-06:002010-06-18T01:49:27.951-06:00

Take something serious, and then do it with toys ...OK, I don't know what more I can say about this, except that I laughed until I cried.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-69761567954275746352010-06-16T00:40:00.001-06:002010-06-16T02:47:52.238-06:00

Coincidence, serendipity, whatever you call it …OK, this post is going to be a tracing through of a lot of one thing leading to another leading to another, a la the former PBS/BBC television series "Connections" (which reminds me, I still haven't explained how the Earth's being spherical led to my car getting totaled, but I'll get around to that).First, Captain JP put up a post about a website

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-15861574362065825032010-06-11T00:45:00.003-06:002010-06-11T00:49:14.470-06:00

Turnout has been low – let's see more responses! As far as I can tell, I have had only two responses to my writing challenge to describe the menu for the Waterbloggers' Food Tour – what would you serve if you were entertaining your tired and hungry fellow waterbloggers after a day on the water?The requirements are fairly simple: It has to be yummy. It has to be relatively easy to prepare, as you

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-24441580133621608842010-06-06T00:16:00.001-06:002010-06-06T02:27:34.598-06:00

A few more questions answeredHeard today that the Office of the Medical Investigator has released findings. Apparently Marty had a massive heart attack -- although it's not clear whether it was before or after he hit the water.So a life jacket might not have saved his life. It would, however, have saved his family and friends 20 days of searching and anguish, and the State of New Mexico tens of

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-44836683447967718902010-06-01T00:03:00.000-06:002010-06-01T01:06:25.469-06:00

Luck + creativity = success For the most part, I hate shopping, especially for things like clothes. I don't like malls or department stores; I don't like big crowds of people; I find it excruciating to pull money out of my wallet and hand it over to someone else, even in exchange for something nice.On the other hand, when I take measures to minimize the amount of money I have to fork over, I

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-27420787799365065642010-05-30T22:37:00.002-06:002010-05-30T22:39:37.923-06:00

Beer can chicken is just the beginning People have reacted positively to my previous post on beer-can chicken, and there have been a few food-related comments on other blogs that I frequent, leading me to believe there is an interest in this project.It would be fantastic for all of us to get together in sort of a global progressive dinner, where we meet weekly or monthly, each time at a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-74345579363117608762010-05-29T21:43:00.006-06:002010-05-29T22:36:48.121-06:00

An insanely easy recipeOne of the challenges in cooking a chicken in an outdoor grill (whether charcoal or gas) is getting the outside of the chicken nicely browned and crispy while keeping the meat tender and juicy. If you wrap the chicken in foil or a bag, the skin stays pale and soggy, but if you leave the chicken uncovered, the meat often dries out.Beer can chicken solves the problem. First,

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-92197519941929149802010-05-24T00:23:00.000-06:002010-05-24T02:25:13.270-06:00

Whatever normal is … It's been more than three weeks since Marty disappeared beneath the waves, and three days ago, his body was recovered. Eventually, the medical examiner should be able to answer at least some of the questions about his death.As time goes by, I'm getting better. The summer term at the community college is about to begin, and getting immersed in work should help. Also, as the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-526400823963146162010-05-16T23:02:00.003-06:002010-05-16T23:41:41.487-06:00

Larry sent out this email and asked me to post it here as well. Subject: RE: Our lossDate: Mon, 17 May 2010 04:12:08 +0000To all of you who either called, emailed or in person expressed their condolences and offer support on the tragic loss of Marty, thank you very much.I would especially like to thank Bob Miller and his wife Christy, Carol Anne and Pat Byrnes, Rick Keffer, Dave Ampleford, Ron

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-40722132273661857672010-05-15T18:00:00.003-06:002010-05-15T18:42:04.136-06:00

The memorial service for our friend was this afternoon.Marty was a sailor. He died sailing. For those of his family and friends who don't know sailing, I'd like to try to explain what sailing meant to him, and what he meant to those of us who sailed with him.For me, the universe changed that day. We knew something was wrong, but not what. Larry was sitting on his boat, hunched up, looking like

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-73913649457998300882010-05-08T11:41:00.003-06:002010-05-08T11:49:49.000-06:00

Boy, does Anonymous put out a lot of good stuff … It was a week ago today that a dear friend and sailor was lost at Elephant Butte Lake. For his fellow sailors and also for his family, this has been a very rough time. I generally hate the word "closure," as it gets so over-used, but in this case, that's the word that best describes what we're all waiting for. As the search continues, we're all

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-81689978779356502962010-05-07T12:07:00.005-06:002010-05-07T12:34:21.534-06:00

We'll all be drinking these in memory of our friendThe White Russian is a cocktail made with vodka, coffee liqueur, and milk, cream, or half and half. It was the favorite of our friend whom we lost last week. It was featured in the film The Big Lebowski and, according to Wikipedia, is the official cocktail of the IBA.While looking up information about this drink, I found out that white Russian is

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-41366267391114762652010-05-03T00:34:00.001-06:002010-05-04T20:29:37.833-06:00

This is the official email sent by the RGSC regarding this weekend's incident. To protect the family's privacy, names have been removed, and I can not at this time give more information than is provided in public records.It is the Rio Grande Sailing Club's deepest regret to report a tragic accident and our apparent loss of a dear friend, kind man, and generous sailor.We will all very much miss

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-83242239979322103032010-04-25T20:02:00.003-06:002010-04-27T15:20:45.074-06:00

Sometimes cyberspace can be deceptive Every thousand visitors to this blog, I take a moment to look up statistics about the x-thousandth visitor. I'm most interested in the route by which the visitor arrived (link from another blog, web search, etc.). However, it is also interesting to note where the visitor is from. Actually, I ought to say, where the visitor's internet service provider (or the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-17544731478637409912010-04-20T23:47:00.002-06:002010-04-20T23:52:40.063-06:00

The technology war escalates Last year, I wrote about discovering that I had had a visit to the blog on a search for a distinctive sentence from an earlier blog post, with quote marks around it, a common method used by teachers to ferret out academic dishonesty. At the time, I warned students not to attempt to copy something from the Internet to turn in as their own work, with the admonishment,

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-8921746465048344692010-04-20T00:05:00.000-06:002010-04-20T02:30:57.063-06:00

The only song to be a one-hit wonder in both the U.S. and the U.K.In 1969, the United States put a man on the moon. The United States was also mired in a war in Vietnam, the purpose of which almost nobody understood -- and which even today is unclear.On the day that a human first walked on the surface of the moon, the top hit on the Billboard chart was "In the Year 2525," the only hit ever

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-57237873940259790652010-04-12T00:00:00.002-06:002010-04-12T00:17:01.915-06:00

It was a good one ...Not much time to say much, but this has been a good weekend, even if I'm now looking at piles of papers that I have to grade and not much time to grade them in.Saturday's racing was under blustery conditions. Lots of things broke on many boats, including Black Magic, which experienced a spectacular spinnaker blowout along with some smaller things breaking. Lots of people

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-46074514138351864232010-03-27T20:56:00.003-06:002010-03-27T23:06:56.089-06:00

One beautiful thing about TexasTexas has had a legacy of men who were tough and a little rough around the edges, while the women were seen as a softer, civilizing influence, providers of grace and beauty. Gender roles have become less strict since then, but back in the 1950s and '60s, this model was strong.Pat's parents were fairly typical of the Texas upper-middle class of the era. In his

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-30949273146128439922010-03-26T21:00:00.004-06:002010-03-26T21:19:29.053-06:00

While this song may be about a sailor rather than a soldier, the sentiment is the same ...We laid the Old Soldier to rest this morning. It was a simple ceremony, the way he wanted it -- no fancy church service or procession to the cemetery, just a graveside service with no frills. Thanks to the American Legion, he had an honor guard of other old soldiers to fire a 21-gun salute and blow Taps on a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-75497901202168797392010-03-24T22:07:00.003-06:002010-03-24T22:11:51.230-06:00

The new OkiesI have spotted an interesting trend among eastbound Interstate traffic. We keep passing vehicles, some singly, some in convoys, with California license plates. There are cars packed as full as they can be, vehicles pulling rental trailers, trucks and trailers piled high with household furnishings, haphazardly lashed down, sometimes covered with tarps.These rolling refugees remind me

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-69360560224779533372010-03-21T21:19:00.002-06:002010-03-21T23:07:42.834-06:00

A weekend of bruises The second spring series regatta wasn't too different from most of the others I have reported on, so I'm not going to go into details. The most noteworthy aspect was having a new crewmember on board. He's just bought himself an Etchells back home in Maine, although he hasn't sailed it yet. He's in El Paso for the winter, and he happened to visit Elephant Butte a few weeks ago

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-11258446324392012692010-03-20T00:57:00.003-06:002010-03-20T01:00:17.954-06:00

Well, like I said, just thinking ...

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-29866780361380771882010-03-18T00:37:00.002-06:002010-03-18T00:54:40.218-06:00

Only in New Mexico … It is probably true that most states have some irregularities in voter registration. Organizations such as ACORN have hired people to register voters and given these hires commissions based on the number of voters they register. Even though ACORN officially forbids fabricated registrations, putting people on commission gives them a strong motivation to fudge things a

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-53253234545086259192010-03-04T23:39:00.003-07:002010-03-04T23:43:04.513-07:00

I thought about waiting until National Cat Herders Day to run this, but then I decided I just couldn't wait ...see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-53343944784354461382010-03-01T22:23:00.002-07:002010-03-01T23:05:14.859-07:00

Of course, when you're in Arizona, you gotta take pics of saguaros … Pat and I just spent this past weekend in Arizona. The original plan was to sell a boat, but that deal fell through, so essentially we ended up making a very expensive green chile delivery to Gerald.It's been rainy in Arizona lately. According to Gerald's roommate/landlord, the Phoenix area has, in the first two months of this

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-39512424660821923462010-02-20T00:22:00.000-07:002010-02-20T01:25:05.455-07:00

Some are more venerable than others As most sailors know, but much of the rest of the world doesn't, the America's Cup is the oldest perpetual trophy in all of sports. It was made in 1848 and was first contested in 1851. It spent much of its life in the United States, until 1983, when boats from other countries began to win it, and it has since traveled around the world.Another trophy that has

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-77329304880704162102010-02-10T19:53:00.002-07:002010-02-10T19:56:17.350-07:00

The number one cause of people not sailingOver at Proper Course, Tillerman has issued another writing challenge. This time around, he's asking members of the sailing blogosphere to write about what they consider to be the worst sailing innovation ever – the one invention that most detracts from the experience of sailing.I would nominate work as the worst innovation. In the Peanuts cartoon, Snoopy

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-28050412433145541272010-02-05T00:03:00.002-07:002010-02-05T00:05:36.947-07:00

Oooooh, so close … One of the tasks I find myself doing often at work is making copies. Sure, the community college where I work has a central copying service, but it has a couple of strikes against it. One is that it takes time to get documents processed, copied, and delivered to my mailbox, and I'm often printing things on short notice. The other is that, while it does offer a while-you-wait

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-51065560235950187192010-01-29T00:47:00.001-07:002010-01-29T01:54:52.109-07:00

Once, long ago, I did not have a blog, and this is a tale from those prehistoric times Bonnie has recently posted about looking forward to paddling her kayak in a proxigean tide, in which the moon is closer than usual to the earth at the same time as it is aligned exactly with or opposite the sun (a syzygy), making for a greater than normal difference between the high and low tides. In the case

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-402101079957851882010-01-20T00:16:00.004-07:002010-01-20T01:51:13.498-07:00

Not enough time to give a full accounting, but I can hit the high points ...Thursday: Arrived late at night, found that the hotel where we were originally thinking of staying was going to be way too expensive. Looked for alternatives and found the Drury Hotel not too far away, much more reasonably priced. (Alert: unabashed endorsement follows.) It's just about the best hotel I've ever stayed in.

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-78868573068488838372010-01-19T00:58:00.005-07:002010-01-19T01:09:38.651-07:00

Yeah, he was on Black Magic ... just not my Black MagicPrince William is learning the duties expected of a British royal. This time, he's representing his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, on a tour of New Zealand and Australia. He's done ceremonial things like dedicating new government buildings, visiting a children's hospital, and participating in traditional food-related celebrations. He also

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-6365746340828274182010-01-13T23:20:00.002-07:002010-01-13T23:32:18.789-07:00

I nearly missed it! Gotta get this post up fast!As Bonnie's friend Bubbles would say, OMG! January 13 is Wear Blue for Oceans Day, when we are all encouraged to show support for laws that will help to preserve the health of the water that covers about three quarters of our planet, and all of the living things in that water. But what with all sorts of other controversies going on in the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14477393.post-53179367054858363122010-01-04T00:33:00.000-07:002010-01-04T01:34:58.751-07:00

Too cold for moonlight sailing, though We ended up with a very low-key New Year's celebration at the lake. New Year's Eve, Pat, Gerald, and I headed south, to find that Zorro was already out on the water in very light air; we rigged Black Magic up and set sail. He had sailed up to the northern part of the lake, and then had been becalmed, so it took him a while to get back to the area near the

Carol Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com1